Democrats Posturing Towards the Center
By Christopher G. Adamo
James Carville, the failed court jester of the left, unwittingly revealed a key insight as to why the Democrat Party is presently floundering so severely. In a statement made this past weekend to Tim Russert, Carville asserted that the purpose of political parties is merely “to get people elected.”
According to such thinking, political philosophies and/or principles are either incidental, or entirely irrelevant to the party affiliation of those seeking elective office. Judging from the actions of Democrats during the most recent election cycle, Carville’s admission cannot be denied.
Once again, Democrats throughout the country, and particularly their de facto leader John Kerry, were willing to take any stance, on any side of the issues, in hopes of persuading a majority of the populace of being like-minded with them. And once again, come Election Day, this ruse failed miserably.
From their outset, political parties were never intended to serve the purposes of those at their innermost echelons. Rather, they were instituted as a means of implementing a particular agenda. The inherent strength of numbers resulted in an assembling of like-minded individuals who, in the hopes of seeing their common interests realized, established a “platform” of ideas that defined them.
Yet for many who rise to the top of such organizations, the seductive lure of power and prestige often overtake any originating cause. It is at the point that the party leadership presumes itself and its interests to be of sole importance that it risks completely losing touch with its base.
As the evening of November 2 wore on, it became increasingly obvious that such a “disconnect” had taken place among the Democrats. In the wake of the election, they are desperately trying to pick up the pieces. The problem is that they dare not attempt to do so by being honest about what they really are.
Fortunately for the likes of Carville, all is not lost. Such flawed thinking is not exclusive to the Democrats. Many among the Republican “Moderates” hold to similar ideas, even positing them as “conventional wisdom.” Nevertheless, Carville’s inadvertent candor serves to highlight the action of Democrats that occurred prior to the election, and have gone into high gear in its aftermath.
At present, several convoluted messages are being loudly broadcast by prominent Democrats. Among the most contradictory are their claims that, on the one hand, Christian Conservatives are to blame for their diminishing electoral fortunes. Yet on the other hand, they need to reinvent themselves so as to better appeal to those very people.
Among the most transparent attempts of doing so was the recent presentation of the Gospel according to Saint Hillary, offered in the days following the election. Initially, she claimed to be of a like mind with America’s Christian voters. But then, in virtually the same breath, she attempted to redefine Christianity, not surprisingly, in liberal and socialist terms.
Clearly, Hillary was seeking to follow in the footsteps of the “Reverend” Jesse Jackson, who employed this same line of thinking while stumping for John Kerry. According to Jackson, Christians ought not let themselves be sidetracked by such purely partisan and subjective issues as Biblical truth and morality, but should instead focus on the things that he considered spiritually important, government handouts and the other precepts of liberalism being chief among them.
Stumbling forth from the aftershocks of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle’s loss in South Dakota (an event that carries almost as much significance as the Presidential election), Senate Democrats are attempting their own image makeover by replacing Daschle with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada.
Reid, ostensibly a “pro-life” Democrat, might be an improvement over Daschle’s partisanship and obstruction. No doubt, his ascension to the position of Minority Leader is meant to be perceived that way. But Reid was hardly an outspoken critic of Daschle’s antics. Nor did he lead the charge to break Daschle’s stonewalling.
It is obvious that the failed ideologies of the left, so firmly entrenched at the core of the Democrat power structure, aren’t going away any time soon. Meanwhile, occasional lapses into honesty by key players such as Carville can remind us that their ultimate intentions really haven’t changed a bit.
So the same old failed liberal agenda will likely be repackaged, in hopes that the public might eventually fall for it. The only alternative is to increase the shrillness and venom of their condemnation of conservatism. And lately that approach hasn’t served them too well.
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