As Memorial Day draws to a close, liberals are waiting to jump out of their cages of graciousness. They were put on strict orders to act normal today. Asking them to wait until midnight asks for too much, so since it is past 5pm, let’s declare the day over and let them end this ceasefire. Republicans such as myself praised John Murtha, Charles Rangel, Jim Webb and John Kerry for their military service while fiercely disagreeing with their views on the War on Terror. I wonder how many liberals praised Bob Dole, George HW Bush and John McCain today.
Republicans and conservatives can now go back to disagreeing with liberals, and liberals can go back to despising conservatives. The question becomes as we get to 2008 what type of behavior will govern the liberals. Will it be Rahm Emanuel or Howard Dean?
I am not a fan of Rahm Emanuel. I find him arrogant and smug. I am not sure if those qualities are why the Clintons hired him for their cabinet, or if he learned those qualities while working there. Either way, he is a ruthless disciplinarian, which is not easy in a party that makes anarchy seem organized. Going into the 2006 campaign, he demanded that the party field “normal” candidates. The public was not tiliting to the left, or anywhere near liberalism. The public simply felt that the republicans had become complacent and lazy, and had strayed form their principles. If anything, the public had become more conservative on some issues, and voted for democrats as a protest vote. These democrats acorss the heartland were Pro-NRA, Pro-Iraq War, and anti-liberal. Nancy Pelosi was barely allowed to speak the last few weeks of the campaign.
Howard Dean has a different approach. He calls republicans evil, says they are all white Christians (last time I checked I was Jewish), are all wealthy (perhaps my parents hid the money, I remember being middle class), and have never earned an honest dollar in their lives (Does being “Deuce Bigalow” in my spare time count as honest work?). This is fabulous rhetoric if your goal is to burn down the village and alienate potential swing voters. Howard Dean fails to grasp that the goal is not ideological purity. It is winning.
I wonder how many liberals today were crawling out of their skin because they badly wanted to protest, but were under orders not to do so. I can picture Rahm Emanuel taking Moveon.org teenagers into a military “normalcy” camp and giving them clean haircuts and shaves, while forcing them to put on clean shirts.
The democrats listening to Rahm Emanuel, Bruce Reed, Al From and other DLC tilted individuals understand that those are the only democrats that ever win anything. James Carville, as bombastic as he is, does not compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. The democrats listening to Howard Dean, the Daily Kos, George Soros and the like are about a left wing orthodoxy, where being a moderate democrat is akin to being a facist.
The democrats in 2008 will have to decide which path to follow. Right now the Howard Dean wingnut wing is winning. Bush Derangement Syndrome is their guide, and they have been against the President for so long that they cannot envision what they would actually do if they won an election. So far the Deaniacs are 0 for 26, with Ned Lamont being their latest moral victory.
I have confidence in the democrats. They will choose Howard Dean. They simply have too much rage, anger and venom to offer Americans anything positive. Time will tell if I am right, but the last six years are a good indication. Rahm Emanuel was able to keep the barbarians at the gate in 2006, but they are ready to knock it down.
Rahm Emanuel is a pragmatist, and Howard Dean is an ideologue. Ideologues simply in most cases do not have the ability to understand that getting things done requires pragmatism. This does not mean compromise everything you stand for (although the democrats have done that), but it does mean separating political opponents from enemies.
Let republicans and conservatives everywhere hope that the activists in the democratic party continue to party like it’s 1968, 1972, 1980, and 2004. They are the gift that keeps on giving. Many Americans look at liberals, and while not always thrilled with republicans, know that they prefer calm adults to enraged children. Those who question this analogy should go to a protest rally and videotape the language.
Rahm Emanuel was temporarily able to keep the jackals from gnawing themselves to death. He will most likely not be able to succeed for much longer. The Deaniacs are out for blood, and they are prepared to yell, scream, curse, and vandalize innocent republican lawn signs and car bumper stickers their way to getting their point across. Republicans can only hope so. They are as entertaining to watch on You Tube as they are destructive to the normal democrats that Rahm Emanuel is desperately trying to claim are friends to mainstream Americans.
Let the civil war begin, and may the lunatics speak loudly, proudly, and liberally.
eric
“Normal Democrats.” Hunh? Where? Isn’t that sort of an oxymoron? LOL! (Sorry, I just couldn’t stifle that!) You’re correct; the language used by many liberals is so horrible I was forced to turn on comment moderation and leave it on. I won’t be subjected to their profanities and certainly won’t put my readers through it. The lunatics definitely speak loudly.
When I first began blogging I thought that conservative bloggers were joking when the said liberalism was a mental disorder. They weren’t joking, and it definitely is! Great post. :)
Off topic: I can’t seem to e-mail you and while trying to go to the link in the e-mail you sent me I kept getting an error message. Weird!