The American Prospect has a lead article that is a veritable orgy of Bush-bashing. In fact, Bush has now eclipsed Ronald Reagan in the eyes of this liberal as "the most dangerous President ever".
Bush is everything that the liberal establishment hates. He is a man of faith, he is strong in his convictions, and he rejects the concept of a post-national system that rejects military power as a tool of politics. To the left, he’s nothing more than an atavistic throwback – a Morlock among the Eloi of the left.
Yet these sort of attacks are exactly why the left is slowly losing their grip over American society. No matter what the problem, the leftist’s first response is "it’s all George W. Bush’s fault." Had President Clinton lead the recent invasion of Iraq, The American Prospect would have been now calling for him to receieve a Nobel Peace Prize.
The left has used the vilification of the President as a crutch for their own lack of vision. It is the same weakness which sent the Democratic Party into a tailspin in 2002, and unless someone can emerge from the Democratic pack with real leadership potential in 2004, the DNC is set for a repeat of that election. Of course, that’s difficult to do when one’s party has been hijacked by the extremist and reactionary left of Tom Daschle and Nancy Pelosi.
Anthony Downs once wrote a book called An Economic Theory of Democracy. It is quite possibly one of the most important books of modern political science ever written. What Downs finds is that the electorate lies along a rough bell curve in terms of political ideology. In short, the party that can best capture the center will win the election.
The Democrats aren’t even trying for the center.
Their class-warfare rhetoric couldn’t support them during a time of economic turmoil. What possibly makes DNC strategists think it will work when the economy is on an upswing post-Enron and post-Iraq? How can the Democratic Party justify attacking "the investor class" as being non-existent when the majority of Americans now have a stake in the stock market? How can the Democrats claim to have a monopoly on compassion when their weakness towards Saddam Hussein left thousands of children imprisoned and millions under the bootheel of oppression?
Instead of answering those questions and coming up with innovative new solutions, the Democrats are waging an intensive campaign of slurs and attacks against the President and saying how they could do better without ever answering the simple question of how.
As long as they keep this up, 2004 is going to look much like 1984.
UPDATE: I think TR said it best:
Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger.
