The ‘D’ in Democrat

The “D” must mean “don’t get it!”

It never ceases to amaze me how seemingly educated people who supposedly have read at least one history book somewhere back in high school, or traveled out of their own state, could fail to see what is at stake in the upcoming national elections. Sadly enough, in the big picture, it is not even about being a Democrat or a Republican. Zell Miller and other people of character, and who can think past the last thing they heard on CNN, figured it all out. It is about character and which party carries those “compassionate conservative character” ideals forward.

I have said this before, but I was for years a registered, card-carrying Southern Democrat. My Father so believed in the Democratic Party that he would go into the voting booth and find the Democratic lever and vote sight unseen for all Democratic candidates. Here was an educated Southern Christian gentleman from Social Circle who loved America and the opportunities that the Statue of Liberty offered to anyone.

Dad was a forerunner of the Civil Rights movement. He seriously believed in the Democratic Party as a party of the working man who represented American values. He believed this so much that he fought in two of the bloodiest wars in the 20th Century, World War II and the Korean War, to free oppressed peoples. He was at Hung-Nam and Ham-Hung on the Manchurian border and fought in the Chosen Reservoir and did the Inchon landing with Douglas McArthur as they fired the Missouri Battleship. He was there when 300,000 Chinese soldiers swarmed our troops on Christmas Day.

But Dad changed over the years. He saw the deterioration of the Democratic Party’s ideals as Zell Miller did. And whom, I might add, has had the courage to say so. Dad changed because he saw deterioration of the Democratic Party in becoming a party of all special interest groups who were left-leaning in their fundamental flawed doctrines. They have become a group of people who, in my opinion, just don’t get it. They have abandoned the very people whom they claim to support! I did not leave the party; it left me.

President George Bush is great, not because he is a Republican, but because of his character and his compassionate conservative ideals which I feel are lacking in the Democratic Party today.

I do seriously look at the other party to see if there would be one of the candidates that seems to have any compassionate, conservative roots. And, if I begin to listen to one or two of them, and begin to think that they just might make a good candidate, should a Democrat be elected, my hopes are dashed by their “just don’t get it” mentality. Their whole “lack of a platform” strategy has been a one-liner: “Bash Bush.”

When you don’t really have a well thought-out strategy, you can always just complain and whine loudly enough and eventually the dirt kickers and whiners and nay-sayers will all sing along with you. Of course, at the end of the day, what have you elected? Who will you hurt in the long run? Your country, your family, our way of life, and yourself!

During the Viet Nam war, many people were against the war. They spent all their resources downing our involvement and our leadership and our military. At the end of the day, North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon with their flags waving and the TV cameras rolling. Year after year, those films are shown over and over on the American TV.

Many people, when they watch those films, because of their “just don’t get it” mentality, say to themselves, “Wasn’t that terrible that we ever went over there in the first place?” What the rolling TV cameras will not ever let one American see are the hundreds of “re-education” hard labor camps that dot the countryside of now-Communist Viet Nam. In these camps, these men and women are made to do hard labor for a minimum of six years, depending upon your former rank and position in either the South Vietnamese Army or in the South Vietnam government. Some higher-ranking men had 20 years of “re-education.”

It saddens me to think that a country as great as America has such a large segment of Americans that “just don’t get it.”

In closing, I would like to drop a very important historical fact here. What George Bush has done in Iraq is similar to the Marshall Plan in Europe, which has served the cause of freedom for decades and which, I feel, will for centuries to come. However, if the “just don’t get its” come into power in this country and go soft on the fight against terrorism, which President Bush is successfully waging, then 9/11 will be the norm, and Armageddon will be upon us sooner then later! Wake up, America, before it’s too late, regardless of your party background!

Freedom is not free! Saddam oppressed his people for 30 years! Vote for conservative candidates with compassionate conservative character!

Dr. Knox Herndon is the pastor of His House Community Church (SBC). Rev. Greg Mausz is Sr. Assoc. Dr. Lydia Herndon is the Sunday School Superintendent, Bible study coordinator and teacher. The church has moved to the new location just below Fayetteville, on GA. Highway 85. As you leave Fayetteville going South on Highway 85, you cross Highway 16, at the Senoia intersection. It is a mile on the right just below the fire station. If you are not in a church, come visit us. Church office and Prayer line is 770-719-2365. E-Mail address is KHERN2365@aol.com. Web address is www.hishousecommunitychurch.com.