DEMOCRATS AND INVISIBLE LIBERALISM - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY

The 2006 Mid Term election are just over a week away. The races are tighter than ever and the political atmosphere is dominating much of the news commentary both on television and in the nations newspapers. The percieved tide of momentum by the Democrats has faded to the point that even many long time Democrat stratagists are cautioning the notion portrayed by the Dems that the House will change hands and the Senate is up for grabs. They stress that this tide that supposedly would carry the Demcorats into the majority is not the confident reality that many in the media and the Demcorat leadership believed. So many races by all measurements are tight and the final weeks push before election day will find the usual increase in political adds as charges and counter charges that always accompany any election. The President is barn storming the nation for GOP candidates as well as many GOP leaders to bring home the message to the voters and retain control of both chambers of Congress. In this final push before election day though I have noticed a very telling absense in the political arena as well as an equally telling presence in many campaigns that are being run by Democrats. The absense is so obvious especially when one considers how often this absent entity made its appearence prior to the final weeks of the election. The presence that I refer to is also equally obvious when one considers that it was virtually non-existant before the election cycle began. I know by now that you are wondering, " what in the world I am thinking about ?" Now that I have sparked your attention we'll look at each individually.

The absence - Something that has been blatantly absent from the political arena as we have neared and now entered the final approach to the Mid Term election are the voices and faces before the cameras of most of the liberal Demcocrat leadership including the DNC chairman Howard Dean. On a daily basis before the election cycle began in ernest, whenever political news clips aired during any news program on any channel or radio news break you could depend on seeing or hearing Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, John Murtha, Hillary Clinton and a miriad of other liberals before a press gathering, stopping to make a comment on whatever subject was prominant that particlular day or a clip from a speech made to a liberal gathering. They dominated the Sunday talking heads and the talk show curcuit blasting the President and lamenting the," dire," condition that the nation was in. Yet now that the nation is nearing the election of all House members, one third of the Senate and numerous Governorships as well as other state and local offices these liberal Democrat leaders are MIA. Now I realize that some are campaigning for their own seat in either the House or Senate but Pelosi supposedly has a lock on her San Francisco district, Hillary too has a demanding lead yet other than the now infamous, "measuring the drapes, " 60 Minutes interview last week Pelosi, who never missed an opportunity to meet the press was even MIA after the President signed the bill for the border fence. Kennedy, Kerry, Dean and Reid who are constantly before the cameras and who always find any and every way to criticize the President and the GOP have been virtually non-existant. The only explanation that I can gather from this is now that the voters are watching closely do these stalwarts of liberalism fear that their liberal rhetoric will turn voters away from the Democrats? Most pundints agree that the majority of the country is decidedly conservative in values and thinking which disagrees with the liberal message which is why these liberal leaders do not want to be heard or seen before an election. If they spew the usual liberal rhetoric which has been rejected time and again by the voters then those same voters will see and realize the true face of the Demcorat Party and again turn them away at the polls. Before the final election push this liberal message falls greatly on deaf ears for many likely voters are not daily news junkies and only catch mommentary clips on radio or news briefs during their hectic daily schedule. During the final approach to any election nearly all likely voters pay close attention to news and other political outlets so the liberal leadership remains quiet so as not to damage the Demcrat chances of being elected. The rank and file Democrats who claim to be liberal are not ashamed of their liberal beliefs and readily speak of them at any time but their leadership only tout this rhetoric when they think it won't hurt their chances at being elected by a vastly conservative electorate. They hide their true liberal face for possible political gain which reveils their true intellectual dishonesty.

The presence - This too is as obvious as the absence of the liberal leadership. Across the nation especially in races that the Demcorats viewed a vulnerable the party fielded a candidate who claims to lean to a more conservative ideal and value though a member of the Democrat Party. I realize that there are conservative Democrats but the appearance of so many in this election cycle again confirms that fact that the liberal agenda is rejected by the voters and if fielding or just portraying a Democrat candidate as a conservative will win the election then that is what the left will do. Their strategy behind this is to lure the voters into believing that their beliefs and values will be followed by the Democrat Party long enough to gain a majority control of the Congress then if that control is gained push the liberal agenda which the leadership of the party and those in Congress intend regardless of what the voter thinks. After all they know what is best for we the people and if they have to decieve in order to insure that they are in power and save the voters from their own ignorance than so be it. Though there are many races that follow this plan I will only give three examples. The Tennessee Senate race is a prime example of this Demcorat strategy. The race between Republican Bob Corker and Demcorat Harold Ford is a hotly contested race because it is the seat currently held by out going Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist who is leaving the Senate to prepare for a possible Presidential run in 2008. Corker is a moderate to conservative Republican while Ford is a somewhat moderate Demcorat who touts some conservative ideas. For instance he continually expresses his parting from the Democrat leadership on hot social issues like gay marriage to sound conservative yet his Congressional voting record on the war and other stalworth Democrat issues is decidedly liberal. On the House side of the election in one Colorado district the Republican incumbant is running against a Democrat challenger who is pro- gun, anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage and running on this platform. This conservative look by Democrats is not confined to just the national stage. In my own state of South Carolina Republican conservative Governor Mark Sanford is challenged by Democrat Tommy Moore who is a state legislator. As a state legislator Moore is a tax and spend liberal who voted for nearly every tax increase that has been proposed during his tenure yet he is running as a fiscal conservative despite this record to the contrary.

How stupid does the Democrat Party think the voter is? Evidently considerably since these tacticts have been used in the last several elections and even more so in this one. Fortunatly this conservative portrayal to gain control in order to push a liberal agenda once in power is not taking with the voting public as past elections have proven and current trends are showing. The voter would much rather Democrats show their honesty and run on their liberal agenda instead of the deception to gain office. This does not necessarily mean they would win but they would find respect from the voters instead of the distaste that they currently recieve. But of course respect and honesty is not what liberal Democrat politicians desire only power at all cost.

Ken Taylor