Monday, November 27, 2006

NO LIBERAL AGENDA? THINK AGAIN

It's always been puzzling that when Democrats are running for office or when they're explaining their victory, they always have to try and convince people they're not who they say they are. They simply cannot let the public know who they really are or what they really stand for. To do so would be political suicide. The general electorate simply does not swing as far to the left as they do.

At any rate, there was John Dingell, Charlie Rangel and Barney Frank on TV over the weekend saying that they wouldn't pursue a liberal agenda in the next Congress. They want to government from the middle, we were told. They'd like to prove that they can govern. So just what sort of proposals are going to be part of their mainstream agenda?

One of the first thing will be raising the minimum wage. Yeah...that's not a liberal agenda. Then there's the issue of the deficit. Democrats absolutely cannot wait to raise taxes on "the rich" to "pay for" the extra government spending. Any other supposed mainstream ideas they have will be just as liberal.

Perhaps what they're trying to do here is change the terms ... create a new political language where tax increases and government interference in business decisions isn't considered "liberal."

The more likely explanation is that they know they don't have the votes to deliver the true liberal goals of socialized medicine, eliminating the wage cap on Social Security taxes, more power to unions, killing talk radio, and destroying what we have of school choice. So ... lay low until after 2008 when they have even more power! Then stand back!

Democrats have been out of power for a dozen years. They haven't waited on the sidelines all that time just so they could win and then govern just like Republicans. Democrats have a leftist agenda and they intend to pursue it fully. It's all in the timing.