Forward Into The Past*
There is an editorial in the Opinion-Journal today that describes the attacks from the left on both McCain and Lieberman. They entitle it "Days of Rage", hearkening back to the Vietnam anti-war protests.
Rude college kids and left-wing professors are hardly a new story. But the ugliness of the New School crowd toward Mr. McCain reveals the peculiar rage that now animates so many on the political left. Dozens of faculty and students turned their back on the Senator, others booed and heckled, and a senior invited to speak threw out her prepared remarks and mocked their invited guest as he sat nearby. Some 1,200 had signed petitions asking that Mr. McCain be disinvited.
"The Senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded," said senior Jean Sara Rohe, which makes us wonder what ideals, and manners, she learned at home. "I am young and though I don't possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that preemptive war is dangerous. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction."
Speaking of "havoc," Ms. Rohe spoke only blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center. The Senator who spent years in the Hanoi Hilton reacted with admirable restraint to these insults, and readers who want to see his remarks can find them posted here.
I've posted quite a lot on both McCain's treatment and on Lieberman's position right now. The Opinion-Journal is quite right to bring the two events together, for they truly are caused by the same people. Already, the anti-war crowd is trying it's best to turn the Iraq war into another Vietnam politically. They are driving further and further to the left and using exactly the same tactics as they did then. Demonize the soldiers, spread hate and use every propaganda tool available.
The left's larger goal is to turn the Democratic Party solidly against the war on terror, and especially against its Iraq and Iran fronts. Mr. Lamont's performance will be noticed by Democratic Presidential hopefuls, some of whom (Al Gore, John Kerry) are already maneuvering to get to Hillary Rodham Clinton's antiwar left. Well before 2008, this passion will also drive sentiment among Democrats on Capitol Hill. If they recapture either the House or the Senate this fall, a legislative drive to withdraw from Iraq cannot be ruled out.
We doubt all of this will help Democrats with the larger electorate, which whatever its doubts about Iraq does not want a precipitous surrender. Americans haven't trusted a liberal Democrat with the White House during wartime since Vietnam, which is when the seeds of the current antiwar rage were planted. The great mistake that leading Democrats and anti-Communist liberals made during Vietnam was not speaking up against a left that was demanding retreat and sneering at our war heroes. Will any Democrat speak up now?
There's the real danger here. If the Democrats continue to veer left, they will lose the center they need to gain office. The more the anti-war message is embraced, the less electable the party becomes. The less trustworthy on national defense it seems, the less likely they'll be trusted by the electorate. Democrats have paid the price for not speaking up against the excesses of the left for going on 40 years now. Another 40 or so would see them unable to elect a dogcatcher, much less a president.
*The title line of this post is from The Firesign Theater, a comedy group that was popular back around the time of the Vietnam anti-war protests. So it's actually doubly appropriate in this context.
By Scott W. Somerville, Monday, 22 May , 2006 @ 8:30 am
You’re so right. I voted for Jimmy Carter twice, but the Democrats I used to know don’t exist any more.
Sigh.
It’s hard to see a once-great party lose its collective mind.
By Gaius, Monday, 22 May , 2006 @ 8:31 am
This is going to end up badly if they don’t see it in time.
By Brian Murray, Monday, 22 May , 2006 @ 9:05 am
I think we’re all Bozos on this bus!
By Gaius, Monday, 22 May , 2006 @ 9:18 am
Another fan!
Nick Danger, Third Eye!
By Robert, Monday, 22 May , 2006 @ 5:18 pm
I’d just like to see them stop carrying water for corporate America.
We already have a party with this as their main function.
By Brian Murray, Monday, 22 May , 2006 @ 11:15 pm
Nick Danger is great!
“I smell a rat and I think he’s got my script!” That Rocky Roccoco is a rat! A giant Rat from Sumatra!
Bit of FT wisdom:
Don’t crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers.
When I graduate I’m going to find a bunch of guys that dress alike and follow them around.
And the age old question; How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anwhere at all!
Firesign Theater fan (And I thought I was the only one!)
By Gaius, Tuesday, 23 May , 2006 @ 5:40 am
Frigate Matilda, frigate Matilda, won’t you come frigate Matilda with me!
Listen, it ticks.
No, the dog has ticks
Then we must flee!