Op-Ed Columnist: Tuning Out the G.O.P.’s Siren Song By BOB HERBERT, NYTimes

Maybe it’s too much to hope for. But I wonder if we aren’t watching the beginning of a decline in the effectiveness of the Republican Party’s divide-and-conquer strategy.

For nearly half a century the G.O.P. has displayed an unparalleled mastery of the ugly art of devising campaigns that appeal to the very worst in us. It’s always the whites against the blacks, the middle class against the poor, the conservatives against the hated liberals, with the word ”liberal” spat out with the kind of disgust that’s usually reserved for child molesters. …

What seems to be unsettling to large numbers of voters (not just hard-core anti-Bush Democrats) is the notion that events are slipping — or have slipped — out of control, that there is no endgame in Iraq, no plan to rein in runaway deficits, no strategy to put Americans back to work, and no limit to the Bush administration’s willingness to shower its friends with favors and public dollars.

The Democratic primaries and caucuses have drawn record turnouts and sparked genuine excitement. Republicans are expressing concern that the administration has been thrown on the defensive. Already there is an attempt by the G.O.P. to divert attention from the real issues by chanting incessantly about gay marriages and the fact that John Kerry is — uh-oh — a liberal from Massachusetts.

That would be a travesty, and I hope the voters don’t allow it.