October 11, 2006

Evolution of the Democratic Platform

It is quite fascinating to trace the evolution of Democratic talking points during this election cycle. From highlighting former Congressman Foley’s sexual curiosities, to complaining about congressional Republicans’ excessive tendency to adopt the liberal view of government spending, to claiming that GOP senators find great joy in stuffing deer head into black families’ mailboxes, the Democrats seem to have run out of arguments a month too early.

The Democrats began the cycle by planning to associate the Republican Party with a culture of corruption. Once they realized that some of their own had been participating in that culture, they thought, “Hey, at least we still have the CIA leak scandal.” But then Richard Armitage finally came out with the truth exonerating President Bush, thus ruining that plan.

When it became clear that the corruption card could not be played, the Democrats thought they would take a rare action and tackle the issues. They would not, of course, publicly discuss their plan to increase taxes, their intention to appoint Supreme Court Justices who believe that the Founding Fathers send weekly updates for the Constitution from their graves, or their strategy to continue pretending that Social Security will not collapse in the coming decades.

The Democrats would instead talk about things that appear to be bad, such as, say, gas prices. Frustratingly, however, just as that initiative began to take hold and promised to be fruitful, gas prices started to tumble, and rapidly so. Granted, as liberals would have us believe, it was an ingenious conspiracy and a grand showing of manipulative influence by the Republicans, but it happened nonetheless.

“Well, at least we could complain about the economy, right?” wondered many young, starry-eyed Democrats as they daydreamed about congressional majority. Though undoubtedly utilized by some Democrats still today, the bad-economy claim was found to be difficult by many more. If the Dow Jones is now breaking records on a daily basis, and unemployment is at its lowest point in five years, what can be attacked?

Having failed to find a legitimate economic indicator that would convince Americans that the economy is, in fact, in the shape that Democrats wish it was in, it was time to move on to Plan C: Attack the Republicans for doing things the Democrats would proudly do themselves. Yes, it makes virtually no sense, but somehow it is true.

One such example is government spending. It has been quite incredible to watch Democrats attacking the GOP for doing something that is essentially in the Democratic platform. President Bush and the Republican Congress have massively increased spending, enlarged the federal government and failed to curtail rampant pork. And now the Democrats are protesting it, even though that is the exact thing on which they are basing their campaigns. Truly an intriguing phenomenon.

Another such attack on the Republicans from the right side of the political spectrum appears in immigration. That’s right. Democrats are now so concerned about illegal immigration that they have repeatedly attacked Republican candidates for not standing up to it. This stance is, of course, completely consistent with the Democrats’ continuous struggle against illegal immigration in Congress, right? Sure.

Though it is still always pleasant to see Democrats attacking Republicans for not being conservative enough, the recent authorization to build a wall on the southern border, in addition to an impressive reduction in the budget deficit thanks to increased tax revenues from a strong economy, have forced the Democrats to find another point of attack.

The problem is, they have run out of ways to appeal to the American people. The Foley scandal was a Godsend, as easy as it is to dig up similar Democratic scandals that went unpunished by the party. But it certainly says something when the Democrats’ best argument for making a historical change in the leadership of the world’s only superpower is that one Republican congressman was interested in a young man of his own sex.

Sadly, the fact that Democrats are up in the polls says just as much about how pathetic, fiscally irresponsible and weak on immigration Republicans must have been in the last few years. The American people would probably vote them out of office even if they were the only ones running. Which, in turn, shows how even more out of touch the Democrats must be to not win this election in a landslide.