Dennis Prager Speaks for Many
August 12th 2008 12:34
A friend of mine was upset recently because of what his political party has become. I was raised in a Democrat family and remember what it used to be like. It's a strange feeling to know that the things that once made it great are removed from it's platform and have become the cornerstones of Republican belief. Reading Mr. Pragers list was an eye opener for me, especially at the end. I have lots of friends and relatives who think that way. They can't imagine why anyone would leave the Democrat party (and consider me something of a traitor because I did). I gave up, some years ago, trying to tell them that voting Democrat wasn't going to change anything or return the platform to where it used to be when it made sense. But they appear to have chosen emotion over values. That's one of the reasons it's gone downhill... blind, emotional loyalty. And look where it got them.....
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Comment by TimmyH
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Comment by S.L.
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Comment by Steven Barrett's OpEd Blog
Even the briefest survey course in American politics can point this out except to the likes of Ralph Nader and Ross Perot. Teddy Roosevelt almost pulled it off, and only because he already had presidential experience. (Had he not been weakened by malaria from a safari before he returned to run against his hand-picked successor, Wm. Taft, he might well have pulled it off with the "Bull Moose" Proressive Republicans.
It's not likely to ever happen in my lifetime, but I wouldn't mind seeing a third party modlelled after post World War II Germany's Christian Democratic Party led by Konrad Adenauer. Their track record proved it was possible to pull a nation flat on its back to economic prosperity through a cooperative mix of PRO- family, government and business policies. I lived in Germany from 1962 to 1965 and never saw any pockets of poverty -- none -- except for what I saw behind the Berlin Wall. It sure as hell wasn' t the case when I returned.
There'd have to be such a house-cleaning, and I mean a thorough house cleaning and forest-clearing of all the duds that are running the Democratic Party into a swamp of moral and economic relativism. Remember also that Wal-Mart got a lot of favors from the Clinton administration and this paved the way for so much of our trade inbalance. (Hell, I'd try the entire Wal-Mart family and exec staff for economic treason i I could, but aren't we all complicit when we go there for cheap buys?) See how complicated it all becomes?
Even though I know what I'd like, I'll be the first to admit you just can't take a chainsaw to the system, prune it over night, or for that matter over-do a house cleaning and leaving fumes that'll kill pets and drive people up the wall. Pardon my simplistic parallels to demonstrate how non-simple it is to turn a once great party and country around. This is another area where I differ from my party's bosses. I try to write in plain English, not academese or PC'd butchered "dialogue-speak."
Prager's (and by extension) S.L.'s and my laundry list of things that need "a 'changin" won't be "a changin" so long as we continue allowing the overripened flower-power generation with their John Lennon fantasy notions (mixed in with a ton of Barney-like "actions") to continue calling the shots. So long as the once stalwart blue collar segment of the party keeps seeing iits voice replaced by college professors, artists, celebrities and other overrated amateurs, these workers and their unions aren't going to stick around.
So where do they go to? THe GOP? Maybe. They've done it before, but they'regetting tired of being taken for granted as "Reagan Democrats" (much in the same way as the older Black activists, and I mean much older street precinct workers, not the new Black glitterati and academics and pretty soon, Hispanic precinct level activists are going to say, "Where do we fit in?")
It might come down to whoever can come up with the best health care plan and keeping jobs here, not to mention helping them to keep their homes and the equity in them will earn their votes.
I'll never forget a very telling argument that broke out at the MA state Democratic issues convention (that's even larger in delegates than the national show) back in 1982. (I'm not sure if they're as large nowadays.)
One delegate, an electricians union member ,was incensed that the convention had been railroaded into signing on to a declaration that it wouldn't support a huge hydroelectric project under construction in Quebec, even though it'd indirectly provide more blue collar jobs in MA and cheaper electricity. Hell, had I been this man I'd have been incensed, too.
These eggheads and greenies were more concerned with environmental issues and what the project would do to the local Inuit population up there than the economic welfare of their own state and party members. What were they thinking?. EXCUSE THE BLUE COLLAR WORKERS FOR BEING SO BRASH AS TO BELIEVE AMERICAN WORKERS' INTERESTS WERE SUPPOSED TO COME FIRST.
That, my friend, is a small example of the way things are in that party. I'm a Dem ocrat, but I'm not a knee-jerk, slobbering loyalist to the state or national politburo that's running it further away from the American people.
McCain's going to win hands down if they really let out all the cats they have in their bag for their big celebratory rodeo in Denver. The hardcore Obamaite Democrats are behaving so arrogantly and stupidly these days that they can't see that people don't attend rodeos because they like to watch smooth riding dressage events, which are held for the hoity-toitys. They want a rock'em sock'em show. Not like Chicago, (68) or Miami (72), but perhaps more like the one in LA when Kennedy was nominated and in Atlantic City four years later when Johnson was nominated.
I don't agree with the Republicans on a lot of domestic economic issues. At least I respect them for being willing to shed a little blood and sweat during this coming convention in Minnesota.
McCain's demonstrated a lot more leadership by staying home, avoiding the big splashy P.R. rallies in Europe and concentrating on asking Americans for their votes and telling the voters he meant it by putting them first. And all he did was borrow Tip O'Neill's famous maxim: "All politics is local."
By local, I mean blue collar working neighborhoods like O'Neill's North Cambridge, MA precincts, factory towns in the Midwest, suburban cities and towns in the hard hit Sunbelt, and wherever Obama and his buddies think they're too intelligent to waste theit time asking for votes from. Notice I said "asking for votes," and not campaigning.
Indeed, we may never see a good third party modled after Germany's enormously successful Christian Democratic Party. (Hell, the title wouldn't muster the PC codes.) But it sure as hell wouldn't hurt to start trying soon. Because the Democratic Party as it's constituted nowadays, has made a pact of party platforms with the Devil, beginning with the most radical pro-baby-killing platform ever enacted in American history.
What a helluva lousy "accomplishment."
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief