The American Spectator

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(Page 5 of 13)

p> SALAD DAYS br> Re: Andrew Cline's The Futile Crusades of Dem Quixote : /p>

Thirty years ago when I left the Democratic Party (or, as is more accurately phrased, when the Democratic Party left me) I realized a truth that I have used to guide my life since then: The only good thing about beating your head against a cement block wall is that it feels so good when you stop.

The liberals to whom I talk these days are masters of ignoring reality in favor of the illogical, ridiculous, and sometimes demented visions that they incessantly run on the video screens of their minds. I commend Mr. Cline for his accurate and precise dissection of Democratic foolishness, however, in the face of the forty year catastrophe called the "war on poverty," I am not expecting any change in the near future. After all, if you are capable of labeling the eighties "the decade of greed" when virtually EVERYONE in the U.S. experienced improvement in personal circumstances (even those who refused to work for a living), then you are capable of considering the only failure of the "war on poverty" failure to spend ENOUGH MONEY on the program.

Mr. Obama's refusal to recognize successes and insistence on clinging to failed demonstrably false ideas is normal behavior for his party. He is forced to cling to the idiocies to which he clings in order to keep his "base" energized. To be a loyal Democrat, one must be committed to the party line, ignore any and all conflicting evidence no matter how obvious and strong it is, and celebrate how one feels rather than what one has accomplished.

p>Just as the Carter presidency helped to lurch the party leftward and away from the ideas that it once represented, the Obama presidency will complete the triumph of style over substance, of feeling over reason. To play on an old political slogan, i.e. "a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot," look forward to a bicycle in every garage and a salad in every bowl. br> -- Joseph Baum br> Garrettsville, Ohio /p>

I read this editorial with some interest and a feeling of deja vu. Back when motorcycles and motorcyclists were social pariahs, we were spoken of in the same tones as big oil is today. Later, it was gun owners who were the scourge of the planet.

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