PUBLIC NUISANCES: Democrats to the Rescue/Ben Is So Right
Tyrrell, R. Emmett Jr.
7 4 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R A P R I L 2 0 0 7 Democrats to the Rescue WASHINGTON HEREVER THEY ARE, I HOPE theauthorsofourConstitution are pondering the spectacle now...
...I recall years ago spending time in a retirement community with a learned intellectual named HuntingtonCairns.He,aleftistwithtendenciestowardpacifism, one day confided that in this community of retirees and octogenarians the old folks who could alwaysbecountedontolookoutforthecommunityand for its most fragile members were most likely retired military...
...And what is my response...
...More properly, the average American cares about the condition oftheverypooramongus,andAmericahastriedtodo quitealotabouttheverypoor.Asaconsequence,poverty in America today is not as pernicious as it was a centuryago;andtherearethroughsocialservices,education, and our vibrant economy infinitely more avenues of escaping poverty...
...Harry Reid, and the incomparable Hon...
...They are constantly readjusting their tactics to new conditions...
...Whenever he begins waving the flag and whistling "TheStar-SpangledBanner,"heisthesoulofwisdom...
...Theyvotedforwarin2002.Theysneeredatthehandful of anti-war activists led by the likes of Professor Noam Chomsky who opposed it...
...You might recall in the aftermath of 9/11 as we drove the Taliban from Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, serious observers of world events such as the British historian Niall Ferguson questionedAmericanresolve.FergusonseemedtobelievethatinlightofthisnewthreatofinternationalterrororiginatingfromtheMiddleEast'sroguestatesthe United States would demonstrate the resolve to overcomethisnewthreattothedemocracies...
...I heave spitballs--all are, I believe, on target--but surely it is not right to leave the patriotic ratiocinating to Ben...
...Never is he more eloquent in praising the volunteertroopswhokeepusfreeandsecure.Todaythereare myriads of out-at-the-elbow Hitlers intent on blowing up our cities and spreading pandemics...
...Their record as good citizens is a matter of fact...
...Well, even the noblest of the species Homo sapiens have blind spots and related weaknesses...
...Yet, according to the novel reading of the newly elected Democratic majority, the FoundingFathersdeniedthepresidenttheinstrumentalities to be commander in chief...
...America is almost everything our enemies deny it to be...
...They are deadly but they are for the most part decent, conformingtotheinternationalrulesofwarfare,unlike their enemies who hide in mosques, use women and childrenforshields,andblowupcivilians...
...Ben rhapsodizes about thisgreatcountry,itsunderappreciatedcitizenry,the brave and effective soldiers of its volunteer military, Cadillacs...
...Ben Is So Right WASHINGTON MY FRIEND, THE ACTOR and writer Ben Stein, is forever putting me to shame, writing eloquent laudations to the wonder of America while I am given to heaving up diatribes against the world's pests and scoundrels...
...Note that the Democrats are not actually calling for retreat...
...Nowtalklikethis,Iknow,willtriggeruproarhere intheU.S.ofA.,butitisanuproarinstigatedeitherby well-meaningeconomicilliteratesorbydemagogues...
...and get whattheydeserve.Despitethedefeatisthumorsinour media, these soldiers and Marines dispatch the enemy with a professionalism of the highest order...
...7 4 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R A P R I L 2 0 0 7 Democrats to the Rescue WASHINGTON HEREVER THEY ARE, I HOPE theauthorsofourConstitution are pondering the spectacle now bedazzlingCapitolHill.Intheadmirablegoverning document that the Founding Fathers fashioned theymadethepresident"CommanderinChief" of our military...
...Thus he will apparently have to sit tight until Murtha, an opponent of the war, decides how General Petraeus's troops will be armed and trained...
...John P. Murtha with their exegesisoftheConstitution...
...R .E M M E T TT Y R R E L L ,J R . A P R I L 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 7 5...
...Today the political parasites who wish to attain highofficebylatchingontosomepresumedmiseryin oursocietytellusthatthereisadreadfulgulfbetween therichandthepoor.Actuallyitisagulfthatveryfew Americanscaremuchabout.TheaverageAmericanis simply too good-natured to care if Warren Buffet has five billion dollars or fifty billion dollars...
...There is no reason to doubt that the members of the military defending us abroad today will return to be leaders in their communities tomorrow in a country as pleasant and just as Ben insists that it is...
...Thereisatremendousenergyaboutthiscountry thatIneverfailtonoticeuponreturningtoourshores fromfaraway.Europeisalovelyplacetovisit,butitis adrowsyplacebycomparisontoAmerica.Whythisis I am uncertain, though I think it has something to do with Old Europe's centuries of religious and class warfare, the two world wars of the 20th century that mowed down so many of Europe's best men, and the Americancelebrationoffreedom.Europeansconsider our celebration of freedom vulgar and even alarming...
...Those duties, according to this trinity of fantasists, were to be left to committees on Capitol Hill, even committees dominated by a president's opponents...
...Doesthissoundabitflafla?Hasanywareverbeen foughtthisway?WhataretheDemocratsthinkingof...
...Nancy Pelosi, the Hon...
...Pastpresidentswereinerror.Theyactedunconstitutionally when they in their impertinence had their generals and admirals train and equip our forces...
...Let it pass, my intention here is to reinforce Ben's praise of America...
...Well,ProfessorFerguson,youunderestimatedthe partisannatureofcontemporaryAmericanpolitics.So eagerforhighofficearetheDemocratsthattheywould endanger our war effort to gain political advantage...
...The worse the sectarian violence becomes, the better for Democratic prospects...
...They are thinking of more electoral victories in 2008...
...That bogus complaint now justifies them in harassing his execution of the war...
...There is something else about our military that I donotbelieveevenBenhasmentioned.Whentheyreturntocivilianlifetheywillbecomeleadingmembers of society...
...FranklyIthinktheDemocratsaretakingreckless chanceswiththeirfate.Foracertitude,theyaretreatingourmilitaryevenmorerecklessly.TheDemocrats' political meddling in this war is obviously dragging it outandendangeringourtroops.Infact,therancorous waytheyhavemovedfromsupportofthewartoopposition has had to encourage our enemies in Iraq and elsewhere...
...Now, however, along come the Hon...
...David Petraeus in charge of Coalition forces in Iraq, but they do not approve of his strategy of "surge...
...For over two centuries,throughwarslargeandsmall,Americanpresidents have been equipping armies, deciding strategy, and sending those armies into battle...
...As Ben has sung, America is generous, free, democratic, hard-working, tolerant, and cheerful...
...They might eventually, but for now all they want to do is take on constitutionalpowersthatnootherCongresshasever taken on, the power to manage a war...
...PresidentGeorgeW.Bushisinadifficultsituation P U B L I CN U I S A N C E S WR . E m m e t t T y r r e l l , J r . in Iraq...
...The American militaryunderciviliancontrolfightsonforeignsoilfar away to insure that the aspiring Adolfs fail...
...It isthegreatestmultiracialnationonearth.Foryearsit has been multi-ethnic, the Melting Pot, as they say...
...Yet from the looks of it he will be saved, if not byGeneralPetraeusthenbytheDemocrats'shameful politicaltacticsintimeofwar...
...Of a sudden, they fabricated a complaint, to wit, "Bush lied to us aboutWMDs...
...But today it is multiracial, having overcome slavery that endured far too long in a country whose Founding Fathers propounded freedom for all mankind while strangely maintaining servitude for almost all blacks who were shipped over here...
...It is disgraceful anditisverystupid.ItassumesthattheAmericanpeople will not hold them accountable when bad consequencesfollowupontheirbadbehavior...
...Thus Speaker of the House Pelosi has charged Murtha to divine the conditions under which reinforcementswillfightinIraq.TheDemocratsapproved of putting Lt...
...Then they suffered the disturbing sense that their support of wartime president George W. Bush marginalized them and helped him in his 2004 re-election bid...
...If they can effectively hamstring our efforts in Iraq, they somehow think the American electorate will blame the whole thing on the Republicans...
...The more Iraq descends into anarchy,themorelikelytheAmericanpeoplewillwhoopitup for the political party that, as the Washington Post has put it, linked "support for President Bush's warfundingrequesttostrictstandardsofresting,training andequippingcombatforces...
...I think today the majority of AmericanshasmadeupforthebigotryofearlierAmericans, and the achievements of blacks in America today--in entertainment, commerce, medicine, education, the sciences--make it clear that racism was the evil of ignorance, the ignorance of the bigot...
...Our social freedom perhaps explains our cheerfulness...
...Actually freedom, when combined with our market economy, has led to enormous progress in termsofproductinnovation,productquality,spread-ing wealth...
Vol. 40 • April 2007 • No. 3
