Democrats Are Winning... Except at the Polls

[Tigermike 3,046]

June 12, 2006

Democrats Are Winning... Except at the Polls

By Michael Barone

"This is just to cover Bush's (rear) so he doesn't have to answer questions" about things in Iraq, said Rep. Pete Stark, second ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. "This insurgency is such a confused mess that one person, dead or alive at this point, is hardly significant today," said Rep. Jim McDermott, formerly the lead Democrat on the House ethics committee. The deceased, said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a candidate for the 2004 presidential nomination, was a small part of "a growing anti-American insurgency." He said the United States should get out of Iraq. "We're there for all the wrong reasons."

Such was the reaction of the left wing of the Democratic Party to the killing of al-Qaida terrorist Abu Masab Zarqawi in Iraq. It was not the dominant note sounded by Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry all hailed the death of Zarqawi in unequivocal terms. And if Democrats also made the point that his death probably won't end the violence in Iraq, they were only echoing what George W. Bush said.

Nevertheless the Stark-McDermott-Kucinich reaction, echoed and amplified, often scatologically, by dozens of commenters on the popular dailykos.com and myDD.com left-wing Websites, tells us something disturbing about the Democratic Party -- and provides a clue why Democrats were unable to eke out a win in last week's special congressional election in the 50th congressional district of California.

It comes down to this: A substantial part of the Democratic Party, some of its politicians and many of its loudest supporters do not want America to succeed in Iraq. So vitriolic and all-consuming is their hatred for George W. Bush that they skip right over the worthy goals we have been, with some considerable success, seeking there -- a democratic government, with guaranteed liberties for all, a vibrant free economy, respect for women -- and call this a war for oil, or for Halliburton.

Successes are discounted, setbacks are trumpeted, the level of American casualties is treated as if it were comparable to those in Vietnam or World War II. Allegations of American misdeeds are repeated over and over; the work of reconstruction and aid of American military personnel and civilians is ignored.

In all this they have been aided and abetted by large elements of the press. The struggle in Iraq has been portrayed as a story of endless and increasing violence. Stories of success and heroism tend to go unreported. Reporters in Iraq deserve respect for their courage -- this has been an unusually deadly war for journalists, largely because they have been targeted by the terrorists. But unfortunately they and the Bush administration have not done a good job of letting us know that last pertinent fact.

We are in an asymmetrical struggle with vicious enemies who slaughter civilians and bystanders and journalists without any regard for the laws of war. But too often we and our enemies are portrayed as moral equivalents. One or two instances of American misconduct are found equal in the balance to a consistent and premeditated campaign of barbarism.

All of this does not go unnoticed by America's voters. The persistence of violence in Iraq has done grave damage to George W. Bush's job rating, and polls show that his fellow Republicans are in trouble. Yet when people actually vote, those numbers don't seem to translate into gains for the Democrats. In 2004, John Kerry got 44 percent of the votes in the 50th district of California. In the April 2006 special primary, Democrat Francine Busby got 44 percent of the votes there. In the runoff last week, she got 45 percent and lost to Republican Brian Bilbray.

The angry Democratic left set the tone for the 2003-04 campaign for the party's presidential nomination, and John Kerry hoped that it would produce a surge in turnout in November 2004. It did: Kerry got 16 percent more popular votes than Al Gore. But George W. Bush got 23 percent more popular votes in 2004 than in 2000.

In California's 50th, both parties made mammoth turnout efforts, but the balance of turnout and of opinion seems to have remained the same, even though Democrats had a seriously contested primary for governor and Republicans didn't. The angry Democratic left and its aiders and abettors in the press seem to have succeeded in souring public opinion, but they haven't succeeded in producing victory margins for the Democrats. Maybe they're doing just the opposite.

link

[Bottomfeeder 244]

Another bias ring wingnut site.

[Captain Liger 0]

Another bias ring wingnut site.

240155[/snapback]

Riiiiiiiiight. And the sites you post from on here are SO impartial.

[Bottomfeeder 244]

Another bias ring wingnut site.

240155[/snapback]

Riiiiiiiiight. And the sites you post from on here are SO impartial.

240164[/snapback]

LOL.

[Bottomfeeder 244]

To answer the question, it is because liberals are anti-war, anti-war profiteering, anti-absolutism and anti-capitalist. Capitalism profits from the labor of the lower classes of the working poor and labor. The suppression of wages, due to outsourcing and repressive legislation, has undermined the backbone of the US economy. I know I'm tired of working for less or right to work, whichever you wish. It takes years to prefect a trade, where as college educated individuals make more money right out of college. Not that anything is wrong with that, but the college educated carry out the agenda of the corporations, making them the opposition to labor. That's right, low wages are a direct result of marketing strategies of major corporations.

Class Structure:

a. The upper class: the corporate rich

b. The upper middle class: professional / managerial

c. The middle class: clerical / sales

d. The working class: skilled and unskilled

e. The lower class: the poor / an underclass?

http://carbon.cudenver.edu/public/sociolog...cs/topic4c.html

[Tiger in Spain 0]

To answer the question, it is because liberals are anti-war, anti-war profiteering, anti-absolutism and anti-capitalist.

You left out anti-American.

[DKW 86 7,437]

Class Structure:

a. The upper class: the corporate rich or the Political Elite?

b. The upper middle class: professional / managerial or Teachers and Journalists?

etc