The Myth of the Moderate Democrat

Despite the sting of defeat, we move today into a new world, for the winds of "change" have cleared away the fog of war.

We know that when you send a Democrat to Congress you are sending that Democrat to expand government.

Never mind what the Democrat says, what sweet words he utters about family and the will of the people. Never mind if he really believes that stuff.

When push comes to shove, as we certainly understand from the shenanigans of ObamaCare, Democrats will fall behind the liberal leaders and vote the party line. The fact that some of them will vote against a party line vote like the vote in the House on Sunday just goes to prove the rule.

Just from the needs of practical politics you want to minimize the damage. You want to let as many Democrats in conservative districts vote with their constituents as possible. But one way or another, the arms have to be twisted to make the result come out right. The conservative Democrat you send to Washington is still a supporter of liberal measures, is still a vote for big government.

Now the fight goes on, and if you need something to give you heart, read Newt's screed this morning: "This Will Not Stand:"

The Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine combined the radicalism of Alinsky, the corruption of Springfield and the machine power politics of Chicago.

Sunday was a pressured, bought, intimidated vote worthy of Hugo Chavez but unworthy of the United States of America...

The ruthlessness and inhumanity of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine was most clearly on display in their public humiliation of Stupak.

The real principles of the machine were articulated by Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings who was impeached and removed from the bench as a federal judge, before being elected to the House when he said ""There ain't no rules here, we're trying to accomplish something. . . .All this talk about rules. . . .When the deal goes down . . . we make 'em up as we go along."

Thank you for making this so clear Mr. Hastings. For you, it's all about the power.

But, as one of the French leftist radicals in the revolutionary movement of 1968 that removed President de Gaulle from office came to realize, the great value of bourgeois democracy is the rules, the list of things that people agree not to do, the limits on the power of the powerful.

Ever since Marx in the 19th century the left has clearly flagged that it doesn't believe in no stinkin' rules. iTS philosophy has been a philosophy of power, because, it argues, the rules of the middle-class state are a fraud, an apology for middle-class power that oppress the working class and the poor.

There is at least a grain of truth in this. The poor and the working class are peculiarly vulnerable to the power of the market because they have so little to offer in the great exchange.

But the middle-class state offers the protection of its rules to everyone. It limits power so that the powerful are constrained. When the power of the powerful is limited then the poor are protected just as much as the middle class. Perhaps more.

What we have seen over the last months is the power of the powerful in league against the people. The ruling Democrats cut deals with the powerful so that they could get their legislation through. They did deals with insurance companies and drug companies to buy their support.

That is always the way of politics. It always ends up being a conspiracy of the powerful against the people. The only way to avoid it is by keeping the government small so that the people can be large.

Now we shall see if the American people will really rally to Newt's banner and insist that the Democrats' power play "shall not stand."

But that is what politics is all about.