Allen April 21st, 2006
I have been a Democrat for all my life. I think it is perhaps genetic as my parents are Democrats as was their parents before them. I married a Democrat from a family of Democrats. My wife is even related to Harry Truman, which is probably a shining example of an old-school Democrat.
But the Democrats killed my yellow dog and I just can’t forgive them of that.
My dad’s father died when my dad was about 6-7 years old. From what I can gather, he died of stomach cancer and left behind a large family during the Depression. So I can certainly understand how my Dad came to be a Democrat as the Democrats appeared to be the only ones who cared about the masses of people who were facing such a turbulent time. This aversion to Republicans was passed down to me: "He must be a Republican because he never smiles." Or "All they care about is rich people and big companies." Untold hours of subtle and not-so-subtle hints that the Republicans were just not nice people.
So when I turned 18, I dutifully stood in line to vote for the only sane choice in the election - Jimmy Carter. That shows how much of a Democrat I was. The line for the voting booth snaked around the side of the church and I stood there for a good hour or so. So long, in fact, that my Dad came to see what had happened to me. He told me that Carter had already conceded the election to Reagan and I should just come home. And I told him that I wanted to still stand in line and vote for Carter. Somewhere off in the distance, my yellow dog howled in triumph.
But those Democrats killed that yellow dog. The yellow dog my family had been raising for generations.
I voted for Mondale, Dukakis, Perot in 92 (who appeared to me to be more of a Democrat than Clinton), Clinton in 96 and Gore in 2000. And every time I voted, somewhere within my inner ear were generations of Democrats telling me that I was doing the right and good and decent thing to vote for someone who cares about the people. And my yellow dog wagged his tail because he was so proud of his boy voting the right way.
But looking back at that list of Democratic presidential candidates, I can see where each and every candidate was slowly killing my yellow dog.
Carter crippled our standing in the world and allowed a series of college students in Iran dictate American policy. Mondale reeked of Carter-fug and never met a tax he didn’t like. Dukakis was simply a joke when it came to national defense (A tank? A tank?!? Why not embrace your inner-self and drive around in a VW minibus?). Clinton (personal slime ball though he was) appeared to be the most centrist of the group. But I feel that his positions on political matters weren’t simply the summation of a large and complex political equation. I still wake up at night in a cold sweat at the thought of a Gore presidency on 9/11. Well, I really don’t - but I probably should.
But somewhere my yellow dog lies moldering in his grave. And the Democrats are the ones who killed him.
As noted earlier, my wife is related (distantly) to President Harry S. Truman. I think perhaps every Democratic candidate should be asked, when announcing that they are running for president, a simple, single yes/no question. "Would you have dropped the atomic bombs on Japan during World War 2?"
If the answer is yes, they are a member of the old-school (Truman) Democratic Party. If they take a poll first to see what the public thinks the response should be, they are a member of the political calculus (Clinton) Democratic Party. And if they look aghast at the mere thought of asking the question and ponderously answer with a 3-page policy paper as to why, in a multi-cultural world that should embrace, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah… They are a member of the modern Democratic Party.
So of course, Truman did drop the bomb and would answer yes. In doing so, he saved countless American (and Japanese) lives that would been spent on an even more bloody and protracted war. Kennedy would have said yes and LBJ may have said yes as well. The rest of the Democratic presidential candidates probably would have said no. Perhaps Clinton would have said yes, but only after many extensive and rigorous polls.
So it really turns out that the Democrats have been killing my yellow dog for a long time. I just didn’t realize it.
And now I’ve got a pack of yellow dogs that the Democrats seem intent upon killing. It’s no longer simply the national defense yellow dog that they are hunting down: Marginal tax rates, death taxes and enforcement of all the provisions of the Bill of Rights. I’ve got a large pack of yellow dogs that are at risk.
So now I’m faced with a dilemma. Let’s imagine that I’m now offered a candidate for the House of Representatives or the Senate that is a Truman-legacy Democrat. I can vote for a Zell Miller Democrat. I’m offered a Democrat who proposes that a repeat child molester face the death penalty. A "hell, yes I would drop the bomb" Democrat.
But if I (and enough people like me) vote in this old-school Democrat, who will be elected to House or Senate majority leadership positions? Certainly not some fresh-faced lawmaker from Oklahoma. Who? Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and their ilk. These are the very people who killed my yellow dog. These are the people who have been poisoning him since he was a young pup.
The Democrats killed my yellow dog. I don’t want them at his funeral.