The Trouble With Lefty.

I once read that conservatives mistrust groups and trust individuals and that liberals mistrust individuals but connect to groups. In my experience, there is a great deal of truth to this. Just drive out to some rural area where people tend to be more politically conservative and knock on a few doors. Ask if you can borrow their phone because you ran out of gas. Now try that in New York City where citizens tend to be more politically liberal. See what happens there. Yet if you ask most urban dwellers if we should save a group of people they have never met, liberals tend to want to help whereas conservatives tend to turn a blind eye. Each one has its own merits and drawbacks, but taken on a national level, the liberal perspective doesn't fare well at all when it comes to reaching voters.

Take for instance today's protest which is scheduled to take place in several cities across the nation. The left, correctly, is capitalizing on a national distaste for the Iraq misadventure and attempting to show the government that the November elections and democrat's victory had a very strong message: get our troops out. The protest is designed to paint an image of a very displeased constituency for a deaf and seemingly blind Administration. This is where the left shines; at throwing a party. No one can organize a protest like a liberal and it has changed a great many of America's past disastrous policies. Vietnam & Civil Rights just to name two. Sadly, however, they are missing the individual and it will, as it has in the past (Gary Hart, Walter Mondale and Micheal Dukakis) come back to haunt them.

Is protesting the war a good thing? Of course it is. Especially this disaster. I'm with you there. Is it good to have prominent figures there? Of course it is. Faces people can identify with and relate to. Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. All faces that we now associate with liberal causes. This protest is a no-brain win. Sounds like the perfect atmosphere to blow an easy way to make a political gain! But how? I know! Let's invite "Hanoi" Jane Fonda! And that, my friends, is the trouble with lefty. Like that self-destructive friend who just can't shake an addiction, the left simply must squander its advantage every chance it can.

I don't know if you agree with Jane Fonda and frankly it doesn't matter. This woman provided aide and comfort to the NVA during the Vietnam war. Yes, it was a loathsome conflict and ultimately illegal, but her actions were petty, vindictive and at worst, treasonous. So why, of all of Hollywood's gliteratii, would they pick her? Was the mentally deteriorating Barbara Striesand too busy? There is absolutely nothing to gain by inviting Ms. Fonda and everything to lose. Do you really think a person in Indiana, Iowa or Nebraska who is against the war is going to align themselves with her and continue their support? Or do you think that maybe, just maybe, they will remember her past transgressions and consider the fact that her judgement is perhaps not in line with their own values?

Consider when Bill Clinton was running for President in 1992. He did everything he could to distance himself from percieved left fringe elements such as Jesse Jackson because that is what you have to do in America to win elections. Is it expedient? Yes. Is it calculating? You bet. Does it work? Well, ask Karl Rove. He is the one responsible for marrying the religious right to the conservative cause and it paid off. Sadly, it doesn't work the other way around. For some reason, fringe conservatives vote twice as much as fringe liberals. Is it any surprise that the left keeps losing elections? Not when your voting base doesn't show up.

Whether or not you agree with this, the statistics bear this to be true which is why the democratic turnaround just barely gave them an edge this last election. The polls at the time of the mid-terms showed that sixty-four percent of the public thought the Iraq war was being mishandled and yet liberal victories over republican incumbents nationwide ran in the single digit margins. That is either because voters didn't understand that the Administration was behind the war (unlikely) or that they still didn't connect with democrats except that they weren't attached to the Administration's war policy (more likely). This is big problem for the liberals who need to realize, and quickly, that the "average" American does want a better life and agrees with most of what they are selling (minimum wage increase, universal health care and responsible foriegn policies) but if you think your salesperson is going to be Jane Fonda, you are not seeing the trees in a very red forest.