Confessions of a Liberal Democrat

Newsmax.com ^ | October 15, 1998 | Betsy Gibson

[coffee260]

Confessions of a Liberal Democrat Betsy Gibson October 15, 1998

Partisanship is blinding us to the deeper truths we need to understand about Bill Clinton, ourselves and our country. I know about partisanship. I’m a liberal Democrat from a family so committed to those ideas that in 1968 my single-parent mother quit her job to volunteer for Senator Eugene McCarthy. During that long, hot summer in Chicago our already cramped apartment housed other volunteers who come to the convention to fight the good fight for the soul of the Democratic party.

Our enemy was Hubert Humphrey and the establishment wing of the party. Mayor Daley’s police tear-gassed me and the true believers as we demonstrated against the war in Vietnam. Nixon won and the war continued. With fellow Democrats I protested against Nixon. Watergate, in my mind, vindicated my activism and feelings about Dirty-Tricks Republicans.

Not a decade later, it was 1980 and I had become an expatriate who preferred living in socialist Britain. When Ronald Reagan was elected I almost canceled plans to return to the States.

How I despaired over the next decade that America would be forever lost to the enemy: how could we Democrats ever return to power, when we weren’t capable of Nixon’s dirty tricks and we eschewed the kind of phony photo-op and sound-bite campaigns the Republicans had perfected?

Thank God for candidate Bill Clinton, I felt. At last a Democrat willing and savvy enough to play the dirty game of politics just enough to get elected and save the country with his compassionate vision.

I could already see signs of enlightenment spreading through the land in 1992 when Hillary and Bill explained that in the real world, not the Disney-fied, manufactured world of the Reagan and Bush family, couples could admit to having been through rough spots. Because when you’re emotionally enlightened, as Democrats are, you’re capable of being honest, of acknowledging "causing pain" in your marriage and then going forward and growing as individuals and as a couple.

When the votes came in, when "my people" packed their bags for Washington and Poet Maya Angelou stood up on inauguration day and read her poem about how even the rock was singing, it seemed America was being given a second chance at Camelot.

So the first whispers of Whitewater brought only this thought: the Republicans are blowing a lot of smoke from a tiny fire.

Many Clinton scandals and scandalettes later, it had to be more than the Republicans; I decided that there was some kind of there, there. But what kind?

In my mind, the wild stories circulating about suspicious deaths were clear evidence that, totally apart from Bill Clinton’s real and excusable failings and frailties, the "crazies" and the haters were out to smear him.

When I met one of these "crazies" in person, Chris Ruddy, I remember actually staring at him. I was so fascinated that someone could be either so fanatically unbalanced, or so coldly corrupt, as to call themselves a journalist and fabricate a whole book of smears called "The Strange Death of Vincent Foster.”

But I was too curious not to dip into the book when Ruddy gave me a copy. My stepmother had committed suicide, so I knew first hand that if nothing else, suicide is a screaming red "X" marking something that’s very, very not right.

Ten chapters later it was undeniable that whatever happened to Foster, his death had triggered a massive official cover-up...

Here’s just a short list of people associated with Clinton who have died: Vincent Foster (suicide); Ron Brown (plane crash), Admiral Boorda (suicide); Jerry Luther Parks, former head of Clinton-Gore security (murdered); Kathy Ferguson, who claimed she had been harassed by Clinton (suicide); Barbara Alice Wise, secretary in John Huang’s Commerce office (unexplained); James McDougal (questionable); Ed Willey (suicide), husband of Kathleen; Caity Mahoney, former White House intern (murdered); Jon Parnell Walker, RTC official who made the criminal referral on Whitewater (suicide); and three deaths of members of the finance committee of the Clinton-Gore campaign: Hershel Friday (plane crash), Dr. Adrian Rogers (plane crash), C. Victor Raiser (plane crash)...

[coffee260]

Just to remind everyone about what Hillary would mean.

[alessandrofiaschi]

This is what it would mean, IMO:

[alessandrofiaschi]

PING

[jonno]

bump

[superskunk]

It just demonstrates that many liberals aren't pure evil. They've simply been indoctrinated to believe what their party leaders and the MSM tell them.

These are people who want desperately to join our ranks. They just don't know it yet. After all, it would be difficult for anyone to learn that everything they believed in was wrong. The mind will resist such painful thoughts.

There's only one thing that will eventually eliminate the liberal socialist lie - The Truth! We must never quit exposing the truth.

[freedomfiter2]

Just to remind everyone about what Hillary would mean.

Yes, I'm sure the US under Ms. Clinton could work closely with Mr. Putin.

[Da Bilge Troll]

Yes, I'm sure the US under Ms. Clinton could work closely with Mr. Putin.

Putin is too conservative and has too stong a belief in liberty and democracy.

[Nataku X]

Hillary is now popular among the "true conservatives" here on FR. Very scary.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[383rr]

If I have said it once, I've said it a thousand times... the klintoons should be at Leavenworth, not in politics, and God forbid,not the White House.