With less than a month to go before the election, we are in the process of witnessing the Democrats quadrennial attempt to overcome their fundamental problem with the American voter. The problem is that they are a Party representing European values running in an American election. In representing a Party whose values are fundamentally at odds with the average voter, Democrat presidential candidates for the last generation have had to strike an uncomfortable balance between courting their base on one hand and the average voter on the other. When seen in this light, some of the extreme political policy gyrations and flip-flops that have characterized recent Democrat presidential campaigns (Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama) can be seen as attempts to square this circle, as opposed to some inherent personality deficiency in the candidates themselves.

Unlike the majority of Americans, the Democrat base does not seem to view America as necessarily a force for good in the world. Whereas most Americans see the U.S. as basically a good country that sometimes does the wrong thing, the Democrat base appears to see the U.S. as a morally suspect country that occasionally does the right thing. Because the "Blame America First" crowd views the U.S. as morally deficient, its initial reaction to any problem in the world is to ask what the U.S. did wrong to precipitate it. This fundamental view of America has much in common with some anti-American Europeans.

Another area where the Democrats are out of step with the American mainstream is religion. Americans are much more religious than people in Europe. Given the history of immigrants coming to the U.S. to flee religious persecution, it is not surprising that religion has played a prominent role in shaping the history of this country. However, an influential segment of the Democrat base consists of people whose view of traditional religion ranges from benign mistrust to outright hostility. Several Democrat pressure groups appear to have the removal of religion and religious influence from the public square as their goal. While Americans as a people have shown no general tendency towards theocracy, they have tended to view religion as worthy of having a place in the public square. Consequently, the attacks on religious sensibilties have put the Democrats in an adversarial position relative to society as a whole.

Finally, the Democrats appear to have adopted European sensibilities and views on items such as trusting bureaucratic government institutions to produce social good, a general distrust of the free market, use of the tax code and laws to engineer specific outcomes in society, a general distrust of voter's intelligence, a distrust of the military, and a faith in the power of negotiated solutions to solve each and every international crisis. While the natural inclinations of Democrats may guide the U.S. to the proper course in a given situation, the inclinations themselves are in contrast to those of the average American voter. The fact that the Democrats stand to gain from this year's election is likely a reaction to the corruption of Republicans and failings of the Bush Administration, rather than a fundamental shift in the views of the voters. This assertion is evidenced by the fact that the Republican presidential ticket still has a shot at acutally winning, despite the political winds in this election season blowing heavily against them. As long as Democrats continue to espouse European values, they will continue to have difficulty doing as well as they should, given a certain set of national electoral conditions. When the Republicans finally reform themselves, they will likely find a country ready to grant them the governing majority that should be naturally theirs.