Despite Numbers, Democrats Remain In Charge
By Christopher G. Adamo
Conservative morale is regularly boosted as one poll after another conclusively shows that the country is leaning further and further to the right. National election results of recent years (in truth, the only polls that matter), irrefutably confirm this point as well.
Yet such key agenda items of the counterculture as same-sex “marriage,” increasingly liberal education practices and philosophies, and the demolition of the country’s standards of morality all suggest that the concerns and energies of the conservative grassroots do not necessarily translate into positive changes in policy. The social climate of the nation is being moved relentlessly to the left. How can this be?
Even before the 2004 elections, Democrats were scrambling to prove to mainstream America that they were indeed the party of patriotism and traditional values. In certain key races, some Democrats even attempted to create an impression of allegiance to the Bush administration. Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle went so far as to run campaign ads portraying himself in the company of the President.
Though Daschle’s ploy ultimately failed, and South Dakota’s contested Senate seat went to Republican John Thune, the ploy remains a cornerstone of Democrat strategy. Hillary Clinton, presidential aspirant and wife of one of history’s greatest political chameleons, is clearly embracing this tactic. Sadly, for Democrats to win by such a means requires “cooperation” from the Republicans, which is all to often the case.
Worse yet, in the wake of the elections, Democrats have simultaneously engaged in another strategy. Having lost faith with the public for lack of an agenda, it stands to reason that they recognize the political advantages of preventing Republicans from advancing the conservative cause. All too often, Republicans take the bait and back away from principled stands on major issues.
Sadly, though conservatives continue to dominate the electoral process, those whom they put in office lack the most necessary component to succeed. Liberal tactics are vile and despicable. They are also the essence, for better or worse (and in this case definitely worse) of leadership qualities that many on the right, and Republican political operatives in particular, totally lack.
In what must either be a political “death wish,” or the epitome of abject cowardice and stupidity, Republicans are once again backing away from the difficult issues that would clearly delineate their conservative position. Thus they make it easier for Democrats to appear as “centrists.”
Worse yet, where Republicans abandon any fervent advocacy of worthwhile issues for fear of appearing extreme, Democrats quickly move in to assume the “moral high ground.” No clearer example of this unfortunate phenomenon exists than the present debacle involving the President’s judicial nominees.
With liberal judges regularly flouting the law and any constitutional precepts undergirding it, Republicans had a golden opportunity to contend for pro-Constitution nominees on the grounds that it is the job of such people to uphold that document. Thus, the prevention of such appointments by obstructionist Democrats is an undisguised effort to continue the desecration of the Constitution.
Yet few if any Republicans are willing to contend for the President’s nominees in such a manner, fitting though it may be. Hence, as debate heats up, it is the Democrats who are casting the whole controversy as a heroic effort on their part to “protect” the American people from the supposed ravages of “conservative extremists” on the bench.
The manufactured “controversy” surrounding House Majority Leader Tom Delay represents nothing more than the same battle on another front. Knowing how timid Republicans tend to be in the face of major political firestorms, the liberal media/Democrat cabal now attempts a character assassination of the Texas Republican, predicated on charges that are at best, selectively leveled and vastly overblown.
Unfortunately, the liberal press did not have to look very far in order to find a Republican “moderate” who was willing to carry their water. Congressman Christopher Shays of Connecticut, in an effort to undermine Delay and thus move the Republican Party to the left (the undying hope of GOP liberals) unleashed a blistering attack on him, ultimately calling for his resignation.
Irrespective of their numerical minority status in the Congress, Democrats are clearly defining the terms of the debate and ultimately, seizing the reins of leadership. But it is an effort at which they simply could not succeed, were it not for the disgraceful manner in which the invertebrate wing of the Republican Party has shied from the battle and thereby ceded leadership to them.
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