Imagine…
…a recent graphic ad on the Republican.com website pictures smiling Democratic leaders Tom Daschle and Richard Gephardt shoving a young girl with pigtails in front of a train with the words ‘public education’ written on its side.
Although Democrats called for an apology, the Republican National Committee refused, explaining that the campaign effectively illustrated the Democrats crusade to prevent children from obtaining a decent education through vouchers, despite the overwhelming popularity and success of these programs. In the process, Republicans say, the web site will also detail how Democrats in Washington have annihilated America’s educational system the past fifty years, in particular, targeting of inner-city schools to keep minorities subjugated for their own political purposes.
In response to widespread media criticism, an RNC official told the Associated Press: “Daschle, Gephardt and Democrats still want to push their education plan through Congress, despite its detrimental effects. The truth just hurts.”
The RNC ad is just one of many contentious issues to hit Washington recently.
Just last week, Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott, took to the Senate floor, his voice crackling with righteous anger, and demanded an apology from Democrats for their politicization of the war effort and procrastination regarding homeland security. Lott went one step further, accusing Democrats of leaving millions of Americans defenseless against future terrorist attacks.
The same day, the RNC began running television ads in all major markets that replayed video of Democrats David Bonior and Jim McDermott on their latest Iraqi “fact-finding” mission. In it, the congressmen attack the national security policies of the United States and “apologize for terrorists and dictators.” McDermott is heard, in a loop, insinuating that President Bush was a warmonger and liar, while simultaneously coddling up to a merciless dictator, “whose hero happens to be Stalin.”
Democrats called the ad a dirty trick, indicative of the recent wave of aggressive Republican campaigning tactics.
Leading up to the November 5 election, Republicans nationwide have continued to accuse the Democratic of anti-minority, anti-middle class, homophobic and anti-Semitic behavior. In the Northeast, grassroots G.O.P. initiatives have recently taken out ads in major papers, targeting Jewish Democrats:
“Political anti-Semitism, despite common perceptions, has been almost exclusively a Leftist trait.” The ad goes on to state, “Republicans, included the Christian Right, are pro-Israel, while the Left is swarming with Palestinian activists and Jew haters.”
The ads charges the Democratic party of warmly embracing hate mongers like Cynthia McKinney, Maxin Waters, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Hillary Clinton. Republicans lay out a number of examples to back their claims, including Clinton’s infamous 1974 outburst, when she called a Bill Clinton campaign worker whose father was Jewish a “f—ing Jew bastard,” and her almost cordial reaction in 1999 to Suha Arafat’s accusation that Jews used poison gas against Arab women and children.
Republicans have also condemned the Montana Democratic Party for their gay-bashing, character assassination of state Senator Mike Taylor, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. Taylor, who has since withdrawn from the race, citing Democrat ads that insinuated a homosexual past “The ad has destroyed the campaign. We have no money left and we don’t want to stoop to the same level.”
Yet, despite these latest controversies, the primary area of conflict between Democrats and Republicans concerns the New Jersey Senatorial race. Republican candidate Doug Forrester decision to drop out for personal reasons, has paved the way for new, New Jersey resident, Rudy Giuliani to represent Republicans in the Garden State. The move comes despite, what seems to be, an unambiguous New Jersey law that bars replacement of candidates less than 51 days before an election. New Jersey Supreme Court, in a 7-0 decision cited previous rulings that said election law should be broadly interpreted to “allow parties to put their candidates on the ballot, and most importantly, to allow the voters a choice.” Democrats vowed to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. They argue that the New Jersey Supreme Court threw out the rule of law, bypassed the state legislature and interpret a provision of New Jersey law to mean the opposite of what the law states, “displaying total disregard for the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection language.” Giuliani leads recent polls by a 60 percent margin in most polls.
Time to wake up.
Perhaps if Republicans weren’t conscientious objectors in this country’s political war, they may take on some of these Democratic-style attacks. Instead of spineless preoccupation with polls and submissive political pragmatism, GOP leaders would be better served taking an assertive stance to expose the fact that rhetoric has completely replaced reality in Democratic propaganda.
Are the Democrats winning the war of public opinion because they are ruthless political warriors? If you trust recent polls, the answer seems to be yes. Apparently, they’ve made inroads on softening support for a preemptive strike on Iraq and blaming Republicans for all things wrong with the economy. Meanwhile, Lautenberg has recovered most of Torricelli’s losses in New Jersey.
The recent website graphic on the DNC website presents an image of President Bush pushing a wheelchair-bound elderly man off a cliff representing Social Security. That was exceptionally imaginative and extraordinarily ruthless. After all, the Republican initiatives in the area of Social Security, which they’ve seemed to back away from already, regard privatization, and that runs contrary to socialization — the Democrats’ end game. So, they’ve pulled no stops.
The DNC is chock full of ‘creative’ ideas. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, given that DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe is an awfully creative guy — as anyone whose read about his Global Crossing dealings can tell you that.
For the Right to genuinely fight, of course, would mean a significant departure from the slavish capitulation spineless congressional Republicans typically favor in Washington.
Don’t hold your breath.
