Posted on 12/30/2003 5:35:16 AM PST by PJ-Comix
We are days away from 2004, and it's a very important year for America. It's the year we'll find out if our country still has a vibrant, two-party system. Or, should we cancel future elections, and just let the Republicans rule?
A big "no thanks" on that one from me.
But that's where we could be headed if the Democrats don't get their act together -- fast.
Here's what Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean had to say in a major foreign policy speech the day after Saddam Hussein's capture was reported: He said it offered America an opportunity to "move ahead," but "the capture of Saddam Hussein has not made America safer."
Um, OK, I'm assuming he really believes that. How he believes it is beyond me, but I'm assuming he really believes it.
But what might be more telling is that on the day it was reported we had Saddam, Dean actually made comments that were complimentary of the administration and called Saddam's capture a great day for America.
Obviously, when he had time to ponder the matter, he decided to go in a different direction. Left.
But Dean said something else even more revealing, as the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer reported in a column entitled "The Delusional Dean": Dean told interviewer Diane Rehm that he found something he heard to be to be a most "interesting" idea: that the Saudi government tipped off President Bush to the fact that the Sept. 11 attacks were coming. What?
Later, when pressed, Dean said he "didn't believe" it of course. No, but he was awfully happy to put that outrageous rumor out there. The latest polls show Dean ahead in the Iowa and New Hampshire Democratic primaries, only a month or so away.
What is going on? There was a time when partisan Democrats really thought America was great -- that a strong America was a force for good in the world.
They wanted big social programs and all that, but one still got the impression they were on our team.
Perhaps that's why 50 years ago, almost half of the electorate identified themselves as Democrats. But by 2002, it was only 34 percent.
Most amazingly, Democratic pollster Mark Penn recently revealed, today only 22 percent of white men identify themselves as Democrats.
As David Brooks reported in the Weekly Standard in an article aptly entitled, "Democrats Go off the Cliff," Democratic Senator Robert Byrd recently said that because of President Bush, "This republic is at its greatest danger in its history," and John Kerry said that Bush "deliberately misled" America in order to start the Iraq war.
"Greatest danger" to the Republic? What? Bush bold-faced lying to Americans in order to start a war half way around the world? Crazy.
Yes, there's Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut Democratic senator and presidential contender who condemned Howard Dean's response to the Saddam capture.
He seems to be the one sane Democrat running for president, sort of in the mode of JFK: pro-American, strong on national defense, fairly liberal on domestic policy, without being for big tax increases. (JFK actually cut taxes.) But, Lieberman is floundering in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes. Apparently he's too, well, reasonable.
Of course, there is a Democratic "stop-Dean" coalition. But few Democrats seem to be listening.
And that's the problem. It's the talk of Republicans -- what in the world is happening to the Democrats? Is their hatred for Bush eating them alive or just making them irrelevant?
Here's the problem for people like me. I'm a conservative, not a partisan.
I want, and conservatives should want, the political competition that a responsible Democratic party provides. Contrary to what many Republicans might think, if 2004 is the year the Democrats fully implode, it will NOT be a happy new year.
That's because the LOONEY LEFT is now running the party primaries. Dean can say anything, no matter how nutty, and he stays just as popular. Face it, Demmycrats. Your core supporters are now identical with DUmmie members.
And that's the problem. It's the talk of Republicans -- what in the world is happening to the Democrats? Is their hatred for Bush eating them alive or just making them irrelevant?
YUP! Their insane hatred for Bush is making them lose any sense of rationality and the result is that the incredibly nutty Dean will WIN the Democrat nomination. A year ago we all thought that Al Sharpton would prove to be an embarrassment to the Democrats. Who could predicted last year that a LEADING candidate would arise who would be so nutty that he even makes Big Al look like a font of rationality?
Contrary to what many Republicans might think, if 2004 is the year the Democrats fully implode, it will NOT be a happy new year.
Contrary to what you think, it WILL be a Happy New Year!
I musta blinked..... I missed it.
A big "Amen!" to that.
(snicker)
Yeah...kinda makes one wonder.
Scoop Jackson ... Sam Nunn ... Harry Truman ... and I'm sure that there were others ...
Zell Miller ... Breaux from Louisiana ...
I disagree with that. If the dims do implode we will still have a two party system. The conservative and the not so conservative branches of the Republican party. All of whom will be patriots and the only disagreements being on social policy.
I know - I'm dreaming.
From a historical perspective, however (just my personal---but I think, academically informed, opinion), the Democrats ORIGINATED in one "principle," the acquisition and maintenance of power to sustain slavery.
Oh, some of the founders like Martin Van Buren (NOT Thomas Jefferson, as his party evolved into the party of James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams) argued that they were only trying to "save" the Union. But most of the "true believers in the period 1830-1860 supported the Dem party because it was THE PARTY OF SLAVERY, end of story.
Therefore, is it really bad that what is (again, IMHO) an evil party disappears? I don't think so. A new party, perhaps grounded in real principles, might take its place to generate new competition.
I'm with you on this. Maybe not a full implode but reduction to 25-30 percent of the votes would give them what they've earned and warm my chilly chilly Republican heart.
This number is probably the exact number of white male homosexuals + metrosexuals in the country.
hee hee
What a stupid statement. Kind of like saying the world needed the Soviet Union to counterbalance American power.
We need to just let the Democrats go the way of the Soviet Union and disintegrate. Then the Republican Party can define the leftward boundary of political debate, and a conservative party would be the alternative to the Republican big spending nanny state agenda.
But at least both sides would more or less be on the same page when it comes to defending America against foreign enemies.
Didn't some prominent Dems say just that? I'm thinking it might have been Albright, but don't quote me on that.
We'll just have to let the 'sunni' and 'shiite' factions of the Democratic party have their clan wars and infighting, and while they are preoccupied quite insanely with slugging each other and whining to the DNC, we will quietly accept another 4 years of adult leadership in these difficult times.
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