Left out
Like being a fan of the Chicago Cubs, it must be very frustrating to be a hard-left Democrat, this year. First, they lost the national elections somewhat dramatically, placing the majority squarely in the hands of the Republicans. This time, they couldn’t claim Bush was “appointed by the Supreme Court”. He won outright, both the popular and the electoral college votes. Inaugural day, I have heard from many of my friends, was sheer hell. Then, too, Senate majority leader’s job was ripped from the hands of Tom Daschle. On the bright side, the new Senate Majority leader is about as helpful to the Democrats as Daschle once was. He’s just neither a Democrat nor a leader.
Then, the Left’s favorite propaganda machines were outed. Mr. Rather lacked the courage to admit he had erred as a newsman. He retired in ignominy. The New York Times was forced to fire another reporter who made stuff up as he went along, and their subscription numbers continue to drop. CNN’s ratings have plummeted, while Fox News is through the roof. They report, you decide.
They reported evidence that the cause celebre of the Left, the United Nations, too, is both inept and corrupt -- inept at aiding the people ravaged by the tsunami and corrupt while supposedly aiding refugees from terror in Africa and Bosnia. The Left -- and their elite counterparts worldwide -- sneered at the arrival of a US Navy aircraft carrier appearing by the wave-wrecked shores of Indonesia, but the American and Australian Marines provided more real aid in that first week than the combined monetary and bureaucratic efforts of the UN have managed since. Elsewhere, UN Peacekeepers forced women and children into prostitution for food. And, let us not go into the oil-for-palaces woes the Annan family is still facing.
And the year just keeps getting worse. There have been free elections in Iraq (and many other “backward lands that are too primitive to grasp the concept of freedom, let alone democracy”). But back home in Illinois, the Democratic Party is catching it for undermining the Constitution, with already 5 convictions for election fraud in East Saint Louis, plus the collapse of large sections of the Chicago Daley machine due to fraud, Rod Blagojevich’s cronies under investigation for multiple misbehaviors, Dick Turban --er, Durbin -- badmouthing the Marines in his attempt to play partisan politics, and Lane Evans forking over fines for election finance shenanigans.
As an offshoot, perhaps, of the damage (financial and other ) from association with the likes of Lane Evans’ campaign, several large chunks of the Teamsters’ Union have demanded that they be allowed to spend their dues as they wish, and not the way their leadership calls it. The members seek separation from the big political machines that keep the Democratic party running, and expect more power at the local level. Some have expressed an interest in supporting the President and his ideas.
Worse for the Dems, the President is going to be appointing at least two, and possibly three justices to that maddening elite corps, the Supreme Court of the United States. Public opinion is running against filibusters, too, as obstructionist acts. If the Republicans in the Senate even remotely get a clue, finally, that they’re in the majority, the Democrats won’t stand a chance on this front, either. The only Democrat ammunition against the President is “Karl Rove is the Antichrist”, because he may have inadvertently put a reporter on the trail of a prevaricator’s CIA analyst wife. Feh.
But what really hurts the Democrats -- and the Far Left who are too far left even to belong to the party -- is that we have a booming economy, which shrill Senator Clinton refers to as “our ailing economy”. We are now seeing an employment rate better than the average during her husband’s terms (5.0% unemployed, equal to “hot” 1997), a national factory productivity level at an all-time high, tax revenues dramatically increased, and the projected deficit therefore shrinking by nearly a third. Home ownership continues to rise, despite the blow to security that the SCOTUS dealt it last month via eminent domain. Military recruitment has been down a little -- as often happens when there are plenty of other jobs available -- but even the lowly, struggling Army recruiters met their goal this past quarter. The middle class is growing, especially among minorities. And the rising middle class tends to vote conservatively.
In other words, despite the worst the terrorists and the nihilists of the Left have done, America is doing pretty darned well under this Republican management. Obviously, it’s not perfect, since we are, after all, talking about human beings (there have been a few spectacular errors). But it seems that the ones most egregiously dropping the ball have been the ones playing out in Left Field. If they keep losing, they’re going to get kicked out of the league, costing us the bipartisan system. It’s merely disappointing when the Cubs flub, but when the stakes are national, somebody needs to rethink the game plan.
Update: the print edition of this column seems to have been run without the last 3 words. If you know somebody who only reads this via the Daily Review Atlas, please let him/her know I really do complete my sentences, even when I'm having trouble completing my thoughts.
Then, the Left’s favorite propaganda machines were outed. Mr. Rather lacked the courage to admit he had erred as a newsman. He retired in ignominy. The New York Times was forced to fire another reporter who made stuff up as he went along, and their subscription numbers continue to drop. CNN’s ratings have plummeted, while Fox News is through the roof. They report, you decide.
They reported evidence that the cause celebre of the Left, the United Nations, too, is both inept and corrupt -- inept at aiding the people ravaged by the tsunami and corrupt while supposedly aiding refugees from terror in Africa and Bosnia. The Left -- and their elite counterparts worldwide -- sneered at the arrival of a US Navy aircraft carrier appearing by the wave-wrecked shores of Indonesia, but the American and Australian Marines provided more real aid in that first week than the combined monetary and bureaucratic efforts of the UN have managed since. Elsewhere, UN Peacekeepers forced women and children into prostitution for food. And, let us not go into the oil-for-palaces woes the Annan family is still facing.
And the year just keeps getting worse. There have been free elections in Iraq (and many other “backward lands that are too primitive to grasp the concept of freedom, let alone democracy”). But back home in Illinois, the Democratic Party is catching it for undermining the Constitution, with already 5 convictions for election fraud in East Saint Louis, plus the collapse of large sections of the Chicago Daley machine due to fraud, Rod Blagojevich’s cronies under investigation for multiple misbehaviors, Dick Turban --er, Durbin -- badmouthing the Marines in his attempt to play partisan politics, and Lane Evans forking over fines for election finance shenanigans.
As an offshoot, perhaps, of the damage (financial and other ) from association with the likes of Lane Evans’ campaign, several large chunks of the Teamsters’ Union have demanded that they be allowed to spend their dues as they wish, and not the way their leadership calls it. The members seek separation from the big political machines that keep the Democratic party running, and expect more power at the local level. Some have expressed an interest in supporting the President and his ideas.
Worse for the Dems, the President is going to be appointing at least two, and possibly three justices to that maddening elite corps, the Supreme Court of the United States. Public opinion is running against filibusters, too, as obstructionist acts. If the Republicans in the Senate even remotely get a clue, finally, that they’re in the majority, the Democrats won’t stand a chance on this front, either. The only Democrat ammunition against the President is “Karl Rove is the Antichrist”, because he may have inadvertently put a reporter on the trail of a prevaricator’s CIA analyst wife. Feh.
But what really hurts the Democrats -- and the Far Left who are too far left even to belong to the party -- is that we have a booming economy, which shrill Senator Clinton refers to as “our ailing economy”. We are now seeing an employment rate better than the average during her husband’s terms (5.0% unemployed, equal to “hot” 1997), a national factory productivity level at an all-time high, tax revenues dramatically increased, and the projected deficit therefore shrinking by nearly a third. Home ownership continues to rise, despite the blow to security that the SCOTUS dealt it last month via eminent domain. Military recruitment has been down a little -- as often happens when there are plenty of other jobs available -- but even the lowly, struggling Army recruiters met their goal this past quarter. The middle class is growing, especially among minorities. And the rising middle class tends to vote conservatively.
In other words, despite the worst the terrorists and the nihilists of the Left have done, America is doing pretty darned well under this Republican management. Obviously, it’s not perfect, since we are, after all, talking about human beings (there have been a few spectacular errors). But it seems that the ones most egregiously dropping the ball have been the ones playing out in Left Field. If they keep losing, they’re going to get kicked out of the league, costing us the bipartisan system. It’s merely disappointing when the Cubs flub, but when the stakes are national, somebody needs to rethink the game plan.
Update: the print edition of this column seems to have been run without the last 3 words. If you know somebody who only reads this via the Daily Review Atlas, please let him/her know I really do complete my sentences, even when I'm having trouble completing my thoughts.
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