Posted on 03/07/2006 3:15:02 PM PST by Paladin2b
So, a friend and I get talking yesterday. He’s a lefty, kind of. Actually, he insists he’s a middle, maybe even slightly right-shaded social democrat sort of person, and in any sensible country (like, say, Luxembourg or Denmark) he would be recognized as the moderate conservative centrist he is. Anyway, he writes like an angel and knows the political left in this country well, and he suggested we get together because—well, because he and I are friends, and he wanted to give me a friendly warning while there was still maybe time.
The facts, he said, are these: President Bush has approval ratings so low he makes Harry Truman and Richard Nixon look like prom kings. The war in Iraq is lost, and the best scenario involves its becoming basically a client state of Iran, which hates the United States even more than Saddam Hussein did.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are circling for the kill, and they are entirely serious about impeachment if they gain the House and Senate—and jail time for everybody in the Bush administration if they win the presidential election in 2008. The Patriot Act and other assertions of executive power have put power in the hands of the White House, and there will be no hesitation to use it against political enemies when the Democrats regain the presidency and a thug like—perhaps I shouldn’t name him, but it doesn’t matter: imagine any of a dozen well-known Democratic party operatives here—is made chief of staff to a Democratic president.
Add it all up, and the Republicans are going down. In fact, they’re going down for a generation, and their opponents will be moving brutally against everybody who has had anything to do with them. So what is the pro-life movement doing associating with these guys?
Sure, sure—he waved away my grimace—you gotta dance with the one who brung you to the dance. But the dance has turned into a lynching party, and they’ve got the rope around the neck of your partner. Now, he said, would be a really good time for you to start looking for somebody else to take you home.
The warning came from a friend, and he was serious—not just because he is a friend but also because, without being opposed to abortion himself, he respects the few pro-lifers he knows: their passion, their dedication, their insistence that politics be moved by moral affairs.
Start making Democratic friends as fast as you can, he advised. Give money, intellectual analysis, and political commitment to a couple that seem plausible, and boom them as hard as you can—for things could break so hard against you that your only chance to have influence for years, and maybe to stay out of jail, is to have some elected Democrats on your side.
Well, the political situation is wildly exaggerated, of course, but some of these facts are not exaggerated at all: The Left in this country is more furious than it’s been since 1974, and they do believe there is blood in the water.
What’s more, if they should gain massive political power, their anger would probably spill over into criminalization of as much of the pro-life movement as they could reach. At the very least, they would end any hope of overturning Roe v. Wade, and the more they can tar the pro-life movement with what they believe is a criminal Republican administration, the more abortion is guaranteed as a permanent part of the American landscape.
I still believe that the Iraq situation is winnable, and I still hold that what I called the new fusionism between neoconservatives and social conservatives has deep and perduring roots, and I still think the initial invasion of Iraq was a moral thing to do. But suppose that my friend is right about the political future of America. What ought the pro-life movement to do—now—about it?
That Democrats would jail their opponents if they could?
Sure. They do worse than that.
This guy isn't interested in a replay of 1976. He's interested in a replay of 1996. He wants Republicans to tack left so that our base can be split and a Dem can sweep into power.
The conventional wisdom holds here: never, ever trust a leftist bearing advice. If one offers "helpful" advice, you can be absolutely sure that it is anything but.
If by some small chance they should regain the majority and impeach President Bush (for what, I don't know) then they will still have to get a conviction in the Senate, which they will never get.
And, should they impeach him, we can all just go to the White House and call him "the greatest President in the history of the country." That's what Al Gore did.
Sounds to me as though pol pot, the khmer rouge and danny ortega are coming to town. So much for the party of tolerance.
The sky is falling...
Two years ago I might have given this some credibility.
Today? Not a chance.
This is a different Supreme Court and nothing trumps the Constitution.
I don't see any amendments passing any time soon.
The war in Iraq is lost, and the best scenario involves its becoming basically a client state of Iran...
Why would anybody waste their time gathering a goofy liberal's asinine analysis of foreign affairs?
...I can't remember when that's NOT been the case.
The war in Iraq is not lost.
The entire rant by the leftist in this article is filled with misperceptions of reality, phony poll results and approval ratings, and general miscalculation of the current political situation. The economy is growing at a strong pace and energy inflation should be right around zero this year so people will be feeling rather prosperous by November. I'm sure Bush & Rumsfeld will bring some troops home from Iraq in the August-October timeframe, and move some other troops into Kuwait as an emergency reaction force. This isn't 1974. Nixon used his power illegally in an attempt to defeat the Democrats, while Bush is using his power legally to win the WOT. I suspect that the polls are much less accurate and much more slanted against Republicans than in 1974, and I expect the GOP to do much better in November than the MSM pundidts predict.
One last point: the very serious and escalating nuclear crisis with Iran could very well change the entire political landscape by November.
The Democrats have more than a few similarities with the old-line Communists. They really HATE their enemies, and if they triumph politically or "seize the levers of power" they would be delighted to use their power to send a few people to the gulags for re-education.
Whether Americans will sit back and let them do that sort of thing is another question. It seems to me that by taking a position that demands all or nothing, they are more likely to end up with nothing.
Jody Bottum is an interesting thinker, but sometimes I think he gets carried away with some strange ideas.
The Democrats have more than a few similarities with the old-line Communists. They really HATE their enemies, and if they triumph politically or "seize the levers of power" they would be delighted to use their power to send a few people to the gulags for re-education.
Whether Americans will sit back and let them do that sort of thing is another question. It seems to me that by taking a position that demands all or nothing, they are more likely to end up with nothing.
Jody Bottum is an interesting thinker, but sometimes I think he gets carried away with some strange ideas.
Dream along with him...he's on his way to nowhere!
One very last point: I think the approval ratings for Bush are also very much a rating of how people feel about the current results from Iraq and in the economy. They do not necessarily reflect the public's view of Bush as a man and as a leader. If the Bush Administration can change the results and the public's view of the results they're achieving, then approval ratings will rise by November and the GOP will do well in the elections. When unbiased pollsters look at the public's view of the issues, the conservative position is usually favored by most people on most issues. This will carry us in November if we can improve the perception of Bush's performance by then.
I simply refuse to jump on the bash Republican bandwagon and get all negative for very little reason.
I've always been under the premise that when things get so bad you just want to throw in the towel, that is precisely the point as to which you need to hang in there.
That said, I think an attempt to criminalize the behavior of more than a third of American women, and that on an issue as polarizing as abortion, is probably very bad practical politics; The Republicans party has maxed out its appeal to male voters in national races and must hold or improve its 2004 level of female support to win the Presidency, but polling clearly indicates that as the abortion controversy heats up the Republicans - as a national party - are going to lose women’s votes on this issue, and that the stronger the anti-abortion position the greater the loss.
That said, I think an attempt to criminalize the behavior of more than a third of American women, and that on an issue as polarizing as abortion, is probably very bad practical politics; The Republicans party has maxed out its appeal to male voters in national races and must hold or improve its 2004 level of female support to win the Presidency, but polling clearly indicates that as the abortion controversy heats up the Republicans - as a national party - are going to lose women’s votes on this issue, and that the stronger the anti-abortion position the greater the loss.
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