The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Saturday, January 28, 2006
(Updated) The pillars of the "new" Democratic party: Marxism, State Socialism, and utter stupidity
(I was dead tired last night from my overnight flight when wrote what I will call my "first draft" of this last night--and it showed--so I have done a bit of editing; hopefully it actually makes a bit more sense now--DT):
After an entire week in Brazil, during which I only bothered to even turn on CNN (one of the few English channels available) a couple of times, I arrived at my home in the great State of Texas. I had to get some work done and I also turned on Fox News, and within about 30 seconds my eyes were rolling to the back of my head: for from the slopes of Davos Switzerland--a place where you will not find many blue-collar union workers whose union dues have been stolen from them and donated to Presidential candidates that hang out in ski resorts in the Swiss Alps--stood Mr. "Reporting for Duty" himself.
In poker, when you have absolutely nothing in your hand at all--when there literally is no way you can win the pot-- it is typically NOT the best timing to go "all in", especially when you know this--unless you are happen to have married a widowed billionaire, as did John Kerry. Now there are those who say he did it not for the good of his Party's mid-term elections (obvioulsy...because it will hurt those chances) but rather for his chances at grabbing "the Democratic wing of the Democratic party" in 2008... Ah John--he always was a "team" player... Stand at attention and salute the winner of three purple hearts in two months and the liberator of Cambodia.
So there he was, announcing to anyone who would listen (and believe me, the Euro press, CNN and the rest of the left's well-oiled and propaganda machine [h/t George Soros] were listening.). And what they heard was that Kerry was going to "personally lead" an attempt to filibuster a decent, kind, brilliant, and exceptionally well qualified Supreme Court nominee--who already is reportedly a shoo-in to be confirmed. And now a few other Democrats have said they would follow (Kennedy and Feinstein among them). Jefferson is this minute trying to dig his way out of his tomb... Talk about following the Pied Piper off the cliff...
Maybe the left is thinking that Jack Abramoff will be enough to bring down the Republicans, but I doubt it. The Abramoff Scandal will taint both parties--it is just the way things have been done in Washington--but since the Republicans have been the majority in the House since 1994, there will be more Republians associated with Abramoff because...well, because there are a lot more Republicans, in the House period. But I think relying on Abramoff as a mid-term election strategy is a colossal mistake, and furthermore that the latest Democrat stupdities (Kennedy in the Alito hearings, Gore's latest explosion...) appear to a large majority of Americans as self-inflicted suicide; the whole Democratic party seems to be about marching to a different "pied piper"--you know the one--the one that Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, John Dean, and Dick "Turban" Durbin march to. (Hint: he wrote his economic theory back in the late 1800's--and it STILL has never worked).
In all seriousness, say what you will about the role of lobbyists in Washington, but there is a more sinister and hidden group of organizations that seem to continue to fly under the radar when it comes to Democrats and get a free pass from the biased media covering them. And these "groups" are not ones which give the average American in Peoria (or even Cambridge, Mass..) the warm and fuzzies. For once you begin to take a closer look at who these people are and to follow the money, you begin to uncover some very uncomfortable truths.
Let's have a look at the organizations and key players who have defined this debate for the Dems. Besides Soros himself, we have other Shadow Party Members like America Coming Together, MoveOn.org, Institute for Policy Studies, many of whom are receive funding from the Workers World Party, a global Marxist Lenninist front, who is also the primary funding behind the new Democratic PAC VotetoImpeach.org, which will donate money to Democrat candidates who will pledge to vote to impeach President Bush. But if that weren't enough, we have the Democratic Underground groups such as International ANSWER, the "Center for Constitutional Rights" (get a load of these guys...). Then we have former LBJ Attorney General Ramsey Clarke, Ward Churchill, Noam Chomsky, Michael Ratner, and Cindy Sheehan --who by-the-way spent this past week in Venezuela praising the "workers paradise" of Hugo Chavez--and this is just scratching the surface. Let us not forget that it was former President Carter who certified that the Chavez coup d'etat (the MSM called it an"election"--which you could concede if you conceded that dead people still ought to be allowed to cast ballots) was "fair". There was Jimmah, giving the stolen election legitimacy (exit polling for some crazy reason showed that 70% of the voters in that election voted AGAINST Chavez...yet he "won" by 65%! Go figure...). Another public service brought to you by perhaps the worst President in American history. You will also recall that Jimmy sat next to that ultra-patriotic icon, Michael Moore at the Democratic Convention... And I can still see in my mind that heart warming picture of Jesse Jackson hugging Cindy Sheehan (see story above). And the hits just keep on coming...
Let's face it, today's "Democratic wing of the Democratic" party is not too far to the starboard side of Stalin. The few remaining statesmen in the party--men like Joe Lieberman, Sam Nunn, and Zell Miller--have either been completely marginalized or else have quit politics altogether in utter frustration. The fringe is now in complete control. To get an idea of the kind of thinking driving the big money behind the Democratic party today, one need only look at the Democratic Underground discussion boards (do not attempt without first taking your blood pressure meds). Just for grins, go read a few of the threads out there--read about 20 or 30 posts. And then you tell me where the real "hate speech" is coming from.
Another suggestion: spend some serious time looking into the links I posted above. David Horowitz (a former 60's radical and Marxist who fortunately for the rest of us saw the light and now is a leading conservative voice...) has done marvellous work putting together the Discover the Networks site, in which all of the webs of leftist and anti-American organizations (inclucing radical Islamist organizations who are receiving finincial backing from leftist groups!)--and their ties to the Democrats--are well documented. This is a National disgrace. Joe McCarthy, where are you when we need you now? You appeared 50 years too soon...
Unlike the witch hunts of the 50's, these ties are very real and they are eye-opening (hell they ought to be a cold slap to your face..). A large percentage of the organizations who provide big money to Democrats are decidedly Marxist, or front organizations for other Marxist groups. And they who give the money also are driving the Dcmocratic Party's agenda. So do a little research into these organizations as I did--and get to know the true "base" of the "Democratic wing" of the Democrat party. And yes, the more you find out about these groups and their associations, the more disturbing it becomes. Perhaps terrifying is a better word....
I believe his central thesis--that the American people would never give the Democrats power if they were fully aware of the forces driving the party. These groups make Abramoff look like a saint:
With no shortage of important matters to discuss, why do Democrats insist on talking about trivia? They are determined to spew piffle even when they plainly pay a political price for doing so. Consider what our leaders should be grappling with.
Israel’s popular Prime Minister is incapacitated by a massive stroke. Iran’s President believes fervently in an imminent apocalypse. He and his colleagues repeatedly threaten Israel and the West with annihilation even as they put the finishing touches on their capacity for a nuclear first strike. The “international community” wrings its hands; when the bombs start to fall it will wash them.
Any novel premised on this situation would probably remain unpublished. Who would believe it? But this isn’t a novel, it’s reality. The war that began in earnest on September 11, 2001 is about to take a dramatic turn.
Our political leaders should be doing their best, during the calm between the storms, to prepare the nation for the challenges that lie ahead. Instead, the Democratic Party gives us hysterical irrelevance.
What are Democrats doing as the clock ticks down to Armageddon? They are fighting renewal of the Patriot Act and trying to manufacture a scandal out of the Bush administration’s efforts to gather intelligence about terrorist activity inside the United States. They are falling all over each other to get in front of cameras so that they can malign a decent and talented man who will soon be sitting on the Supreme Court. In any spare moments that remain, they are attacking President Bush’s decision to liberate Iraq as they desperately try to transmute manifest success into failure.
Democrats know that the important parts of the Patriot Act will be renewed indefinitely, that George W. Bush will not suffer politically or otherwise because he keeps close tabs on terrorists, that Samuel Alito will be confirmed, and that we are succeeding in Iraq. Not one of their favorite hobby horses is ever going to take them anywhere. Their contributions to the public debate are so much verbal flatulence.
The flatulence is bound to drive voters away in disgust. Whining about civil rights for terrorists will only convince even more people that Democrats are too soft-headed to deal with a dangerous world. Slandering Samuel Alito will only make Democrats look mean and extreme.
Carping about Iraq is particularly foolish as open war with Iran looms. Positioned as we are in Iraq, we can bring tremendous force to bear on Iran very quickly. We might even be able to seize most of the Iranian oil fields at the outbreak of hostilities and prevent war from throwing the international oil market into chaos. A hostile Iraq under Saddam Hussein would make the Iranian situation still more dangerous than it is. A little more hindsight will probably make the wisdom of eliminating Saddam clear even to the dimmest among us. So why can’t Democrats talk about something that matters? Why do they keep blasting away at their own feet?
There is no rational explanation.
The conventional theory is that Democrats have to appeal to the lunatic fringe because that’s where their money comes from. But money alone doesn’t win elections. Besides, if their lunacy were a considered fundraising strategy Democrats would have abandoned it by now. The crazier they talk the more their funding dries up. Moveon.org doth not a major political party make.
These days the Democrats aren’t rational. Instead of trying to win the next election they are primarily focused on dealing with the ghost of losses past. Most of what they say isn’t calculated to appeal to the electorate. It is calculated instead to help heal the festering wounds they still carry from 1994, 2000, 2002 and 2004.
They are practicing therapeutic politics.
The subject of homeland security always sends the Democrats into full therapy mode. Republican strategists do back flips every time a Democrat complains about “domestic spying.” Even so, the complaints keep coming. They are politically damaging but psychologically soothing.
The Clinton administration made a conscious choice to fight terrorism blindfolded in the name of civil liberties. This may have been the most costly dereliction of duty in the history of the United States. Democrats can’t take responsibility for that dereliction. That would entail acknowledging that Bill Clinton’s sidekick Al Gore couldn’t be trusted with national security and that the best man won the agonizing 2000 election. Instead they attack George W. Bush for stepping up and doing what Clinton should have done. The more successful the Bush administration’s counter-terrorism efforts are, the more powerfully Democrats will feel compelled to portray them as illegitimate.
Another example of therapeutic politics is the Democrat crusade against any judicial nominee who might threaten the precious constitutional right of predatory men to use abortion as a last line of defense against child support. That crusade isn’t going to change anything. No matter what Democrats do, their favorite constitutional holding is going overboard and it won’t even make much of a splash.
The doctrine that grew out of Roe v. Wade is in an advanced state of decay. That doctrine has no intellectual underpinnings. For most Supreme Court Justices not named O’Connor, that’s a serious problem. A majority consisting, at a minimum, of Justices Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Alito and Chief Justice Roberts will soon begin tossing Roe’s debris over the side.
Democrats have absolutely nothing to gain politically by making jackasses out of themselves in an effort to save a doomed doctrine. Dismantling Roe will be a gradual process. Most voters care only about practical things and, as a practical matter, Roe’s demise won’t change much. When all the dust settles, abortion will be restricted everywhere but available under most circumstances almost everywhere. Nobody will be terribly pleased by this state of affairs, but nobody is going to be marching about it either. Very few voters will give Democrats any credit for standing by Roe in its final years.
But Democrats will give themselves credit for it and that’s enough for them. They are willing to look like jackasses so that, years from now, they can hark back to the golden age of constitutional rights and tell themselves that they fought the good fight to preserve it. When you’re a Democrat you have to take self-esteem wherever you can find it.
The Democrats’ Iraq obsession is therapeutic politics at its most self-destructive. That obsession is another byproduct of the Democrats’ need to paper over Bill Clinton’s many failures.
Iraq is, of course, Bill Clinton’s war. He determined that we had to remove Saddam from power. He even took military action to move toward that goal. But that action was as feckless, ineffectual and politically motivated as everything else Clinton did. If Democrats were honest with themselves about Clinton’s despicable war with Iraq, they would all have to slink out of public life in humiliation.
George W. Bush committed the unpardonable sin of completing the project Clinton started but lacked the courage to finish. He showed the Democratic Party up for the collection of poltroons that it is.
There is nothing a coward hates more than a hero. Democrats will say and do anything to tarnish Bush’s victories, at whatever cost to their country, because the alternative is to acknowledge their own shameful weakness.
Therapeutic politics may make Democrats feel better in the near term. But politicians who focus on feeling good about themselves aren’t going to win hard-fought elections. Turning your back on reality never works.
Reality always bites you in the butt.
After an entire week in Brazil, during which I only bothered to even turn on CNN (one of the few English channels available) a couple of times, I arrived at my home in the great State of Texas. I had to get some work done and I also turned on Fox News, and within about 30 seconds my eyes were rolling to the back of my head: for from the slopes of Davos Switzerland--a place where you will not find many blue-collar union workers whose union dues have been stolen from them and donated to Presidential candidates that hang out in ski resorts in the Swiss Alps--stood Mr. "Reporting for Duty" himself.
In poker, when you have absolutely nothing in your hand at all--when there literally is no way you can win the pot-- it is typically NOT the best timing to go "all in", especially when you know this--unless you are happen to have married a widowed billionaire, as did John Kerry. Now there are those who say he did it not for the good of his Party's mid-term elections (obvioulsy...because it will hurt those chances) but rather for his chances at grabbing "the Democratic wing of the Democratic party" in 2008... Ah John--he always was a "team" player... Stand at attention and salute the winner of three purple hearts in two months and the liberator of Cambodia.
So there he was, announcing to anyone who would listen (and believe me, the Euro press, CNN and the rest of the left's well-oiled and propaganda machine [h/t George Soros] were listening.). And what they heard was that Kerry was going to "personally lead" an attempt to filibuster a decent, kind, brilliant, and exceptionally well qualified Supreme Court nominee--who already is reportedly a shoo-in to be confirmed. And now a few other Democrats have said they would follow (Kennedy and Feinstein among them). Jefferson is this minute trying to dig his way out of his tomb... Talk about following the Pied Piper off the cliff...
Maybe the left is thinking that Jack Abramoff will be enough to bring down the Republicans, but I doubt it. The Abramoff Scandal will taint both parties--it is just the way things have been done in Washington--but since the Republicans have been the majority in the House since 1994, there will be more Republians associated with Abramoff because...well, because there are a lot more Republicans, in the House period. But I think relying on Abramoff as a mid-term election strategy is a colossal mistake, and furthermore that the latest Democrat stupdities (Kennedy in the Alito hearings, Gore's latest explosion...) appear to a large majority of Americans as self-inflicted suicide; the whole Democratic party seems to be about marching to a different "pied piper"--you know the one--the one that Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, John Dean, and Dick "Turban" Durbin march to. (Hint: he wrote his economic theory back in the late 1800's--and it STILL has never worked).
In all seriousness, say what you will about the role of lobbyists in Washington, but there is a more sinister and hidden group of organizations that seem to continue to fly under the radar when it comes to Democrats and get a free pass from the biased media covering them. And these "groups" are not ones which give the average American in Peoria (or even Cambridge, Mass..) the warm and fuzzies. For once you begin to take a closer look at who these people are and to follow the money, you begin to uncover some very uncomfortable truths.
Let's have a look at the organizations and key players who have defined this debate for the Dems. Besides Soros himself, we have other Shadow Party Members like America Coming Together, MoveOn.org, Institute for Policy Studies, many of whom are receive funding from the Workers World Party, a global Marxist Lenninist front, who is also the primary funding behind the new Democratic PAC VotetoImpeach.org, which will donate money to Democrat candidates who will pledge to vote to impeach President Bush. But if that weren't enough, we have the Democratic Underground groups such as International ANSWER, the "Center for Constitutional Rights" (get a load of these guys...). Then we have former LBJ Attorney General Ramsey Clarke, Ward Churchill, Noam Chomsky, Michael Ratner, and Cindy Sheehan --who by-the-way spent this past week in Venezuela praising the "workers paradise" of Hugo Chavez--and this is just scratching the surface. Let us not forget that it was former President Carter who certified that the Chavez coup d'etat (the MSM called it an"election"--which you could concede if you conceded that dead people still ought to be allowed to cast ballots) was "fair". There was Jimmah, giving the stolen election legitimacy (exit polling for some crazy reason showed that 70% of the voters in that election voted AGAINST Chavez...yet he "won" by 65%! Go figure...). Another public service brought to you by perhaps the worst President in American history. You will also recall that Jimmy sat next to that ultra-patriotic icon, Michael Moore at the Democratic Convention... And I can still see in my mind that heart warming picture of Jesse Jackson hugging Cindy Sheehan (see story above). And the hits just keep on coming...
Let's face it, today's "Democratic wing of the Democratic" party is not too far to the starboard side of Stalin. The few remaining statesmen in the party--men like Joe Lieberman, Sam Nunn, and Zell Miller--have either been completely marginalized or else have quit politics altogether in utter frustration. The fringe is now in complete control. To get an idea of the kind of thinking driving the big money behind the Democratic party today, one need only look at the Democratic Underground discussion boards (do not attempt without first taking your blood pressure meds). Just for grins, go read a few of the threads out there--read about 20 or 30 posts. And then you tell me where the real "hate speech" is coming from.
Another suggestion: spend some serious time looking into the links I posted above. David Horowitz (a former 60's radical and Marxist who fortunately for the rest of us saw the light and now is a leading conservative voice...) has done marvellous work putting together the Discover the Networks site, in which all of the webs of leftist and anti-American organizations (inclucing radical Islamist organizations who are receiving finincial backing from leftist groups!)--and their ties to the Democrats--are well documented. This is a National disgrace. Joe McCarthy, where are you when we need you now? You appeared 50 years too soon...
Unlike the witch hunts of the 50's, these ties are very real and they are eye-opening (hell they ought to be a cold slap to your face..). A large percentage of the organizations who provide big money to Democrats are decidedly Marxist, or front organizations for other Marxist groups. And they who give the money also are driving the Dcmocratic Party's agenda. So do a little research into these organizations as I did--and get to know the true "base" of the "Democratic wing" of the Democrat party. And yes, the more you find out about these groups and their associations, the more disturbing it becomes. Perhaps terrifying is a better word....
But I wouldn't expect to find anything about these connections in the New York Times...
UPDATE: After the debacle in the last week that included Gore, Kennedy, and now Kerry, if I owned NYSE shares on Democrat futures I would be selling like hell... To document the probable ramifications of the laughingstocks that the Democrats are rapidly becoming, J. Peter Mulhearn, writing in yesterday's American Thinker gives an idea of why the tactics of these far-left Dems may be suicidal to Dermocrat election prospects next fall:I believe his central thesis--that the American people would never give the Democrats power if they were fully aware of the forces driving the party. These groups make Abramoff look like a saint:
With no shortage of important matters to discuss, why do Democrats insist on talking about trivia? They are determined to spew piffle even when they plainly pay a political price for doing so. Consider what our leaders should be grappling with.
Israel’s popular Prime Minister is incapacitated by a massive stroke. Iran’s President believes fervently in an imminent apocalypse. He and his colleagues repeatedly threaten Israel and the West with annihilation even as they put the finishing touches on their capacity for a nuclear first strike. The “international community” wrings its hands; when the bombs start to fall it will wash them.
Any novel premised on this situation would probably remain unpublished. Who would believe it? But this isn’t a novel, it’s reality. The war that began in earnest on September 11, 2001 is about to take a dramatic turn.
Our political leaders should be doing their best, during the calm between the storms, to prepare the nation for the challenges that lie ahead. Instead, the Democratic Party gives us hysterical irrelevance.
What are Democrats doing as the clock ticks down to Armageddon? They are fighting renewal of the Patriot Act and trying to manufacture a scandal out of the Bush administration’s efforts to gather intelligence about terrorist activity inside the United States. They are falling all over each other to get in front of cameras so that they can malign a decent and talented man who will soon be sitting on the Supreme Court. In any spare moments that remain, they are attacking President Bush’s decision to liberate Iraq as they desperately try to transmute manifest success into failure.
Democrats know that the important parts of the Patriot Act will be renewed indefinitely, that George W. Bush will not suffer politically or otherwise because he keeps close tabs on terrorists, that Samuel Alito will be confirmed, and that we are succeeding in Iraq. Not one of their favorite hobby horses is ever going to take them anywhere. Their contributions to the public debate are so much verbal flatulence.
The flatulence is bound to drive voters away in disgust. Whining about civil rights for terrorists will only convince even more people that Democrats are too soft-headed to deal with a dangerous world. Slandering Samuel Alito will only make Democrats look mean and extreme.
Carping about Iraq is particularly foolish as open war with Iran looms. Positioned as we are in Iraq, we can bring tremendous force to bear on Iran very quickly. We might even be able to seize most of the Iranian oil fields at the outbreak of hostilities and prevent war from throwing the international oil market into chaos. A hostile Iraq under Saddam Hussein would make the Iranian situation still more dangerous than it is. A little more hindsight will probably make the wisdom of eliminating Saddam clear even to the dimmest among us. So why can’t Democrats talk about something that matters? Why do they keep blasting away at their own feet?
There is no rational explanation.
The conventional theory is that Democrats have to appeal to the lunatic fringe because that’s where their money comes from. But money alone doesn’t win elections. Besides, if their lunacy were a considered fundraising strategy Democrats would have abandoned it by now. The crazier they talk the more their funding dries up. Moveon.org doth not a major political party make.
These days the Democrats aren’t rational. Instead of trying to win the next election they are primarily focused on dealing with the ghost of losses past. Most of what they say isn’t calculated to appeal to the electorate. It is calculated instead to help heal the festering wounds they still carry from 1994, 2000, 2002 and 2004.
They are practicing therapeutic politics.
The subject of homeland security always sends the Democrats into full therapy mode. Republican strategists do back flips every time a Democrat complains about “domestic spying.” Even so, the complaints keep coming. They are politically damaging but psychologically soothing.
The Clinton administration made a conscious choice to fight terrorism blindfolded in the name of civil liberties. This may have been the most costly dereliction of duty in the history of the United States. Democrats can’t take responsibility for that dereliction. That would entail acknowledging that Bill Clinton’s sidekick Al Gore couldn’t be trusted with national security and that the best man won the agonizing 2000 election. Instead they attack George W. Bush for stepping up and doing what Clinton should have done. The more successful the Bush administration’s counter-terrorism efforts are, the more powerfully Democrats will feel compelled to portray them as illegitimate.
Another example of therapeutic politics is the Democrat crusade against any judicial nominee who might threaten the precious constitutional right of predatory men to use abortion as a last line of defense against child support. That crusade isn’t going to change anything. No matter what Democrats do, their favorite constitutional holding is going overboard and it won’t even make much of a splash.
The doctrine that grew out of Roe v. Wade is in an advanced state of decay. That doctrine has no intellectual underpinnings. For most Supreme Court Justices not named O’Connor, that’s a serious problem. A majority consisting, at a minimum, of Justices Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Alito and Chief Justice Roberts will soon begin tossing Roe’s debris over the side.
Democrats have absolutely nothing to gain politically by making jackasses out of themselves in an effort to save a doomed doctrine. Dismantling Roe will be a gradual process. Most voters care only about practical things and, as a practical matter, Roe’s demise won’t change much. When all the dust settles, abortion will be restricted everywhere but available under most circumstances almost everywhere. Nobody will be terribly pleased by this state of affairs, but nobody is going to be marching about it either. Very few voters will give Democrats any credit for standing by Roe in its final years.
But Democrats will give themselves credit for it and that’s enough for them. They are willing to look like jackasses so that, years from now, they can hark back to the golden age of constitutional rights and tell themselves that they fought the good fight to preserve it. When you’re a Democrat you have to take self-esteem wherever you can find it.
The Democrats’ Iraq obsession is therapeutic politics at its most self-destructive. That obsession is another byproduct of the Democrats’ need to paper over Bill Clinton’s many failures.
Iraq is, of course, Bill Clinton’s war. He determined that we had to remove Saddam from power. He even took military action to move toward that goal. But that action was as feckless, ineffectual and politically motivated as everything else Clinton did. If Democrats were honest with themselves about Clinton’s despicable war with Iraq, they would all have to slink out of public life in humiliation.
George W. Bush committed the unpardonable sin of completing the project Clinton started but lacked the courage to finish. He showed the Democratic Party up for the collection of poltroons that it is.
There is nothing a coward hates more than a hero. Democrats will say and do anything to tarnish Bush’s victories, at whatever cost to their country, because the alternative is to acknowledge their own shameful weakness.
Therapeutic politics may make Democrats feel better in the near term. But politicians who focus on feeling good about themselves aren’t going to win hard-fought elections. Turning your back on reality never works.
Reality always bites you in the butt.
