A Dark Week for Democracy (Or: Snobby British guy bashes Yanks for voting the "wrong" way)

UK Observer ^ | November 10, 2002 | Will Hutton

[BenLurkin]

>Exactly! The "curious civilization" he refers to is the same civilization that founded our nation and which has been a beacon of hope to the world for the last two hundred years.
>The millions of Americans who voted for the Republicans want no more than a return to our heritage of liberty and system of Constitutional law.
> It is only because our Constitution was a truly Liberal document that the Marxists sek to destroy it.

[shrinkermd]

"The stranglehold the far Right has now taken on America will make it a more divided, reactionary and illiberal country"

To diagnose a liberal or a Rat one must first ascertain whether they are advocating a positive policy approach to a problem. If this is absent, then one looks for ad hominem attacks. If these are present your diagnostic schema is complete. You have either a liberal, a Rat or both.

It never fails to amaze me that people like this author make outrageous character judgments and, then, congragulate themselves on a job well done. It does not take much to call a man a SOB in so many words.

[Publius6961]

Suffice to say...

What can one expect from a "SUBJECT"?

[spald]

From this article, at least we know where the American Left gets their marching orders. . .

[conservativemusician]

Hmmmm... Is that a high pitched whine I hear from across the pond?

The far Right , hardly. How about a non-liberal thought process versus an illiberal country. The people exercised their right to elect their leaders in a democratic fashion, whatever the criteria. If you don't like it, oh well. Maybe the people of Georgia tired of the pussified, planless Dems. If they want the Confederate battle insignia on their state flag, so what?
America not a happy place? Says who?
A minimalist social contract? Amazing. This from a man whose country worships an inbred family because...why? He lives in a country that still practices primogeniture! Not that I need to educate the people in this forum but primogeniture is the practice of awarding positions of power to men by BIRTHRIGHT, not by accomplishment.i.e. The House of Lords.
Where in the hell does he get a liberal silent majority in this country. It is the Conservative silent majority that finally spoke up last Tuesday.
Anytime I hear someone mention the mass(es) of America or anyplace else for that matter, it sends up a RED flag on my radar. I'm sure he was despondent when they removed the statue of Lenin from Red Square.
The high water mark of conservatism? You ain't seen nothing yet! Again a liberal cries but has no answers.
Oh, and we'll be sure that our missile defense program doesn't protect your street, you commie. Good luck with the EU.

Hail to the Chief

[fporretto]

To me, the key phrase in this odious essay is "the far right."

Who here, excepting those not yet sober from last night, would call the contemporary Republican Party or President Bush "far right"?

I admire President Bush, and I'm glad he has a majority in Congress to work with -- at least I'm glad for now; we'll have to see what comes of it -- but he's a few millimeters right of center at most. In the realm of domestic policy, his most conservative act to date has been the tax cut. His prosecution of the anti-terror campaign is simple, nonideological patriotism.

The Left has a tactic that it employs repeatedly, and which, with the collusion of the media, never fails to work. It keeps redefining "moderation" to include more and more of the social-welfare-fascist agenda, then denounces any deviation from those positions as "extremist" and "far right." This is in keeping with its "evolving standards" notion. Of course, it's the ideologists on the Left who are the self-anointed keepers of what constitutes "moderation;" no one else is allowed a say.

There are many commentators in Europe that can't stand the ongoing American repudiation of socialism, neosocialism, and welfare fascism. They see it as a slap in their own faces -- and in a sense, it is. They're subconsciously ashamed of their poor economic performance, their timidity in the face of movements and migrations of persons hostile to Western values, and their unwillingness to take up arms in any cause, however obviously right and necessary. They mask their shame with expressions of derision and contempt toward us, as if it were difficult to see through the rhetoric to their envy and self-loathing.

The Old World might have reached its terminus at last. We're watching it implode under dirigiste economics, self-inflicted military irrelevance, and the inability to bar immigrants hostile to its norms. Given our relative positions in the world -- free, powerful, prosperous America vis-a-vis shackled, impotent, threadbare Europe -- there's no reason to take anything their envy-mongers say seriously.

For further thoughts, please see:

The Continent Of Brass

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[Jack Black]

Well I hope he wants the Union Jack discarded. After all the British were allies with the Confederates, and so were part and parcel of 'defending slavery' as the author puts it. Why is it the Union Jack is not being targeted as a symbol of 18th century oppression. A lot more people were oppressed by the British in their empire periods than were slaves in the USA.

[ChadGore]

EU is prounounced = "EEEeeeeewwwww"

[calenel]

The UK should not join the EU. If they must be joiners, they should seek admission to the US as several states. Before any of you go off on me with comments like "What do we need 70 million more Socialists for?" consider that they have a liberal media - extremely so - just like we do and our perceptions of them are tinted by that. There is a pretty significant conservative segment of the population. Remember Margaret Thatcher? The conservatives might still be in power in the UK if it weren't for the Majors debacle. If only they had a free press. Sigh.

[pankot]

Written by a prime-time Brit Clymer.

[MitchellC]

Behold, the modern Useful Idiot.

[Bill Davis FR]

in typical fashion the dems will overreact to their looses and pelosi, daschle and hillary will lead the dems to an even greater defeat in 2004...

[ChadGore]

From the story: When the electorate voted locally, the Democrats had the edge

Bzzzzzzzzz wrong (see numbers 1 through 5). I know that little terry, in a futile effort to keep his job, is trying to spin the 4 govnerships as a mandate for their message, but the numbers do NOT back him up. Let's review, shall we?

1) The democrat party doesn't have the White House.(1R-0d)

This isn't news to anyone. With the possible exception of Colin Powell, there aren't any democrats in the whitehouse.

2) The democrat party lacks a majority in the Senate.(53R-47d)

Again, this isn't news to anyone.

3) The democrat party lacks a majority in the House of Representatives.(226R-209d)

Once again, no news here. everyone is aware of this 17 seat margin.

4) The democrat party lacks a majority of Governors seats across the 50 states.(25R-25d)

This part IS news, and it is being ignored by the mainstream press. democrats do not enjoy the majority of Governorships across these 50 states. These seats are very valuable for appointing senators in events of absenteeism, and Gov. Ventura(I) demonstrated this very well after his discust at the 'rally on a dead guy'. The democrat party doesn't have most of these.

5) The democrat party lacks a majority of State Houses across all 50 states. (25R-22d)

This part IS news and is also being ignored by the mainstream press. As demonstrated by the redistricting in 2001, these state houses not only draw lines in house and congressional districts, but also set laws that effect peoples lives in a very local way. The democrat party doesn't have most of these either.

I am in no way dissmissing the partys future, but the larger question is "Is it history?" I would say No, it's not historic.

When was the last GOP tri-fecta ?

When was the last time the people put the GOP in control of the House, Senate and Whitehouse ??

The year was 2000.

[tahiti]

The title of the article listed above is,

"A Dark Day for Democracy."

And thank God that it was.

The founding fathers were terrified of "democracy."

They knew full well, in a democracy, there are no individual rights. Majority rules and that is a recipe for tyranny of the majority and no individual rights.

That is why they created a "republic."

A sampling of their thoughts:

And on June 21, 1788, Alexander Hamilton made a speech in which he stated: "It had been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience had proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity."

At another time Hamilton said: “We are a Republican Government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of Democracy.”

And Samuel Adams warned: “Remember, Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself! There never was a democracy that ‘did not commit suicide.’”

James Madison, one of, the members of the Convention who was charged with drawing up our Constitution, wrote as follows: “...democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”

[hinckley buzzard]

Well, I guess he told us a thing or two, by golly. LOL!

While it is clear that this poor lout is abysmally ignorant of America, it is also clear that he will be sadly disappointed by the coming term.

Conditioned by the excess jubilation of both clinton and Gingrich in the past, he expects the Bush administration to do a running dive headfirst into the shallow end of the swimming pool, come January. Obviously he gets his expertise on the Republican party from CNN and similar august sources.

Ain't gonna happen. President Bush, a man of true humility and responsibility, is the last person who would succumb to "overreaching." That is an impairment of judgment far more suited to rabid leftwing crackpots, both among the demo-pols and in the media, letting their fear of GW pervert their vision of reality.

[Churchillspirit]

Consider the source - The Observer is a very liberal paper.

[weikel]

There is a wrong way to vote but we didn't do it.

[Koblenz]

First of all, the easiest way to see the "mood" of the country is to look at what happened in state legislatures and other "down ticket" votes. Few people know the name of their local state representative or the auditor of the state: these votes are almost always votes for or against a certain PARTY.

Governors and Senators get lots of media attention, and can go against their party, and explain why conservative Oklahoma and Wyoming elected Democrat governors while liberal Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island elected Republicans.

But look at state houses: Republicans almost consistently gained seats. The notable exception is Illinois, where the Republican party was so nuts anyway that they deserve to be in the wilderness for a while. Republicans gained seats in the Pennsylvania state legislature while losing the governor. Republicans gained seats in Wisconsin while losing the Governor as well.