Jonah: Glenn Reynolds is right. The word-association goes like this:

Democrats——-Compassionate.

Republicans—–Mean-spirited.

If Democrats start acting too obviously mean-spirited, people will feel

their moral universe has got out of joint, and flee to the security of the

familiar. We are, let’s remember, the Daddy party, and Daddy _can_ be mean

once in a while. Mommy really shouldn’t be.