Posted on 10/22/2007 5:29:06 AM PDT by vietvet67
The Democratic Party hasn't just taken over the title of The Stupid Party, as Professor James W. Ceaser characterizes it in his much-admired article of the same name in The Weekly Standard. Professor Ceaser insightfully argues that today's Democratic Party is what it is because of philosophical diffidence readily exploited by the bullying of a "network of techno-thugs," all Leftists. But his erudite argument confines itself to the realm of ideas.
In the world of facts on the ground, the Democratic Party is also The Failed Party. The larger truth is that liberalism, as a governing philosophy, is a spent force. Its failures are manifest, and those failures started to be evident in the 1960s.
Professor Ceaser characterizes the convulsions experienced by the Democratic Party in the 1960s as "tragic, in that it involved the fall of something worthy, however flawed." Scruffy student radicals, barbarians that breached the Democrats' gates, did so, according to the professor, because liberalism lacked a "firm theoretical foundation."
This foundational weakness is attributed to the discrediting of the idea that progress is inevitable, and that "social intelligence" could be smartly applied to nudge progress along. In other words, absent the fanciful notions that progress is a given and that government, dressed up as "social intelligence," could boost progress, liberals were unmoored and open to the challenges of Tom Hayden and others in Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), whose fealty to the Socialist Ideal and anti-Americanism made accommodations with the liberal establishment unthinkable.
The professor's argument that the New Left brought down liberalism misses the other story. The leftist enemy within played an important hand, but the failure of liberal governance and the developing critique of liberalism by conservatives were great factors in the unraveling of the dominant liberal consensus.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Well for a “failed” party, an awful lot of them continue to get elected.
Yes. And tax the hell out of people. they haven’t ‘failed’ as long as they can get in your pocket and extract what they want.
Those who are seriously considering "government run health care," should read about government supplied housing in America's Trillion Dollar Housing Mistake, by Howard Husock.
The smallish book consists of a collection of clearly written essays.
THis may be a very interesting election. Now that Dems hold the Senate/Congress and threaten the WH, we will see if they have any meaningful pull with the country at large. It may turn out that the people become more frightened by the prospects of Dem control than Pubby mediocrity. We will see. Taking a look at LA, one has to conclude that the DEM/MSM PR push to blame Bush for Katrina didn’t work, even with the ignorant masses of NO. Funny how that turned out. Even ignorant people are able to differentiate between Sh*t and shinola. Remember, DEM/MSM invested a lot of capital (both moral and financial) into that PR campaign.
The original article is just fantastic and I encourage all of us to read it. It opened my eyes. I understand their history and what is gong on now a lot better.
“Well for a “failed” party, an awful lot of them continue to get elected.”
And what a dismal collection of hacks and frauds they are, too.
The government junkies continue to vote for them. They want some of that “free” government money the Democrats are always promising.
In 1945, under Truman, the US freed S. Korea.
In 1948-49, under Truman, the US military budget was cut to the bone and troops were withdrawn from an unstable and militarily weak S. Korea.
In 1950, N. Korea invaded S. Korea
In 1950, Truman sent troops back to S. Korea to rewin it's freedom.
30,000 Americans died in Korea in the 30 months remaining of Truman's presidency. (7/1950 - 1/1953)
During the Korean War, under Truman, the military draft was ramped up and the strictest wartime censorship in memory was put in place.
Odds are, there would not have been a Korean War if our troops had remained in Korea for a longer time, as they did in Japan and Germany
Yes they do but not without their well planted deception and toooo many "BIG TENT" less than conservative Republicans. There are some exceptions but the majority of Republicans took up the mantle of liberalism in the name of being compassionate.
And as the universe of junkies expands, the "failed party" will continue to succeed.
I don't see a good end to this.
The only winners were the Japanese--the Korean War has been characterized as a Marshall Plan for Japan (since US spending during the war poured so much money into Japan).
“.... an awful lot of them continue to get elected.”
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If you think that’s the case now, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!!! The DNC’s “Fifty State Plan” will bring on massive voter and voting fraud in 2008.
For some reason the author, just like the present administration, has seen fit to ignore this important aspect of the coming election.
This will be a combination of the 1968 Chicago riot and McGovern fiasco in 1972.
The rat commies will riot at the convention, inside the building and out, and select the most divisive, shrill candidate possible...
We were under no obligation to leave S. Korea, since the North did not hold free elections.
Interesting.
Ah but we did not make our leaving contingent upon 'free elections' we had already agreed to leave, it was Stalin that decided once again to use a people to stick it in our eye and disrupt the 'world order'... Might say the same thing is still repeating itself under terrorism... and control of the world's FREE flow of oil, trading nuclear capabilities to strangle the FREE WORLD.
The term "Compassionate Conservative" makes me want to puke. When we are called "mean" by liberals we should consider it a compliment.
Remember that Margret Thatcher was called the "Iron Lady". Nothing compassionate about her. Either shape up or ship out was her motto.
Many hard-core Dems are social conservatives like my elderly parents who still believe FDR is prez. The only thing my old man says about the Republicans is that "they're for the rich!" That's about the extent of his understanding. Probably for millions of other Dems. Above all Dem voters are ignorant.
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