Adam's Apple
Senior Member
- Apr 25, 2004
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State of the Democratic Party
By Tony Blankley, The Washington Times
February 2, 2006
During an election campaign, political operatives are fond of seeking to induce in their opponent a negative "defining moment." That is to say a highly publicized moment when their opponent portrays everything that is wrong with him. In 2004 John Kerry provided that moment when he said he voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it.
Surely, at the State of the Union address the Democratic Party provided such a moment when, as has already been well commented on by others, they wildly applauded President Bush's statement that Congress failed to pass Social Security reform last year.
As the party of reactionary inertia as the party that not only doesn't have any solutions to today's dangers and problems, but denies that such problems exist the Democrats on the floor of the House Tuesday night demonstrated a flawless, intuitive sense of its new, disfunctional self.
The Democrats' wild applause on behalf of doing nothing was more than a merely tactical political blunder. It displayed a deeper truth about them. If one recalls, last year the official position of the Democratic Party was not only that they opposed President Bush's Social Security reform. They also argued there was no crisis no major problem that required rectification.
(In fact Social Security has four trillion dollars of unfunded liability, and if major changes are not made quickly, will only be able to pay the retired baby boomers about 70 cents for each dollar of promised benefits.)
for full article: http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/tblankley.htm
By Tony Blankley, The Washington Times
February 2, 2006
During an election campaign, political operatives are fond of seeking to induce in their opponent a negative "defining moment." That is to say a highly publicized moment when their opponent portrays everything that is wrong with him. In 2004 John Kerry provided that moment when he said he voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it.
Surely, at the State of the Union address the Democratic Party provided such a moment when, as has already been well commented on by others, they wildly applauded President Bush's statement that Congress failed to pass Social Security reform last year.
As the party of reactionary inertia as the party that not only doesn't have any solutions to today's dangers and problems, but denies that such problems exist the Democrats on the floor of the House Tuesday night demonstrated a flawless, intuitive sense of its new, disfunctional self.
The Democrats' wild applause on behalf of doing nothing was more than a merely tactical political blunder. It displayed a deeper truth about them. If one recalls, last year the official position of the Democratic Party was not only that they opposed President Bush's Social Security reform. They also argued there was no crisis no major problem that required rectification.
(In fact Social Security has four trillion dollars of unfunded liability, and if major changes are not made quickly, will only be able to pay the retired baby boomers about 70 cents for each dollar of promised benefits.)
for full article: http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/tblankley.htm
