I WANT TO BE A SWING VOTER. Mark Kleiman is thinking about reaching "detachable Republican voters." That's not a bad idea. Is there a category called Real Guys with Advanced Degrees who Don't Eat Quiche? (In the spirit of inclusiveness, if you're the sort of guy whose response to a home maintenance problem is to call the handyman immediately rather than look at the problem first, I will overlook that metrofexual tendency from Thanksgiving until Christmas.) I think there should be. But the Democrats as currently constituted are unlikely to meet me even half way on my wishes. Too many are still wedded to the failed policies of the New Deal and Great Society. Their pre-election vision was essentially Not Bush. It takes something to beat something. Democrats have to persuade me that Pat at Knowledge Problem has made the wrong assessment:

Implicit in a lot of the complaints from the left has been the notion that "dumb" voters made the "wrong" choice. How dare they not see that more government sponsored economic management would be better than the values and tax cuts of the Bush administration?

Too many Democrats give me the impression that John Ashcroft scares them more than Yasser Arafat did (thanks, Bill!) Too many demonstrate too naive a faith in the United Nations (motto: intrarectus cranius insertus est.) And the "reality based" meme is wearing thin.

Unfortunately, I am unlikely to be a swing voter as long as Congress and the Courts interpret the Voting Rights and Civil Rights laws in such a way as to tolerate, if not encourage, the creation of apportionment Bantustans that preclude any sort of contested districts.

RUNNING EXTRA: This category of swing voter is not to be confused with a sufferer of Irritable Male Syndrome.