Democrats don’t talk bright side

David H. Edmunds Albemarle County
Published: June 25, 2008

As we look back on the political primary season, it is interesting how the most dominant issue (Iraq) for the Democrats has virtually faded from view. Who can forget last year the almost daily fear-mongering by Dems about being mired down in a civil war, or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s ridiculous pronouncement that “the war is lost,” or Barack Obama’s naive opposition to the highly successful surge strategy as simply another delaying tactic by the Bush administration? 

Even the left-wing New York Times has been forced to acknowledge the improving situation in Iraq (“Big Gains for Iraq Security,” June 21), but not the Democratic Party.

When was the last time any national figure in the Democratic Party said anything positive about this country on any subject — foreign or do-mestic policy? The only thing we hear from today’s liberal Democratic leaders — Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, Reid — is their latest exaggerated view of how fast the sky is falling. To apply an old phrase from the 1960s, modern-day liberals have become the “nattering nabobs of negativism.” 

In his best-selling book, “Makers and Takers,” author Peter Schweizer describes liberalism as “a belief system of complaint, entitlement and dissatisfaction that has fostered a culture of whining and complaint.” We have seen plenty of this in the last six months in the campaigns of Clinton and Obama. These campaigns represent the face of a party that is so invested in defeat and decline that they have literally sold their political souls in exchange for a return to power in ’09. 

If this is the basis of “the change” Sen. Obama espouses, where in the world is the “hope” in his lofty but empty rhetoric?