Posted on 11/12/2004 3:36:02 AM PST by Former Military Chick
My wife is a Democrat. Her family home in Chicago is lined with photos of the Kennedys. As a child, she remembers Saul Alinsky organizing neighborhood groups in her living room at the invitation of her mother and father. She volunteered on the Eugene McCarthy campaign. She worked as a floor runner at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Adlai Stevenson was a household icon.
My wife is a Democrat. Always was, always will be - at least in her heart. But she hasn't voted for a major Democratic candidate in more than 25 years. And therein lies a lesson for any Democrat who wants to understand the debris of the 2004 election.
I met my wife before I had returned to my childhood faith. One day I made the mistake of poking fun at those neanderthal Catholic views on abortion. What I got for my ignorance was a kindly but memorable tutoring on the sanctity of human life.
For my wife and her family, being a Catholic meant being a Democrat, and being a Democrat meant fighting for the little guy - literally. That included the poor, the homeless, racial and ethnic minorities, and the unemployed. It also meant defending the unborn child.
For my wife, arguing whether an unborn child was a "full human person" or a "developing human being" was irrelevant - or worse, a kind of lying. The dignity of the unborn life involved was exactly the same, whatever one called it.
In the years since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion on demand, my wife and I have struggled many times with the choice of voting Democratic. Our youngest son has Down syndrome, and Democratic policies often benefit the disabled in ways Republican policies don't.
But it's also true that children like our son are becoming extinct in part because the abortion lobby has a stranglehold on the Democratic Party platform, with all that it implies for legislation and judicial appointments. The easiest response to handicapped children is to kill them before they arrive. That's not a solution. That's homicide.
We can't build a just society while killing a million unborn children a year. No matter how much good we try to do, we can't outrun the effects of that most intimate form of violence against women and children.
Not so long ago, leading Democrats understood this. Robert P. Casey, governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995, embodied the deepest ideals of the Democratic Party: pro-worker; pro-minority; pro-economic and social justice; and also thoroughly pro-life, from conception to natural death. In arguing for the rights of the unborn child, he worried that the Democratic Party was becoming "little more than an auxiliary" of the abortion industry.
For his candor, the Clinton machine publicly humiliated him at the 1992 Democratic Convention. Other prominent "Catholic" Democrats - including fellow governor and media darling Mario Cuomo - looked the other way.
In his 1996 autobiography, Casey warned that:
"Many people discount the power of the so-called 'cultural issues' - and especially the abortion issue. I see it the other way around. These issues are central to the resurgence of the Republicans, central to the national implosion of the Democrats, central to the question of whether there will be a third party . . . \[The] Democrats' national decline - or, better, their national disintegration - will continue relentlessly and inexorably until they come to grips with these values issues, primarily abortion."
Bob Casey isn't around to see the 32-state crater his party left in this year's election. He died in 2000, loyal - to the end - to his party, his Catholic faith and his convictions about the dignity of all human life, born and unborn.
But after a decade of "ethnic cleansing" within the party by the abortion goon squad, is anybody left to learn from Casey's warning? Don't count on it. Hundreds of thousands of traditional Democrats, barred from any real voice in the party, have simply left. And the tumor within the party has only worsened as the culture war has widened from abortion to the nature of marriage.
California's Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein warns cluelessly that gay marriage was pushed too fast - as if the troglodytes in the red states (and, oh yeah, in Oregon) need more time to see the light. Others point to Bush's personality, or Karl Rove's evil genius, or John Kerry's bumbling campaign team. The list of excuses is endless.
The 2004 election wasn't about "personality." It was about character - the Bob Casey, moral values kind. Democrats used to be able to tell the difference. That they no longer can is why my Democratic wife, and millions of people just like her, had no trouble at all pulling the lever for Republicans on Nov. 2.
Francis X. Maier is chancellor of the Archdiocese of Denver. The views expressed here are his own.
Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
Those who seek to downplay moral matters in favor of the esoterica of merely economic maneuvers and the invisible hand sorcery of market forces do not help the conservative cause. America will not be saved as a culture by merely "market forces." That whole line of materialistic reasoning is sophistry.
Thank G-d for people like you!
What we need to start off the new term next year is a real national public debate about partial-birth abortion. This is a practice that is overwhelmingly opposed by the American people, yet the Democrats and the judiciary are blocking the way to any real reform. It's time for us to make our voices heard in a loud, clear, and unmistakeable way to our leaders. I don't think they can really afford to ignore us after this election.
This piece reminded me of Ray Flynn, who epitomizes the "Reagan Democrat" that was essential to the overwhelming reelection victory of President Bush.
Arlen Spector has a well documented vile agenda. His current BS campaign is designed to fool the rubes that he has changed his basic orientation. Ask Judge Bork about Spector's honesty.
I agree with that. I'm sure the Democrats will be working hard to promote moral values they don't believe or care about.
Even THIS guy doesn't get it.
Yes, he does. The problem isn't that faggotry was pushed too fast; rather the problem is that faggotry was pushed at all.
Lol!
The DemoRat part has a base of left wing, whacked out, nutcases - they are the core of the party. Unfortunately, they are only about 15% of the population - but, they have a strangle hold on the philosophy of the party and will not let go. So, they are walking away from a majority.
What they do is try to recruit other fringe groups and single issue groups to cobble together 51% (as long as they don't threaten the Dem lefty's core values). As we saw in the last election, these fringe groups alienate more voters with their shrill rhoeteric (they have a soapbox now and they WILL be heard) than they bring into the party.
The bad news is, and will continue to be, for the Dems is that these groups are like several tomcats trapped in a small box - somebody is going to get badly scratched up. These squirrels just aren't going to be able to get along together!
Let the DemoRats continue to distance themselves from a sane and stable majority -- it makes our job easier!
This is why they did not run FOR anything only AGAINST. They cannot get people like this to vote for them if they actually campaign on what they want to do; because while issue (A) will be appealing, issues (B), (C), and (D) will seem down-right demonic. Its easier, therefore, to campaign on their opponents' failings and get everyone to agree on those. When they run on what they stand for they'll lose everytime. Horribly for them, we've done an excellent job outlining both our agenda and theirs as well.
Check out western Europe.
They killed Christianity, the worship abortion on demand, family fell by the wayside, they stopped having children, they worship political correctness. Children and religions were replaced by materialism and vacations. They also let Muslims flood into Western Europe.
The end result is their civilzation is dying - literally. The Democratic Party has almost the identical agenda.
Holland got their rude awakening when Pim Fortyun and more recently Theo van Gogh were murdered on Dutch streets due to their speaking out against uncontrolled immigration by Muslims and the intolernace of Islam (which will NEVER change).
**In his 1996 autobiography, Casey warned that:
"Many people discount the power of the so-called 'cultural issues' - and especially the abortion issue. I see it the other way around. These issues are central to the resurgence of the Republicans, central to the national implosion of the Democrats, central to the question of whether there will be a third party . . . \[The] Democrats' national decline - or, better, their national disintegration - will continue relentlessly and inexorably until they come to grips with these values issues, primarily abortion."**
Very telling since written in 1996!
**California's Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein warns cluelessly that gay marriage was pushed too fast - as if the troglodytes in the red states (and, oh yeah, in Oregon) need more time to see the light.**
**Hard left.**
If there is a faction that goes hard left -- don't you think there will be a split in the Democratic Party?
I'd say the tumor is the disgraced, discredited, disgusting, impeached, corrupt Clinton family(et all) refusing to go away.
If there had been a recent co-presidential-couple that tore down our Nation's morals, there would not have been a voter backlash this year againt those decrepid morals.
NOW that Bush has won re-election, I'd LOVE to see an honest pollster do a study of people's RIGHT-TRACK/WRONG-TRACK opinions....
I'd bet they have risen 5 to 10 points toward RIGHT-TRACK
The homosexual agenda will be defeated ~ homosexuals and their sycophants are clueless!
Pardon? Can you cite your source(s) for this? Capra certainly didn't indicate this in anything I've ever read about the genesis of the movie and I doubt that Dalton Trumbo or Clifford Odets (uncredited screenplay work) were very critical of Roosevelt.
Just because Potter is a powerful man in a wheelchair doesn't mean he's based on FDR. Potter is essentially a fascist who acts as if economic power and civic leadership are one and the same. FDR had many flaws, but his brand of liberalism would have been anathema to someone like Mr. Potter.
And there's plenty of them at our little church, which we walked out of on Mother's Day last year. We'll finally be able to return when the lefty pastor leaves on the 21st. Flipside is something we read in the Sentinel last night: Catholics in Ohio voted 62-38 for the President - somebody please point that out to Conyers and MoveOn.org!
Howard Dean tried it. It didn't work.
Wesley Clark tried it. It didn't work.
John Kerry tried it. It didn't work.
Anyone getting the message?
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