ONLY THE LEFT CAN "LEAD" | 1999-01-09
Hysterical Bill, which is what I call Bill Press on Crossfire, routinely resorts to high-pitched shouts. I remember early last year when Matt Drudge reported that Monica had a blue dress with Clinton's sperm on it. Hysterical Bill was actually screaming, "If there is a dress, PRODUCE IT!
Produce this dress or shut up about it!" This time, Hysterical Bill is shouting about how Republicans have decided to end democracy in America by trying President Clinton in the Senate. Press and the other liberals are upset about how evil Republicans are ignoring the polls.
The polls say most people don't want the trial of Clinton to go ahead. But many Republicans want to go ahead with trying the president, as the Constitution says they must. You cannot discuss the subject of impeachment for one minute without a liberal bringing up the polls. He will then go into a discussion of how wise the public is, and how dedicated he is to the The People's Will.
This sounds odd to me, because all my life liberals have been openly ignoring public opinion. They called it Leadership. Back in the days when I was doing press conferences for antibusing marches, we heard a lot from liberals about "Leadership."
The public was against busing by margins of eighty to ninety percent, BUT LIBERALS WERE FOR IT. Liberals said that the probusing senators and congressmen who backed busing in the teeth of public opinion were showing "Leadership."
FLASH FORWARD to 1998.
The public is against impeachment, though not nearly by the margins it was against busing. Liberals are furious that congressmen still DARE demand impeachment. "What," they ask, "Has happened to the idea of DEMOCRACY?"
The public backed the balanced budget amendment by a three to one margin. Liberals stopped it. No respectable conservative will ever remind them of this. Respectable conservatives today mostly support racial quotas, so they will never remind liberals of how leftists have defied public opinion on that issue.
Bob Dole has come out against impeachment and he refused to support the 1996 California initiative against racial quotas, which passed overwhelmingly. The George Bushes are trying to find some unconstitutional alternative to impeachment, and they want to "appeal to minorities."
"Appealing to minorities" is, of course, the code term for backing racial quotas.
Anybody heard anything from Kemp lately? I know he is for racial quotas. But has he said anything about impeachment?
In other words, each time liberals have defied public opinion to push their policies, respectable conservatives end up declaring the liberals were right.
So we have the bottom line from liberals and respectable conservatives: if you defy the polls for impeachment, you are being fascistic and antidemocratic. If you ignore four or five to one public opposition to push a leftist cause, everyone will eventually agree that you were just Showing Leadership.
Watch this closely. I assure you, every time a politician defies the polls for the left, it will be "Leadership." If the right does it, it is being "obstructionist." And, in the end, it will be respectable conservatives who will scream "obstructionist" the loudest.**
Only the left can "lead."
**Please see October 3 article, "Defining Respectable Conservatives, They're Just Bureaucrats" in the Archives, top of page.