A PARTY HIJACKED, OR WHY OBAMA WILL LOSE

We have witnessed the death throws of the old, respectable, bread and butter
Democratic party, the party of Truman, FDR, Kennedy and Scoop Jackson. This process began in the late 60's, my view, as a new left arising from the cultural revolution, galvanized by the Vietnam war and the advent of the new left-wing intellectuals’ manifestoes about revolutionary violence, black power and imperialism moved away from Johnson and hijacked the traditional Democratic party mechanism, effectively, as one spokesman put it, "murdering liberalism in its official robes".

This was the beginning of the end. There was a transformation, one from anti-war to anti-American (apologists for Communism, apologists for the Sandinistas, for Castro), from being just critical to almost purely nihilistic in character. Now the party is for the most part lost to Hollywood, to the universities, to the shills for the left in the media, the elitist revisionists and foundations which have an agenda out of touch with the average American, most of whom they never see or wish to see. This of course is what Democratic party elders feared following the McGovern debacle, why they threw grass-roots democracy out the window and instead adopted the so-called Super Delegate system as a way to trump such radically inspired messes in the future (even this system has been hijacked). And this is why a respected life-long Democrat, the Greek scholar Vic Hansen sickened at the sight of Michael Moore perched next to Jimmy Carter at the last Democratic convention, mourning that, "This says it all, the sorry coming together of conspiratorial anti-Americanism and self-righteous appeasement".

And of course this is why Obama’s recent comment in SF about embittered Americans, his refusal to wear the American flag lapel pin, his friendly relationship not just with a Weatherman terrorist but to use his own words, "Marxist professors and structural feminists...," show that his philosophy is no different really from the liberal elitism (and grievance culture) of a Dukakis or a McGovern or Kerry all of whom lost because of a lack of connection with the bread and butter Democrats. Obama’s voting record is perfectly consistent with this far-left ideology. Obama, if the nominee, means failure for the Democrats in November.

Robert Craven