WASHINGTON -- 'Tis the end of 2005 and time to look back. In
politics what do I see? Well, I see the Republican Party struggling
against high seas. In the media the party is depicted as being in
danger of losing to the Democrats in the off-year elections next
fall. That probably will be the case, unless the Republicans have
to run against the Democrats. Against the Democrats they could win
with Warren Harding in the White House.
The reason for this is that the Democratic leadership is
fractured and dominated by people who are hysterical, abusive, and
oblivious. The things they have called George W. Bush this past
year are as excessive as anything Joe McCarthy ever called his
opponents, but without the charm or for that matter the factual
basis. Not only that, but they are feeding on their own. They have
now made Senator Joe Lieberman controversial and among the
Democrats' left-wingers, objectionable.
His transgression is to treat a war as a serious matter and
demur from criticizing the government in a way that might encourage
our enemies. He is also consistent. As a Democrat he has stood by
the principles outlined by Harry Truman in the Truman Doctrine. In
sum: "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to
support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or by outside pressures." President Truman
enunciated that principle before a joint session of Congress on
March 12, 1947, after which he defied the last of America's
isolationists and sought appropriations to take up the position of
faltering Great Britain in Greece and Turkey.
When Truman announced this policy there were opponents in the
Republican Party who rolled out a critique that was complex, as
analytical as the critiques of the present policy excogitated by
the Democratic leadership, and as wrong. The Republican
isolationists were a vanishing breed, and the more I read about
them the more I am reminded of the present Democratic leadership.
They have the same abusive style and the same obliviousness. Dr.
Howard Dean, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and the delightful
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid sound like partisans who have
never met anyone who was not just like them. When Senator Reid was
hooted at for bragging "We killed the Patriot Act," I wonder if he
was surprised. Doubtless he did not even hear his critics, or if he
did he dismissed them as being hellish Republicans.
The death this year of the long-time Democratic activist Penn
Kemble reminds me that among Democrats there is an alternative to
these provincials. Kemble, who died of cancer at age 64, began his
political life as a civil rights demonstrator. On his deathbed I
saw him listening to a tape of Negro spirituals being sung by
Bayard Rustin, a black civil rights leader who like Penn, who was
white, never lost his faith in America or in its essential
goodness. Kemble was an ardent believer in the labor movement, but
from all I could tell was open to technological developments that
might increase the productivity of workers. Convinced of the
imperative of America's Democratic values, Kemble favored the use
of American strength in the world. Where he might have disagreed
with the President he was always measured and restrained. And there
were limits to his partisanship. In the three decades that I
socialized with him and played handball, I am sure that we
disagreed on things but we never had an argument. I walked away
from his presence understanding his position and he walked away
understanding mine. We never doubted each other's good motives. I
can tell you this sort of comity is very rare on Capitol Hill. The
last time I was there I frankly was amazed by the lack of trust and
respect on both sides.
I think what is at the heart of the Democratic leadership's
rants and partisanship is a refusal to admit the opposition's good
motives. Second there is a refusal to understand the opposition's
policies. As the Republicans' policies, both domestic and in
foreign policy, are adaptions to the way the world is, that leaves
the Democratic leadership in denial of the way the world is. It is
this denial that will ensure the party's continued decline. The
Democrats do have an alternative. Joe Lieberman is from the same
wing of the party as Penn Kemble, and he is equally civilized. My
guess is that the Democratic rank and file will in the years ahead
side with Lieberman. That is the intelligent future for the party
and there are still plenty of intelligent Democrats. It is just
that they are not numbered with the likes of Harry Reid.
topics:
Foreign Policy, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, NATO
