Baseball analogy: Democrats are the batter who swings at every pitch.
Trump Derangement Syndrome shows no sign of abating. With no regard to the policy or position that DJT advocates, Democrats express vehement opposition. Want to deploy the Nat'l Guard to reduce violence in DC? Democrats reflexively denounce it as fascistic racism. It's a positive development for the residents of DC, but because DJT supports it the Democrats are now pro-crime.
Little wonder the Democrat party continues to poll lower and lower. They've not hit bottom, nor will they, until they can accept some of DJT's positions as reasonable or good. But TDS is a mental illness that promotes self-harm.
To be accurate, Brian, the Democrats have been pro-crime for a long time. Lately, it has just become more obvious with Commies like Mamdani, Johnson, Bass, and AOC spouting off their true feelings.
"Third Way does not want to understand why Trump is attracting voters away from traditional Democratic constituencies; it simply wants to hoodwink voters into returning to the Democratic party by using ordinary language to describe the extraordinarily bad policy positions the party continues to advance."
This! This is the Democrat party in a nutshell: They lie to get power.
All politicians lie. There is no such thing as an honest politician. There are only honest would-be politicians. Democrats have simply perfected the process, by taking control of the lie-spreading machinery.
I have to wonder if the democrats will be any different once Trump is gone. My inclination is to believe they will continue being deranged (and unhinged) no matter who the republican candidate may be. I don’t think changing the words they use will have any impact on policy at all. It’ll just be the same bad idea dressed up in sheep’s clothing.
But you have to be as old as both of us (and Steve & Lucretia) to have lived through RDS. I was on the UC Berkeley campus (and town) during his presidency -- it was the ground zero for RDS.
At least a 1,000 spontaneously marched the streets outside of the campus the night the US military rescued the students in Grenada. What a tempest in a tea pot that evening... I just wanted to get on to campus to go to the computer lab.
Your mention of Antioch College faculty is certainly apt, but it was not always this way.
The Antioch College in which I enrolled in 1965 was generally "liberal", but also a bastion of free speech, with an excellent and diverse (intellectually and otherwise) faculty. Conservative students were a minority, but were never ostracized or "silenced". It had an enrolment of about 1600 students, half of whom were on campus, while the other half were scattered around the USA on co-op work terms, an innovative program, mandatory for all students during a five-year Bachelor's program and a wonderful educational opportunity for me and my fellow students.
The College's gradual, then precipitous, decline began around 1968, with the rise of opposition to the war in Viet-Nam, and with grants from the Rockefeller Foundation to fund a "diversity" initiative (New Directions) that recruited inner-city "community leaders" who almost immediately demanded segregated dormitories, ignored or undermined the College's honour system, and, in several notorious cases, contributed to a significant rise in the crime rate in the sleepy village of Yellow Springs, OH. I was the victim of two physical assaults, and I had several friends who were victims of sexual assaults.
The College's long history (going back to the 1920s) free speech and advocacy was shredded in 1969, when two young women from the Peace Corps were effectively kidnapped from their table in the student union building and were detained in and harangued by their captors for being agents of the "war machine". In 1971 or 1972, nearly all of Antioch's audio-visual equipment was stolen, and the president, early on a Sunday morning, had to meet the leader of the Students' Union (a Rockefeller "New Directions" student), who had promised to broker an "arrangement" to allow the College to buy back its stolen goods. In 1973, the College underwent a student strike, marked by occupation of the administration building, extensive vandalism, and arson.
The College finally closed down in 2008, with deep indebtedness and only 400 students.
The Antioch campus and buildings were purchased by a group of alumni and other supporters and was reopened in 2011 with a modified co-op program. After 15 years, it has fewer than 200 students.
I am deeply grateful for the education I received (as a scholarship student) at Antioch; it was life-changing in the way a college education should be, but, as I like to remind people, their alma mater, like mine, is not the school that they attended. None of the three institutions where I got four degrees receives a penny of my support. My contributions go to schools that have maintained traditions of free speech, authentic academic freedom, and value critical thinking over "critical theory".
And I attended UC Berkeley when the 20th anniversary of the campus Free Speech movement was celebrated (or at least the claim was it originated at Cal). And around the same time Ambassador Kirkpatick was "canceled" and the disruption in the audience prevented her from presenting her views on US foreign policy.
As we all know, campus free speech was/is really only protection for speech that aligns with the progressive viewpoint.
Needless to say, I exited my college years a "sadder-but-wiser" person, to borrow from The Music Man.
It seems to me that this is the disagreement in a nut shell. Are there sane Democrats left or not. Language is part of it as a symptom or something deeper. Time will tell.
It is worse than that. The third wave memo drips contempt for the voter and could be fairly summarized as “stop using words the idiots don’t understand but don’t change your policy views, we are doing great.” Notice in this context that they don’t suggest alternative wordings.
I have to say that Lucretia has a better argument about the "Third Way" than Steve. I seem to recall that George Bush the First was into the Third Way when he was president. His foray into Leftism didn't work out well. I am very surprised that Steve buys into the "centrist" claim by the Third Way crowd.
The Third Way just wants the far-Left language toned down, but they still want the same radical policies.
"As Third Way declared, “Democrats are the party of government. We believe in government.”"
I think that sums it up quite nicely. Dems "believe" in government. It is their religion and they will sacrifice all to it. OTOH, I believe that most conservatives believe in self-governance and that the government that governs least, governs best.
The credulous in my family dream of making Smores around a camp fire with moderate Dems. The excellent last three paragraphs will help in convincing them of this fraud.
Brilliantly stated, Ms Denno. The latest 80-20 (95-5!) issue that the Marxists (as well as the "okay people" at Third Way) are again on the short end is the Trump EO abolishing cashless bail. The TDS is terminal with these fools.
"Talk like Normal People" and/or "act like Normal People" is a little like prisons training criminals to avoid recapture under the guise of reform.
What would actually help both Democrats and Republicans is to get some more normal people in the parties. It will be nearly impossible, most especially without campaign finance reform.
I like "removing the monopoly on political power exercised by career politicians and bureaucrats from both political parties; and building a pathway based on common sense and limited government that concentrates on the safety and security of all Americans"
Baseball analogy: Democrats are the batter who swings at every pitch.
Trump Derangement Syndrome shows no sign of abating. With no regard to the policy or position that DJT advocates, Democrats express vehement opposition. Want to deploy the Nat'l Guard to reduce violence in DC? Democrats reflexively denounce it as fascistic racism. It's a positive development for the residents of DC, but because DJT supports it the Democrats are now pro-crime.
Little wonder the Democrat party continues to poll lower and lower. They've not hit bottom, nor will they, until they can accept some of DJT's positions as reasonable or good. But TDS is a mental illness that promotes self-harm.
To be accurate, Brian, the Democrats have been pro-crime for a long time. Lately, it has just become more obvious with Commies like Mamdani, Johnson, Bass, and AOC spouting off their true feelings.
One wonders if they are getting a commission.
"Third Way does not want to understand why Trump is attracting voters away from traditional Democratic constituencies; it simply wants to hoodwink voters into returning to the Democratic party by using ordinary language to describe the extraordinarily bad policy positions the party continues to advance."
This! This is the Democrat party in a nutshell: They lie to get power.
All politicians lie. There is no such thing as an honest politician. There are only honest would-be politicians. Democrats have simply perfected the process, by taking control of the lie-spreading machinery.
"An honest politician is one who stays bought."
I have to wonder if the democrats will be any different once Trump is gone. My inclination is to believe they will continue being deranged (and unhinged) no matter who the republican candidate may be. I don’t think changing the words they use will have any impact on policy at all. It’ll just be the same bad idea dressed up in sheep’s clothing.
Bush Derangement Syndrome, while slightly milder, was real.
Reagan Derangement Syndrome was also real.
But you have to be as old as both of us (and Steve & Lucretia) to have lived through RDS. I was on the UC Berkeley campus (and town) during his presidency -- it was the ground zero for RDS.
At least a 1,000 spontaneously marched the streets outside of the campus the night the US military rescued the students in Grenada. What a tempest in a tea pot that evening... I just wanted to get on to campus to go to the computer lab.
Yes I am that old, and I remember the news stories, but, thank God, I was never at UC Berkley.
Democrats have consistently called Republicans Hitler for decades.
Your mention of Antioch College faculty is certainly apt, but it was not always this way.
The Antioch College in which I enrolled in 1965 was generally "liberal", but also a bastion of free speech, with an excellent and diverse (intellectually and otherwise) faculty. Conservative students were a minority, but were never ostracized or "silenced". It had an enrolment of about 1600 students, half of whom were on campus, while the other half were scattered around the USA on co-op work terms, an innovative program, mandatory for all students during a five-year Bachelor's program and a wonderful educational opportunity for me and my fellow students.
The College's gradual, then precipitous, decline began around 1968, with the rise of opposition to the war in Viet-Nam, and with grants from the Rockefeller Foundation to fund a "diversity" initiative (New Directions) that recruited inner-city "community leaders" who almost immediately demanded segregated dormitories, ignored or undermined the College's honour system, and, in several notorious cases, contributed to a significant rise in the crime rate in the sleepy village of Yellow Springs, OH. I was the victim of two physical assaults, and I had several friends who were victims of sexual assaults.
The College's long history (going back to the 1920s) free speech and advocacy was shredded in 1969, when two young women from the Peace Corps were effectively kidnapped from their table in the student union building and were detained in and harangued by their captors for being agents of the "war machine". In 1971 or 1972, nearly all of Antioch's audio-visual equipment was stolen, and the president, early on a Sunday morning, had to meet the leader of the Students' Union (a Rockefeller "New Directions" student), who had promised to broker an "arrangement" to allow the College to buy back its stolen goods. In 1973, the College underwent a student strike, marked by occupation of the administration building, extensive vandalism, and arson.
The College finally closed down in 2008, with deep indebtedness and only 400 students.
The Antioch campus and buildings were purchased by a group of alumni and other supporters and was reopened in 2011 with a modified co-op program. After 15 years, it has fewer than 200 students.
I am deeply grateful for the education I received (as a scholarship student) at Antioch; it was life-changing in the way a college education should be, but, as I like to remind people, their alma mater, like mine, is not the school that they attended. None of the three institutions where I got four degrees receives a penny of my support. My contributions go to schools that have maintained traditions of free speech, authentic academic freedom, and value critical thinking over "critical theory".
And I attended UC Berkeley when the 20th anniversary of the campus Free Speech movement was celebrated (or at least the claim was it originated at Cal). And around the same time Ambassador Kirkpatick was "canceled" and the disruption in the audience prevented her from presenting her views on US foreign policy.
As we all know, campus free speech was/is really only protection for speech that aligns with the progressive viewpoint.
Needless to say, I exited my college years a "sadder-but-wiser" person, to borrow from The Music Man.
It seems to me that this is the disagreement in a nut shell. Are there sane Democrats left or not. Language is part of it as a symptom or something deeper. Time will tell.
No. Next question?
Excellent article, Miss Lucretia - you nailed it! Sewage by any other name would smell as foul (as the Dems’ policies).
Bravo! As Bryan Stephens has posted, "They (democrats) lie to get power."
It is worse than that. The third wave memo drips contempt for the voter and could be fairly summarized as “stop using words the idiots don’t understand but don’t change your policy views, we are doing great.” Notice in this context that they don’t suggest alternative wordings.
I have to say that Lucretia has a better argument about the "Third Way" than Steve. I seem to recall that George Bush the First was into the Third Way when he was president. His foray into Leftism didn't work out well. I am very surprised that Steve buys into the "centrist" claim by the Third Way crowd.
The Third Way just wants the far-Left language toned down, but they still want the same radical policies.
"As Third Way declared, “Democrats are the party of government. We believe in government.”"
I think that sums it up quite nicely. Dems "believe" in government. It is their religion and they will sacrifice all to it. OTOH, I believe that most conservatives believe in self-governance and that the government that governs least, governs best.
The credulous in my family dream of making Smores around a camp fire with moderate Dems. The excellent last three paragraphs will help in convincing them of this fraud.
Brilliantly stated, Ms Denno. The latest 80-20 (95-5!) issue that the Marxists (as well as the "okay people" at Third Way) are again on the short end is the Trump EO abolishing cashless bail. The TDS is terminal with these fools.
“Democrats are the party of government. We believe in government.”
And that is why I'd rather die a thousand times, the most painful death, than support the Dems.
Poison is poison no matter the bottle.
Maybe they need MORE Land Acknowledgements.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOlz-SvXAAIyxHe.jpg:large
"Talk like Normal People" and/or "act like Normal People" is a little like prisons training criminals to avoid recapture under the guise of reform.
What would actually help both Democrats and Republicans is to get some more normal people in the parties. It will be nearly impossible, most especially without campaign finance reform.
I like "removing the monopoly on political power exercised by career politicians and bureaucrats from both political parties; and building a pathway based on common sense and limited government that concentrates on the safety and security of all Americans"