I was once a Democrat. I must say that the thing that drove me from the party was when McGovern declared that he would go to Hanoi on his knees if necessary to gain peace with the communists. That was the last straw. Later, the collapse of the party into rank liberalism confirmed the validity of my decision to leave. There must be millions of citizens in this country who have experienced the same thing, although the catalyst for their move might have been different. The Democrat party has become an “outlaw” in our republic. Their policies and philosophy are antithetical to what the founders of this nation had in mind when the constitution was ratified. They use whatever deceit is necessary to achieve their goals. They place jurists in positions of authority who give lip service to the clear written words of the founding documents, while at the same time they are reading their own subjective feelings and beliefs into their decisions. They give every indication through massive, expensive boondoggles like national health care and climate change bills that they have no respect for our personal liberty and freedom. The Democrat party is now controlled by a leftist fringe that, with respect to the Constitution, is American in name only.

It seems that the most effective current rhetorical mode of gaining political advantage is an appeal for change. Obama used this to good effect last year and he continues to attempt to invoke that tactic in the health care debate by deceptively invoking the charge that those who are opposed to his program want the status quo, not change. Another mode of attack is the “Take back”.   That would be to take back the country or take back the reins of power, as if those in power were there illegitimately. That tactic has been very effective in the recent tea party movement and, of course, was effective during the last national election. 

Is it time to take back the Democrat party? Is it time for change in the Democrat party? There is already a thorn in the side of that party represented by the group known as the “Blue Dogs”. I don’t know if the “Blue Dogs” are truly fiscally and socially conservative as they claim to be, but some no doubt are. The success of the “Blue Dogs” suggests that the Democrat Party is very vulnerable right now to a conservative revolution from within its ranks. 

I believe that it is time to take back the Democrat party from its liberal wing. It’s time for a return to the ideals of the type of Democrats personified by Truman, JFK, and Scoop Jackson. I am not endorsing everything these guys stood for, but their policies are light years away from what we face now with the likes of Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Frank, and Baucus. The knee jerk socialist anti-defense, high tax Democrat Party of today bears no resemblance to the party of history. Granted, the socialist overreach of FDR with Social Security and Truman with the takeover of the steel industry reveals a dangerous socialist tendency, but historically the party has never been characterized by the all out crass socialist agenda that we see today. The high tax anti-growth agenda of the majority in Congress has now sparked a grass roots movement that reaches across many demographic lines and is in the process of gutting a vital constituency of the Democrats: senior citizens. The removal of 500 billion dollars from Medicare is more than even a yellow dog democrat can take. Obama has now attempted to bribe seniors with a $250 government check to keep them on his side of the political ledger.  In those states where voters can cross party lines to vote in primaries, the Democrats could be particularly vulnerable.  Rush Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” last year showed that crossovers can be a very effective strategy. I believe that it might be time to recruit conservatives to run against democrats in the democrat primaries. It seems that whenever an “independent “runs, it is as a Republican or Libertarian. The Democrats get a free ride to the general election. We should be challenging Democrats in their own primaries with independent, conservative, fiscally responsible non politician candidates in the mode of conservative democrats of the past and blue dogs of the present time. It’s time to flush as many liberals and bogus blue dogs out of the Democrat party as possible.

This tactic could have beneficial effects right now as listed in #4 above. Simply by announcing that an exploratory committee has been formed to decide whether to run might drive current “Blue Dogs” to stand by the promises they made when running last year for Congress. It could drive a stake into the heart of the ill-advised Obama Care program and the Cap and Trade boondoggle. It might cause current conservative Democrats to make true bipartisan coalitions with Republicans to advance a healthcare reform bill that doesn’t take a wrecking ball to our current system.

Perhaps this is just a pipe dream, but I suspect that the comments to this post will be interesting.