Does America Deserve to Lose?

When the question is phrased, “do the Republicans deserve to win in November,” then the answer should be, “no.” I am hard pressed to argue enthusiastically in favor of continued Republican governance. In truth the Republicans have done an abysmal job of running the country and any employee who performs so poorly should be fired. The only reason that such incompetence should be tolerated is that the only other applicant for the position can reliably be predicted to do an even lousier job.
The Republicans have held control of both houses of Congress for most of the last 12 years. For the last six years, we’ve even had a Republican president and he has had a Republican majority in both houses of Congress for the past four. The Supreme Court is evenly balanced. And still, I cannot buy a toilet that flushes properly. The discovery of a rare earthworm on the Palouse has farmers fearing for their livelihood because unbalanced environmental policies have not been corrected. Illegal aliens still stream across the border. Energy prices continue to rise because not nearly enough has been done to facilitate new productive capacity. When the FBI searched the office of Democrat William Jefferson as part of a corruption investigation, the House Republican leadership joined the Democrats in defending the rights of House members to practice corruption in the security of their Capital Hill offices. In reality, it is at times hard to conceive of more than one or two affirmative reasons to encourage a Republican vote.
Unfortunately, I can’t think of any argument in favor of the Democrats. What affirmative reason have the Democrats given us to vote for them? Asked another way, “do the Democrats deserve to win in November?”
Democrats have not exactly distinguished themselves as the loyal opposition. In fact, Democrats have only sniped at Republicans and have offered little if anything that resembles an agenda. Howard Dean himself said that Democrats are not obligated to present an agenda until they assume the reins of power themselves. Speaker of the House in waiting, Nancy Pelosi recently said, “I'm even hard put to say what our agenda will be when we win.”
From all appearances, the Democrats wish to assume power solely for the power itself and have elaborated no agenda for America. This contrasts sharply with Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America” in 1994. Democrats have remained largely on the sidelines and permitted a sympathetic mainstream press do their dirty work for them.
There is little evidence that Democrats intend to take governance seriously. Take, for instance, the case of Alcee Hastings and Jane Harmon. Jane Harmon is a rich, liberal, California Democrat. She is also the ranking minority member on the House Intelligence Committee. Although liberal, she has taken her responsibilities seriously.
However, as part of a political payback, Nancy Pelosi has already decided to remove Jane Harman from the Intelligence Committee and replace her with Alcee Hastings. A Democratic majority in the House would make Alcee Hastings the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. In that role, he would have unfettered access to just about all of America’s secrets.
Those of us with long memories recall Alcee Hastings as a corrupt judge who was impeached by Congress for taking bribes. What sort of irresponsible leadership would put a demonstrably corruptible man like Alcee Hastings in charge of America’s most sensitive secrets? The answer is, the Democratic Party leadership.
For all of their ethical lapses, I cannot imagine that the Republican leadership could be so irresponsible and unserious that they would knowingly install so purchasable a man within easy reach of marketable secrets in time of war. This is especially important as our enemies are awash in oil money.
Another good reason not to trust the Democrats is their investment in defeat. Whatever one now thinks of the justification for the Iraq war, victory is essential. Recently, Saddam Hussein boasted that he would soon prevail over America. He knows this is election season and has been following the polls on his favorite network, al-CNN. What he and his terrorists could never win on the battlefield, they are winning on the evening news and, he hopes, at the ballot box.
The proper question should not be whether the Republicans deserve reelection, but whether or not the United States deserves the irresponsibility of the Democratic Party.