Wednesday, June 18, 2003

On Feb. 8 of this year, I turned 60 years old. My age gives me the perspective needed to bear witness to the great political and historical events of the last 40 years, events that have transformed the Democratic Party into what is fast becoming the American Socialist Party.

I am old enough to remember when "Democrat" was not a four-letter word. In fact, as a young, idealistic Democrat, living in Chicago during the turbulent '60s and '70s, I was a member of IVI (the Independent Voters of Illinois) and IPO (the Independent Precinct Organization). We nominated and supported liberal, but principled, candidates to run against the handpicked candidates of Mayor Richard J. Daley (the First). I worked in the 49th and 50th wards on the far north side of Chicago, duking it out with some of the best precinct captains Daley could throw at us.

In short, I was a part of the "New Wave" Democrats, and we were struggling to convert our "progressive" issues into political reality. We were up against a Democratic Party that was a coalition of groups mainly bound together on economic issues.

At the local level, the core of the Democratic Party consisted of municipal workers and union members who worked in a basic manufacturing economy, lunch bucket Democrats. They were hard-working Irish, Italian, Polish, and Jewish immigrants whose main concern was to band together under the big tent of the Democratic Party to gain political leverage. The politicians who represented them not only fought for their economic interests, but they also reflected traditional American values: family, religion, and country.

The Vietnam War changed all of that. The lunch bucket Democrats were supplanted by the antiwar, anti-American radicals who became the dedicated socialists of today. I know, I was there during the Days of Rage in which they "Brought the War Home." No single event exemplified this transition better than the Democratic National convention in 1972. To this day, I can still remember standing and cheering as Jesse Jackson ousted Mayor Daley's Chicago delegation. At that moment in time, I knew that the Democratic Party was changed forever. At the time, I didn't realize that it was changed for the worst.

In the wake of that massive transformation, present-day Democrats have become a loose coalition of four groups: (1) The remnants of the old-line unionists, joined at the hip to militant left-wing unions; (2) The far-left militant radical groups; (3) the entitlement groups; and (4) what I call the "feel good" folks.

First, the unions from the shrinking manufacturing sector are still concerned mainly with economic issues and are generally still a part of the Democratic Party, although we see them breaking from the Dems on issues such as the right to bear arms. To fill the gap, the traditional unionists have now been joined by more strident and aggressively socialistic unions such as the National Education Association.

The unionists are aligned with a motley collection of far-left radical groups, including militant homosexuals such as Queer Nation; pro-aborts such as NARAL; environmental fanatics such as Earth First; and animal rights extremists such as PETA. These extremists groups are the political storm troopers of the far left.

Next is a much larger group of people who normally vote for Democrats because they receive an entitlement of some kind: Social Security, Medicare, ADC, etc. The people who receive these entitlements are generally hard-working folks. The Democrats are forever trying to frighten them, especially during elections, by spreading disinformation that the GOP is trying to take away their benefits, poison them with environmental pollutants, and starve their school-age children. However, this mantra is starting to wear thin, and these people are becoming increasingly aware that the Democrats are playing a thinly disguised game of money-for-votes with them.

The final component is a more heterogeneous group of people who generally vote for Democrats out of emotion, because they feel that Democrats are somehow better human beings: more giving, more loving, more trusting, and generally more understanding of the human condition. This group consists of younger people, intellectual idealists, and those who feel that if we all just play nice together, the world will be a better place.

The people guiding this coalition are bound and determined to change American by changing the fabric of our society. Naturally, this socialist message can't be overt. The "New Democrats" can't say they have a socialist agenda. Such an agenda doesn't play well in America. So they camouflage their message as "progressive."

The propaganda arms of this amalgam of diverse interests are the traditional liberal media and the entertainment industry. The objective of the entertainment industry is to break down the traditional family, especially the ties between children and their parents, by presenting song lyrics, movies, and TV content that encourage a young person's natural tendency to "just do it."

Whenever I think of what's happening to the family in America, I think of a scene from the movie "Killing Fields," which is about the Communist atrocities in Cambodia. In this scene, a Communist is teaching a small group of children. On the blackboard are stick figures of a family: father, mother, and two children, all holding hands. The teacher slowly and deliberately erases the connection between the parents and the children. The message is clear: children belong to the state, not to their parents.

Through the years, the media's role has been to help disguise this transformation, make it more palatable to the American people. To this end, the traditional liberal media overtly and conscientiously managed the news, always presenting the Democrats in the best light, while presenting the Republicans in the worst light possible. While Water Cronkite was telling it the "way it was" the apparent guardian of traditional American values he was all along apparently a closet socialist and a recently self-admitted pacifist.

As long as the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, et al, controlled print media, and as long as NBC, CBS, and ABC controlled the airwaves (and together they controlled the news) the Democrats could say and do whatever they wanted and always be assured that their words and deeds would be portrayed to the American people in the best possible light.

Ah, but the times, they are a changin'. These days, it's not so easy for the liberal media to give cover to the Democrats. There are other news outlets, where Americans can get a more fair and balanced view of politics and world events. We are beginning to see that the Democrats look more and more like French and German socialists. We are beginning to see that they would rather trust the charter of the United Nations than the Constitution of the United States.

In conclusion, we are beginning to see that today's "Democrats" bear little resemblance to the true Democrats of 40 years ago. They have become DINOs, Democrats in Name Only, trying to take America down the disastrous path to socialism.

Lawrence A. De Marino

Peachtree City, GA

lajaad@aol.com