Departing Principles
When even the Washington Post has to scold the Democrats for their anti-trade policies, you know it has to be bad. They slam the intellectual dishonesty of the Democrats over the Colombian free trade deal pretty hard this morning.
There are two important countries at the north of South America. One, Colombia, has a democratic government that, with strong support from the Clinton and Bush administrations, has bravely sought to defeat brutal militias of the left and right and to safeguard human rights. The other, Venezuela, has a repressive government that has undermined media freedoms, forcibly nationalized industries, rallied opposition to the United States and, recent evidence suggests, supported terrorist groups inside Colombia. That U.S. unions, human rights groups and now Democrats would focus their criticism and advocacy on the former, to the benefit of the latter, shows how far they have departed from their own declared principles.
The Post points out that there has been real progress in Colombia in controlling violence by President Álvaro Uribe. Things are not by any means perfect there, but they are getting better. A free trade deal would go a long way toward recognizing and rewarding that progress.
Barack Obama has stated that he would meet - without preconditions - with thugs like Hugo Chavez while the Democrat-controlled Congress stonewalls an ally. What kind of a message is the world getting from these behaviors? Simple: it's better to be an enemy of the United States than it is to be a friend. That's pretty sad.
Politics, World news | Gaius Sunday, 20 April , 2008
By martian, Sunday, 20 April , 2008 @ 12:36 pm
There is another message the world is getting, as well - if you want to go on being criminal, root for Barack Obama to win in November. I saw on the news this morning that Hamas has stated that it hopes Barrie wins the presidency. What does that tell you?
By Plumb Bob, Sunday, 20 April , 2008 @ 2:32 pm
It’s time we all recognize that the hard left element that controls the Democratic party these days is not liberal, it’s Marxist. Consequently, it supports whoever advocates the spread of international Marxism. This explains the Left’s support for anti-capitalists everywhere, and their opposition to capitalism, especially within the US.The Washington Post probably represents that part of the Democratic party that we can still call "liberal." I don’t respect modern liberalism much, but it’s a great deal less destructive than Marxism, and a lot more honest as well.<a href="http://www.plumbbobblog.com/?p=215">Based on his personal history,</a> it appears that Barack Obama represents the Marxist wing of the Democratic party, and not the liberal wing.