Too many people seem to formulate their beliefs based upon other people's emotional outburts and bumper
stickers rather than rational thought and objective examination of facts. Apparently that is the case
all over the country. Even so-called conservatives know the power of emotional appeal and sentimental
rhetoric, which is why, for example, the federal takeover of school standards was given the name of "No Child
Left Behind." What heartless beast of a Congressman would vote to leave children behind? But you
see, the Constitution does not authorize federal involvement in education issues. The only way to keep
people from mentioning that little technicality is to give that federal involvement an irresistibly warm and
fuzzy name.
Other warm and fuzzy names that have been successfully applied in the past include
"The Fairness Doctrine", "The Great Society" and "Social Security." So-called
conservatives use the same technique, which is one reason almost nobody in the Congress voted
against the Patriot Act, even though they
hadn't read it. Many other words in
the liberal vocabulary have their connotations -- some more sinister than others.
Usually it is the more liberal-leaning voters who operate this way. That's why political
candidates are chosen (subconsciously or not) on the basis of hair styles or general cuteness.
But even without the influence of television, people seem to be easily swayed by sound bites and one-liners.
Liberal (or "progressive") politicians and their allies in the news media would like us all to believe that
we live in an endless series of crises that only the government can resolve. Every day there's another
emergency, another shocking update, or another politically incorrect outburst that must be addressed with
more legislation.
And no matter what evil deed you've done, liberals will forgive you. All you have to do is apologize,
cry on television, and go into rehab.
Welcome Back to Democratland.
It is a world in which facts always bow to feelings. What matters is not so much that you do good, but that
you feel virtuous, or perhaps more to the point, are seen to be virtuous.
Liberal
emotion vs. Conservative logic: It takes a lot more integrity, character, and courage to be a
conservative than it does to be a liberal. That's because at its most basic level, liberalism is nothing
more than childlike emotionalism applied to adult issues.
Explaining
Liberal Thinking In A Single Column. Since liberals tend to support or oppose policies based on
how those policies make them feel about themselves, they do very little intellectual examination of whether the
policies they advocate work or not. That's because it doesn't matter to them whether the policy is
effective or not; it matters whether advocating the policy makes them feel "good" or "bad," "compassionate" or
"stingy," "nice" or "mean."
Big Oil Democrats: Here is
how you know Republicans are on the winning side of the oil drilling issue. It's not that two-thirds of
the American people support offshore drilling. It's that the Democratic response has been to simply
point at Republicans and shout, "Big Oil!"
Obama's Moral
Equivalence Problem: I guess we really shouldn't be surprised that Barack Obama sees no difference
between our toppling of Saddam Hussein and Russia's invasion of Georgia. On an emotional level —
which is where most liberals live and breathe — the comparison is attractive. But on an
intellectual level, it is stupid and deceitful.
Environmental extremism must be put in its place in
the climate debate. Environmental extremists have successfully applied intense emotional pressure — both
moral and political — "you don't care about the planet, the children, or the future if you question us", let alone
disagree, they assert. Many politicians are caught in an awkward position because, while they understand how
environmental extremism poses a very serious threat to our economies, including the ways that have brought us peace
and prosperity, they also don?t want to be accused of not caring about the environment.
Are Polar Bears
Really an Endangered Species? Environmentalists use charismatic megafauna to raise awareness of and promote
policy solutions to perceived environmental threats. Studies show charismatic species are more likely to be protected
than are less photogenic animals. Giant pandas are charismatic megafauna, as are whales, salmon, eagles, and caribou.
The latest example is Ursus maritimus, the polar bear. Environmental groups, claiming manmade global warming
threatens the polar bears' survival, have called for an endangered species listing with extraordinarily far-reaching
consequences.
Poll: Humans Don't Cause Global Warming.
The survey confirmed wide discrepancies in belief between Americans identifying themselves as Democrat or Republican.
... Tom Kilgannon, president of the nonprofit Freedom Alliance, says the reasons for this partisan divide are
simple. "Those on the left are more likely to accept the global warming theory for two reasons," Kilgannon
said. "First, they tend to make public policy decisions based on emotion as a first reaction." And
second, Kilgannon continued, global warming fits the usual Democrat call for bigger government.
Populists
equalize poverty. Populism is back in fashion. By populism, I mean the exploitation of the
uninformed, angry impulses and unfiltered passions of the masses. That anger and resentment has
historically been directed at the usual villains and cardboard stereotypes: bankers, insurance companies,
"big pharma" (that means drug companies), agri-business, "the military-industrial complex," free trade, free
markets and, of course, "the rich."
Oil Woes Left and Right:
So much for the idea that Bush went to war for cheap oil. Yes, I know, they're now imagining that high gas prices are
actually lining the pockets of the president's cronies at Exxon and Sunoco. But this is not an argument advanced by
grownups. … Conservatives are right to stress the virtues of non-carbon-emitting nuclear power, and liberals have
strenuously opposed it for reasons that are 90 percent emotional and 10 percent rational.
A Skeptic's View
of Voting: Let's face it, ladies and gentlemen, if we raised the voting age to, say, 25, the
Democratic party would go the way of the dodo and the Whigs. Liberals want young kids voting for pretty
much the same cynical reason they want to extend suffrage to illegal aliens, convicted felons and dead people.
It takes a certain mentality, a certain degree of gullibility, after all, to believe … that "hope" and
"change" are any more profound and meaningful than "Tastes great, less filling" or "My bologna has a first name."
The Bullet Counters: The
biggest and most common talking point when the police fire at someone is counting how many bullets they fired. There are
politicians, media people and — above all — community activists who can work themselves into a rage over
how many bullets were fired. If we stop and think — which of course the demagogues hope we will never do —
it is hard to see any moral difference between killing someone with one bullet or with dozens of bullets.
The Dissent
Deceit: The latest example of utter nonsense is Obama's contribution, "The Audacity of Hope." My fellow
Americans, there is nothing audacious about hope. Hope is what makes people buy lottery tickets instead of paying the
bills. Hope is for the old gals feeding the slots in Atlantic City. It destroys the inner-city kid who quits
school because he hopes he'll be a world-famous recording artist.
'Hope'
and 'change' a gimmick. If we just look beyond the attractive Obama package and ourselves for a
moment, we might remember that the election is about actual issues. What are we hoping for? What
is the "change" that the pro-Obama Kennedys are so excited about? The fresh, young face of Obama
represents change, yes. But he also represents something very familiar: liberalism. Government
as a permanent, inefficient, out-of-control crutch.
Phony-Ops build the
Obama Myth. Barack Obama's appeal to his legions of enthusiasts rests in no small part in their
hearts. And where the heart is concerned, myths, images, and archetypes work their wonders on the
nonrational faculties of the mind. The biggest Phony-Op of the election season so far was that giant
riverfront photo in Portland, Oregon with "the masses" yelling their lungs out, as if for a messianic King.
The Rev.
Wright Connection Still Haunts Obama. It's a little dangerous in interpreting polls to assume that voters'
thinking proceeds along logical lines. People who aren't professionally involved in politics, whose knowledge comes
from bits and snippets of news, can hold beliefs that are contradictory or in tension with each other. They don't feel
obliged to resolve contradictions.
Barack Obama 'saves the world' (between
speeches). First, it was "Change you can believe in," a nice friendly bit of folderol that was no more scary
than "I Like Ike." … But lately the slogan coming out of the Obama campaign is "We can save the world," which shows
that some people can believe anything — and will — without the slightest provocation or evidence.
We Scream,
We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get? What was this, the Beatles tour of 1964? And when
they weren't screaming, the fair-sex Obama fans who dominated the rally of 16,000 were saying things like:
"Every time I hear him speak, I become more hopeful." Huh?
Will
Hillary's 'Secretary Of Poverty' Solve Problems Of The Poor? The Do Something Disease compels
posturing that shows off the compassion of politicos, rather than policies that actually improve the lives of
afflicted citizens. Results don't matter, as long as the leader manages to demonstrate concern. Good
intentions — feelings — count for everything, with no consideration of real world
consequences.
The Editor says...
You may recall that Lyndon Johnson said he was going to end "poverty as we know it" about 44 years
ago. Even the liberals don't believe poverty can be eliminated, which may be why the news media
brushed off the idea. Let history be your guide: Did the creation of the Department of Education solve
all the public education problems -- or make them worse? What about the Department of Energy?
The Anger of the
Left: Particular issues can arouse passions here and there for anyone with any political views.
But, for many on the left, indignation is not a sometime thing. It is a way of life. … There doesn't
even have to be any identifiable individual to arouse the ire of the left. "Tax cuts for the rich" is
more than a political slogan. It is incitement to anger.
Dangerous
Demagoguery. Most people have too much of a sense of decency and too much common sense to have gone
along with those horrors unless someone found a way to turn off their thinking and turn on their emotions.
That is how Jim Jones led hundreds of people to their deaths at Jonestown. On a much larger scale, that is
how Lenin created a regime of mass murder in Russia, how Hitler did the same thing in Germany and Mao in China.
Why
a Black Artist Replaced the National Anthem: [Scroll down] The left's second contribution to Marie's value
system has been its elevation of feelings above other values. For example, one determines right and wrong
on the basis of how one feels (as opposed to, let us say, asking what one's religion, or God, or any moral law
that transcends one's own feelings would say on a given matter). Now, the elevation of one's feelings
above other considerations is generally viewed as a form of narcissism. And while narcissism is as old
as humanity, until the 1960s it was generally regarded as a character flaw. Since the 1960s, however,
it was more often heralded as a virtue.
The
Identity Trap: Both the feminist movement Clinton rides and the civil rights rhetoric Obama uses
were constructed at a time when the enemy was the reactionary white male establishment. Today, they are
not facing the white male establishment. They are facing each other. All the rhetorical devices
that have been a staple of identity politics are now being exploited by the Clinton and Obama campaigns
against each other. They are competing to play the victim.
Anti-liberal universities. Classic
liberals must be turning over in their graves when they see today's institutions of higher education.
University officials are silent while students shut down reasonable debate based on facts replacing it with
emotional mob rule. This behavior is the antithesis of historical liberalism that has stood for a free
exchange of ideas.
Infantilism Of the Left: Deep
thinkers need not apply for admittance to the left side of the political spectrum.
Demagogues rely on this, and depend on emotion to carry their arguments.
Barack
Obama — I'm sure we've seen him somewhere before. Every time I listen to [Obama],
I … find my mind wandering, asking itself things like: 'What does "the challenge of
hope" mean?' … His is a rhetoric that soars and takes flight, but alights nowhere. It
declares that together we can do anything, but doesn't mention any of the things we can
do. … Maybe Obama is so successful because he's the supreme master of what American politics
excels in: high-flown language that denotes as little as possible.
It's Not Change,
Stupid. After Iowa, poll readers, pundits, Republican and Democratic candidates declared the
voters wanted "change." No matter what "change" actually is, no matter that "change" means different
things to different people: "change" is what the voters want. … The sorry truth is that "change"
was merely a phantom conjured by the political elite — a nano-trend, a shorthand, a figment,
a wild goose chase.
The Democrats' bitter
harvest. "No war for oil" and "Bush lied; people died" are snappy short slogans that are
essentially meaningless. The bottom line is the Democratic Party hasn't had a new or original idea in
nearly 40 years and that's why they will remain in the wilderness, no matter how low Bush's ratings
fall. The Democrats appear to be relying on events over which they have little or no control to
transpire and bring them back into power.
Liberal
Hatemongers: A politically progressive friend of mine always seemed to root against baseball
teams from the South. The Braves, the Rangers, the Astros — he hated them all. I asked him why,
to which he replied, "Southerners are prejudiced." The same logic is evident in the complaint the
American political left has with conservative voters.
Blue America: The land of
the easily offended. For one thing, conservatives are so used to being labeled as stupid, bigoted,
ignorant, racist, homophobic, sexist, insensitive and intolerant that it is almost impossible to offend them.
Moreover, the culture does not allow them to feel offended, since they are not an officially designated
minority. For another, liberal positions are far more emotion-based than reason-based.
Liberal
emotion vs. Conservative logic: It takes a lot more integrity, character, and courage to be a
conservative than it does to be a liberal. That's because at its most basic level, liberalism is nothing
more than childlike emotionalism applied to adult issues. Going to war is mean, so we shouldn't do it.
That person is poor and it would be nice to give him money, so the government should do it.
Brother, can
you spare a CHIP? This would seem to be a fairly typical media trajectory. The Democrats
sign up a sick kid to read their Saturday morning radio address. … who needs facts when you've got the
human-interest angle sewn up?
The
Democrats' Unhealthy Poster Child Abuse: After 12-year-old Graeme Frost delivered the Democratic
radio address, which was penned for him by Senate staffers, conservatives across the Internet asked the
questions the mainstream media wouldn't ask about the family's financial situation. The couple claims an
annual income of about $45,000. Neither the Democrats nor the Baltimore Sun indicates how they verified
that assertion before circulating it. What is verifiable: The Frosts own a home in Baltimore
purchased for $55,000 16 years ago — and now worth an estimated $300,000. That's a lot
of equity.
If Congress Truly Wants
to Help Children: There has been a whole lot of hoopla over the past few weeks with the Democrats'
latest attempt at foisting an expanded socialist encroachment upon the American electorate (SCHIP), via the
really-getting-old-now, "It's-for-the-Children," ploy. Nancy and Hillary both need to re-read their worn
copies of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. That ruthless revolutionary knew that once the folks see through
your tactic, it becomes not only tiresome, but downright irritating.
Child's Play.
In truth, I do love kids. But it's the "the" in The Children that's the problem. It transforms
children into a principle for which any violation of limited government is justified. … The idea was as
simple as it was brilliant: By making The Children the beneficiaries of welfare rather than the adults,
the left could portray any attempt to curb the welfare state as "anti-child."
My own
Inconvenient Truth: It's no wonder the political left is all over the global warming
phenomenon, as it falls into line with the rest of their causes that require no logical argument, only
a bumper sticker, protest sign, or T-shirt. No matter what the weather happens to be
doing — whether its snowing or scorching hot — these people will simply point to
the nearest window and mumble, "Yeah man, global warming."
The Editor says...
Global warming is a perfect example of a left-wing
cause that is based on bumper stickers and sound bites rather than logic and evidence.
Populists
equalize poverty. By populism, I mean the exploitation of the uninformed, angry impulses and
unfiltered passions of the masses. That anger and resentment has historically been directed at the usual
villains and cardboard stereotypes: bankers, insurance companies, "big pharma" (that means drug companies),
agri-business, "the military-industrial complex," free trade, free markets and, of course, "the rich." This
mentality feeds on conspiracy theories and simplistic fantasies about the way the world works. It seeks to
impale the minority of "haves" on the pitchforks of the more numerous "have nots."
Why liberals fear
global warming far more than conservatives do. The usual liberal responses — to
label a conservative position racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic or the
like — obviously don't apply here. So, liberals would have to fall back on the one
remaining all-purpose liberal explanation: "big business."
Stop your sobbing.
[Rachel Carson's] "Silent Spring" set the template for nearly a half century of environment writing: wrap
the latest scientific research about an ecological calamity in a tragic narrative that conjures nostalgia for
Nature while prophesying ever worse disasters to come unless human societies repent for their sins against
Nature and work for a return to a harmonious relationship with the natural world. Eco-tragedies are
premised on the notion that humankind's survival depends on understanding that ecological crises are a
consequence of human intrusions on Nature, and that humans must let go of their consumer, religious, and
ideological fantasies and recognize where their true self-interest lies.
A
Democratic ploy for sympathy vote. During the last election, the Democrats paraded Christopher Reeves out as a spokesman for stem-cell
research. Remember, if we did not elect John Kerry, Chris would be confined to a wheelchair for the
rest of his life. The new "victim" for this year's dog-and-pony show is none other than
actor Michael J. Fox.
The leftist gush:
Democrats appeal to reason while Republicans appeal to emotion, or at least that's the claptrap you get in a
recent article in the New York Review of Books as one leftist praises another and both conveniently overlook
a mountain of contrary evidence.
The Return of the Thought Police.
I mean no disregard for the sufferings of crime victims when I say we should be wary of laws named after them.
However well-intentioned, penal laws that memorialize victims deter reasoned debate about the rights of the accused.
They rely on emotional blackmail: Oppose a law named for a murdered child, and you seem to insult her memory
and exacerbate her parents' grief.
Frivolous
politics: Part IV. It is not necessary to denigrate individuals in order to criticize their
policies. Unfortunately, there are too many voters — in both parties — who act as
if choosing whom to vote for is like choosing sides to cheer or boo at a sports event.
In
Politics, Aim for the Heart, Not the Head. Given the enormous proliferation of policy
questions today, surfing the emotional wave nowadays may be even more important than it was in 1935.
George E. Marcus, president of the International Society of Political Psychology, said modern research
confirms that unless political ads evoke emotional responses, they don't have much effect. Voters,
he explained, need to be emotionally primed in some way before they will pay attention.
More
politics of envy from the Democrats. Wealth, of course, is produced by individuals going to work.
Not by politicians getting them ticked off that their neighbor is making more than they are. But the latter
is what the Democratic Party is about.
Bait and
switch: Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) was one of the few who actually talked about the Marriage
Protection Amendment itself. He called any vote for the amendment "a vote for bigotry, pure and
simple." Well, that's pretty straightforward. If Mr. Kennedy is correct, then about half the
Senate, the president of the United States, the Pope, Billy Graham, the late Mother Teresa, Franklin Roosevelt,
the Founding Fathers and a majority of the U.S. electorate are or were drooling, raving hatemongers.
Zoning
challenges now extend to feelings and belief. Remember when the city of Berkeley, Calif.,
declared itself a "nuclear-free zone"? … Many communities, mostly left-leaning university towns, have
declared themselves nuclear-free. Churches too. The Unitarian Universalist Association is a
nuclear-free zone. These moves led to a broad "zone" movement, which is dedicated to the idea that
communities can get rid of hate, violence, drunkenness, bullying and nuclear fears, mostly by
emphatically declaring these evils to be gone from their areas.
Harry Reid and the
end of liberal thought: The highest-ranking Democrat in America, Senate Minority Leader
Harry Reid, described the Senate bill making English the national language of the American people as
"racist." And the New York Times editorial page labeled the bill "xenophobic." Welcome to the
thoughtless world of contemporary liberalism. Beginning in the 1960s, liberalism, once the home
of many deep thinkers, began to substitute feeling for thought and descended into superficiality.
The
Democrats have issues. The Democratic leadership is fractured and dominated by
people who are hysterical, abusive and oblivious.
Liberals
and the Woman Who Hates Them. Reacting with stupefied indignation whenever someone disagrees
with them — especially in a way that makes people point and laugh at liberals — they
seem to be in a constant state of outrage. Liberals, and the conservatives who fear them,
have a look of perpetual outrage, kind of the way Nancy Pelosi has a look of perpetual surprise.
Liberals tend to shout down their opponents instead of reasoning with them.
The
Illiberalism of liberals. Do you see a pattern here? Does there not seem to be a concerted
effort to prevent any person with whom the liberal activists disagree from being heard in Vermont? Is
there not an effort to restrict First Amendment rights?
Thought
Police: The Left vs. Free Speech. For expressing my views to readers like you on these pages,
hardcore leftists believe I should be put on trial as a war criminal. It tells you all you need to know
about the extreme left's view of the First Amendment: Free speech is great, as long as it's their free
speech (or extreme pornography). But dissenting views must be censored. The more effective the
opponent, the more important it is to shut him down.
Democrats
Eager to Exploit Anger Over Gas Prices. Democrats running for Congress are moving quickly to use
the most recent surge in oil and gasoline prices to bash Republicans over energy policy, and more broadly,
the direction of the country.
Democrats Try to Use
Katrina as G.O.P. Used 9/11. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee,
toured a house on Friday [4/24/2006] that the Hurricane Katrina floods wrecked, picking up debris,
lamenting the federal response and leaving little doubt of the powerful symbolism his party sees
in the ruined neighborhoods here. As Mr. Dean's well-covered hurricane-cleanup mission
suggested, New Orleans may well become for Democrats in 2006 and 2008 what New York was for
Republicans after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, an evocative metaphor rooted in tragedy
that can potentially be turned to electoral advantage.
[Notice that Mr. Dean manages to clean up debris without getting his white shirt dirty.]
Anti-Poverty Spending Grows. Brian
Riedl, senior policy analyst in federal budgetary affairs at The Heritage Foundation, …
called for facts to overcome emotion in the claim the rich are shortchanging the poor.
Chill out over global warming. You'll
often hear the left lecture about the importance of dissent in a free society. Why not give it a whirl?
Start by challenging global warming hysteria next time you're at a LoDo cocktail party and see what happens.
A post-9/11 vocabulary test:
You see it in the refusal to profile at the airport, limit immigration from terrorist-enabling countries, and
shut down Saudi pilot training programs — even to this day — for fear of hurting
feelings. You will see it throughout the week-long commemoration of 9/11 as pundits and scholars
deemphasize the jihadi roots of the terrorist attacks in favor of "dialogue" and "tolerance" and
self-flagellation.
Liberals
and Their False Idols: As psychiatrist Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., points out in his new book, "The
Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness," … the liberal agenda preys on weakness
and feelings of inferiority in the population by creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization; satisfying
infantile claims of entitlement, indulgence and compensation; augmenting primitive feelings of envy; rejecting
the sovereignty of the individual and subordinating him to the will of the government."
Democrats oppose windmill power because
the windmills are unsightly. U.S. Reps. Alan Mollohan and Nick Rahall, both West Virginia
Democrats, are leading a high-profile fight against industrial wind farms on the state's mountaintop
ridges. … Mollohan wrote, "Because of the huge physical size of these projects, their starkly industrial
appearance, and the fact that they dominate the view of the entire area in which they are located, these
projects naturally raise concerns when they are proposed to be sited in areas that people enjoy for their
scenic, natural beauty."
"Success, simply by
its existence, is proof positive to the Modern Liberal of some kind of chicanery and likely bigotry.
Failure, simply by its existence, is enough proof to them that failure has been victimized."
Coulter Foes Launch Hate-Filled
Attacks. Many of those writing the negative e-mails are outraged that a conservative
would ask a conservative author questions from a conservative's perspective for a conservative
newspaper. One person writes, "You are so unfair and unbalanced!" Well, there goes
my shot as a Fox News anchor.
Liberals
from another planet. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a liberal,
and to have self-righteous blowhards like Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd and Charles Schumer,
speaking for me. And then I wake up screaming.
"Unhinged": Michelle
[Malkin] deliberately chose the
title, "Unhinged," purposely, to convey that the American Left, generally
speaking, has long since come unglued, giving itself over to irrationality and extremism
rather than reasoned discourse.
Patrick J. Kennedy faithful flooding
Rhode Island GOP with 'hate mail'. Rhode Island Republicans have received piles of "hate mail"
from supporters of U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, angry that the GOP has called for the troubled six-term
congressman to step down. "This has clearly hit a raw nerve somewhere," Rhode Island GOP spokesman
Chuck Newton told the Herald. "We've received mountains of hate mail from all over."
The Senator who
cried 'bigot'. According to Minority Leader Harry Reid, even suggesting the Constitution
should protect marriage as the union of husband and wife constitutes something like hate
speech: "For me, it is clear the reason for this debate is to divide our society,
to pit one against another," Reid said. "This is another one of the president's
efforts to frighten, to distort, to distract and to confuse America."
The
Terrell Owens Democrats. The Terrell Owenization of the Democratic Party
is pretty much complete. Selfish, media-hogging, and utterly unconcerned about the
impact of what they are doing to their team, the Dean-Reid-Pelosi Party has thrown its
ongoing collective temper tantrum for months now. And the media has shown up
whenever they chose to flex their muscles in the driveway.
Attack dogs: The
boy who cried "Wolf" at least took the precaution of doing so when there was no alleged predator
in view. If he'd stood there crying "Wolf" while pointing at a hamster, he would have
been led away for counseling. That's the stage the Senate Democrats are at.
Your
Turn. Liberals seldom bother to attempt to marshal arguments. Instead
they resort to launching personal attacks and changing the subject. Sometimes
both in the same e-mail.
Fake but
accurate. Again. Senator Ted Kennedy looks ridiculous today, in the
wake of his foolish reliance on a bogus story of "repression" under the Bush administration's
anti-terror efforts. … So the Senator's negative opinion, based on fiction,
somehow is still real. Because feelings matter more than facts, I suppose.
Good Economy, Bad Polls, What Gives?
President Bush's political opponents are always available and willing to poor-mouth the economy. When he
first entered Washington, all the talk was of recession. That ended quickly, but Democrats clutched on
to the budget deficit, caused of course by President Bush's tax cuts "for the rich." Then it was
unemployment; the worst economy since Hoover, they told us. But the jobs situation improved during
the 2004 campaign, so the "disappearing middle class" became the freak-out du jour.
Democrats Will Lose Because They Offer No
Hope. The Democrats offer no hope. It's that simple. The belief system of the Democratic
Party is predicated on the assumption that there is no hope. There is no hope that the poor and
aged will ever be able to live financially independent of government aid. There is no hope that
we can still create a lasting peaceful democracy in Iraq. There is no hope that we can guard our
borders and remain the beacon of light on the hill. There is no hope that women can survive having
an unwanted child, even if that child could find love elsewhere. There is no hope that those on
welfare can take the reins of their own destiny. There is no hope that God can be both primary
in our hearts and ancillary in our politics. There is no hope that marriage can remain a solely
heterosexual institution.
Katrina
Aftermath Highlights True Political Motives. For liberals, the scope of the Katrina
catastrophe, and the degree to which America is preoccupied with it, represent a golden opportunity
to exploit emotions and distort circumstances as a means to maximize the political mileage that
might be gained from it. Such callous behavior, while heartless and absolutely appalling,
is also absolutely consistent with standard liberal operating procedure.
Liberal reactions
to the marriage amendment are not deep. Virtually every news report about President
George W. Bush's support for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a
man and a woman describes it as "pandering" to the "far Right," the "radical Right" or, less pejoratively,
"social conservatives" of the Republican Party. Democrats regularly describe the amendment as enshrining
"discrimination in the Constitution." In the words of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., "A vote for the
amendment is a vote for bigotry — pure and simple."
Hate
speech from the left - 2005 edition. [2004 was] another year in which
liberals engaged in, and mostly got away with, grotesque slanders and slurs about
conservatives — the kind of poisonous rhetoric that should be unheard-of
in a decent society. Once again, too many on the left — not crackpots
from the fringe, but mainstream players and pundits — chose to demonize
conservatives as monsters rather than debate their ideas on the merits.
The
extreme sport of insult: The hard left decided long ago that
George W. Bush is Hitler. In maddened corners of the Internet and at swastika-choked
antiwar marches, Bush is shown with a Nazi uniform or a Hitler mustache.
DNC Stands By Rangel After 'Hate Speech'. The
Democratic National Committee yesterday [9/27/2005] refused to distance itself from Rep. Charles Rangel's
comparison of President Bush to an infamous Southern segregationist, Theophilus "Bull" Connor, remarks the
Republican National Committee identified as "hate speech" and urged the DNC to repudiate.
A major problem for the
Democrats: The headline is this: "Democrats Fragmented and in Disarray." The
story has two aspects that must trouble those Democrats who understand media. The first aspect
is that it is filled with dire portents. Journalists are attracted to dire portents whether
the portents are true or palpably absurd. The second aspect that must trouble Democrats is
that this news story happens to be true.
Catchy slogans make great bumper stickers,
but they usually don't mean anything. Take this one, for example. Are they trying to say
the stock market is high enough? Unemployment is low
enough? Wouldn't it be more meaningful (and honest) to have a bumper sticker that
says, "Vote for the Abortion Party", or, "Vote for the people who brought you 1.6–Gallon
Toilets", or "Let's Outlaw Everything that isn't Mandatory"?
Democrats' language is
for 'losers'. The Democrats' awkward new slogan — "Together, America can do
better" — may not say much more than "Anybody would be an improvement on the current bunch of
bozos," yet many Democrats are hoping that it will be enough to bring the party back to life this fall.
Supping
at the children's table. We must look at the Republicans as the Adult Party
and the Democrats as naughty children sent to sup at the children's table. Republicans
lead, Democrats rebel. George W. nominates serious judges and the Democrats throw
tantrums. Conservatives, dominant in the Adult Party, who try to conserve traditional
ideals are, ironically, in the vanguard.
Hating
Bush: We have reached the point where much political debate consists
of insults and name-calling, every attack is likely to be called a "lynching," and
tired expressions such as "institutional terrorism," "institutional racism," and
"intellectual McCarthyism" are supposed to be taken as real arguments.
Self-indulgence: The
enraged speeches and street disorders across the country that accompanied the
inauguration of President Bush may tell us more than we want to know about what is
happening to this country. Elections are supposed to be an alternative to other
ways of settling political differences, including riots, military coups and
dictatorships. But riots have been re-christened "demonstrations" by the
mealy-mouth media.
Hate
in America: The protesters, while unable to disrupt the Republican
National Convention as intended, represented a disturbing new development in the
nation's politics: hatred in the streets. The organized demonstrations were
purely negative, attacking George W. Bush with scant expression of support for
John Kerry. Individual marchers singled out any person they thought might be
a convention delegate, firing off angry, often obscene, denunciations.
Politics Of
Hate: Its one thing to scare senior citizens about Social Security reform with
hate speech, but to go so far as staging an assassination of the president over his idea for
a Social Security fix, is kind of over the top. In researching the politics of hate, I
was surprised to get 1,690,000 hits on Google for "hate Bush." But I was astonished to
get 1,140,000 for "kill Bush."
Blind
Anger. Anger, the most toxic of emotions, has poisoned the American left and
much of the Democratic Party. ... Anger has become the fashionable political mood in America's faculty
lounges, big city newsrooms, and Democratic political events. Anger is a terrific
motivator. Angry people contribute money, go to events, wear buttons, t-shirts, and
funny hats, and readily slap bumper stickers on their Volvos, Beetles, mini-vans, and Lexuses.
The Ignorant
and the Idiotic? On the web, embittered liberals and Democratic activists are
peddling spurious stories, urban legends really, about how IQ is inversely correlated with
voting Republican. In reality, no correlation exists.
Liberal
chattering class unhinged. Democrats have acted like victims of robbery
the last four years, but now they're acting like women scorned, rejected by a dueling
banjo-wielding electorate. I guess I suspected they'd take their losses badly, but I
didn't realize they'd unshackle all gentlemanly restraints on their septic bitterness.
Morals
hypocrisy: Isn't it ironic that liberals seem to resent conservatives for
promoting moral issues and being judgmental when every ounce of their leftist fiber bristles
with an air of moral superiority? It's a turf thing, a matter of entitlement. Liberals
are truly annoyed that large segments of the population vote Republican primarily because of
social issues, when for decades the "progressives" have claimed to have a monopoly on
morality and compassion.
Michelle
Malkin Axed for Views. My experience, both as a columnist and an observer of
life, is that liberals consider any bold assertion of conservative political thought
"mean-spirited." Indeed, the liberals' favorite charge against conservatives is
that they are intrinsically mean, uncompassionate people.
"Life is a comedy to those who think
and a tragedy to those who feel."
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