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And Another Reason to be Happy

by John F. Tamburo, Editor in Chief, Publisher
Originally Posted: 9/19/2005 9:03:53 AM

I took the rare step of writing a Saturday article to compliment Donna Brazile on her rousing endorsement of our President’s plan to rebuild New Orleans.  As I smiled about that, I opened the Chicago Tribune opinions page yesterday.  After the paramedics revived me, I reread Clarence Page’s submission (online link here).  Here was another liberal columnist who was complimenting our President!

"Here’s a sentence I never thought I would ever contemplate writing:  I agree with Clarence Page!"

Mr. Page writes, "In fact, the president does not even have to try to imitate how liberals behave to come up with good ideas to help poor Americans improve their lives. Some of the market-friendly conservative ideas on his agenda show a lot of promise in helping poor folks in New Orleans and elsewhere rebuild their lives."  Here’s a sentence I never thought I would ever contemplate writing:  I agree with Clarence Page!  While Mr. Page, at the beginning of his column, seemed to be preparing to jump onto the Kanye West "George Bush doesn’t care about black people" bandwagon, he quickly got to his point, and it was a great point.

It’s heartening to see that some liberals have integrity.  By this I mean integrity sufficient to realize that conservatives have the better solution, at least in some specific situation, and enough cajones to stand up and say so.  I want to see how many others jump onto the "support Bush" bandwagon.  Now some will argue that the left is grudgingly supporting our President’s initiatives as "better than nothing."  However, Donna Brazile and Clarence Page are not talking in grudging terms.  They are speaking in positive terms, and in Ms. Brazile’s case, enthusiastic terms.

"This is the kind of unity we need after a natural disaster.  In this country, after 9/11, we had that unity, at least for a few weeks.  However, unification becomes geometrically more difficult as the liberals realize that they are on the way to political oblivion."

This is the kind of unity we need after a natural disaster.  In this country, after 9/11, we had that unity, at least for a few weeks.  However, unification becomes geometrically more difficult as the liberals realize that they are on the way to political oblivion.  As the shrillest of the shrill, the extremes of the extremists, seize power as the normal people move to the right, they lash out at each and every conservative idea, and maintain the notion that no conservative can do any good ever.  However, Donna Brazile and Clarence Page, people who show obvious morality, refuse to engage in political warfare for its own sake.

Personally, I hope and pray that many others see the value in giving these people the ability to become independent of charity and independent of government.  And I do not do this because this means that we’ll have more conservatives in the voting base.  This has nothing to do with the political fortunes of the GOP.  The people who are given this kind of hope will become happier in their self-sufficiency, confident in their newfound relevance, and will be likely to help others achieve that which they have achieved.  This could be an outstanding development for this country and for all of us as well.