Will Partisan Rage Sink The Democrats?

I like to consider myself a calm and reasonable participant in the political process.  Despite having deeply-held values and philosophies that shape my political beliefs, I refuse to allow myself to descend into the pit of the vicious, bitter partisan.

I voted for John McCain, but I don't wish President-elect Obama ill.  As I see it, President-elect Obama has two choices before him.  He will either govern as a centrist or govern as a liberal.  If he chooses the former, he will likely have some success while significantly boosting his chances for re-election.  If he moves to accommodate the far left-wing of his party, he will invite the scorn of the majority of the voters that make this a center right nation.  Simply put, if Barack Obama heads left, the GOP can expect a fair number of congressional gains in 2010.  The American electorate will correct what it perceives as an extreme policy agenda. That's politics, plain and simple.

As a reasonable and responsible member of the center right, I'm willing to give Senator Obama the benefit of the doubt. Should he move left, I will actively use this blog to offer criticism of his policies.  Obama Derangement Syndrome, should it emerge among my political allies, will not be welcome here.

Having said that, I'm disturbed to find a teaser on Drudge New York Times story suggesting that the Democrats are planning on launching robust investigations into the Bush administration after the current President's term expires.  I had always believed that the demands for such investigations, having been frequent and vigorous over the years, were just the shrill bellowing of a committed group of extremists on the left who were frustrated and angry because their ambition for power was thwarted at every turn.  Surely, I believed, the most bitter and partisan among them would cast aside their anger with glee upon having finally gained the full measure of political influence in Washington.

It looks like my assumption may have been dead wrong.  It may not be enough for the Democrats to see George W. Bush leave office at the end of an eight-year run.  It may also not be enough for President Bush to be succeeded by someone whose track record suggests that he is a serious and committed man of the left.  No, it appears likely that the radical left will have to scratch its itch.  Having been unable to remove the vilified Bush through political means, they are determined to unleash years of pent up rage and bile over his policies by pursuing political investigations of his administration.

If the Democrats choose this path, you can bet that many of us on the center right, who were willing to be respectful while fulfilling our role as the "loyal opposition," may have a change of heart.  I can assure the left that, should it direct the energies of the next Congress on a perpetual witch-hunt to uncover the "evils" of the Bush administration, they will draw the ire of those of us on the center right who were open to giving the President-elect a chance. 

Oh, but the Democrats would have bigger problems than that.  America is beset with many challenges, both at home and abroad.  There's the threat of a worsening recession, further losses in the stock market, businesses demanding bailouts, terrorism and a Russian bear pushing to find out just how far the international community, particularly the United States, will let it go.  Here's a stark warning to the left -- if American voters believe that the Congress is more interested in wasting time and resources in pursuing investigations of the previous administration rather than getting serious and addressing the real problems, the GOP will win back both houses of congress and the presidency.

The biggest challenge facing President-elect Obama will not be how he chooses to address the pantheon of problems confronting the United States.  Senator Obama's biggest challenge will be whether he can restrain the ugly anger and hatred in his own party before its venom is allowed to wholly consume the very movement that President Obama is trying to build.

As President, Barack Obama needs to look the partisans in his party in the eye and remind them of the oft-repeated line he delivered on the campaign stump -- it's time to turn the page.

Dems At Root Of Subprime Loan Debacle

Stanley Kurtz on the complicity among Democrats that helped fuel the sub-prime mortgage problem and today's financial crisis.

The MSM and the "Republican Anger" Meme

I've been wanting to write about the emerging narrative among Democrats and MSM-types "concerned" with the rising level of "anger and rage" being stoked at McCain-Palin rallies. 

When I first heard some of these stories, I was skeptical.  Quite simply, I don't trust the opinions, perceptions and selective reporting that come out of the MSM tank.  Now I believe my skepticism has been validated.

First, here are some of the stories about this anger and rage from lefty media folks.  Here's Frank Rich.  Here's Maureen Dowd (although you'd probably have to be able to read Latin).  Here's Congressman John Lewis.  Here's an AP report.  Below is a video from a segment on Chris Matthews show:

Anyway, I think the point is pretty obvious. 

Rather than write about this myself, I wanted to link to some stories that pretty much say everything that needs to be said about the exaggeration and duplicity being orchestrated by the Left and its allies in the MSM.  Right Wing Nut House has a very comprehensive post.  Michelle Malkin points out that there has been and continues to be plenty of bitterness and rage being spouted from the supporters of Senator Obama.  Stephen Hayward at the Weekly Standard Blog illustrates examples of leftist rage.

I believe that the media is hard at work on constructing this narrative as a means of convincing undecided voters that Senator McCain, in an act of desperation to save his campaign, is resorting to vile and dangerous racial smears.  The subtext is that the Republicans are creating an atmosphere that is posing a grave threat to the personal safety of Senator Obama. 

The hope is that undecided voters will recoil at the perceived "ugliness" of the McCain tactics and flock to Senator Obama as a rational, mainstream candidate.

To make this case, the media must exaggerate occurrences at Republican rallies while ignoring years of vicious personal attacks and threats against President Bush on the part of Democrat extremists who have often accused the President of being a terrorist.

Update on Monday, October 13, 2008 at 09:54AM by Joe

Here are a couple more examples of leftist rage.  First an act of vandalism in New York.  Drudge posted a story about some men burning a McCain campaign sign, but the link to the story isn't working.

An Opportunistic Poseur

I'll be the first to admit that I have mixed feeling about the mortgage bailout package. 

On the one hand, I have no desire to see Wall Street bailed out for what appears to be reckless lending practices and rank corruption.  I also don't want to advocate on behalf of any policy that aggregates additional power to the federal government (and it's vast and corrupt bureaucratic structure). I'm also disconcerted by the idea of accumulating taxpayer debt to cover for the myriad of government and corporate screw-ups that contributed to this mess.

On the other hand, I don't want to take the risk that the American economy might descend into a deep and painful recession...or worse.   Too many of the people who make responsible decisions and play by the rules would be impacted.

As for now,  I consider myself an agnostic on the mortgage bailout issue.  I know that sounds evasive, but I sincerely don't believe I have enough of an understanding of the details of the pending bailout legislation to render an intelligent opinion at the moment.

What I do understand, though, is how thoroughly ridiculous it is for Senator Obama to try and claim that he, and not John McCain, deserves credit for the final legislative product that will be voted on by the Congress. 

McCain is the one who, to much ridicule on the Left, announced that he was suspending his campaign to steep himself in the mortgage bailout negotiations.   McCain is the one who spent most of the last several days in Washington working on the problem.  Meanwhile, Senator Obama was continuing his campaign while saying that he would be called if needed in Washington.

It's therefore a bit galling for Senator Obama to now argue that, not only should Senator McCain receive no credit for the pending agreement, but that he, Senator Obama, actually had significant influence over "shaping the provisions" of what appears to be the final product.  This is despite the fact that Senator Obama didn't commit to spending much time in Washington.  It's despite the fact that Senator Obama's Party controls both the House and Senate and should therefore have been able to push through whatever bill they wanted.  It's despite the fact that the crucial negotiations that brought about the pending agreement were largely brokered with the involvement of skeptical Congressional Republicans...the same Republicans among whom Senator McCain would carry far more influence than Senator Obama. 

In the end, both Democrats and Republicans were involved in crafting this pending bill.  If the bill helps to stabilize the economy, both parties can rightly take credit for an act of bipartisanship.  Should the bill do more harm than good, both parties should shoulder the blame.

Senator McCain's steady presence in Washington may or may not have helped move the parties toward an agreement.  The fact that Senator Obama largely stayed away, but now feels compelled to announce that Senator McCain should get no credit, is indicative of a very small man with exceedingly parochial interests.  The United State Congress is on the verge of approving a bill that was crafted with the intention of saving the U.S. economy and all Senator Obama can do is demand that voters not give Senator McCain any credit.  Way to show that class, Senator Obama. 

Now that's change we can believe in.

Joe Klein On American Myth

Joe Klein has articulated exactly why the Democrats don't consistently connect with American voters, but its not for the reason he believes.

The left has a difficult time winning elections because they continually assess their election defeats as more fluky than legitimate.  In 2000, they argued that Bush stole the election.  In 2004, John Kerry was "swift boated."  The latest example of this kind of analysis is Joe Klein.   This time, it's going to be that the GOP pulled the wool over the eyes of the electorate by turning the election into a "nostalgia referendum."

Klein published a piece in Time Magazine on the appeal that Governor Palin has on American voters.   In keeping with his worldview as a man of the left, Klein concludes that, by nominating Governor Palin, the Republicans might have put themselves in a position to fool American voters once again.  His basic premise is that, since Reagan, the GOP has been successful with the electorate because it has aggressively tapped into the power of myth and nostalgia about an America that never really existed.  Here is the myth as defined by Klein:

She embodies the most basic American myth — Jefferson's yeoman farmer, the fantasia of rural righteousness — updated in a crucial way: now Mom works too. Palin's story stands with one foot squarely in the nostalgia for small-town America and the other in the new middle-class reality. She brings home the bacon, raises the kids — with a significant assist from Mr. Mom — hunts moose and looks great in the process. I can't imagine a more powerful, or current, American Dream.

This is the typical kind of worldview we get from the left.  Those of us who live in rural, or even suburban settings are a bunch of unsophisticated rubes who are easily duped by the craven Republican spin machine.  Egads -- now we're falling for it again!

What about poor Barack Obama?  According to Klein, Senator Obama is himself a victim of the "America that was" myth that is exploited so well by the GOP:

The Republican Party's subliminal message seems stronger than ever this year because of the nature of the Democratic nominee for President. Barack Obama could not exist in the small-town America that Reagan fantasized. He's the product of what used to be called miscegenation, a scenario that may still be more terrifying than a teen daughter's pregnancy in many American households. Furthermore, he has thrived in the culture and economy that displaced Main Street America — an economy where people no longer work in factories or make things with their hands, but where lawyers and traders prosper unduly. (Of course, this is the economy the Republican Party has promoted — but facts are powerless in the face of a potent mythology.) Obama is the precise opposite of Mountain Man Todd Palin: an entirely urban creature. He lives within the hilarious conundrum of being both too "cosmopolitan" and intellectual for Republican tastes — at least as Rudy Giuliani described it — while also being the sort of fellow suspected of getting ahead by affirmative action.

Conservative voters can only hope that the Democratic establishment continues to view their defeats as resulting from nothing more than opportunistic and shallow manipulations of "average" Americans with traditionalist worldviews.  As long as the Democrats continue to believe their own myths, they won't understand that its their own policies and arrogance that keep the voters from embracing them.

Illinois Senate Democrats At Critical Juncture

Followers of Illinois politics know that the antics of Governor Rod Blagojevich have poisoned the atmosphere under the capitol dome and left Illinois politics in a state of acrimonious gridlock despite one party rule.  Aiding and abetting the Governor the entire way has been Senate President Emil Jones, Jr. 

Jones has announced his impending retirement.  The Senate Democrats will now begin a mad scramble to replace him.  I have no interest in helping the Democrats, but I will offer the following advice.  Illinois politics has become a laughingstock.  The Democrats have been handed total power, and have done nothing but fight and jockey for position.  Illinois is a blue state, but the Democratic brand has been deeply damaged by Governor Blagojevich and his ally, Senate President Jones. 

The opportunity to elect a new Senate President from among their ranks is an opportunity for Illinois Democrats to begin repairing their brand.  The Senate Democrats need to install a leader who will work in tandem with House Speaker Michael Madigan, while isolating Governor Blagojevich and his style of confrontation and division.  The right selection can marginalize the Governor and begin the process of ushering him off the stage of Illinois politics for the betterment of our politics and state.  Selecting a leader determined to join the Governor in his futile and childish battles will only drag the reputation of the Illinois Democratic Party further into the morass of failure and incompetence.

Time will tell if the Senate Democrats get it right.

Who Didn't See This Coming?

With his party taking a beating because of its recalcitrant refusal to accommodate the growing wishes of the American people to begin drilling for oil off of the U.S. continental coastline, Barack Obama has flipped his position once again.   But wait...he argues that he really hasn't changed his position.   Nope!  He now claims he only wants to make certain that the United States considers a broad energy strategy that embraces multiple solutions:

Obama said Friday that he would be willing to compromise on his position against offshore oil drilling if it were part of a more overarching strategy to lower energy costs.

"My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices," Obama told The Palm Beach Post early into a two-day swing through Florida.

But on Saturday morning, Obama said this "wasn't really a new position."

"I made a general point about the fact that we need to provide the American people some relief and that there has been constructive conversations between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on this issue," he said during a press conference in Cape Canaveral.

"What I will not do, and this has always been my position, is to support a plan that suggests this drilling is the answer to our energy problems," Obama added.

Not so fast there, Bucky!  Let's compare this latest policy "nuance" to his previous statement, made as recently as June, on offshore drilling:

"When I'm president, I intend to keep in place the moratorium here in Florida and around the country that prevents oil companies from drilling off Florida's coasts," Obama told reporters in Jacksonville in late June. "That's how we can protect our coastline and still make the investments that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices for good."

That sounds like an absolute prohibition to me.  Following the latest "evolution" of Senator Obama's position, it actually sounds more like downright pandering to the hard-left Sierra Club-types among the Florida electorate, a group none to enamored by his latest bit of "nuance."  Truth be told, I'm not seeing much room for nuance or wiggle room in his statement to Florida voters.  But, then again, I'm not nearly as intellectually capable or inspiring as the Gifted One, the symbol of America's latent greatness about to emerge from its long, cold hibernation.  Oh, if we will only have the courage to embrace his ways!

Obama's transparent position flip will be seen by the American electorate as a cynical ploy by a candidate who is revealing himself to be way over his head.  Any ground Obama tries to make-up by seeking to convince the American public that he supports offshore drilling will be drowned out by the refusal of congressional Democrats, led by Nancy "I'm going to save the planet" Pelosi, to even allow an up-or-down vote on drilling.