Posted on 10/26/2002 6:02:53 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
NEW YORK, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- The death of liberal Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone and his wife, daughter and others, brings with it a myriad of emotions for those of us who are left of center. Above and beyond the incredibly sad tragedy for the Wellstone family, and for the people of Minnesota for whom he served since 1990, comes with it the terrible sadness of the death of hope, of enormous potential and of a promise unfulfilled.
By almost universal accounts, Wellstone was a highly regarded and respected public servant, deeply committed to reshaping the mission of government to help people, particularly those who are disenfranchised and poor. He is quoted as having said, "I still believe government can be used as a force for good in peoples lives," music to the ears of those of us who have remained unabashed liberals in the face of demonization and ridicule over the last decade, in particular.
Throughout all the post-mortem coverage I could stand to watch, two specific words were continually repeated to describe the man: principled and decent. Those aren't words you hear very often to characterize a politician these days -- even from his ideological opponents in the Senate -- and for good reason. He was also said to have possessed a great sense of humor, which ultimately allowed him the ability to work with senators on both sides of the aisle.
Over and over again, Wellstone found himself alone, speaking out over countless injustices, unfairness, and for what he thought to be right, to the amazement and reassurance of those of us with a progressive bent. He could be counted on to take the unpopular view, and to speak up for the underdog. In eulogizing Wellstone Friday, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said, "He stood his ground, he gave hope to others." It could be argued that Wellstone served as the conscience of the Senate.
To his enormous courage and credit, Wellstone voted against the use of force in Iraq, while facing a tough political battle for re-election this year. He also voted against the war in 1991, and against President Clinton's disastrous and mean-spirited welfare reform. He was identified with good progressive causes like health care reform, an affordable prescription drug plan for seniors, and labor issues, and was vociferous against the Bush tax cut for the rich. As one of the Senate's only Jewish members, he approached the struggle in the Middle East with balance, integrity and humanity for both sides, while also supporting the International Criminal Court.
Furthermore, Wellstone's background as an actual man of the people -- a former college professor and grassroots political activist -- will be sorely missed in the face of the lawyers and millionaires who effectively own the exclusive club known as the U.S. Senate.
But for all that Wellstone represented, over the ensuing years, there was a sense for some on the left that Wellstone never fully delivered. Upon his initial election, The Nation described Wellstone as the "Senator from the Left," and Mother Jones magazine held him up as "the first 1960s radical elected to the U.S. Senate." Yet last year, Mother Jones in an article entitled "The Seduction of Paul Wellstone," essentially accused Wellstone of selling out, of being co-opted by the very process he promised to shake-up. For others, the mere fact that he chose to run for a third term after promising in both 1990 and 1996 not to, was evidence enough.
For me personally, the realities of politics and of the importance of retaining the Senate underscores not a power grab but in actuality, Wellstone's deep commitment to the issues which separate Republicans from Democrats, including the composition of the Supreme Court.
All and all, while there is no such thing as perfection in an elected official, Wellstone was as close as you could get. He was among the last of a dying breed of intellectuals, who said what he believed, and bothered to understand what it was he was fighting on behalf of. When the ideological right revealed its true agenda as not anti-communism but the permanent destruction of liberalism itself, Paul Wellstone was one of the few who by his record, stood his ground unyieldingly, and scared the hell out of them.
And we cheered him on along the way. His loss is enormous.
--
(Jillian Jonas is a freelance writer and unapologetic liberal who lives in New York).
Bite me. If Jesse Helms or Tom Delay would have died in a plane crash, the raw hatred from the liberal media as well as from Hollywood and the DNC would have been overwhelming.
I didn't see any sympathy from the left-wingers when Reagan announced he had Alzheimer's.
It's a two-way street, buddy...Wellstone's death is unfortunate but you're not going to see me shedding tears and blowing my nose on a hanky.
Had I been around, I wouldn't have shed a tear over Benidict Arnold, Hitler, or Stalin, and I certainly won't shed a tear over their brother under the skin Wellstone. The man made his own reputation. How dare I speak ill of him? Well let's count how many liberal politicians alit off a plane in Iraq and were brain washed in the first five mins. Then returned home to lie about their military service, and whine about their first amendment right to spew treason against the nation and trash against our President. Stop the violence and corruption against the American people.
Our Constitution acknowledges the individuals rights to life, liberty and the likes of Wellstone never met an abortion Doctor whose bloody hand he didn't shake. "A woman's right to her own body"??? Let's offer her the choice to be cut to pieces without benefit of a general anesthesia and suctioned down a vaccum hose, or have a pair of sissors rammed into the back of her skull, and see how fast she is off that table. It is not her body she is doing something to, it is another individual she is doing something to. Stop the violence against American infants.
Liberals who have not won a legitimate election in decades of their corrupt vote fraud, are now busily importing and encouraging illegal aliens to over ride the votes of legitimate citizens. Stop the violence and corruption against the American people.
Liberals who only find it PC to profile white male gun owners and elderly grandmothers at the airport, cowed the police into letting the sniper and his homosexual sweet heart leave the scene of their crimes ten times adding to the total number of innocent victims. Stop the violence and corruption against the members of American society via your race bating, anti-Americanism.
Liberals who would set themselves on fire if a Christian prayer or verse were learned in the Public Schools, think it's fine to learn the Quaran and teach jihad to seventh graders. Stop the violence and corruption against American culture and our God.
Liberals who would like to trample the Constitution and melt every gun into a pile of metal sculpture think it's fine for every podunk department in the government to have a paramilitary arm of enforcement. Stop the violence and corruption against the Constitution of the United States of America.
I could go on for hours, your sins are too multiple to list in one day, from the worst forest fires in our history to the gutting of private property rights, to the hatred for the family, American culture, taught by you scum in our colleges and universities. Stop the violence and corruption and hatred of native born Americans. Do I hate you YESSSSSSSS.
Your pretty safe as long as your vote fraud and illegal voter invasion doesn't preclude your being defeated at the ballot box, but you might want to look down at what your sitting on. It's a powder keg.
I offer condolences to those in his family who survived. May their loved ones rest in peace.
There is no reason, in any of this, for anyone to further the Socialist assault on America.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
Well thanks amigo. Nothing makes me happier than a laugh at my dark sense of humor, or getting someone to post garbage like you did. Want to hear a good OJ joke?
This is not a Christian site. It's a political site. Those posters who don't know the difference should get an attitude adjustment. Most of us don't like to be preached to.
Today I'm especially furious, when I see the in your face vote fraud, when I look at the unnecessary deaths because cops were afraid to profile anyone other than white males, and the "No controlling legal authority" that allows an unreal creep like Gephardt to urge illegals to the polls to cast their illegal votes for him.
The utter brazen corruption really gets to me. So no, I'll not be polite and civil today, and pretend there is any polite quarter between true conservatives and liberals. I dispise what they are doing to this country.
What are 50 lawyers at the bottom of the sea? A good start. That joke has branched out into new territory for me. If that offends someones sensibilities, tuff, I'm far more offended.
Good one. Let me restate my position for the sensitive types here, including the religious extroverts. I did not want him dead, just out of the Senate.
Which reminds me. What is the last thing to go through a mosquito's mind when he hits your windshield?
His A-Hole. yuck yuck yuck!!!!!!!!!!
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