The drastic and rapid decline of the Democratic Party was marked by the sweeping Republican wins in the elections of 2000, 2002 and 2004, as well as the success of the recent elections in Afghanistan and Iraq.Furthermore, this was emphasized by Sen. Barbara Boxer?s (D-CA) harassing interview of Condelezza Rice?s Secretary of State confirmation hearing.
Liberals are just digging their hole deeper and deeper! Even as Dr. Rice?s confirmation hearings approached, liberal cartoonists published racist depictions of Rice as Aunt Jemima and a slave. This comes from the party that claims its electoral base as the African-American population.
But God forbid ever calling a Democrat racist! Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) was a card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan. Still, it would be incredulous to insinuate any racism from the left. Go figure! Sen. Boxer and her fellow democratic colleagues, dramatized Rice?s hearings to bark over their party?s significant losses in the elections so far this decade.
Anyone who thinks Boxer?s comments were “heartfelt” has been severely misled, in my view. Her statements were nothing but a desperate rant.
Yes, Sen. Boxer – we hear you. But, as witnessed last November – we don?t care! It seems your party now favors “Dean-esque” tactics, rather than the intelligent route of enacting a rational confirmation process for an appointee who is highly qualified and considerably popular.
Where is the party of Franklin Roosevelt? Where has the stature of Harry Truman disappeared to? These upstanding Democrats built a party of morals, values and strength. Today?s Democratic party falls on the waffle structure of John Kerry for leadership. It proudly displays former President Jimmy Carter, American history?s worst modern-day President.
It hails its chief spokesperson as Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who is intent on driving the Democratic Party off a bridge…. much like in 1969 when he killed a female “companion” by driving her off a bridge, then failed to report the accident until the next day when he sobered up and had his lawyers present. The liberals are sinking.
“The [Democratic] Party is no longer a link to most Americans,” Former Sen. Zell Miller writes in his book “A National Party No More.” He also says that “each advocacy group has become more important than the sum of the whole. It is a rational party no more. It is a national party no more. So, bang the drum slowly and play the fife lowly, for the sun is setting over a waiting grave.” Basically, Zell is correct.
If the party continues to rely on angry, Bush-hating rhetoric (like Boxer?s) to be its voice, then they are going to face defeat similar to 2000, 2002 and 2004. Yet, as we speak, liberals have just anointed their new grave digger: Howard Dean. In the new Democratic Party Chairman?s own words: “Yeeeaaaahhhhhh!!”
Rick Loughery is a junior majoring in Political Science.