Well, it looks like that “culture of corruption” ploy didn’t
work out too well for Democrats last week in California. But after
Brian Bilbray won disgraced Duke Cunningham’s seat, some liberals
quickly changed tack to claim that he did it by using the illegal
immigration issue as a “scare tactic.”
This sounds strange coming from folks who regularly warn that
Republicans will starve children, throw old ladies out into the
streets, etc., but such is life when you’re on a losing streak.
Year after year, defeats leave modern Democrats scratching their
heads and navel-gazing; trying in vain to hit upon better ways to
“get their message out.” But that’s the problem. Their message has
been resounding for decades: they’re liberals.
Some Democrats understand that one of the reasons they lose is
that instead of finding ways to win, they’d rather rehash their
losses. Washington Post writer Dan Balz points out:
They are experts at commissioning papers analyzing
their weaknesses. (“Why we can’t win with______.” Fill in the blank
with “white men,” “married women,” “rural voters,” “people of
faith,” “more Latinos,” “the middle class,” or whatever group is
considered the party’s latest demographic debacle.)
In spite of this self-realization that they may be out of the
mainstream, certain lefties out in cyberspace continue to delude
themselves into thinking that the key to producing electoral
victories is to harness the power of Al Gore’s Internet. Last
week’s Las Vegas convention of liberal bloggers sponsored by
Daily Kos is
proof positive that these delusions will happily continue.
Remember, Howard Dean proved that raising a lot of dough from
far-left extremists is not conducive to shutting them up. As Howard
himself said of his supporters, “We listen. We pay attention.
If I give a speech and the blog people don’t like it, next time I
change the speech.” He changed the speech so often that in the end,
it resembled nothing if not a primal scream.
Two years later, it seems as if history might repeat itself. As
the Washington Times reports, “a poll
earlier this year on the Daily Kos revealed 41 percent of those
surveyed said they ‘despise’ Mr. Bush more than they despise Osama
bin Laden.” And one patriotic “Kossack” remarking on the death of
Abu Musab Zarqawi said, “Now we are rid of one murderous tyrant —
how about the removal of another one — believed to be hiding in a
safe-house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Surely, no mainstream Democrat would lend legitimacy to this
left-wing hate-fest? Yet there they were; Senators Harry Reid and
Barbara Boxer; presidential hopefuls Mark Warner, Tom Vilsack, and
Bill Richardson; and naturally, DNC Chairman Dr. Dean, eager to rub
elbows with the likes of Kos founder, Markos Moulitsas.
What was the media reaction? The New York Times
cheerfully covered the event as if it were a meeting of the
League of Women Voters, cooing, “Indeed, the convention, the first
of what organizers said would become an annual event, seems on the
way to becoming as much a part of the Democratic political circuit
as the Iowa State Fair.”
Yet when Bill Frist appeared last year on a remote
broadcast sponsored by the Family Research Council on the
filibustering of judicial nominees, the media reacted predictably.
Indignant that the FRC suggested Democrats were blocking judges who
were “people of faith,” the Times growled, “It is one thing when private groups
foment this kind of intolerance. It is another thing entirely when
it’s done by the highest-ranking member of the United States
Senate.”
The fact is, the liberal platform of today’s Democratic Party is
buttressed mostly by those who are members of radical factions like
Daily Kos. Its tactical planks — charges of Republican bigotry and
disdain for the environment; sowing mistrust of corporations, and
the populist drivel that tax cuts only benefit the rich — are
becoming a tough sell to the growing number of Americans who use
the Internet, not as a political tool, but as an alternative news
source.
Meanwhile, the “old” media continue to laud the influence of web
warriors like the Kossacks, happily citing Mr. Moulitsas’
prediction on the upcoming Senate race in Connecticut: “Lieberman
is going to lose this one.”
This may make for good copy, but missing is the record of Daily
Kos-backed candidates in general elections. Considering that those
it has supported are a dismal 0 for 20, its rise to power can only
buoy those who hope to further extend the Democrats’ losing
streak.
