Barrett Kalellis
Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2004

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  It was heartwarming to see all the handwringing, headscratching and ashen faces of media anchors like Chris Matthews, Matt Lauer, Katie Couric, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, et al., when it became apparent that their candidate couldn’t pull it off. When they finally saw the burning bush, they immediately transitioned into analysis mode and offered their usual frathouse interpretation of events.

So what can Kerry, and by extension, the Democratic Party, learn from this punctured balloon? Probably nothing, but it would be worth the exercise to tick off the misjudgment of the American people and the values that they so cavalierly dismissed.

When Democrats hurl rhetorical bombs against Republicans, they usually include the pejorative that the party is in the thrall of the “far right,” — a nebulous reference to Christians of evangelical persuasion.

These invectives are meant to obscure the fact that beginning as far back as the McGovern debacle of 1972, the Democratic Party has become increasingly dominated by a generation of leftists, from moderate to extreme. Think Hillary Clinton. Think Kerry. Think Michael Moore.

These are the Democrats that Zell Miller, a lifelong Democrat, has rebelled against. One look at the 2004 Party Platform reveals the leanings of Democrats today:

internationalism rather than nationalism as the touchstone for foreign policy decisions; big government solutions to everything from job creation, trade protectionism, extreme environmentalism and manufacturing technology to manipulative tax jiggering, centralized educational policies, social security quick fixes and socialist health care proposals.

On social and cultural issues, the Dems go off the deep end. While they don’t specifically take position on these, individual spokespersons and allied interest groups generally make them clear. The party has become the champion of predominantly secularist values: feminism, homosexual equality, racial preferences, abortion on demand, judicial activism and assaults on morality guided by religion. On the cesspool of popular culture, they are cautiously silent. This represents a profound misunderstanding of traditional American values as we know them.

It’s unfortunate that the party chose a candidate whose personal idiosyncracies could not convince the American public of his sincerity and fitness for the leadership of the country.

Instead of being warm and self-effacing, Kerry exuded a patrician haughtiness. Rather than being plain-spoken and direct in expressing his principles, Kerry spoke with a practiced nuance in the art of risk avoidance. His stated “positions” rose to the level of academic deconstructionism in their interpretation.

Kerry’s mediocre performance in the U.S. Senate, and his trail of liberal positions, belied his tough talk on the campaign trail. His campaign, if nothing else, was a calculated performance. Unlike Bush, who had to stand on his four-year record, Kerry’s campaign was truly an example of “the selling of the candidate.”

Then there’s the swift boat controversy. Rather than personally address the many charges of deception and falsification of records that were raised by hundreds of his fellow soldiers, Kerry chose to send out hordes of Clintonesque shills and mouthpieces to malign his accusers rather than address the substance of the charges. It still left unanswered the questions about his character.

With Kerry, the Democrats chose a scorch and burn campaign. From the very beginning, egged on by the extremist wing of their party, the strategy was to insult and traduce President Bush and his policies in a most demeaning manner. This was done in such an elite, condescending way that it sent the message, “You are stupid. We know how to govern better. We have a plan.”

The voters, however, rejected this plan. Then, in what is becoming part of the Democrat playbook, rather than concede their loss in prompt fashion, the Kerry forces debated whether to litigate the vote count in Ohio.

The American people have chosen wisely. They have reelected a good and decent man and turned their backs on the negative politics of the elite.

Barrett Kalellis is a Michigan-based columnist and writer whose articles appear regularly in various local and national print and online publications. He can be reached at kalellis@newsmax.com.