RED vs BLUE

The War of Ideas

The Demoronic Party held a high-level meeting recently to develop an agenda to "Take Back America". Intellectually, it was a bust. Everyone with any intelligence at all has told the Democrats what their problem is. Unfortunately, since they deny having a problem, they're not working toward a solution.

America - the majority of its citizens, anyway - changed after the collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers on September 11, 2001. The Democratic Party not only DIDN'T change, they don't recognize the change that has happened to most voters.

The focus of attention for most Americans begins with themselves and their families, then moves outward to their friends, then their associates, and finally their community, their city, their state, and their nation. At each level, the individual's needs are heierarchical - security, safety, personal stisfaction, and so forth. President Bush ran on an agenda that was aimed at what most concerned the average voter - jobs, taxes, security, freedom, and so forth. The Democrats ran on an agenda that they weren't President Bush, and that they'd "do things differently". That agenda was soundly rebuffed.

Most voters are worried about jobs. Those that have them are worried about losing them, those that don't have them are worried about getting one. Americans have finally learned that taxes are a drag on the economy, and raising taxes destroys jobs. They've also learned that increasing the minimum wage only drives the marginally employed into the unemployment lines. Intelligent Americans understand that tax cuts improve the economic picture for everyone, and that raising taxes conversely hurts everyone and impedes job creation. They've seen how tax cuts have spurred the economy three times now - under President Kennedy, President Reagan, and now President Bush. They've seen how tax hikes hurt - under President Carter, President Bush (I), and President Clinton. Most Americans want low taxes and a stable minimum wage. Anything else will hurt both them and the overall economy.

Security is the second most important worry of most Americans. They worry about personal security, homeland security, defense, crime, and terrorism. A clear majority of Americans feel that the Democrats aren't serious about national defense. They've seen the Democrats rage against defense spending, against missile defense, against ending the ABM treaty, against funding needed military improvements, and much more. They have a well-founded perception that the Democrats are soft on crime, against minimum sentencing, against the death penalty, and all too friendly with such groups as Amnesty International, the ACLU, and other reactionary groups pushing for less punishment and more "rehabilitation" of criminals.

The Democratic Presidential contender wants to treat the terrorism threat as a "criminal" matter. The biggest problem with that approach is that a crime has to be committed before you can try to arrest anyone. The crime in this instance is another attack against the American people and our nation's economy. President Bush is engaged in a proactive, preventive war against terrorists on their soil, not ours. He understands we're at war - a war of physical, psychological, economic, ethnic, social, cultural and religious dimensions.

President Bush is pushing for strong action against "rogue" states acquiring nuclear capabilities, including Iran and North Korea. He understands that deeds, not words, will win the battle, and that strength, not weakness, are needed to stand firm against these emerging threats. The Democrats want to return to the appeasement and "carrot, not stick" approach that gave the North Koreans and the Iranian mullahs almost eight years to work on nuclear arms and the missiles to deliver them, under a cloak of Madeline Albright "reasonableness".

Americans want their government to protect them from foreign threats, rogue states, criminals, and gangsters. They want a government that recognizes all the threats against us, and is willing to do what's necessary to protect our nation and its people. They don't believe the Democrats will deliver on any promise they might make in this regard.

Americans want a government that acknowledges their values, and works to protect them. Most Americans have strong religious beliefs. They feel threatened by the constant attack by secular groups that want to limit their freedom of worship. They feel alienated by the constant pressure to remove any mention of religion from everyday life. A majority of Americans are gun owners, and feel threatened by the dozens of highly vocal anti-gun groups. More than 50 million Americans have been Boy or Girl Scouts at some point in their lives, and feel angry at the constant attack on these groups just because they insist on a moral code. Americans in general have experienced true good and evil, and hate the constant attempts to force them to believe it's only a matter of perspective. Most Americans believe that the only legitimate form of marriage is between one man and one woman, and feel their beliefs are held in contempt by a small segment of America that wishes to impose its will upon the rest of the nation.

The Democratic Party has long been in the forefront to secularize every aspect of American life. They back the ban on prayer in schools. They back the ban on the presence of the Ten Commandments. They support gun control, wish to force gun registration, and demonize gun owners. Democrats have tried repeatedly to crush the Boy Scouts of America, and have some modest success in forcing the government to restrict support to the organization. Democrats are staunchly behind the push by gay and lesbian groups to change the meaning of marriage. The most vocal supporters of the Democratic Party also push "political correctness", one of the most vile of free speech restrictions, and "gay and lesbian rights". These groups are also the most vocal supporters of situational ethics, abortion, "free sex", and all the other feel-good ideas of the anti-establishment hippie generation of the 1960's and 1970's. Too many of them act like children who have never been forced to grow up.

The mainstream American is heterosexual, married, and has strong religious beliefs, a good understanding of right and wrong, and feels that their rights and beliefs are not only misunderstood, but held in contempt by the Democratic Party and its members.

Most Americans these days feel their children are getting a worse education than they themselves received. The education establishment and the unions that protect its territory have failed over and over again to improve the statistics of educational development in America's public schools. Today the number of people who teach their children at home is higher than at any time in the last 60 years. There are more private schools, charter schools, and even online schools opening every day to counter the poor education offered in the public school arena. The deterioration seems to have accelerated since the creation of the Department of Education, and the unionization of teachers. Almost every parent of a child in public school has at least one horror story to tell. Discipline is nonexistent, drugs, sex, and alcohol are prominent, and teachers are ineffective. Parents have found that many of today's school books warp and twist the truth about our past, our heritage, and many of our most famous people over the past 300 years.

The education unions, college faculty, and school "administrators" back the Democratic Party almost exclusively. The only cry seems to be for more and more money, and every attempt to impose any form of accountability is met with outrage, anger, and defiance. Our colleges and universities are hotbeds of radical liberalism, socialism, and disdain for the United States, its role in history, its achievements, and its people. The constant demand for more and more money for a shabbier and shabbier product is beginning to fall on deaf ears. Americans want their children to receive at least as good an education as they received, and hope they will receive an even better one - a hope being crushed at an alarming rate throughout this nation.

Most Americans are descendants of immigrants, and understand the worth of new blood, new ideas, new ways. They welcome those from other lands - but only those that come here legally, who assimilate into the stew that is called "Americanism". There's a growing backlash against unrestricted illegal immigration and the problems it brings with it. Americans eagerly greet willing workers, but not those that learn to "game the system" for a free ride. They also want SOMEONE to know exactly who is coming into this country, how long they intend to stay, and whether they plan to act in a lawful manner when they get here. They want criminals and terrorists excluded. That can only happen when the government controls the borders of our nation, and its ports of entry via air or ship. Most Americans feel the government isn't doing anything, much less enough, to control the flow of illegal immigrants. Americans want secure borders and an orderly, controlled flow of immigrants. They'll accept a guest-worker program, but not blanket amnesty for illegals. Both parties need to pay attention!

Most Americans are tired of radical groups attempting to scare them into doing stupid things. They're tired of the environmental extremism, from global cooling to global warming, from the DDT scare to the Alar "menace". They're tired of "scientists" warping and twisting data to suit their agenda. They're frustrated with greater and greater restrictions on where they can go, what they can do, and how they do things. They're tired of being abused for the automobile they drive, whether they smoke cigarettes or not, how they dress, or where they live. As more and more people become familiar with computers and the Internet, as more and more households "come online", they have access to the skepticism of others, and the truth about much of the "data" being fed to them by environmental groups wishing to impose their will upon the American people. Most Americans want the truth. They're intelligent enough to make reasoned decisions about just about anything, and feel lied to, manipulated, and outright defrauded by the constant flow of scary stories about the environment, their personal behavior, their habits, and their daily activities. The majority of adults link the behavior of these groups to their chief supporter - the Democratic Party.

On the same track, most Americans are tired of getting warped views, opinion stated as fact, and a daily dose of prejudice served up by the television "news", their morning newspaper, and many if not most of the magazines they read. They're becoming more and more skeptical of the daily dosage of pablum being pushed by the "mainstream media". Those that can turn to alternate media for more accurate reporting - talk radio, the Internet, and alternative television news. Most Americans feel the major media outlets lie to them daily, and they HATE it! Since the majority of mainstream media consistently support the Democrats, that hatred is also being directed toward them.

The Democratic Party has been moving leftward for 90 years. They've pulled a majority of the citizens of the United States with them since 1932. The morning of September 11, 2001, changed the direction the American people were moving, but not the Democratic Party. Each day, the gulf grows wider. The Democratic Party is responding by screaming their message louder, and embracing their agenda even more tightly. The American people in the meantime are finding their voice, and learning that a quiet voice in the right ear does more than all the screaming. That quiet voice is saying "support what we believe in, and we'll reward you with our vote". I hope someone is listening.