An Open Letter to the Democrats
In the aftermath of the election, the Democrats are soul searching and asking what went wrong. Well I can tell them. I am angry and for good reason. The Democratic Party sold me a Pinto. I was supposed to get great gas mileage and reliability. What I got was left by the side of the road!
What did the Democrats do wrong? Lets start with looks. John Kerry is not the best looking Democratic candidate to run for the presidency. But, he is better looking than Hubert Humphrey. Yes on the heels of an assassinated Bobby Kennedy, the Democrats gave us Hubert Humphrey. What a let down. Unlike Kennedy, Humphrey supported the Vietnam War. Further, he alienated the Southern Democrats creating what has now become the religious conservative right wing of the Republican Party. At one time in Humphrey’s life, he was a fighter. He backed civil rights and many progressive social programs. But when the chips were down. When our boys in uniform were dying for no reason in Vietnam – Humphrey sold out.
Kerry’s insecurity over his looks resulted in picking pretty boy John Edwards. What a disaster. Not only did Edwards lack experience, he was unable to carry his own state. Other than good looks Edwards was weak on agenda, military experience and political infighting. In politics, looks should not matter, but in overcompensating for appearances, the Democrats lost sight of substance.
The lack of substance was not the only sin. When Clinton lost the Congress to Gingrich with the Republicans “Contract with America” the writing was on the wall. Few people in the US want government to do anything for them. The soiled landscape of carcasses from failed social programs leaves behind a patina of waste and alienation. The last thing anyone wants or needs is another government program. Kerry with his plans for everything lost a public that has difficulty concentrating more then 30 seconds on any one subject. Even the Communists want little to do with Marxism – it is time the Democrats caught up with the trend.
Part of missing the trend is pandering to the extreme left. While one initially assumes the Green party is interested in the environment, the truth revealed in platform and performance is the destruction of the industrial base. Greens, Communists and Ralph Nader alike view the corporation as the source of all evil. Yet it is the corporation that creates jobs and pay checks. One cannot talk about reining in the corporation and creating jobs at the same time. The fundamental fact clearly articulated by the Republicans and George Bush is the creation and ownership of wealth. The Republican polices may be twisted in application – running deficits and burdening our children with debt is never a good thing – but the rhetoric matches the American sprit of competition, independence and fair play.
Yes, I know Kerry is an intelligent and brave man. All rhetoric aside, he served with honor in Vietnam and showed even more integrity in his opposition after returning from the war. The Fondaization of Kerry was shameful moment for our country. At that point every Democratic in the country should have raised a window and yelled into the night “I mad as hell and I am not going to take it any more”. Those who sacrificed to end the war are as brave as those who fought it and should share in the honor we bestow on war heroes. The war protestors helped end a brutal conflict and saved millions of lives. The US achieved not a single stated goal of the Vietnam War. Today Vietnam remains one of the few Communist countries in the world. Time and history prove US Vietnam policy was wrong.
However, did John Kerry really run on his Vietnam record? After 9/11 Americans wanted blood and they were not too discriminating as to which Islamist we killed. Kerry bought the hype of killing Iraqis in the name of freedom. He attempted to out macho Bush and steal back the flag. All well and good but where were the rest of the Democrats to back him up. Where was Ted Kennedy with his speech to end the war? Where were the pictures of dead Americans returning in body bags? And, where was the wanted poster for bin Laden. The Democrats, playing it safe, toned down the failure of Bush to get bin Laden. The one place where they had a chance to appeal to the Republican voters they let go for fear Bush would turn up bin Laden at the last moment. It did not matter. Had Bush captured bin Laden the overwhelming follow through would have rolled him into the Whitehouse with a landslide. Even Boston might have turned coat and voted for Bush.
Solidarity was the key. Bush had it – Kerry did not. The Democrats in the Primary overwhelmingly went for Kerry handing him almost a clean sweep, but the biggest deficit was the failure of the liberals to back their man. Whenever the Rove machine started a smear campaign, the liberals gave lip service to Kerry’s weaknesses. By the time the first debate took place, Kerry was so marginalized the public expected to see him crawl onto the stage and start twitching. Kerry got his biggest boost for appearing reasonable and Presidential. The liberals and Democrats by concentrating on Bush bashing failed to support Kerry. Kerry is an experienced politician, a tested warrior, a successful prosecutor and a very active Senator. He has been at the heart of most major investigations by the Senate breaking the scandal over Iran Contra and the BCCI funding. He has written books and has a better handle on international crime and foreign affairs than anyone on the hill. Further, his integrity and honesty are beyond reproach.
All this the liberals squandered allowing a draft dodging alcoholic who barely knew the names of the major world leaders to steal a second election. And here is where the Democrats made their biggest mistake. Would the Supreme Court have so readily overlooked the obvious conflict of interest in Florida in 2000 had the Democrats en mass converged on the state as the Ukrainians did on Kiev? Was the precedence of 2000 tacit permission to manipulate votes in Ohio, Florida and New Mexico this time around? Kerry conceded for the stability of a nation at war. But who put us at war? And how stable is the country with a $500 billion annual deficit, a crashing dollar and a destabilized Middle East?
Liberals are experts at whining, however, action is needed. The Republicans are playing hardball for keeps. They are organized, well funded and willing to do whatever it takes to stay in power. While the Democrats are focusing on what to do in four years the Republicans are gearing up to win even a wider margin in the Senate, House and state governments in 2006. It is time the Democrats stopped squabbling like a pack of dysfunctional raccoons and followed Obama’s example and actually win an election. Liberals deride a corporation for making a profit, but it is the moral obligation of a company to maximize profits. Without profits, they cannot distribute their goods and services to the largest number of people. The same with goes for getting elected. Unless you get elected, your political agenda dies and you are left only to whine or sue.
The correct strategy is to concentrate on the immediate situation. First off, the Ohio and Florida vote needs to be investigated completely. It does not matter that the vote can no longer be reversed. It matters that fraud was committed and it needs to be documented to the American people. Next, the Democrats have to get real and put together an electable platform. Like Gingrich’s “Contract with America” the Democrats need to find the sweet spot in American politics and sell the public on their ability to get the job done. No one was really convinced in 2004 that Kerry could actually deliver a better America. Instead of bashing the other guy the appeal has to be positive and universal.
Once they are centered on a single purpose then the party needs to bond. For only thirteen Democrats to vote against Rice’s nomination is not solidarity. The danger of Rice as Secretary of State or Gonzalez as Attorney General far outweighs the charade of impeaching a President over a stain on a blue dress. By not being completely outraged at the marketing of moral equivalence, the Democrats give license to incredible outrages. Selling arms to our enemies and banking the money for personal gain is a greater vice than being a member of the ACLU. Declaring war on a country under false pretenses and killing 100,000 of the people we are trying to make our allies is far more costly with less gain than universal health care. Jailing Martha Stewart, while Cheney hides details of transactions with Halliburton and Ken Lay, does little to restore faith in the honesty of our corporate executives.
As Barry Goldwater said – “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice”. The time for the Democrats to turn the other cheek is over. Moderation and debate is no substitute for cohesiveness and action. The Republican’s since Richard Nixon have committed grave sins and are deeply corrupt. They have subverted the Constitution and destroyed liberty in the name of law and order. They have abandoned the majority of America and run the country into bankruptcy. All the while, the right wing propaganda machine has smeared good and decent organizations like Planned Parenthood, the NAACP and the ACLU. The ACLU is the American Civil Liberties Union and there charter is to defend the civil rights of all Americans – something the Attorney General of the US is sworn to do, but instead drapes a naked statue in the Justice Department in the name of decency. Again such action is an outrage, yet moral equivalence somehow makes it ok.
For the Democrats to turn the tables they need to follow the advice of Sun Su in the “Art of War”. When destroying an enemy the destruction must be complete. For Robert Bork to dictate appointees to the Federal Court system is a failure on the part of the Democrats. For Ollie North to write about Kerry’s undeserved metals after giving aid and comfort to the enemy shows a complete lack of integrity.
The entire House of Representatives is up for election every two years and a third of the Senate. The Democrats are six seats behind in the Senate and sixteen seats in the House. This is a lot, but a cohesive effort to expose the fraud, corruption and incompetence of the current group could tip the balance. By regaining the balance in the Democrats favor, they would be in a position to turn the tables and impeach both Cheney and Bush. While unprecedented, such a move would define the tone of throwing the rogues out of government. Unlike a soiled blue dress there are adequate high crimes and misdemeanors for a double impeachment. After that the Democrats need to go for the blood and take out the rest of the participants to the right wing propaganda machine. Such action is an moral imperative and anything less fails the American public.
Eric Von Baranov - CEO
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