Being a Democrat Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
Since the details of Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s disgusting restroom antics came to light, comparisons and contrasts of scandals involving Republicans versus Democrats have been made by almost every pundit with a political ax to grind. Liberal commentators love to characterize Craig’s tormented secret life and his traditional positions on issues such as same sex marriage as “hypocrisy,” while conservatives point out that Craig has a right to take those positions regardless of his personal proclivities. These views miss the point. While conservative Republicans have to live and die politically by the moral standards most Americans believe to be a reasonable code of personal behavior, Democrats have no standards for personal conduct. The litany of Dems who have thumbed their noses at decency in the name of political survival is long indeed.
Yeah, we lefties shore are a bunch of amoral scumbags, aren’t we? No, we may not be trying to bag Congressional pages, have anonymous sex in airport bathrooms, or engage in all manner of graft and corruption, but we STILL have morals that are lower than a snake’s belly. And despite what you might hear or think, Republicans are STILL the party of honesty and integrity. Of course, that someone like Doug Patton can make this argument with a straight face almost defies belief. Then again, Human Events has always been home to some of the most seriously unbalanced Right-wing partisan nutjobs on these shores.
Patton’s argument quickly descends into a “Yeah, I know we are, but what are you?” litany of morally-deficient Democrats. That’s all well and good, but Democrats have never claimed that God is on their side, nor have they laid claim to the moral high ground with the ferocity and right of ownership that most Republicans do. Rather than attempt to determine what might be done to improve things, Patton is content with name-calling and a lame attempt to paint Republican behavior as no worse than the moral missteps of Democrats.
Republicans, on the other hand, are held to a higher benchmark, and rightly so. It is one we who believe in decency and traditional values have set for them, and one to which we should continue to hold them. Is it fair that Larry Craig is forced to resign from the Senate on the strength of such flimsy evidence? Not when held up to the Democrats’ non-standard, but that is not our measure. Should Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy be wearing orange jump suits at the Massachusetts state prison instead of attempting to destroy the Constitution on a daily basis in the U.S. Congress? Of course, but as your mother probably told you, if you are looking for fairness in this world, son, you are likely to be disappointed.
Democrat constituents apparently don’t care what their elected officials do. As long as the goals of big government are served, sleaze and slime are just fine.
Republicans do care. We don’t want those representing us soliciting men for sex in bathrooms. We think there are lines over which we will not allow our public officials to cross. Going clear back to Watergate, Sen. Barry Goldwater led the Republican delegation to the White House to inform President Richard Nixon that he had to resign. From then until last week, when Republican leaders told Larry Craig there was no room for his behavior in the U.S. Senate, the GOP has been policing its own.
Good Lord, what a load of hypocritical crap. If you believe that the GOP wouldn’t countenance this sort of behavior if it wasn’t bathed in the blinding white light of media attention, you really ought to crawl back into your hole and surrender your voter registration card.
Then again, Patton, if he proves nothing else, demonstrates the lengths to which some on the Right will go to attempt to turn their own moral failings back onto Democrats. The reality here is that Democrats understand that they’ve harbored any manner of moral reprobates over the years, just as Republicans have. The difference is that Democrats have never claimed to be the party of moral superiority; they’ve never laid claim to God being on their side.
If they’re smart, Republicans would quickly distance themselves from a Grade-A DUMB@$$ like Patton, who if he was running the GOP campaign machine would be putting out slogans like this: Yeah, sure, we got caught, but…but…LIBERALS!!!
And you wonder why the GOP is circling the drain?
