Angry Democrats: Florida and Beyond--Why is the left so mad?

Wall St Journal ^ | 9-15-03 | ROBERT L. BARTLEY

[SJackson]

Rep. Dick Gephardt castigates President Bush as "a miserable failure," and Sen. John Kerry calls for "regime change" in the White House. Even while distancing himself from the rest of the dwarves over Iraq, Sen. Joe Lieberman calls George Bush a "cowboy," echoing Sen. Mark Hanna's description of that miserable failure Theodore Roosevelt.

[Peach]

The Democrats aren't just angry. They are insane.

[Ronin]

They're not just insane. They are evil.

[camle]

sounds like hate speech to me. isn't there a law?

[G.Mason]

"Even while distancing himself from the rest of the dwarves over Iraq, Sen. Joe Lieberman calls George Bush a "cowboy,"......."

You have to like that one!

[knarf]

"isn't there a law?"

Yes, Virginia , there is a law ...

It's called Representative Republic(anism)

It is the law of our land.

I forget the toady, but about a week ago some woman was on Washington Journal and used the phrase "Representative Democracy" twice and no one pulled her coat to it.

[WestPacSailor]

They're not just insane. They are evil.

They're not evil, just angry that their message of handouts and government intrusion into our personal lives is NOT what the majority of Americans want from their government.

That, plus they are really embarrased that the best they can come up with is the likes of Dean, Kerry, and the Rhymin' Reverends.

[ClearCase_guy]

If the 2004 election turns out well, I think the Democrats will lose the ability to declare that they are the rightful rulers and that the people actually prefer their policies.

Which brings up an interesting thought. I can't remember the last time a Democrat presented an actual plan to do something. They seem to have two tactics: attack Republicans, and attack the elections that put Republicans in power. I think they might need to rethink this approach (if Hillary lets them).

[Samwise]

When Democrats assert that the Republicans will do anything to win, their complaint is relevant only in terms of what psychologists call "projection," finding your own faults in others.

Yep! I realized during the Clinton administration that if you wanted to figure out what the Demoncrats were up to, you just had to listen to what they were accusing the Republicans of doing.

[Galtoid]

This kind of voter base anger simply can't sustain itself for very long. Once the Dems nominate a loser (pick one) the entire party will be thrown into a malaise.

They still won't come to grips with the fact that their hero, Bill Clinton, is the ultimate reason why they have lost all their power. Were it not for Clinton, they would probably still enjoy a majority in either the senate or the House. The Clintons are to blame for the party's minority status, yet the Denial continues.

[Samwise]

Yep! The Party of No Ideas. Incapable of building, they only know how to tear down.

[Tank-FL]

Things are really not that different today, Below is a quote from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant 1885.

"Hamer was a life-long Democrat, while my father was a Whig. They had a warm discussion, which finally became angry--over some act of President Jackson, the removal of the deposit of public moneys, I think--after which they never spoke until after my appointment. I know both of them felt badly over this estrangement, and would have been glad at any time to come to a reconciliation; but neither would make the advance. Under these circumstances my father would not write to Hamer for the appointment, but he wrote to Thomas Morris, United States Senator from Ohio, informing him that there was a vacancy at West Point from our district, and that he would be glad if I could be appointed to fill it. This letter, I presume, was turned over to Mr. Hamer, and, as there was no other applicant, he cheerfully appointed me. This healed the breach between the two, never after reopened."

[Samwise]

They still won't come to grips with the fact that their hero, Bill Clinton, is the ultimate reason why they have lost all their power.

For the life of me, I can't understand their devotion to this false messiah. He has betrayed everyone who has ever placed any faith in him. He betrayed his wife, family, country, and his party--always doing what was best for his twisted ego.

I am baffled.

[WestPacSailor]

Were it not for Clinton, they would probably still enjoy a majority in either the senate or the House.

Actually, were it not for the inability of the average Dimocrat voter to punch a hole in a piece of paper with a pointy, metal spike they might actually hold the Presidency. Apparently, however, "push spike through paper" was too much instruction for the voters.

Perhaps next time we can fund a study to pre-punch the ballots for the left. Sure to save 'em a bunch of time when it comes time to get out the vote for more gummint handouts.

[The Clemson Tiger]

You know, they keep bringing up this mantra of 'Democratic anger' over the 2000 election.

However, one of the great under-reported stories of the 2002 midterms was Republican anger over the more correctly characterized Democratic attempt to steal the 2000 election. And we all know how those turned out.

I know that was in my mind every foot of the way from my house to the polls in 2002, and it probably will be again in 2004.

[rightbanker]

I'm not so sure that the majority doesn't want hand-outs. Remember the lefties got basically 51% of the vote in the last election. Nadar was far to the left of Gore.

But it doesn't really matter what the "majority" wants, since that's not the way we elect our presidents.

[AnnaC]

It never fails. What will they pull out of their democratic hat next? I question do the democrats really care about America as a whole. They are a disgrace to American civilization. In 1999 our economy started to slump and most businesses know this. Other leading foreign countries had realized this. 9/11 was not Bush's administrations fault but goes back to changes brought by Janet Reno's handling of foreign intelligence. As far as the war with Iraq ...... Bush knew before hand he had everything to lose (as far as the democratic and American opinion) and nothing on his political future to gain. He accepted this responsibility with it's repercussions. Democrats have wider track of mishandled money than they are willing to admit. It's the same old song with them just different names that's all.

[Bigun]

Why is the left so angry?

Because they are LOOSING on every front and CANNOT stand it!

To quote Cleta Mitchell, "If we don't win... we dont eat!"

[Alissa]

Now, Howard Dean has seen elections overturned. In the 2000 elections in his home state, voters who pulled a Republican lever found their votes being counted for Democratic control of the U.S. Senate. Democrats did not consult the voters when they persuaded Republican Jim Jeffords to give them the crucial 51st vote in organizing the Senate.

Great point!!!!!

[gaspar]

And in their tepid support for a nation at war the Democrats have shown themselves to be craven cowards. Remember what that old Conservative Queen Elizabeth I said: "Cowards falter, but danger is often overcome by those who nobly dare."

[MissAmericanPie]

Projection is right. Demoncrats have done their level best for decades to destroy every facet of this government. Vote fraud on every level, from phoney votes to illegal vote provided by their illegal invasion.

Voting districts that wind like a snake across the voting map, is what they call legitmate representation of minorities.

Selling our nation out to every undermining treaty that comes down the pike from KOYTO to NAFTA, and kissing up to every America hating "ally" that wants to stick a knife in our backs.

[crz]

There is soon to be a three party system. One will be the Puritan Conservative Republican party where they will not tolerate any other view outside their own. Then there will be the Republican party which will allow views expressed openly and consider all. Then there is/will be, the Nationalist Socialist Democratic Party which is already in being and run by the Clintons.

[Let's Roll]

Yep, not only did they sell their souls trying to steal the WH in 2000, trashing the US and FL Constitutions along the way, but they sold them for nothing! They live with that everyday - hence their corrosive hatred for GWB.

[sauropod]

Who cares? I'm still mad about them trying to steal the election in 2000 and what His Slickness was able to get away with in 1998. He should be in prison.

[chimera]

Which brings up an interesting thought. I can't remember the last time a Democrat presented an actual plan to do something. They seem to have two tactics: attack Republicans, and attack the elections that put Republicans in power. I think they might need to rethink this approach (if Hillary lets them).

You are correct that the Rats generally excel at obstruction and destruction, but there is a paradigm we can reference that indicates what Rats will do when in power, and it ain't pretty. Recall the first two years of that long and dreary period of darkness known as the Clinton presidency. Remember that the Rats ran everything. Republicans didn't have the votes in either the House or the Senate to stop anything the Rats wanted to do that required only a simple majority vote. What did we get? Higher taxes, gays in the military, more abortions, scandal after scandal in the Executive Branch, a bunch of women and kids toasted in Waco, a debilitated military, and we almost got the national nightmare of Hillary Care. It was only the remarkable victory of the GOP in the '94 elections that stopped the madness, and on that score we have to be grateful to Gingrich and the others, in spite of their faults, for their prescience in coming up with the Contract With America idea of nationalizing what traditionally would have been locally dominated elections. That effectively neutered (if it only would have done so in other ways) the runamok liberalism of the Clinton presidency.

[sauropod]

"it is simply not true that the Supreme Court let Mr. Bush steal it."

This needs to be said over and over again.

IIRC it was a Florida 'Rat State Assemblyman that was found with a "Votamatic" in the trunk of his car.

Think his name was Schlossburg or something like that.

[leprechaun9]

The answer is very simple: The essence of the DEMOCRAP Party is practicing the Politics of FEAR, DIVISION, and HATRED!

Remember back in 1993 when little Dickie Gephardt went to the elementary school in Virgina and said if the Republican Budget passes, then the children at that school would no longer have lunches provided. What he didn't count on was the next day the Principal of that school told the press that their lunch program was not funded by the Federal Government and the disposition of the Budget would have no impact on their program. ANOTHER LIE by DICKIE!

[ClearCase_guy]

You are correct about how they would govern. I was making an observation about how they campaign. Traditionally, political parties tell people in advance what they will do ("a chicken in every pot"). The Democrats stopped doing that a long time ago. Their plans exist, I'm sure, but they're fairly hidden. The Democrat campaign is one of attack and destroy -- nothing about proposing or building.

[sauropod]

Sign me up for the Puritans then. I'm sick and tired of RINOs selling me out.

[chimera]

I think they know that most people wouldn't buy it if they did. Mondale got slaughtered in '84 when he said what he would do: raise taxes. Everyone knew that's what they wanted to do, but when he said it outright it just confirmed what we already knew. Likewise, in '72, when McGovern said he'd go to Hanoi and beg on his knees for the POWs to be released, he got slaughtered in a similar manner. When Rats say what they will do, they get clobbered, because its so far out of the mainstream.

So they have to fall back on dodging and weaving, lying, co-opting others' ideas, and general obfuscation. Of course, the Rats have had and always will have willing accomplices in the lamestream media, and an electorate that is, by and large, I'm sorry to say, somewhat lazy and unwilling to work any more than necessary to get information other than what is spoon-fed to them by the networks.

That's why I have to laugh when Rats and other pundits complain about the results of the '02 elections and why the reason the Rats didn't do too well was because they didn't do a good job of articulating or getting their message out. I think they lost quite a few races precisely because they did get their message out, and people didn't like it.

[Freedom4US]

The issue of "dimpled chads" was never really explained to my satisfaction - my pet theory is something along the lines of voter fraud. Punching a hole through a single piece of paper is well within the grasp of anyone who should be allowed to vote.

However - Attempting to spoil the vote by ramming a coat hanger or similar tool through hundreds of ballots would probably result in quite a few "dimpled" votes. I'd sure like to see some good reporting on what really happened down there.

[Publius6961]

It has developed over a generation.
They are literally foaming at the mouth because:

The progressives lied and bribed their way into power.
The power corrupts and in their case permanently.
They instituted doublespeak successfully: taxes are "investments" and as long as they mean well, the tax well is bottomless.

They started losing elections.
Their corrupt lying approach became too ridiculous to be believable.
They lost the 2000 election and rage set in because:

They assumed that the voters forgot this is a representative Constitutional Republic, not a democracy.
They assumed that the transformation was comple and permanent.

Their rage is evident daily.
Here in California it is "assumed" that their philosophy reigns because the predominant bumper stickers are all green, "touchie-feelie" and "progressive". A bigger lie could not have been invented by Orwell.

Conservatives and moderates dare not enjoy the simple act of using bumper stickers because their vehicles will certainly be damaged and vandalized.
The left assumes no one is aware of this. I certainly am. And I suspect millions of other also, they just express their belief at the ballot box.

Discussing issues with these people is an excercise in frustration. Anger is just below the surface, no exceptions.

And finally the personal anger that they project 24/7 is a deep and constant hatred for Bush and all his cabinet. It is freaky, unhealthy and pathological.
The only real surprise for me is that they don't destructively act on that anger more often than they do.

[Publius6961]

There is soon to be a three party system. One will be the Puritan Conservative Republican party where they will not tolerate any other view outside their own. Then there will be the Republican party which will allow views expressed openly and consider all.

Give it a rest.
That is not only an ignorant personal opinion and inaccurate, but wanders dangerously close to the subject of this thread.

I for one reject a label. Been a registered democrat all my life, but voted for Nixon, Reagan and both Bushes, and had loads of entertainment in the process.

This label fetish and party uber alles approach to persuasion is puerile and counterproductive.

[Snuffington]

Even Richard Nixon persuaded reporter Earl Mazo to abandon the story that John F. Kennedy's forces stole the 1960 election in Illinois and Texas.

Well, yeah. And for a very obvious reason. Once the parties start giving tacit approval to "conspiracy to disenfranchise" stories, and aim them at their political rivals, it quickly erodes confidence in our elections, and ultimately our entire system of government. Nixon may have been a crook, but he wasn't a nihilist or a demogogue.

That's the real source of Democratic anger. Their leadership has now adopted tactics that cause their base to fear they have been disenfranchised. The fact that it isn't true doesn't matter. Politics in democracies is largely emotional. A small minority ever sees through the party rhetoric to grasp truths that run counter to it. If Howard Dean says its so, no Wall Street Journal article to the contrary will have much impact.

[Gritty]

BTTT

[RoseofTexas]

The reason they are spewing their vemon is plain to see! They are getting away with it and the pubbies are in the closet hiding!! The RATS always knew the pubs are spineless, look what they did to Estrada! Let's just call the pubs...CLOSET REPUBLICANS! All talk and NO BITE!

[Snuffington]

This label fetish and party uber alles approach to persuasion is puerile and counterproductive.

It also misunderstands the notion that parties in the United States represent a myriad of interests - never a monolithic block of opinion. That's why parties have the ability to change their platforms without dissolving.

Parties are essentially no more than loose alliances whose diverse memnbers temporarily agree about how to get certain things done. People who are shocked to find disagreement within their own party don't understand what parties are.

[mtbopfuyn]

"Not only in California but across the nation, he continued, "the right wing of the Republican Party" has conspired "to remove democracy from America."

Is that Hillary I see with her hand up the backside of Dean's suit and moving his mouth?

[StriperSniper]

For the life of me, I can't understand their devotion to this false messiah. He has betrayed everyone who has ever placed any faith in him. He betrayed his wife, family, country, and his party--always doing what was best for his twisted ego.

You may have answered your own question with "always doing what was best for his ". What are the mantras that are pounded into our heads from the media and in the schools, "If it feels good, do it", "whatever it takes to win", "we live in the worlds greatest democracy" and the like. Hearts and minds have been changed by forty years of leftists brainwashing. It doesn't get everyone, it's very uneven, but it is approaching critical mass. We are on the verge of falling into a tyrany of the majority that will see the voice of freedom die, or be forced to fight back, maybe with bloodshed. If it comes to that, count me in with Patrick Henry.

[nosofar]

Is that Hillary I see with her hand up the backside of Dean's suit and moving his mouth?

That may not be all she's moving.

[Publius6961]

Parties are essentially no more than loose alliances whose diverse memnbers temporarily agree about how to get certain things done. People who are shocked to find disagreement within their own party don't understand what parties are.

Thank you for elaborating on my thoughts. That certainly dewfines and identifies the folly and uselessness of confusing the means with the ends.

[FreeAtlanta]

I think it is even more basic. They hate Bush and Ashcroft because they are devote Christians.

Most leftist know they are doing wrong in their lives, and they hate people who are doing what is right. They want to believe that no one can do right. That it is too hard. Then, they see Bush and Ashcroft, and it makes them insanely angry.

I have some left-wingers in my family, and I have some left-wing friends. I know of what I speak.

[crz]

Ignorant is it? I'll give it a rest when the label Rhino is dropped from the party I belong to and those on the far right stop insisting they get their way no matter what the outcome. I.E. Pat Buckanans split. Reagan had a golden rule..do not speak ill of your fellow party members..problem is the religious right has forgotten that rule. If they get their man in from the party, no matter what his veiws, they might just get some of their agenda passed. But nope, got to have it all at once and yesterday. And I dont speak of things like the 10 commandment issue in Al or the rule one nation under god in the pledge. I speak of issues like the dreaded abortion issue. The would get a more favorable law in re the abortion issue if they would work to get at least a moderate in office in the northeast in more states.

[UCANSEE2]

For the life of me, I can't understand their devotion to this false messiah. He has betrayed everyone who has ever placed any faith in him. He betrayed his wife, family, country, and his party--always doing what was best for his twisted ego.

I am baffled.

Never fear, I am here. I can explain.

What you missed was the link of the above statement to the central core of the Democratic Party philosophy.

Perhaps seeing the below actually written out will help you.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY OATH:
I promise to betray everyone who has ever placed any faith in me. I will betray my wife, family, country, and even my party--always doing what is best for my twisted ego.

[jonalvy44]

because they are out of power...like the anti-war nuts when no one would listen to them, they throw temper tantrums and become illogical.

[Publius6961]

There is no question in my mind now that a rest would do you good.
Did you notice at all that I did not attack anyone for not agreeing with me? What others think is irrelevant. What others call me is irrelevant.

I just know that some things are more important than others, and that many become moot if the other more critical issues are not addressed.

Using labels and ranting are totally ineffective.

Have a nice day.

[Our man in washington]

My theory is that the issues that used to unite the Democrats have less traction than they once had. Take abortion. A lot of young people who are getting involved in vegetarianism and animal rights issues. These people are naturally Democrats, but more than a few of them are pro-life. After all, one of their overriding concerns is expanding the definition of protected life.

The issue of Israel also splits the left. Most Jewish Democrats are very pro-Israel, while the radical side of the Democratic party believes all of Arafat's press releases.

The list goes on. The labor unions don't support a lot of the environmental initiatives. Many on the left believe welfare goes along with some accountability while others talk about welfare as a "right."

The problem is that left tends to be very passionate about their issues, so fighting within the party could lead to very passionate disagreements and a weakening of the left as a whole. To prevent this occurrence, the left concentrates on attacking conservatives. On this issue, at least, unity reigns among the left.

[crz]

I can tell your a democrat.

[My2Cents]

The Democrat Party: The Party of Perjury and Obstruction of Justice; the Party of Corruption; the Party of Election Fraud; the Party of Race-Baiting; the Party of Class Envy and Warfare; the Party of Demagoguery; the Party of Appeasement; the Party of Sedition; the Party of angry white physicians from Vermont; the Party of Hand-wringers, Gloom-and-Doomers, Naysayers and Nitpickers...

"We're the Democrat Party....Dividing Americans for Nearly 200 Years!”™

[rcofdayton]

Wrong. The centrist Republican Party will not tolerate conservatives, those who want to reduce the size of government, or eliminate socialist programs. They don't oppose socialism, they just want to be in charge instead of those "disagreeable folks."