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Speakout: Tumor growing in Democratic Party
Rocky Mountain News ^ | November 12, 2004 | Francis X. Maier

Posted on 11/13/2004 7:26:55 AM PST by Slyfox

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; abortionlist; bushdemocrats; catholiclist; catholicpoliticians; democrat; democraticparty; democratparty; democrats; prolife; prolifedems
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1 posted on 11/13/2004 7:26:55 AM PST by Slyfox
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To: Slyfox

The biggest tumor the Dems have is Michael Moore and his radical wing. "Turn-off" doesn't even begin to describe the effect of the Moorelocks on non-radical Americans.


2 posted on 11/13/2004 7:34:25 AM PST by xJones
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To: Slyfox

My mom, a dyed-in-the-wool, depression baby, FDR democrat for LIFE, changed her party affiliation this year.

Finally realized that I've been telling her the truth about this NOT being the Democratic Party she grew up believing in.

Imagine being able to choose between TWO qualified, moral candidates - THAT would cause some confusion among the masses!


3 posted on 11/13/2004 7:39:09 AM PST by NMVet (Better Living Through Pharmaceuticals (prescription, of course...))
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To: xJones
Michael Moore? That's one growth we don't want to see stopped. I just hope that Fatso doesn't eat himself to death before 2008. He needs to be in there, fighting for a GOP victory.
4 posted on 11/13/2004 7:39:58 AM PST by Sociopathocracy
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To: Slyfox
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1278198/posts
5 posted on 11/13/2004 7:40:50 AM PST by Egon (Government is a guard-dog to be fed, not a cow to be milked.)
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To: NMVet

"Imagine being able to choose between TWO qualified, moral candidates - THAT would cause some confusion among the masses!"

Actually it wouldn't.

It would put the Democrat party back on track wrench the control back from the activist left.

Real Democrats would then realize that there party has been hyjacked and begin to reject these people as 'dividers' of our nation.

The 'left' would be left out in the cold, where they belong.


6 posted on 11/13/2004 7:42:34 AM PST by Bigh4u2
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To: Slyfox

A good posting on what once was a party of noble people, and a party that is now nothing more than a socialist's refuge.


7 posted on 11/13/2004 7:43:18 AM PST by Noachian (A Democrat, by definition, is a Socialist.)
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To: Egon

I checked and nothing came up.


8 posted on 11/13/2004 7:45:09 AM PST by Slyfox
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To: Slyfox

9 posted on 11/13/2004 7:46:03 AM PST by martin_fierro
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To: Slyfox

The Republican party consists of people who share common values. The Democratic party is a coalition of people with special interests - gays, pro-choice, pro-unions, anti-guns, anti-war, etc.

While Republicans hold opposing views on most of these issues, that's not what binds us together. But if the Democrats start moving away from one issue or special interest, they are going to lose that group. Lose enough of them and there's nothing left. This is the play we should see unfolding over the next four years.

In many ways Kerry was a perfect embodiement of the Democratic party. Will we see the entire party flip-flop too?


10 posted on 11/13/2004 7:49:11 AM PST by bigbob (2)
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To: Slyfox
I checked and nothing came up.

I dunno. Just searched on "tumor" by Title (Date) and it showed. You're not the first person to experience this, though.

I'd just read the article this morning-- that's the only reason I thought to check. Probably wouldn't have posted anything but there were 100+ comments on the other thread I wouldn't want anyone to miss.

Been guilty of the same thing myself-- so I'm definitely not throwing stones!

11 posted on 11/13/2004 7:51:38 AM PST by Egon (Government is a guard-dog to be fed, not a cow to be milked.)
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To: Egon

Maybe it had something to do with the added tagline in the title.


12 posted on 11/13/2004 7:52:57 AM PST by Slyfox
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To: Slyfox

Why is it that 99% of those who favor abortion are opposed to the death penalty?


13 posted on 11/13/2004 7:56:01 AM PST by ken5050
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To: Slyfox
California's Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein warns cluelessly that gay marriage was pushed too fast...

Yeah, like people would be more cooperative if you jam the stick up their backside slowly.

14 posted on 11/13/2004 7:57:16 AM PST by randog (What the....?!)
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To: NMVet

I am the lone rebel in an Irish Catholic Democratic family, but I am also the only one who attends church weekly, teaches CCD, volunteers for with the elderly, sends care packages to troops, collects food and gifts for the poor and is against abortion....point is not to blow smoke up my own *** but to ask who is the real "social justice" Catholic in my fmaily????? The libs who claim it but don't do it? Or me, the evil Republican who doesn't talk about it, just does it?


15 posted on 11/13/2004 7:58:16 AM PST by hilaryrhymeswithrich (I love the Swifties...thanks for the election boys!!!)
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To: Slyfox

The word "tumor" couldn't describe it better. All of them combined are like a cancer to this country.


16 posted on 11/13/2004 8:00:23 AM PST by WhatPriceFreedom?
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To: Slyfox

The party of trial lawyers and Michael Moore. RIP.


17 posted on 11/13/2004 8:01:33 AM PST by Tennessean4Bush (An optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds, a pessimist fears this is true.)
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To: Slyfox
I checked and nothing came up.

It often helps to try a couple searches for different important words in the title. Sometimes people search for "keywords," but that doesn't work unless someone has inserted the keyword into the thread by clicking on "Click to add a keyword." Often no one has added the right keywords.

The earlier post showed up in my search and you can see that here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?s=tumor+&ok=Search&q=quick&m=all&o=time&SX=419630a15f25b680ff27792a98255befde98096d

Sometimes the searches don't seem to work quite right, no matter what one does and even if the person who is posting is, like you, considerate enough to do a search.

18 posted on 11/13/2004 8:06:24 AM PST by BillF (Fight terrorists in Iraq & elsewhere, instead of waiting for them to come to America!)
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To: Slyfox

" The 2004 election wasn't about "personality." It was about character..."

I don't think the 2004 election was about character as much as it was about lack of character. I think the democrats could have run anyone other than Kerry and done much better. Kerry's flaws were so glaring it's amazing that he received even 10% of the vote. I want to know what kind of moron would vote for a man that received three Purple Hearts in less than 40 days without spending a day in the hospital. Our men are dying in Iraq and this clown is running around calling himself a hero. I think that's what brought many of us to the polls this year. We couldn't take a chance that a low life like that could become our president.


19 posted on 11/13/2004 8:10:49 AM PST by lotusblos
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To: Slyfox

My wifes family is the same way. I take great pleasure in telling the that JOHN F. KENNEDY IS DEAD, has been for over forty years, his party is dead now too.


20 posted on 11/13/2004 8:11:06 AM PST by jim from cleveland (W'04&4more)
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