Advice To The Democrats

I’ve read more articles in the last several days from the liberal left either explaining why they lost or how it wasn’t really a loss. (Huh?) The excuses range from the innocuous “We need to re-connect with Middle America” to the ridiculous “Middle America is just too ignorant to know what’s good for them” (This point of view courtesy of Jane Smiley on slate.msn.com, please drop her a line!) I have also read many articles promoting the idea that the Democrats just aren’t getting their message across and that they can’t concede any region or state, fighting county by county if necessary.

Actually I agree that the Democrats have done a poor job of getting their message out, after all, the still garnered almost half the vote. If the electorate across the nation really did get the message I can’t believe that it would have been that big a share. I know it must be hard to get out your message with nothing more than almost the entire media establishment pushing your agenda and selected, rather wealthy, supporters spending millions in advertising to denigrate the Republicans, it’s easy to see how some folks missed the message. You know, when you have failed to get a majority of the votes in the last 8 presidential elections (Even while winning 2 terms Clinton didn’t get a majority) you might want to rethink the message.

There are people of good character that call themselves Democrats. There are some true patriots that call themselves Democrats. There are even many devoutly religious people that call themselves Democrats. But these are not the people that control the Democratic Party. For the most part these are not the people that are serving the Party at the federal level. If the Party leadership were as determined to advance the security and national interest of our country as they are to regain power, the latter would likely bring about the former. (Any foreign policy that pleases France is not likely to be in our best interest)

The liberals seem incapable of understanding why most Americans would prefer that our government put our national security interest above the desire to have people “like us”. Think back to your school days. Were the most popular people in school saying things like “Maybe if we didn’t play sports the other schools would like us better?” or “We deserved to have our grounds covered with toilet paper after the horrible way our team behaved in beating theirs.” Did your decision on who to vote for in student government rest on the belief that a particular candidate would be preferable to the cross-town rival? Or did you vote for the person that you felt would best represent your interests? Why do you have different priorities for your national representatives?

The people of this country, at least for the largest part, agree on the things that need to be done. There is honest debate in how to best achieve these goals but most of us want the same things. A very basic difference in how the two parties approach the issues is that, generally, the Democrats want to create new government agencies to oversee more and more social programs whereas the Republicans search for ways to help the private sector achieve these same goals. Another very basic difference between the parties is in foreign policy were most Republicans put the well being of the United States ahead of other consideration whereas the Democrats invariably want more study, more sanctions and never-ending diplomacy. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all in favor of diplomatic solutions but at some point you have to make a stand. Democratic diplomacy has accomplished many things, such as: losing China to the communists, giving Eastern Europe to a totalitarian dictatorship, allowing unchecked growth of the USSR for nearly 50 years, losing Iran to Islamic fundamentalists (This effort really pleased the French!), and giving up control of the Panama Canal and then allowing a dictator to take over the country. Given the track record of Democratic diplomacy we should pass a law forbidding them from participating in any foreign policy decisions. Any student of history that bothers to research the truth, as opposed to “the facts” which have often been distorted by years of liberal lies, will find that most of the messy situations we’ve had were created by the Democrats and cleaned up by the Republicans. Vietnam and the Cold War are two examples from recent history. Kennedy and Johnson half hearted efforts in Vietnam cost thousands of American lives while accomplishing nothing. Nixon negotiates a workable peace, brings most of the troops home and ultimately loses the war when the Democrat controlled congress refuses to honor the treaty. Truman’s policy of containment worked so well that the Soviets had influence even in this hemisphere before Reagan defeated them.

In the interest of reaching out to the Democrats I will outline the things that I believe the Democrats must do, or risk fading into irrelevancy.

• Be honest. I know this is a foreign concept to most politicians and to Democrats in particular but people will eventually see through the lies.
• Pick one position on an issue and stick with it. Saying things like “I find abortion personally abhorrent but I can’t force my morals on others.” Just pisses off everybody. Say that you are pro-life or that you are pro-choice and believe what you say. (See rule #1)
• Campaign more on what you believe as opposed to what your opponent believes. It is fine, even desirable, to hear comparisons but saying that you should vote for me because my opponent believes X does no good without explaining how your beliefs differ.
• Distance yourselves from the radical, extreme elements of your party. You may be unable to prevent Michael Moore from giving you his support but you don’t need to acknowledge or promote it. Don’t be afraid to speak out against the kooky people that run hateful attack ads. In my humble opinion papers like the New York Times publish treason on a daily basis. Look at their archives. These people consistently root for our enemies while putting our country down. They are more of an extreme liberal propaganda machine than they are a news organization. You would do well to remember that the opinions they have offered lately, particularly here National Security is at issue, have all been WRONG.
• Get a clue about National Security. Stop being so damn concerned with how your decisions will play in Europe and stay focused on promoting the best interests of this country.
• Learn to accept that the Republicans are not evil, not your enemy, and not really all that concerned about how you think of them. The adversarial relationship that has evolved is detrimental to the country as a whole. By all means vote your conscience (again rule #1) but don’t be obstructionist simply because an idea is promoted by the other party. Republicans have been guilty of this as well, but not nearly as often, and not on important matters. Several excellent judges have been filibustered or smeared for nothing more than partisan politics; the best interests of the country had nothing to do with it. This cost Tom Daschle his job this year, you should learn from his mistakes.
• Do not be afraid of God. This country was founded by religious men, our constitution guarantees freedom of religion but the commonly acknowledge separation of church and state article simply does not exist. In fact many government functions always have and still do begin with a prayer. This is the 1 st amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. It says Congress can’t legislate religion not that it can’t practice it.

Having given my opinion, please note that I don’t care if the Democrats listen or not. I am perfectly happy leaving the Republicans in charge. In fact I would just as soon see the democrats continue to marginalize themselves since I can’t think of a single ranking Democrat that I believe should be making decisions for our country. The party has a poor record of holding its officials accountable for their actions. In spite of the fact that Bill Clinton is a felon and a likely rapist he is still the most popular man in the party. Even knowing the many questionable events of her past the Democrats still elected Hillary to the Senate and many are promoting her as Presidential material. (The only nightmare I have worse than Hillary as President is Hillary as a Supreme Court Justice.) Besides if the Democrats are no longer representatives of your belief the Republican Party will welcome you.

Russell