Posted on 07/01/2004 2:25:48 AM PDT by pookie18
The traditional strength of American politics is that the two-party system encourages moderation by effectively marginalizing lunatics on both ends of the ideological spectrum. Republicans don't need to court twitchy backwoods militia types hankering for a return to legalized segregation, and Democrats don't need to get in bed with fist-pumping café revolutionaries who insist that every black man behind bars in the United States is a political prisoner.
But that tradition is now in jeopardy. For in its desperation to elect John Kerry president this November, the Democratic hierarchy is busy cobbling together what the Bush campaign recently, and accurately, dubbed Kerry's Coalition of the Wild-Eyed. Rather than putting forward a coherent platform of policy objectives, the Democrats have cast a net of free-floating political rage in the hopes of scooping up every amateur conspiracy theorist with a grudge against the status quo.
Their litany of counterfactual charges is by now familiar: the Republicans impeached President Clinton for committing adultery; the Republicans stole the 2000 presidential election; President Bush had sufficient warnings to prevent the attacks of September 11th; Bush's business ties with the Saudi royal family dictated his decision-making after September 11; Bush used the September 11th attacks as an excuse to invade Iraq, which he'd had in mind from day one, in order to line the pockets of his oil industry cronies; Bush sent off predominantly dark-skinned soldiers to die protecting predominantly white men's interests.
Senator Kerry knows each of these beliefs is false, demonstrably false, yet he cannot afford to disown any of them because he's made the paranoid fringe a key constituency. The problem runs deeper than the political reality that he cannot distance himself from mainstream-figures-turned-partisan-flamethrowers like Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean and the entirety of the Congressional Black Caucus; Kerry cannot even dismiss Michael Moore's loopy suggestion in his new film that the war in Afghanistan wasn't about overthrowing the Taliban government, which harbored al Qaeda terrorists, but about allowing the Unocal Corporation to build a natural gas pipeline through the country. Kerry cannot, in short, speak the truth without alienating his reflexively wary base.
These are perilous times -- and not only because loosely-knit fraternities of jihadists are dreaming up new suicidal schemes designed to kill thousands of Americans. For generations, the decision to vote Democratic or Republican has hinged on the relatively benign question of whether you favor bigger government or smaller government. But that choice no longer works for the Democrats -- who just can't win elections anymore by proposing big government solutions. Their fallback strategy now seems to consist of appealing to voters' worst emotions, tapping into their delusions, their fears, their passions and prejudices, accusing their Republican opposition not merely of being wrong on the issues but of thwarting democracy and engaging in genocide for profit.
No tactic could be more cynical. Or more dangerous to the future of political discourse.
Mark Goldblatt's novel Africa Speaks is a satire of black urban culture.
The Democrats have decided winning is the only thing that matters and no lie is too ugly and no measure is too extreme to bring themselves back into power.
Rush says that the Republicans marginalize and distance themselves from their kooks - e.g., David Duke - but in the Democratic Party their fringe is their mainstream.
Rather than putting forward a coherent platform of policy objectives, the Democrats have cast a net of free-floating political rage in the hopes of scooping up every amateur conspiracy theorist with a grudge against the status quo.
The wicked will soon be on their knees pleading the blood of Jesus, or they will forever be forgotten in eternal darkness and nothingness. The days of huge egos, deception, large sums of money to corrupt and influence, false religions, will all be gone, gone, gone! The days of spiritual darkness and moral degeneracy will be scarcer than water on Mars. Everybody has had an excuse up until now. But God is going to soon be front and center on the planet He created, and everybody is going to have to deal with Him. No wonder they call it "great tribulation". Light hurts the eyes, when it is turned on in a dark room. And this light is going to be intensely bright.
And the corrupt liar who made the decision that winning is the only thing that matters is, of couse, Bill Clinton. The Democrat party was grotesquely corrupted during his presidency, and now our entire political process has been affected. We need to re-elect Bush to reject this despicable Kerry campaign strategy.
The sad thing is - I can't tell if he's talking about Islamikaze jihadists, or the Democratic party or the Moore-ons.
Before Bill Clinton came along, I was a Democrat. I was not an enthusiastic Democrat, but they had not yet done enough to force me out of the party of my parents. Now the Democrats are nothing but a collection of Socialists and conspiracy mongers. Clinton has destroyed the Democratic Party.
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