A Bad Year to Be a Democrat

NOTE: The following is my column for Dicta, the weekly law school newsletter. As always, Crocodile fans get the scoop.

A Bad Year to Be a Democrat

Let’s put policy issues aside for a moment and consider how Democrats have been behaving so far this election cycle:

Oct. 12, Seattle - Smashed car window.
Oct. 11, Spokane - Bush’s campaign office in Spokane burglarized, vandalized.
Oct. 5, West Allis, WI - Democratic demonstrators storm a Republican campaign office.
Oct. 5, Orlando - Mob attacks Bush-Cheney office.
Oct. 4, Knoxville - Gunshots fired into Bush-Cheney headquarters.
Oct. 1, Madison - Swastika burned into Grass on Bush-supporter’s lawn.
Sept. 30, Columbus, OH - Purple Heart Iraqi vet attacked.
Sept. 29, Vail - Vandals chainsaw Bush-Cheney sign on Magnus Lindholm’s yard.
Sept. 18, Gainsville, FL - Democrat slugs area GOP chief.
Sept. 16, in-flight over Canada - Drunken Kerry supporter assaults passenger.
Sept. 9, Dallas - Family of dead soldier harassed at candlelight vigil.
Sept. 4, Bozeman, MT - Bush campaign office vandalized with spray paint and rocks.
Sept. 2, Huntington, WV - Gunshot fired at Republican headquarters.
(Thanks to the Commisar for rounding up these stories).

That covers the violence and all-around piggishness. Let’s see what else we have in our bag of goodies:

- Dan Rather put his reputation on the line to push a crudely forged document about Bush’s National Guard service. He defended his partisan hatchet job by getting a handwriting expert, even though the doubts raised about the memos were about font, kerning and spacing on typewriters, not handwriting.

- Before the furor over Rather’s attempt to swing the election has even died down, CBS runs a story, based on a long-discredited e-mail, that says Republicans are going to re-instate the draft if Bush gets back into office. The proof? At the time of the story, there were two bills in Congress that would do just that. But CBS failed to mention that both bills were drafted by Democrats, and that Republicans overwhelmingly opposed the bills. Wouldn’t want the facts to get in the way of a good story.

- ABC political director Mark Halperin sacrificed any sense of impartiality or self-respect he might have had when he wrote and circulated a memo telling reporters not to hold both sides "equally accountable."

- Colorado news reporters uncovered "record amounts of voter fraud," with one voter laughing that he has registered more than 35 times.

- John Kerry claimed to have received a cell phone call from Christopher Reeves just before the "Superman" actor passed away. The problem with his story is that Reeve was in a coma at the time Kerry claims he got the call. The next day, John Edwards messianicly promised that if elected, John Kerry would cure quadriplegia.

- And in a particularly heart-warming bit of defeatism, it looks like DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe is already planning on his candidate losing in November. The DNC issued a 66-page memo that states: "if no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a ‘pre-emptive strike.’" Like Dan Rather, Terry thinks that when there’s no good dirt on the Republicans, the only responsible thing to do is make crap up.

- In Tennessee, a Democrat campaign poster states, "Voting for Bush is like running in the Special Olympics - Even if you win, you’re still a retard."

- San Francisco resident Steve Schwenk, in response to a New York Times piece that he found too conservative, wrote to the author, "I hope your kid gets his head blown off in a Republican war."

That’s enough to give you a good sampling. Much has already been said about each of these incidents individually, but I’d like to raise a larger question. Clearly, Democrats are so desperate for power that they are willing to lie, cheat, steal, assault people, disrespect our soldiers, fire weapons at GOP targets, and generally undermine faith in the American electoral process. What I’m wondering is, supposing all of these dirty tricks work. Will it really be worth it all? Is it, to paraphrase Milton, better to rule over a shattered America than live in dignity in a strong, vibrant democracy where disagreements are respectful and people trust the media and general elections? I rather doubt that these scorched-earth politics can make any of us better people.