SINthysist
Rural Racist Homophobe
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There Is Nothin' Like a Leader
John L. Perry
Sept. 13, 2002
Pity poor Democrats in this election season. Like the sailors singing in "South Pacific," their lament is "What don't we feel? We don't feel good!"
The chorus in that marvelously memorable song "There Is Nothin' Like A Dame" kept on complaining: "What ain't we got? We ain't got dames!" and "What don't we get? You know damn well!"
Oscar Hammerstein II might as well have been writing his lyrics for the 2002 crop of Democrats seeking to keep their hold on the Senate and grab it back in the House of Representatives.
Leadership Requires a Leader
While the Democrats do have girls, now minus Cynthia McKinney, what they don't have is even one national leader. A passel of wannabes isn't the same as a president leading the nation.
And, after more than a year and a half of a Republican in the White House, Democrats have yet to lay their hands on even one issue that sticks. Handfuls of mud slung at George W. Bush just aren't cutting it with the voters.
This is not how the Democratic National Committee drew up its midterm congressional campaign. Put yourself in the shoes of Democratic candidates. They keep looking to the DNC for guidance, for a silver bullet, for a formula to override the public confidence in the wartime president, all to no avail.
What don't they get? They don't get squat!
An Unenviable Comparison
In stark contrast, here's what fate has dealt Republicans this year:
On the international front, Bush was the right man in the right place at the right time in history.
He restored the nation's confidence in its military by demonstrating his own respect for America's sons and daughters in uniform.
When Osama bin Laden plunged the country into the American War on Terror, Bush accepted the challenge thrust upon him and proved his greatness as a wartime leader.
He insisted upon a consolidation of federal powers in a single agency to enable a president to wage an accountable and effective homeland defense against terrorists.
He oversaw the counterattack against al-Qaeda as a worldwide terrorist mafia and, for starters, liberated Afghanistan, one of the most repressive of radical Islamist nations.
He further demonstrated his leadership vision by vowing to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and control over stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction aimed at American families where they live.
He stood before the United Nations General Assembly, putting its members to shame for having allowed Iraq to get away with murder and worse for more than a decade, and served notice the United States will deal with Saddam Hussein with or without them.
In so doing, Bush took the play away from congressional Democrats who had been demanding he seek approval of the United Nations – never expecting that he would throw the lot of them on the defensive with nowhere to go but with him.
On the domestic front, Bush brought the leadership necessary to give a tax cut to Americans who earn a living, at precisely the right time to offset the worst effects of a serious recession bequeathed by his profligate predecessor.
He defied the conventional wisdom that Social Security is a fatal "third rail" of politics by focusing attention on enabling wage earners to invest some of their retirement funds in the private sector.
He insisted that Medicare – as well as Social Security, itself – must be reformed along sound fiscal lines.
He broke the ice of the glacial embrace in which reactionary teachers unions and the leftist educationist establishment have locked America's public schools, reducing them to worldwide disrepute.
He took the side of parents all across the land who were outraged by a left-wing federal court that tried to write God out of the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms.
He saw to it that Congress treated farmers and union workers equably and honestly.
He made the case for commonsense forest management policies that exposed the radical environmentalist pressure groups' disastrous prescriptions for out-of-control fires.
He sicced his Justice Department on crooked corporation executives, marching them handcuffed off to face justice as a televised object lesson.
The list goes on and on. And in that long enumeration there is not one solitary issue that Democrats have been able to exploit as their own. Each time they tried, it would blow up in their faces like a trick cigar.
As the leader of the entire nation, George W. Bush is conducting himself in such a way that running for Congress as a Democrat is like prancing down the street naked while beating on a tin pan. Is it any wonder Democrats this year are whistling past the graveyard and singing the blues?
What don't they feel? They don't feel electable!
That's what I've been saying!
John L. Perry
Sept. 13, 2002
Pity poor Democrats in this election season. Like the sailors singing in "South Pacific," their lament is "What don't we feel? We don't feel good!"
The chorus in that marvelously memorable song "There Is Nothin' Like A Dame" kept on complaining: "What ain't we got? We ain't got dames!" and "What don't we get? You know damn well!"
Oscar Hammerstein II might as well have been writing his lyrics for the 2002 crop of Democrats seeking to keep their hold on the Senate and grab it back in the House of Representatives.
Leadership Requires a Leader
While the Democrats do have girls, now minus Cynthia McKinney, what they don't have is even one national leader. A passel of wannabes isn't the same as a president leading the nation.
And, after more than a year and a half of a Republican in the White House, Democrats have yet to lay their hands on even one issue that sticks. Handfuls of mud slung at George W. Bush just aren't cutting it with the voters.
This is not how the Democratic National Committee drew up its midterm congressional campaign. Put yourself in the shoes of Democratic candidates. They keep looking to the DNC for guidance, for a silver bullet, for a formula to override the public confidence in the wartime president, all to no avail.
What don't they get? They don't get squat!
An Unenviable Comparison
In stark contrast, here's what fate has dealt Republicans this year:
On the international front, Bush was the right man in the right place at the right time in history.
He restored the nation's confidence in its military by demonstrating his own respect for America's sons and daughters in uniform.
When Osama bin Laden plunged the country into the American War on Terror, Bush accepted the challenge thrust upon him and proved his greatness as a wartime leader.
He insisted upon a consolidation of federal powers in a single agency to enable a president to wage an accountable and effective homeland defense against terrorists.
He oversaw the counterattack against al-Qaeda as a worldwide terrorist mafia and, for starters, liberated Afghanistan, one of the most repressive of radical Islamist nations.
He further demonstrated his leadership vision by vowing to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and control over stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction aimed at American families where they live.
He stood before the United Nations General Assembly, putting its members to shame for having allowed Iraq to get away with murder and worse for more than a decade, and served notice the United States will deal with Saddam Hussein with or without them.
In so doing, Bush took the play away from congressional Democrats who had been demanding he seek approval of the United Nations – never expecting that he would throw the lot of them on the defensive with nowhere to go but with him.
On the domestic front, Bush brought the leadership necessary to give a tax cut to Americans who earn a living, at precisely the right time to offset the worst effects of a serious recession bequeathed by his profligate predecessor.
He defied the conventional wisdom that Social Security is a fatal "third rail" of politics by focusing attention on enabling wage earners to invest some of their retirement funds in the private sector.
He insisted that Medicare – as well as Social Security, itself – must be reformed along sound fiscal lines.
He broke the ice of the glacial embrace in which reactionary teachers unions and the leftist educationist establishment have locked America's public schools, reducing them to worldwide disrepute.
He took the side of parents all across the land who were outraged by a left-wing federal court that tried to write God out of the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms.
He saw to it that Congress treated farmers and union workers equably and honestly.
He made the case for commonsense forest management policies that exposed the radical environmentalist pressure groups' disastrous prescriptions for out-of-control fires.
He sicced his Justice Department on crooked corporation executives, marching them handcuffed off to face justice as a televised object lesson.
The list goes on and on. And in that long enumeration there is not one solitary issue that Democrats have been able to exploit as their own. Each time they tried, it would blow up in their faces like a trick cigar.
As the leader of the entire nation, George W. Bush is conducting himself in such a way that running for Congress as a Democrat is like prancing down the street naked while beating on a tin pan. Is it any wonder Democrats this year are whistling past the graveyard and singing the blues?
What don't they feel? They don't feel electable!
That's what I've been saying!
