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Democrats In Permanent Campaign Mode

Inauguration days, for mainstream political actors, are supposed to be one of those rare feel-good times when everyone drops the bitter, partisan politics and just tries to get along.

Democrats today, even at the very highest levels, however, seem to be stuck in permanent campaign mode. "Campaign mode," when it comes to Democrats, is a thoroughly embarrassing and insulting phrase, due to their recent track record. As Democrat leaders spew hatred and vitriol, provoking irrational fear of Bush and boasting unprecedented obstructionism of the majority party's agenda, this must reasonably indicate that the base of the party has itself become rather extreme and out of the mainstream.

Democrats, from top to bottom, rather than immediately dismissing him as some kind of unstable Republican secret agent, should pay more heed to the prophetic warnings of lifelong Democrat Zell Miller, rather than the (expensive) ravings of George Soros.

Democrats should not cater to nutjobs, kooks, and crazies, just to avoid being "Naderized."

Not only has the Democrats' liberal base become out of touch with the rest of America, it is angry. Angry with Bush, first, but also angry that its leaders have failed to articulate their vision. Angry that its candidates keep losing. Sometimes just angry at life in general.

Terry McAuliffe and John Kerry, as well as the major political interest groups, play to that base of angry liberals, many of whom they cultivated during the 2004 campaign.

The WILLisms.com staff likes to have the greatest possible breadth and depth of information, from an array of diverse sources. In our quest for knowledge over the years, we have signed up for online updates from a variety of liberal interest groups and individual candidates. On January 20, 2005, the day of President Bush's 2nd inauguration, WILLisms.com received the following interesting emails from four of them.

I. The ACLU-

According to the American Civil Liberties Union:

"Through their actions, President Bush and his Administration have made it clear that they want us to surrender our freedoms."

WILLisms.com certainly welcomes a reasonable discussion of post-9/11 anti-terrorism measures such as the Patriot Act, but the ACLU seems incapable of communicating without using hyperbole, distortion, and exaggeration. Most Americans see right through it, too, and it backfires. The recipe for a good cause degenerating into irrelevance and marginalization can be found at ACLU.org.

II. MTV's Rock the Vote-

In its entirety:

"A new term began today for President George W. Bush. The inauguration may or may not have been for the candidate you wanted, or maybe politicians in general have let you down.

Despite the fact that you did your job in November, the press didn't give you credit for anything.

Politicians fall all over themselves making promises to other constituencies, but are still only using young people for photo opps.

We're not going to wait another four years to be heard. The time to make them pay attention to us is now.

http://action.rockthevote.org/ctt.asp?u=1710087&l=5816

Elections come and go, and politicians come and go, but the fight for better jobs and economic opportunity, tolerance and fairness never ends. That's why it is so important for you to publicly stand up for your convictions. Never surrender!

As the politicians in Washington get back to business, we're urging the Rock the Vote community to join the Never Surrender movement. Take the pledge. Wear the bracelet. And pass it on to your friends and family.

Together, we will be heard. Find out what the Never Surrender campaign is about here:

http://action.rockthevote.org/ctt.asp?u=1710087&l=5816

Peace,

Jehmu Greene
President
Rock the Vote"

Well, Jehmu, thanks for that wonderful pep talk. I am glad to know that although I did my job in November, the media did not give me credit for anything.
That's the kind of predictable liberal cynicism WILLisms.com has come to expect from Rock the Vote and MTV.

If you follow their link regarding the bracelet, you will find yourself here:
http://www.neversurrender.org/neversurrender/index.cfm

Apparently, we are supposed to buy these bracelets, donate money to liberal causes, and "never surrender to the worst corporations."

Included on the "Never Surrender" corporate blacklist are ANY Fox News advertiser, plus Wal-Mart, General Electric, Kraft, Disney, DKNY, Weyerhauser, Monsanto, Caterpillar, Comcast, and Ford.

Rock the Vote operates as a non-partisan group, but its interests and causes, other than being ideologically far-left, are incredibly immature and lame. During the 2004 campaign, Rock the Vote did its best, along with other Democrats and liberal interest groups, to keep the threat of a military draft alive in the minds of young voters. Rock the Vote is anything but non-partisan; it is a mouthpiece for the far left wing of the DNC.

Emails from outside interest groups and weirdo protester types are one thing, but the head of the party and the recent candidate for president ought to remain in an entirely different realm, particularly on Inauguration Day.

As WILLisms.com discovered, Terry McAuliffe and John Kerry both appreciate a little bit of pandering to the crazies.

III. Terry McAuliffe, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee-

In its entirety:

"Dear Republican,

Today, the day of George W. Bush's second inauguration, Republicans are hoping that we'll just fade into the background. They're hoping that for the next two years we sit on the sidelines, and let them ram their agenda through.

But we Democrats will never step aside. While Bush tries to build his legacy on a series of attacks against working families, the middle class, and seniors, Democrats will be there to stand up.

We will fight President Bush and his Republican cronies as they try to:

* Shift the tax burden away from the wealthiest to working families and the middle class by making his disastrous tax schemes permanent.
* Undermine Social Security for today's seniors and future generations of retirees by privatizing the system.
* Pack the Supreme Court with right-wing judges who will undermine our basic rights.

While his second term is an opportunity to bring us together, to lead all Americans and strengthen the country with policies based on our shared values, President Bush has already started to promote his narrow, partisan agenda.

But make no mistake about it. We will stand up and oppose Bush's attacks on our fundamental values. We can only succeed with you and other committed Democrats at our side.

Sincerely,
Terry McAuliffe
Chairman

P. S. By renewing your support today, you will help us fund efforts to fight President Bush and his Republican partners' plans of installing more tax cuts for the wealthy, undermining the most vulnerable citizens and taking away our most basic civil liberties."

First of all, the rhetoric is just amazingly angry. "Cronies?" Again, when hyperbole is applied too liberally, it quickly loses its effectiveness. It becomes predictable and a sort of lampoon of itself.

Secondly, taking apart the three major claims made in the email:

1. Tax policy-
No national party in 2005 can favor tax hikes and hold power. Why Democrats complain about lower taxes is beyond the otherwise ubiquitous wisdom of WILLisms.com. While Terry McAuliffe and other Democrats love to paint President Bush's tax relief packages as being only for the wealthy, the truth is that everyone who paid taxes received tax relief.

WILLisms.com is not sure if the DNC Chairman considers the creation of the 10% tax bracket "disastrous," but it is hard to argue that the new low bracket has not benefited the working class. If anything, income taxes are still too high, especially for upper-middle class wage-earners, and the system remains too complicated. WILLisms.com looks forward to the upcoming discussions of tax reform.

2. Social Security-
Make no mistake, Democrats' opposition to meaningful Social Security reform is more about politics than it is about policy. Democrats know that the more dependent citizens are upon government, the more likely they are to vote for Democrats. Those who own investments such as stocks and bonds desire pro-market policies and are therefore more likely to vote for Republicans. Democrats also know that major structural reform of Social Security will knock the historical legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt down a peg, even if only slightly. Finally, major Social Security reform could lead to an enhanced legacy for President Bush, most importantly a generation of devoted and loyal Republicans, comparable to the enduring New Deal generation of FDR.

Like tax reform, Social Security reform is a passion of WILLisms.com, so stay tuned for more in-depth commentary on the subject.

3. Judges-
Democrats like to paint Bush's judicial nominees as far right-wing. Unfortunately for them, the facts don't back up their rhetoric. According to University of Houston professor Dr. Robert Carp, who examined more than 70,000 cases from more than 1700 judges during a 75-year span, the judges appointed by President Bush are definitely mainstream.

"Overall, the President’s appointees handed down 36.1 percent liberal rulings, ideologically about the same as previous Republican presidents. In comparison, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and the elder Bush scored at 38.1, 43.5, 35.8 and 37.0 respectively. Presidents Johnson, Carter and Clinton were at 51.9, 51.6 and 44.7."

IV. Senator John Kerry-

Among other things, Kerry's email explains his vote against confirming Dr. Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State, presumably because he was still holding out for his own bizarro version of Dr. Rice.

Additionally, Kerry took his trademark tackiness a step further:

"Over 700,000 people have called on President Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.

If you haven't signed the Rumsfeld petition, please do so immediately."

Yikes, man. The campaign is over. Seriously. You lost. By more than 3 million votes.

WILLisms.com chalks most of the evident tackiness up to Democrats not understanding how to cope with their loss, over the past decade, of the permanent majority party status they had held since the 1930s.

This incessant sore loser mentality is unbecoming of leaders of a mainstream national party, and although WILLisms.com is not in the business of administering pro bono political advice to Democrats, here is one suggestion:

DEMOCRATS, STOP BEING LAME.

Posted by Will Franklin · 21 January 2005 06:13 AM

Comments

Posted by: Margaret Rendall at January 21, 2005 12:35 PM