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Terror: Just Normal Democratic Party Procedure

by John F. Tamburo, Editor in Chief, Publisher
Originally Posted: 2/10/2005 5:10:51 PM

Paul Ryan is a Republican Congressman from Wisconsin.  He is the author and principal sponsor of HR 4851, the first of the bills needed to codify our President’s vision for Social Security Reform.  Yesterday, he spoke in Washington about the bill to a diverse group of persons.  One of the audience, a Democrat supporter, noted that he liked the bill, and wondered aloud if any of the Democrats in the House shared his viewpoint.  Sadly, Congressman Ryan reported, while there were many who privately told him that HR 4851 was one sweet bill, they could not support it.  Why?  Well, the Democrat leadership of both houses is bringing intense pressure upon all Democrats in Congress ot oppose any form of reform whatsoever, under the threat of retaliation.  Apparently the intensity and breadth of these threats is unprecedented.

"I, for one, am unsurprised.  Social Security is the last vestige of dependence blackmail left to the extremists who run the Democratic party."

I, for one, am unsurprised.  Social Security is the last vestige of dependence blackmail left to the extremists who run the Democratic party.  It’s their only hope of forcing people to vote for their otherwise-repugnant policies and platform.  There is no way they will lay down while the GOP liberates the elderly from the grip of dependency and elevates them to their well-deserved status of self-sufficiency.  The Democratic leadership is lashing out from the seat of fear -- losing this captive voting base relegates the party to a virtually permanent irrelevancy.  I, for one, cannot imaging Howard Dean, Democratic czar-in-waiting bringing the party to grips with the notions of personal responsibility, the sanctity of life or giving the people the choice to do anything but kill the unborn.

I also think that the Democratic leadership is afraid of the base their policies have dealt them.  By driving away virtually every constituent possessed of common sense, the Democrats leave themselves beholden to the most intolerant extreme leftists of the party; people who share more in common with Robert Byrd’s KKK and the National Socialist Party of Germany than with Americans.  One example is Ward Churchill, typical Democratic Party stalwart.  He hates this country, openly advocating its relegation to the "ash pile of history."  This while he draws a government check from the University of Colorado.  He called the victims of 9/11 "little Eichmanns," which considering his virulent Anti-Semitic pro-Nazi statements of the past (thanks to Ann Coulter for the heads-up on this), seems to be projection.

"So the Democrats are dealing with a base that demands that government control the lives of the people in ’Jesusland,’ as Michael Moore calls it, and that includes senior citizens."

So the Democrats are dealing with a base that demands that government control the lives of the people in "Jesusland," as Michael Moore calls it, and that includes senior citizens.  The leadership does all it can to whip those "no" votes into line for fear of that ultra-extreme base.  One hiccup.  Some of these Democrats are not from the extreme left fringe that spewed forth Charlie Rangel, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton.  Those people have constituencies that want these reforms.  I pity the congressmen in the middle.  On the left, they have the people who wield the power in the Congress.  On the right they have the people who voted them into office.  The left will run another candidate to try to unseat the person if he votes Yes, if he votes no, the people will be angry.

Solution?  Yes.  We can defang the Democratic leadership’s terror tiger.  The GOP should offer these middle-road Democrats party membership!  Bring them into the big tent.  I personally can think of two or three Senators who could be flipped.  The number of House members could exceed a dozen.  This removes the left side of the pressure equation, allowing the new GOP representative to vote his or her conscience and satisfy his/her constituency.  Sure, the representative will face another Democrat in the next election, but in the general election, not the primary, as an incumbent.  For this kind of support, I am sure that a smiling GOP luminary who lives on Pennsylvania Avenue could make a campaign stop as well.  Ask Ben Nighthorse Campbell how we treat Democrats who come into our tent!

Instead of looking at the pressure the party leaders are bringing on their caucus as an obstacle, the GOP should see, and exploit, this opportunity.