The Free Speech Party

...well, it aint the Democrats

I rarely read Richard Cohen. Like Robert Scheer of the LA Times and Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe I doubt he has anything to say we haven't heard a million times before. Besides the cynicism and hatred of all things conservative is a real turn off for us right-wingers. There are plenty of good liberal writers worth reading so that we can keep that mirror up in front of us - but these three are not among them.

Yesterday Cohen surprised me with a hit piece on his own party. Lets face it, the Democrats and the socialists have for years successfully portrayed the Republicans and conservatives as the intolerant, hateful and racist party. I think the libs are guilty of what psychologists like to call projection; pasting us with the qualities they themselves possess.

Cohen was lamenting the passing of the time honored tradition of politicians and public figures using boiler plate platitudes before addressing specific topics. For instance one might use the word "allegedly" when attributing a crime to a perp he knows to be guilty as sin. Today's Democrat skips right past the platitude and straight to the charge: President Bush IS a liar, Bill Bennet IS a racist, Tom Delay IS guilty - you get the drift.

Mr. Cohen goes on to defend William Bennet who was guilty of thinking out loud and nothing more when he made the "abort all black babies" statement on his radio show.

Cohen said:

For prominent Democrats, it seemed it was not enough to forget their manners about DeLay. They then abandoned their party's tradition -- I would say "obligation" -- of defending unpopular speech by piling on William Bennett, the former education secretary, best-selling author and now, inevitably, talk show host.

Responding to a caller who argued that if abortion were outlawed the Social Security trust fund would benefit -- more people, more contributions, was the apparent (idiotic) reasoning -- Bennett said, sure, he understood what the fellow was saying. It was similar to the theory that the low crime rate of recent years was the consequence of high abortion rates: the fewer African American males born, the fewer crimes committed. (Young black males commit a disproportionate share of crime.) This theory has been around for some time. Bennett was not referring to anything new.

But he did add something very important: If implemented, the idea would be "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do."

He should have saved his breath. Prominent Democrats -- Harry Reid in the Senate, John Conyers and Rahm Emanuel in the House and, of course, Pelosi -- jumped all over him.

...and the alphabet networks wasted no time hauling out the twin buffoons of Sharpton and Jackson to condemn Bennet and all conservatives. I find it very racist of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC to constantly use the aforementioned buffoons as spokesmen for the entire American black community.

It is the party of the conservatives that is actually tolerant of diverse viewpoints. Liberals and Democrats in general regard their attitudes and beliefs to be so self evident that anything else is just crazy talk. Anyone who strays from the reservation is voted off permanently.

For example:

How many of you know that the junior Senator from Minnesota, the honorable Norm Coleman, was the Democratic Mayor of St. Paul in the early 90's? The problem with Norm was he wouldn't raise taxes. He also expressed that he and his wife were personally pro-life. The local Democratic party shunned him, failed to endorse his re-election run and mounted a frontal challenge against him keeping his job. Norm switched parties and won re-election easily.

His succsessor, Mayor Randy Kelly, a lifelong Democrat and a former state senator, had the audacity to endorse President Bush in this time of global war and now faces the same fate as Senator Coleman. The DFL is working against Mayor Kelly's re-election. Mr. Kelly has no intention of becoming republican - he gleefully embraces multiculturalism and "diversity" and all the other feel-good garbage the Democrats love - and he has since announced a significant raising of property taxes. Will his loyalty to the party and his about face on raising taxes save him? Not likely - he has commited an irreparable transgression when he refused to denouce his endorsement of Bush. The DFL has banned him from their clubhouse.

These are not the actions of a tolerant party. These are not the actions of a party that believes strongly in freedom of speech or freedom of expression. Their morally superior attitudes actually makes them more close-minded than their backward looking rivals on the right.

I used to vote for Democrats in another life, today I would be hard pressed to name even one who really impresses me as anything but a party line hack. Kelly was impressive despite his love of anything that says "diversity" because he saw the truth in some conservative ideals like low taxes and supporting private enterprise rather than punishing it with onerous regulations. I am afraid he will now bend over backwards for the wet kiss of the DFL. He will likely still lose the election. Mayor Kelly will experience first hand what the party of tolerance and free speech is really all about.


CW