I'm Confused

For as long as I've been alive, Democrats have pushed for more and more government "support" for the "social safety net." (Scare quotes intentional.) Republican questions about the "cost" in terms of newer or higher taxes were brushed aside with sneers about "heartless" Republicans wanting to starve or kill the poor. Deficits and debt were rarely an issue.

So, now we have Democrats wanting to revisit the just-passed prescription drug entitlement because it will cost too much. They are worried about deficits. As recently as six years ago, they were worried about Social Security solvency. Now, they claim it's completely solvent and tinkering with it will cost too much. They also deny that they said anything different just six years ago! Doesn't anyone else remember President Clinton wanting to take the hundreds of millions in budget surpluses and dedicating them to "Save Social Security first."?

We had a Democratic President and a Congress with slim Democratic majorities, at least until 1994 and then it was a slim Republican majority in the House, that somehow managed to rein in spending enough to allow record tax revenues to pile up.

Then we get a Republican President and Republican Congress that passes a tax cut. Just what you'd expect. Anyone remember Bush's first term before 911? It was lackluster, tax cut excepted, and mostly adrift. Even today, his domestic agenda doesn't seem to be coherent nor Republican. We now have big deficits and a Congress that doesn't seem to be too concerned about spending less, whatever the "big picture" ideas floating around may cost.

Condoleeza Rice becomes the first African-American to succeed another African-American in a major policy-making post within a Presidential administration. A Republican administration. The party that celebrates her achievements first and then her femininity/color is the Republican party. The party that blocks her, attacks her, and calls her vicious names and uses ugly descriptions is the Democrats.

One party wants to spread liberty and democratic government to Third World nations. The other is isolationist and is willing to turn a blind eye to despots and tyrants. It's not who you think, either.

When did the world invert? Was it the 2000 election, when the traditional Dems=red/'Pubs=blue color scheme got reversed? How did that happen, anyway?

When did the names Democrat and Republican just become brand names and not the symbols of principles? It makes a principlist like me despair.