Tuesday, April 05, 2005

One way the Democrats are screwing up

I know nothing about parenting. Neither did my parents at one point. So I never learned anything about parenting. But I do have some intuitions about some things that children need. I was wondering if there are parents out there who can back me up. If I am way off then my analogy is flawed, and this is all wrong, but I think I am on to something.

I strongly suspect that children (and adults too) need to see that their caregiver is decisive. They need to see that their caregiver has rules, boundaries, and inspires confidence. Their caregiver cannot be wishy washy, should not waver, should motivate their children, etc.

I wonder what kind of child will be raised by someone who is unsure what their children should be doing, cannot decide when bedtime is, what they can eat, what clothing is appropriate, what constitutes proper sexual behavior, what their attitude should be toward alcohol, relationships, drugs, etc. Parents need to present a united and decisive front on most issues.

I would guess that when parents don't, their children loose faith in their parents. When children are very young they need to believe that their parents can handle all situations, and more over, know what to do at all times. I would not be very inspired by parents who had no social, intellectual, or moral, compass that they were motivated to pass on to their children.

Democrats seem to be in the same boat as parents from the 60's. Few convictions, few beliefs, and a hesitancy to speak up on any issue except how bad "the man" (ie, Bush) is. The Democrats need to grow up and start acting like responsible leaders. When there is an issue they need to take a stand.

The Republicans always take stands. Their stands might be stupid, arrogant, inconsistent, annoying and wrong, but they take stands. They will always let you know what they think, and what their moral vision is on any given issue. They may even change their minds from time to time. But at any given time, they have a view.

The Democrats lost the election because they had no position whatsoever on anything. Kerry, Moore, and moveon.org had no problem bitching and complaining about Bush and other authority figures. In that respect they were all acting like adolescents. Who the hell wants to have an angry teenager as your ruling political party, or your president. People want a leader who can lead strongly. People want decisions. People want a president who is given authority for four years because they have a vision of how the country should be and they agree with it.

No one in this country agreed with Kerry's vision for the future of America. Not because his vision was dumb, but because he either has none or he chose not to tell us what it was.

Most recently when Terry Schiavo was allowed to die, the Republicans had no problem telling us what they thought, and how it fit in to their moral vision for America. The Democrats probably believed the opposite, but you wouldn't know it from following the news. No protests asserting her right to die, no Major democrats getting up and holding press conferences, no Howard Dean telling us that anything. Where the heck is the Democratic leadership?

I suspect that there are a lot of Democrats out there who would vote for a Democrat if the Democrats would exhibit leadership instead of adolescent rage all the time. I very well might. Who is the person making sure that Democrats stay obscure? Who is making sure that everyone has beliefs about the Democratic party that they cannot verify?

The Democrats have to take a lesson from Republicans and good parents. Show that you are strong, show that you are leaders, and show that you care about the fate of the country and that you have a plan for its future. If they do so, the voters might treat them like leaders.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have made it out that everyone who is a democrate, isn't a good parent and thats not true.
The reason the dems lost this years election was because this country is founded on old fashioned religious values, something the republicans promote. Nothing more and nothing less.

bec said...

those are the most moronic rebuttals that i have heard from anyone in a while. not only was voting for kerry out of the question, but i found that i had to change my political affiliation to independent just so i could sleep at night. it's true. the democrats, many of whom came of age in the sixties, are stuck in a political time machine. every war waged by a republican president will be likened to vietnam. why would anyone want to ensure democracy in the middle east (or anywhere for that matter?)
Bush may not be perfect, but i agree, he makes a much better leader than any bleeding heart liberal ever will. considering that my own misguided liberal family described me as a current day nazi collaborator for voting for bush, i'd say that karl is pretty much on the ball.
btw, anonymous,you really should reread the post. you obviously missed the analogy being made. this time READ CAREFULLY.

karl said...

Anon, Not all Democrats are bad parents. There was an analogy there. The analogy was to bad parents. Democrats are like bad parents - not Democrats are bad parents.

clublint, of course you are not an american, otherwise you'd get it. Perhaps when Kerry was campaining in YOUR country he told YOU what he would do about the war in Iraq. Perhaps Howard Dean told YOUR COUNTRY what he take is on Social Security. But here in the states all we are told is how bad Bush's plan is. We are not given a Democrat alternative. I have as much a soft spot in my heart for Democrats as I do Republicans. Actually I dislike them both, but when it comes to presenting a clear message, Republicans are doing a better job.

Look, if I am so wrong and you really think the Democrats are doing such a bang-up job, maybe you should explain why Democrats are loosing more and more all over the country.

If your brilliant theory is that you think Americans are dumb, well then, the Democrats are then just dumber for not picking up on that.

Three and a half million people below half my country voted did indeed vote Democrat. That in no way implies that they saw a coherent position. The anti-Bush Rhetoric here (in case you have not noticed) outweighed the Pro-Democrat rhetoric by about a million to one.