Demosophia

The Horrible Schizophrenia of the Democrats

God I just hate this Democratic Convention coverage. What in the world did I do that I deserve to sit through a half hour of Ron Reagan's cheesy son lobbing softballs so that Michael Moore can blast them out of the park? "Do you feel sorry for the Republicans, Michael?" Ugh.

Now that the Tour de France is over all I can think of is the distraction presented by the upcoming Olympics, because I just can't stand the party of Jackson any longer. Sayyid Qutb must have had them in mind when he talked about the "horrible schizophrenia of modern life." What else can you call the impossibility of binding together those that call "Minutemen" a bunch of barbarian thugs lopping off the heads of decent people and posting the horrific images on porn sites, with those who claim to have some clever non-intrusive "multi-lateral" (co-dependent) way to fight terrorism? Like this is the first time it ever occured to Europeans to spit contemptuously at Americans. It's a real novelty for them, and all Bush's fault of course.

How could anyone take these jokers seriously? The terrorists don't have to destroy us. We're deconstructing ourselves, turning our core into oppositional nonsense. It's like half the country have become permanent adolescents who think there's no such thing as a difficult choice, or a lesser evil.

For a break I tuned to CSPAN and listened to Ike and Adlai's 1956 convention acceptance speeches, and comparing the two I wondered how I ever became a Democrat? Adlai's "talk" was full of platitudes, and references to world peace, but somehow he still managed to claim that it was he, and not Ike, who was talking about the "hard choices." Who knows what he would have bartered away, just for the sake of maintaing that wishful think? Ike, in contrast, talked about a long, hard, contest with an implacable enemy... the end of which one could hardly imagine. And it was a good 35 years before that end finally began to materialize. Ike saw it. Adlai hadn't a clue. Not even a glimmer.

I got pretty angry at the thought of German and French cycling fans landing big goobers on Lance Armstrong's face as he trudged victoriously up L'Alpe D'Huez. But the fact that he whollaped his closest rival by over a minute on that day was more than a little consolation for those impotent indignities emerging from the dishonored faces of "Old Yurpeans." There's little wonder, frankly, that Lance wins so much. He's got soul!

But this story really makes my heart ache. Moore is apparently helping the terrorists demoralize American troops in Iraq, yet somehow Andrew Sullivan remains enraptured with a Convention that looked pretty run-of-the-mill to me. (Perhaps it's that new party allegience smell.) There was one issue in 1956 that the Democrats had in moral ascendancy over the Republicans, and Adlai Stevenson managed to touch on it several times in his otherwise lackluster acceptance speech.

But try as I might I just do not see gay marriage as rising to the level of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, nor would it ever be worth tacitly side-shuffling over to Michael Moore's side of the great divide, as he dishonors himself and those who touch his garment with the spittle he projects at the face of the Great Republic.

Update: A great mind thinks along the same lines with characteristic eloquence.

Posted by Demosophist at July 27, 2004 02:01 AM | TrackBack