As the Party of Pessimism, Liberals Work Hard to Cut Jobs

I received a wonderful memo today that does an excellent job of articulating the partisan divide that currently exists.
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According to Democratic pollster Mark Penn, only 32% of voters now identify themselves as Democrats, the lowest percentage EVER. As the Democrat Party gets smaller, it becomes more liberal, elitist and angry. And as it becomes more liberal, elitist and angry, it gets smaller.

Early primary voters are more intensely liberal than even most self-identified Democrats, and as Democratic presidential contenders appeal to this active minority within their shrinking party, they adopt policies further and further outside the political mainstream.

To distract from this troublesome dynamic, Democrat House leaders have declared a four-week offensive against Republican policies and Senate leaders have announced they will step up their abuse of the filibuster, to an unprecedented level of obstructionism.

Over the next four weeks, they will provide us a wonderful opportunity to illuminate the clarity between our positive policies and leadership versus their protest and pessimism.

Highlight the choices that are becoming increasingly clear on:

1. Jobs. Every Democrat running for President is for raising taxes. They are unanimously committed to higher taxes on small businesses, the very engine of job creation in America. Just as our economy is improving and jobs are being created, Democrats threaten to slow growth and return us to recession with tax increases.

2. National security. One high-ranking Al Qaeda official said after the attacks of September 11 that it was "the beginning of the end of America." He didn't say September 11 was the beginning of the end of Russia, France or the United Nations, he said it was the beginning of the end of America.

He couldn't have been more wrong, but it's our prerogative to make sure he's wrong--with or without the unanimous international consent required by the President's critics. We welcome the more than 30 countries engaged in the reconstruction of Iraq and appreciate the more than 40 countries that participated in its liberation, but we cannot put our fate in the hands of other countries.

Last week a significant minority, including leading Democrats, moved to the left of Syria and France by opposing funding for troops and reconstruction in Iraq. Some Democrats seem to think we would be better off had an international coalition not removed Saddam Hussein from power.

3. Homeland security. When it comes to winning the War Against Terror, the President's critics are adopting a policy that will make us more vulnerable in a dangerous world. Specifically, they now reject the policy of preemptive self-defense and would return us to a policy of reacting to terrorism in its aftermath.

The bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, Khobar Towers, our embassies in East Africa, and the USS Cole were treated as criminal matters instead of the terrorist acts they were. After September 11, President Bush made clear that we will no longer simply respond to terrorist acts, but will confront gathering threats before they become certain tragedies. If we do not fight the war against terror in places like Baghdad and Kabul, we are more likely to have it fought in places like Boston and Kansas.

4. Who shares our values. The US Congress voted overwhelmingly to end the heinous procedure known as partial-birth abortion, which the late Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan rightly likened to "infanticide."

However, leaders of the other party, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senators Kennedy and Clinton, and presidential aspirants John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman voted with the extreme of their party, and John Edwards and Dick Gephardt couldn't make time for the vote.

Highlight the party of pessimism. NYT columnist David Brooks recently described one wing of the Democratic Party as "Pelosi Democrats." Rather than offering solutions, Pelosi Democrats determine policy based on a simple formula: If President Bush is for it, they're against it. As they rail against Republicans during their four-week offensive, note that they will be offering no solutions of their own.

Highlight the party of protest. Senate Democrats continue their stubborn obstruction of important legislation to create jobs (i.e., class action reform last week, perhaps energy policy next) and qualified judicial nominees not tolerated by the extreme elements they increasingly represent. They lost control of the Senate in 2002 after pursuing the same approach they pursue now, and we are likely to gain seats next year as a result.

Highlight the party of political hate speech. The Presidential candidates have now called President Bush a "miserable failure," a "liar," compared him to a "gang leader" and to Saddam Hussein himself. At one point in a recent debate, Howard Dean counseled his fellow candidates, "Let's remember, George W. Bush is the enemy here." We are a nation at war, and they think the President of the United States is "the enemy."

Americans instinctively know that anyone who's willing to demean the presidency in order to gain it is not worthy of having it entrusted to him.

Internal polling continues to show the American people consider the President as favorably today on questions of leadership, honesty and trustworthiness as they did at the beginning of the year. And the American people trust the President more than Democrats to handle the economy, foreign policy and national security. Their protests, pessimism and political hate speech are not working.