Moderate parties a must for America
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away there lived a man. This man was just human, but his spirit was that of the immortal. This man overcame the great adversity of a childhood illness. His family was very prominent, but when World War II rolled around, he volunteered for enlistment with the Army. The Army refused him because of his weak body, but he used the persuasion of the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence to get him into the Navy. In August of 1943, his boat was attacked by a Japanese Destroyer and he was injured. Of course, that didn’t stop him as he swam to rescue a fellow Navy man. He went on to give even more back to his country and became the 35th President of this great nation.
Before you get out your $140 history textbook, I’ll save you the time and tell you the answer. John F. Kennedy served our nation admirably on the front line and in the White House. Despite narrowly defeating Richard Nixon in the election of 1960, JFK unified our nation with fresh ideas. Some of these ideas included cutting the income tax, building up our military, and being tough on Communism. Kennedy even took the unpopular position of supporting the death penalty despite his Roman Catholic beliefs were vehemently opposed to his position.
Perhaps the most amazing part of Kennedy’s presidency was during his inaugural address when he said “ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Unfortunately, I feel as though Democrats have strayed from this very important statement. By supporting an ever growing welfare state, based on billions of dollars per year on government entitlements, Democrats are showing that they believe the question Americans should be asking is "what can the government do for me today” And it’s even more than welfare and medicaid that Democrats champion now. In addition, Democrats now champion socialist causes like socialized medicine and even the government picking up the tab on individuals’ foreclosures when they are unable to pay their mortgages. There is no question that Democrats today have proven themselves to be a horrific perversion of Kennedy’s vision.
Last November, Democrats were empowered by the American people to end an unpopular war and keep President Bush in check. Their record on the war has been the exact same as that of the Republicans that were running the Congress and the Senate before them. They give Bush what he wants. Bush wants a 20,000 soldier surge in Iraq. Democrats let him have it. Bush wants more funding for the troops in Iraq. And Democrats let him have it. In fact, the Democratic congress has the distinction of having the lowest approval ratings in all of U.S. history. Bush has approval rating around the mid to high 30s. The congress has approval ratings in the 16-18 percent range.
However, Democrats haven’t been this bad throughout all of the post Kennedy era. In 1992, Democrats nominated Bill Clinton, a Southern Governor who supported fair trade, middle class tax cuts, balancing the budget, and even the second amendment. Republicans, who felt betrayed after President George H. W. Bush raised their taxes in 1991, flocked to the charismatic Governor as he won the general election in a landslide. I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not President Clinton’s biggest fan, but the fact is he had a generally unifying message based on mostly mainstream ideas. Democrats today seem to have a litmus test for nominating a candidate. That candidate must support abortion, must support gay marriage, must never say they will cut taxes, and must have a comprehensive health care plan that involves federalizing the whole health care industry. Ironically, the Republican Party has become the one more willing to nominate the candidate they don’t completely agree with. Rudy Giuliani, the GOP front-runner, supports abortion rights, gay marriage, is against the second amendment and raised taxes in New York reportedly 22 times (that fact comes from a Mitt Romney quote, so you can decide for yourself the authenticity of it).
Proof positive that the Democrats have become far too radical is the fact that in the last Presidential election they didn’t carry a single Southern state. No President has ever been elected without winning at least one southern state. Democratic National Committee Chairman, Howard Dean, has said that there are only three issues that matter in the South, “God, guns and gays.” Dean, a Vermont native, clearly hasn’t spent enough time in the South. But who am I to question the Democrats’ 41 state strategy?
The best thing for America is moderate, Constitutional, freedom loving parties that unify our great nation. After all, we are America, we like to have options.
Send a letter to the editor about this column
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Sep 14 2007. Filed under Opinion.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
