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November 05, 2004

Send this man to France

He and Chirac would get along just fine.

Paul Krugman is obviously missing something important in his life. I don't know whether he didn't get the puppy he wanted when he was six or got sand kicked in his face when he was 17 or ... well. I just knew he wasn't going to take the election of GW very well. If nothing else, he's just too damned predictable

President Bush isn't a conservative. He's a radical - the leader of a coalition that deeply dislikes America as it is. Part of that coalition wants to tear down the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt, eviscerating Social Security and, eventually, Medicare. Another part wants to break down the barriers between church and state. And thanks to a heavy turnout by evangelical Christians, Mr. Bush has four more years to advance that radical agenda.

Paul, one gets the feeling you wouldn't even piss on a conservative if said conservative were on fire and here you are trying to define just who is and is not an "authentic" conservative. No thanks, Paul. Give it up.

And people of faith aren't trying to establish a theocracy, they are just tired of being shoved in a closet and made fun of. They want their rights to participate in the democracy.

Sound familiar?

Democrats are now, understandably, engaged in self-examination

Where? I haven't seen it. Oh, I've seen the fingerpointing. I've heard Chris Matthews sighing about the "two countries" and Gloria Allred brush off the "homophobes" right to vote. I've heard and read numerous discussions about tactics and articulation, but self-examination? Naw. Hasn't happened yet.

But while it's O.K. to think things over, those who abhor the direction Mr. Bush is taking the country must maintain their intensity; they must not succumb to defeatism.

President Bush cannot "take" this country anywhere it doesn't want to go. And just what kind of chutpah are you demonstrating, Paul, that you personally know that all the people who voted GW back into office are too stupid to be as enlightened as you are otherwise they'd never be going in the wrong direction?

This election did not prove the Republicans unbeatable. Mr. Bush did not win in a landslide. Without the fading but still potent aura of 9/11, when the nation was ready to rally around any leader, he wouldn't have won at all. And future events will almost surely offer opportunities for a Democratic comeback.

Paul starts out with a strawman argument, then gets to the meat of his envy. How absolutely unfair that 9/11 happened with GW in office. Gads, the gall to have to acknowledge that those those icky Republicans could rise to the occasion of leading the country after such an attack. And then, well, to almost hope for a Democrat to have such an "opportunity."

Interesting moral touchstone there. Some people view 9/11 as a horrible tragedy and an act of war. Some people view it as a political opportunity. We know more clearly than ever before just what type of person you are, Paul.

I don't hope for more and worse scandals and failures during Mr. Bush's second term,

Yeah, right [snort]

but I do expect them. The resurgence of Al Qaeda, the debacle in Iraq, the explosion of the budget deficit and the failure to create jobs weren't things that just happened to occur on Mr. Bush's watch. They were the consequences of bad policies made by people who let ideology trump reality.

What we witness in this section is a prime example of projection. Those people who understood that 9/11 was as act of war by Islamists, were acting according to reality. Those that figure terrorism was just a "nuisance" until GW came along to get Al Qaeda all hot and bothered are the ones eschewing reality in favor of their leftist ideology.

So what should the Democrats do?

It's your message, Paul! Look to your message!

One faction of the party is already calling for the Democrats to blur the differences between themselves and the Republicans. Or at least that's what I think Al From of the Democratic Leadership Council means when he says, "We've got to close the cultural gap." But that's a losing proposition.

:::sigh::: oh well, never mind. Continue being tone-deaf to the people around you, to the people who live in places other than NYC or Frisco.

But Democrats are not going to get the support of people whose votes are motivated, above all, by their opposition to abortion and gay rights (and, in the background, opposition to minority rights). All they will do if they try to cater to intolerance is alienate their own base.

Yessirreebob, Paul. You caught us GW supporters out. We don't give a fiddle-d-dee about our family's security or not giving the UN a veto over our way of life or about promoting democracy to enhance our own security... no, we is after them damned queers .. we does want our wimmin barefoot and breeding ... and damned we does want our mi-NOR-it-tees to know their damned places... Billy-Bob! Git d'truck off them cindy-blocks and some tires on it, we aim to go to town and scare us some miNORitees. Yeehaw, that be sum fun.

What they need to do now is develop a political program aimed at maintaining and increasing the intensity.

Again, ignore the fact that 51% of the voters reject your basic message. Just keep thinking that if you TALK LOUDER and SPEAK SLOWER that the dumbbunny Republicans you deride 24/7 will "get" your message. Keep up that "intensity", Paul. I bet you can get it all the way to 11!

Heads up to readers: I'll be starting a long-planned break next week,

Good idea! Makes ME happy.

I'll be back in January.

No! Go ahead, take longer. Please.

But Democrats mustn't give up the fight. What's at stake isn't just the fate of their party, but the fate of America as we know it.

Again, Paul, you are operating in a different reality, with a vision of America of how you would like it, not the reality of what it is or what it stands for. You are doomed to frustration and loss until you actually do some self-examination and realize American reality is NOT confined to a few blocks in Manhattan, Hollywood or Nob Hill.

Let's reiterate the very basic tenets of America

Let me know when Democratic self-examination suddenly realizes they need to embrace that tenets again instead of sneering at them.

Posted by Darleen at November 5, 2004 01:30 AM

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