Posted 1:21 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Real Problem with the Democrats

I was waiting until later in the week to start posting regularly but Peggy Noonan’s essay on the Democrats was too much. It illustrates the problems with the Democrats—problems that are the opposite of the ones The Dolphin Queen presents in her essay.

The premise of Noonan’s essay is that Democrats will do anything to win. That is a load of crap. Congressional Democrats stood by while the GOP hijacked an election. Why is it that Alec Baldwin is the only person I have seen mention Greg Palast’s work on television?(more on this later in the week). No Congressional Democrat has had the guts to point out Bush’s illegitimacy.

The problem is that Democrats are too willing to work with people who are out to destroy them. They’re like the pledges in National Lampoon's Animal House who--while bent over and grimacing--said, “Thank you, Sir. May I have another?” Noonan’s very essay is a self-contradiction because her essay was the result of a request by Andrew Cuomo for a contribution to a book on essays about “the future of the Democratic Party.” What was Cuomo thinking? Asking someone like Noonan to contribute is like a boxer putting his hands behind his back and holding out his jaw to Lennox Lewis. Noonan’s ostensible constructive criticism is nothing but venom against Democrats and cover for the GOP.

Noonan’s “War is Peace” declaration that the Dems will do anything is her absurd apologia that “Republicans by and large don't suffer from blind loyalty or blind antagonism. They would think it irresponsible to the country.” Nooner then gives examples involving historical revisionism such as her false claim that it was congressional Republicans who were responsible for Nixon’s downfall. More importantly, Noonan writes: “it was Republicans who did in their own Senate majority leader because they would not accept a certain kind of nonsense. If George W. Bush begins to seriously compromise conservative political philosophy, or to behave in a manner grossly offensive in a leader, they will turn on him too.”

Let me address these one at a time. For Lott’s entire career, he had been saying racist things and hanging out with racists of the worst kind. His party stood behind him and Democrats did little or nothing about it—such as when Lott absurdly accused Democrats of being racist for opposing Miguel Estrada. In fact, if it weren’t for progressive bloggers (not-so-Instapundit doesn’t fit into this category), Lott’s repugnant comments wouldn’t have been addressed by the mainstream media--much less by congressional Republicans. As for Noonan’s reference to George W. Bush and “conservative political philosophy,” conservatism is based on respect for institutions and practices such as counting votes. Bush’s naked (and racist) power grab in the 2000 election was given the seal of approval by so-called American conservatives. Instead, Noonan gives the following description of Democrats:

"The mistake the Democrats made was to allow their antiwar movement to become infused with bitterness and hostility, with a spirit of destructiveness. By the end the animating spirit of the movement looked something like this: We do not love this place; we prefer leaders unsullied by the grubby demands of electoral politics; we are drawn to the ideological purity of Ho, Fidel, Mao. And by the way we're taking over: Oppose our vision and we'll take care of you by revolutionary means."

Noonan should tell that to the Democrats who had the mistake of being at the Miami-Dade vote-counting center when they were surrounded by GOP thugs whose idea of a fair fight is ten against one.

I could go on, but you get the picture. Democrats always get burned when they reach out to the hard right. Cuomo is just the latest example. Joe Lieberman once joined forces with William Bennett; Bennett used this alliance with Lieberman as a weapon against his former colleague during the 2000 election. The moral: the hard right is not to be trusted; it is to be discredited and defeated.