What's Wrong With the Democrats?

In a word: everything. Let me preface my comments with this: I used to be a Democrat. Dyed in the wool, as they say. My Mom and Dad are Democrats, God love 'em. I campaigned for Jimmy Carter in 1976. I didn't vote for him then, but only because I was still a couple years away from voting age. In 1980, I did vote for him, but we all know now how that worked out for the better.

I continued to vote almost exclusively for Democrats through Bill Clinton's election in 1992. Yes, I voted for Clinton then, and as it would turn out, he was the last Democrat I've voted for.

I used to have this perception of Democrats, as did many others back then, that the Democrats were "for the little guy". The foreign policy aspects of a candidate didn't seem to carry as much weight, for the simple reason that there was one bad guy: the Soviets. Even the Democrats knew that, so I never had to consider whether a candidate was for us or against us. So being a "little guy" myself, I went with the Democrats.

But a funny thing happened to the Democrats on the way to the end of the cold war. They became socialists. More accurately, they allowed their latent socialistic tendencies to come to the fore. Suddenly, the "peace dividend", all that money that was going into stopping the Red Menace at the Fulda Gap, could be used for social programs. Coincidentally, this was at the same time Bill and Hillary Clinton became co-President.

Clinton (Bill, that is), wasted no time in eviscerating the Pentagon budget while Clinton (Hillary, that is), just as quickly set up her sub rosa task force to establish nationalized health care. With hungry eyes on all that money formerly wasted on defense, Hillary figured she'd have a nearly unlimited budget to set up a national health care system to rival that of, well, Canada's I guess. Fortunately, the outcry both inside and outside the beltway succeeded in both spiking Hillary's health care scheme and putting Hillary in her place. Which, in case anyone's forgotten, was that of first lady.

Since that time, the Democratic party has been in accelerating decline. Sure, they won the White House again in '96, but in the absence of any other pressing issues, it could only be because 49% of the electorate wanted to see what sexual shenanigans Clinton would pull off next. Were they rewarded, or what?

Without belaboring Clinton's other transgressions, he did one thing (well actually, a series of things) that set the tone for the Democratic party we have today. By authorizing the sale of sensitive weapons technology to China in exchange for contributions to the Democratic National Committe and other Democratic campaign interests, Clinton set the tone for today's Democrats. That tone is to forget about doing what's right, do what's right for the party.

Ever since Bush beat Gore in 2000, the Democrats have been a seething mass of lunacy, viewing everything through the prism of that defeat. No matter what Bush says or does, it's wrong in the eyes of the devout Democrat. In fact, I'll bet you next week's paycheck that if Bush were to propose, verbatim, Hillary's 1993 health care plan as his own, the Democrats would be howling from the rooftops that it's a Rove-Cheney-Halliburton profiteering scheme.

The American voters must come to grips with the fact that the Democratic party does not have the nation's best interests at heart. Their only priority now is to win elections, but they have no plan for what to do if they regain power. Sure, we know they'll abandon Iraq, raise taxes and ignore the threat of Islamofascism, but what else are they going to offer us?