Posted on 06/29/2004 7:19:26 AM PDT by quidnunc
In a private conversation on the Senate floor last week, Vice President Dick Cheney hurled the "F-word" at Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., an intemperate critic. Cheney wouldn't repent. "I expressed myself rather forcefully," he said. "Felt better after I had done it."
You can hardly blame him.
As Iraq has moved closer to democracy over the past few weeks, the terrorist opponents of sovereignty, as expected, have grown more desperate and more violent in their counterinsurgency.
A similar pattern has occurred in the United States.
As Republicans have moved closer to consolidating power in all three branches of government, Democratic opponents of free-market conservatism have grown more desperate and more rhetorically violent in their own counterinsurgency.
Just listen to the former vice president of the United States, Al Gore.
"How dare the incompetent and willful members of this Bush/Cheney administration humiliate our nation and our people in the eyes of the world and in the conscience of our own people!" he screamed at a speech May 26 at New York University. "How dare they subject us to such dishonor and disgrace. How dare they drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud!"
But no event epitomizes the Democratic strategy better than the June 23 premiere of Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's propaganda film, which Christopher Hitchens, former columnist for The Nation, describes as "an exercise in moral frivolity, … facile crowd-pleasing … (and) abject political cowardice."
Until now, Moore has been an outlier, a fringe character, a petulant extremist. Armond White, in the current issue of the New York Press, a counterculture weekly, calls him a "fascist liberal." In the New York Times on Saturday, David Brooks showed how Moore's political philosophy is rooted in an abiding hatred of his countrymen, displayed with gusto abroad.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at aei.org ...
Sorry, Rope-A-Dope is Bush's game, one that he plays extremely well.
Al, that thing you see down in the mud is not the good name of the USA. It's your name Al, and you have put it there.
The Rats have chosen the path of hate America, killing the unborn, amnesty for convicted murders, homosexual "marriage", radical and violent environmentalism, and stealing from the producers in order to garner votes from the looters in order to gain power.
Years ago the Rats made a pact with the devil in order to cobble together a coalition for the purpose of retaining power. Now it's time to give the devil his due, the lunatic fringe is in charge.
I'm not exactly sure just what you are saying, but Bush does play the game extremely well, in fact, everytime he plays it, the libs get caught in the trap everytime. It could explain their raging anger!!
Kerry plays the moderate, conservative talking kind of quiet candidate , while the rest of the Party as well as the media goes bonkers. . Theyre hoping it works. We'll see..
Kerry plays whatever charachter he thinks he should be for whatever crowd he's in front of. Mr. Flip Flop has no core values and will say anything to anyone as a result. The reason he's so quiet most of the time is because his handlers and the DNC are telling him to shut the heck up.
Maybe his handlers and the DNC are on to something. Here's hoping theyre wrong..(!)
Isn't it interesting that the party decided in Iowa that they couldn't nominate a guy just like them - Dean - because he was too nutty and would never win?
Americans "are possibly the dumbest people on the planet," Moore told the British paper the Mirror. "We've got that big (expletive) grin on our face all the time because our brains aren't loaded down," he told a crowd in Munich. "The U.S. government started the war in Iraq in order to make it easy for U.S. corporations to do business in other countries. They intend to use cheap labor in those countries, which will make Americans rich," he told a Japanese newspaper. "It's all part of the same ball of wax, right? The oil companies, Israel, Halliburton," he said in Cambridge, England.
So Moore is radical and a hater. But we've had a lot of those in our history. The big difference is that Moore is now embraced by the Democratic Party's establishment. Among those paying homage at his film's Washington opening were Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe and Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a Democrat. What on earth are these people doing at a Michael Moore premiere? They're scared. America has been undergoing a sea change over the past quarter-century, and Democrats, in this election, are trying to turn back the tide. Whatever it takes.
*****
We need to remind Kerry supporters that standing with Michael Moore is the same as standing with David Duke - something that no Republican politician does.
How 'bout a nice glass of iced tea, Al?
They think they got a working formula: Kerry foreswears a 20 yr liberal record by moving shamelessly to the center, and all the elected reps, media and entertainment shills wax hysterical and hyperbolic about the "extremism" of George Bush, riling up their base and putting doubt to the "undecided". I'm convinced thats why Kerry is running so well to date. We'll see if thats the winning ticket..
This proves the premise I've stated elsewhere. Howie Dean moved the Dim candidates further to the left. Now MM has reframed and restaged the Dim position to the extreme fringe left and all debate from the left must proceed from that base now or fall flat with their supporters. Kerry is too ineffectual to pull the discourse back towards the center and too left himself to want to. MM has defined the point of departure for Dem candidates just as the Dim Convention is about to begin. It can only get crazier from here on out.
Truer words were never said
To bad only half of america see it.
He does seem to play it well. He reminds me a little bit of Peter Falk in "Columbo", who does exactly what I would do if I was a detective -- convince my suspect that I was the dumbest cop who ever lived so he'd get complacent and wander into my ambush.
As for the Democrats, I'm starting to think there's going to be an official split among them in the next 10 years. The Democratic Leadership Council (their centrist wing) has been holding its nose for some time now. If Michael Moore is the party's future, at some point they're going to say they've had enough and leave and start a new party.
The other possibility is they may join us.
the film is getting some traction--I hope it backfires, but I'm not convinced it will
Excellent analogy.
As for the Democrats, I'm starting to think there's going to be an official split among them in the next 10 years. The Democratic Leadership Council (their centrist wing) has been holding its nose for some time now. If Michael Moore is the party's future, at some point they're going to say they've had enough and leave and start a new party.
The dems are making the same fatal mistake the GOP made 20-30 years ago when they let their extremists (the Religious Right) take over the party. The left found their "bad guy" in Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, et.al. and painted all republicans as like-minded. It was very effective, so much that GOP finally did something about it (and I think they were very effective, although it took them a long time to turn the image around).
With the dems abrupt left turn, the right has been looking for their Falwell Poster Child--Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle, et.al. have been singled out, but they've done an effective job of hiding behind the scenery whenever the heat got too bad. Howard Dean looked like a good candidate, but the dems, in a rare moment of sanity, decided they couldn't have someone like them representing them.
Michael Moore, however, is beholden to no one and is more than willing to take the ship into the rocks. He's in a business that requires him to be in the public eye constantly, a business that requires him to be more and more outrageous in order to stay relevant. Like the outrageous TV evangelists that embarrassed and scuttled the GOP, Michael Moore is potentially the left's final demise. The dem leadership, much to their horror, realized this too late. Last weekend several of the top dems were scurrying around the Sunday talk shows trying to disavow the party from their new poster boy.
The other possibility is they may join us.
I think the dems party will split up: The leftists will join the Green Party, the moderates will discover the Libertarians. In the long run, I think American politics will revolve around conservatism vs. libertarianism with the Greens playing the pesky ankle-biters. Before that happens, though, I think there will be some social unrest as we see the democrat leviathan go through some serious death throes. Hold on--we're in for a ride.
"I think the dems party will split up:"
Maybe, probably.
"The leftists will join the Green Party,"
With Nader and Ingrid Newkirk as their White Hosue ticket.
"the moderates will discover the Libertarians."
Here I disagree. It would be very difficult even for the moderate Democrats to divorce from their Socialism Lite leanings, which the Libertarians have no use for. It would be like cutting off a limb. Only those Democrats that are fiscally conservative and socially liberal will be able to make that leap. The rest will either bolster the GOP's liberal wing or form the new "rump state" Democratic Party.
"In the long run, I think American politics will revolve around conservatism vs. libertarianism with the Greens playing the pesky ankle-biters."
I think it will go back to the 1950's political paradigm of both main parties being agreed on anti-communism/socialism with their main dispute being labor vs. management. Greens and Libertarians will be two mosquitoes buzzing annoyingly in the left and right ear.
"Before that happens, though, I think there will be some social unrest as we see the democrat leviathan go through some serious death throes. Hold on--we're in for a ride."
Agreed. In fact, I think a second Civil War is not out of the question.
I don't know--I'm thinking Reagan Democrats here.
In fact, I think a second Civil War is not out of the question.
Agreed. In fact, I believe that we are in a Cold Civil War right now.
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