D. Payton, posting at Considerettes and RedState.org, sees a pattern. I've lifted the beginning and the end. You'll have to pay a visit to read the rest of it.
I'm beginning to see a pattern here.
To show you what kind of pattern I'm seeing, let's start back in the year 1998. Starting at least as far back as that, and for at least 4 years, Democrats were noting that Saddam's weapons of mass destruction--the weapons themselves and the programs--had to be dealt with. They had to be diminished or removed. You've no doubt seen the web pages and perhaps the roving E-mails that enumerate these quotes from Democrats. (Click here to get a Google's worth of them.) A host of Democrats endorsed this idea; that Hussein had both weapons and active programs. Names include; Dianne Feinstein, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Robert Byrd, Wesley Clark, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi. And that's just the start. There are more...
In 1998, here's what President Bill Clinton had to say about Social Security. "This fiscal crisis in Social Security affects every generation." (You can find more of that speech covered here, and you can find further Social Security crisis quotes from the former President here.) Crisis? Really? That's what he believed. And so he came up with a political slogan, "Save Social Security first", that was dutifully repeated and supported by a lot of names that you'll recognize, and which will give you a distinct sense of deja vu; Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer.
I'm beginning to see a pattern here, and it's one that involves telling the Big Lie over and over until people believe you've always thought that, and hope they don't do their own research. This time around, though, it's aided and abetted by bloggers such as Joshua Micah Marshall who agrees that nothing need be done about a crisis that Bill Clinton noted 7 years ago. This is posturing and partisanship at its absolute worst.
But it's a pattern. Should we really be surprised?
"This is posturing and partisanship at its absolute worst."
Of course it is. Many non-Repubs have caught onto this also.
Posted by: Scott | February 13, 2005 at 11:10 AM
In the view of many, myself included, the Democratic party has been taken over by the far left. They've been headed that way for a long time. It's just been taking a while for the moderates to catch on to it, but they are as evidenced by our recent election. To repeat a well worn theme of mine, the far left are forced to jettison the truth if they hope to win converts. This is like "1984".
Posted by: Tom Bowler | February 13, 2005 at 06:00 PM
At this point, I'm far less cynical than you; I simply don't believe they're used to being a minority party. Nothing more or less. If they're still pulling the same stuff in 10 years (when they hold only 30% of Congress) then I'll agree.
Posted by: Scott | February 13, 2005 at 06:29 PM
My guess is we're at the end of the leftward drift. Howard Dean as DNC Chairman may be the culmination of it. Some of the party powerful will still be pulling this kind of stuff, but the voters will punish them for it. The deal is, nowadays the truth comes out through a the internet and talk radio. It use to be very easy to feed the voters a bunch of BS, but it's a lot harder now. Politicians been so used to getting away with it all these years, they'll turn around and contradict themselves without batting an eye and expect everybody's just going to go along. Voters! You know! They've got the attention span of a gnat! But they're getting caught now.
Posted by: Tom Bowler | February 13, 2005 at 07:07 PM
Howard Dean was a centrist in Vermont; I'm curious to see how he handles himself as chairman. You sound like you have a lot of longtime anti-Democratic angst.
Posted by: Scott | February 13, 2005 at 08:06 PM
Incidentally, this Dem intractibility on SS reform is sending me farther right.
Posted by: Scott | February 13, 2005 at 08:07 PM