The Chicago Tribune has become the type of newspaper that, as someone else wrote about the WSJ, has "a crack reporting staff, and a crack-pot editorial board." I might change that editorial board description to "crack smoking."
Today's Tribune has an annoying editorial titled "What does a Democrat believe?"
The reason for Kerry's loss, they opine, is that nobody knows what Democrats believe in.
...Democrats too often have come across as a convenient alliance of narrow constituencies: passionate pacifists, secular social liberals, condescending intellectuals, public employees devoted to big government, and so on. In the Democrats' cacophony of causes and victimology, no compelling mission statement gets a snowball's chance to prevail.
I've been a passionate LTE writer for years now, not only to the Tribune but also to the Sun-Times, Daily Herald, and some magazines, and have enjoyed about a 95% publication rate.
I know that one reason for this level of success is my focus on keeping my LTEs brief.
But this insulting editorial required a response that is anything but brief.
Because of its length, I've also submitted it as a guest editorial for their Op-Ed page, an honor I've never even attempted. I'll let you know if it gets published.
But in the meantime, I found that writing it was a wonderful experience. It forced me to sit down and spend a few hours reviewing what I believe, and recognizing how wonderful it is to have these beliefs.
I apologize in advance for its length. Believe me, there were things I was forced to leave out. But just as I found it, in these dark days, an edifying experience to write, I hope that you will find it worth the time and effort to read.
It has already been sent to the Tribune, via e-mail and snail-mail, so there's no changing it at this point.
But I'd love to hear your feedback on it.
What A Democrat Believes
Dear Voice Of The People,
It would appear from today's Tribune (10/4/04) that the paper's editorial board is unsure of exactly what a Democrat believes. Given the century and a half long Republican myopia of the Tribune, I'd have been greatly surprised if it had even a clue.
While I can in no way speak officially on behalf of the Democratic party, as an independent who over nearly thirty years has voted for Democrats, independents, third party candidates, and yes, Republicans, I believe I may have observed enough to clear up your confusion somewhat.
Democrats believe in an even playing field. They oppose discrimination due to race, creed, gender, or sexual orientation. Unlike Republicans, who espouse the same beliefs, Democrats understand that without proper funding of the regulatory agencies that enforce our anti discrimination laws, the statutes themselves become worthless. Republicans have steadily gutted such agencies, leaving the laws unenforceable.
Democrats believe that a strong public education is not only the right of every American, but that the very institution of public learning is a unifying socializing force in our diverse nation. They also believe that it's necessary in order to provide our businesses with effective, competitive workers. I've never heard a Democrat refer to teachers as terrorists, as Bush's education secretary has.
Democrats believe in fiscal responsibility, and unlike the Republicans have an actual track record to prove it. They agree with economist Milton Friedman that a tax cut, without a corresponding reduction in spending, is not a tax cut at all but rather a tax increase on future generations.
Democrats believe in the free market. However, they recognize that in some cases a motivation simply to maximize profit can have deleterious effects on society. That is how the institution of public health became a privatized entity in which millions of elderly cannot get flu shots. Similarly, they believe that stewardship of our air, water, and other natural resources ought not to be put in the hands of the extraction industries and the lumber companies.
Democrats recognize that when businesses receive government subsidies, such largesse is indisputably welfare, as surely as the assistance to the mother seeking to feed her children. And since government money is by definition the taxpayer's money, such corporate welfare is not to be undertaken without careful consideration of actual need.
Democrats believe that the best economy for business is found in a society of well paid, fully benefitted workers. Just as Henry Ford radicalized our economy by paying his workers enough to purchase the very product they were building, Democrats decry the race-to-the-bottom, cheap labor mentality of those who oppose living wages, or advocate outsourcing and union busting.
Democrats believe in a strong defense, as attested to by the defeat of the axis nations in World War Two, presided over by two Democratic commanders in chief. The fifty year commitment of Democratic presidents, along with their Republican counterparts, to Soviet containment resulted in America's victory in the cold war as well. However, in an age in which men with box cutters were able to murder three thousand citizens, Democrats are leery of wasting money on dangerously unproven technology such as the missile defense shield. They also see bloated, no-bid contracts to corporate cronies such as Halliburton as a waste of resources better spent in genuinely buttressing our defense.
Democrats believe that there are times when our armed forces must be used to defend our nation, as well as our allies. However, they believe that defense policy must be informed by intelligence, rather than forming policy first and only then cherry picking and distorting intelligence in order to justify the policy. They do not believe in sending America's finest men and women into harm's way without adequate equipment, adequate forces, and most importantly, a firm plan to secure the peace and bring them home. They don't believe in recklessly destabilizing an already dangerous part of the world with no thought given to what happens next. They also recognize that strict adherence to the Geneva Conventions is not only morally right, but also a powerful safeguard of our own troops in times of war. They don't seek to have our Justice Department concoct a legal justification of torture, as George W. Bush has done. They recognize the importance of diplomacy and the extraordinary value of maintaining strong allies.
Democrats also believe in fighting to protect us from domestic crime. This extends to the belief that CEOs who fleece people of their life savings must be punished for their actions as surely as the smash-and-grabber on the street. They also believe that the accused deserve a proper defense in order to avoid the double tragedy of an innocent person being incarcerated while the criminal remains free.
Similarly, Democrats believe that an individual injured by medical incompetence or a shoddy product should have the right to seek civil redress in front of a jury of his peers. Republicans seek to strip citizens of this right, in existence since our nation's birth, while ignoring the glut of business-to-business lawsuits that make up the vast bulk of our civil court backlog.
While Democrats might not feel that my neighbor has an unfettered right to possess an AK-47, they do seem to feel that he should have access to health care. And when it comes to health care, they feel that a woman's reproductive choices are a matter for her, her physician, and her God to determine, not the federal government's.
Democrats believe that nothing has a more positive effect on society than religious faith. But they also recognize that religious extremism and intolerance, of any stripe, is a dangerous threat to freedom and democracy. They also believe , as the Bible teaches, that faith without acts is meaningless.
While members of both parties understand the need for security against those who would do us harm, Democrats also recognize that when our government is allowed to secretly snoop among our computers and our library records, and when American citizens can be imprisoned, interminably and without charge or legal representation, that our nation is then in danger of no longer resembling the very America we seek to protect.
Since the broadcast spectrum is owned by the public and licensed without charge, Democrats believe such licenses confer a responsibility to keep the public informed and not just entertained. They see the increasing consolidation of media power by fewer and fewer giant corporations, such as the owners of the Tribune, as a threat to democracy itself. While this concern is shared by many Republicans, as well as groups as disparate as the National Organization of Women and the National Rifle Association, their concern falls on deaf ears in the Bush administration.
Ultimately, Democrats believe that a society is best judged by how it treats its weakest citizens. The young, the old, the disabled, the infirm. They eschew the social Darwinism of conservatives who would tell them to fend for themselves or die. They recognize that Social Security was never intended to be a retirement plan, but rather a social safety net. It has proven itself to be the most effective anti poverty program in world history, while consuming only 2% of its budget in administrative costs. Subsequently, Democrats are suspicious of attempts to commercialize Social Security by putting it in the hands of those who would seek to turn a profit in its administration.
Have the Democrats governed without error? Most certainly not. Decades of nearly unchallenged power had the effect, as it inevitably does, of deafening their ears to new ideas, and dimming their vision to new realities. Pride, it turns out, really does go before a fall.
What amazes me is that while it took decades of entrenchment for the Democrats to attain such dangerous hubris, the Republicans seem to have attained that state after only a few years. One can be assured that they will inevitably pay the price for their arrogance as well.