how could anyone still be a Democrat?

Own It

• Posted by Tim Nerenz
• Although I am not a Democrat or a Republican, I used to understand why other people would choose to be one or the other. And I can still understand how some people can be Republicans, but it is beyond my comprehension how anyone could still be a Democrat in Wisconsin in the age of YouTube.
  
  The Democrats’ response to losing an election here has been appalling; disgraceful conduct documented with phone cameras for the whole world to see. Democrat rallies and protests have been marked by profanity, intimidation, death threats, vandalism, trespassing on private residences, anti-American rhetoric, boycotts of neutral businesses, extortion, and fraud.
  
  My dear Democrat friends, that is not what democracy looks like; it is what Democrats look like. Your Party has become vile, disgraceful, and disgusting, and you have lived long enough in denial of what and who you have become.
  
  Own it.
  
  It’s not just the mob scenes that disgust. Perhaps the most dishonest political ad in history was run by Democrats in a supposedly non-partisan Supreme Court race, exploiting the victim of child abuse for political gain. Own it, Party of the children.
  
  Your Democrat legislators wore union t-shirts on the floor of the assembly while in session; shouting and throwing things and threatening to kill a female Republican lawmaker. This is how you treat women who think for themselves. Own it, Party of women.
  
  Your public sector unions – firefighters and teachers - organized a campaign to drown out yesterday’s taxpayer rally on the steps of the Capitol building. You exist now only to deprive others of their right to be heard; and your idea of civil is dropping F-bombs at a child who came to hear Sarah Palin speak. You have embraced disgrace – so own it, Party of civil rights.
  
  You booed the national anthem. Read that again, friends; take a moment to reflect fully upon the depths to which your Democrat party has sunk, and then OWN IT.
  
  On that same day the office of a recall drive against one of the 14 AWOL Democrat Senators was burglarized with computers and petitions stolen – just like Nixon in 1972. You also threatened to blow up a radio station over content you don’t like. You were busy little fascist criminals on Saturday - own it, Nixonites.
  
  If these are just isolated examples of people acting out, then show me where your Party leaders have denounced them. Who have you expelled from your Party for the shame they have brought to it? And who is your Ron Paul, your conscience who calls you out when you have strayed from your core values - Charlie Rangel?
  
  Your Democrat State Senator Lena Taylor recently got herself on TV to rant against some $142 million of tax breaks Governor Walker has given to his cronies, but when asked, she could not name one. Your comprehensive plan to balance the budget and avoid default is to chant “Fox Lies!” This is the depth of your intellectual curiosity and the extent of your economic literacy. Own it.
  
  Yours is the party that extended our military stay in Iraq, increased our commitment in Afghanistan, spread that war into Pakistan and Yemen, and started another in Libya. When it was Bush dropping the bombs, you came to us Libertarians and begged us to join you to stop him; haven’t seen you around now that is your guy killing little brown people. He lies to you and you love him for it. Own that.
  
  What does it take for you decent Democrats - and I know there are many of you who will read this - to walk away from a Party that has already abandoned the principles that attracted you to it in the first place? How much of your pride are you still willing to forfeit to a Party that has none? What is your last straw – does blowing an angry horn at a downs-syndrome person for waving a flag not do it for you?
  
  It’s your mirror you need to look in every day, not mine. It was a far less obnoxious abandonment of principle that led me to leave the GOP many years ago. It is true that I get along better with them than with Democrats as a rule; that rule is that they don’t send me death threats when I write something they don’t like.
  
  Nearly a third of the American electorate is now non-affiliated with either of the two major Parties; each Democrat/socialist/union rally drives more of you into our camp. You Democrats do not persuade us with temper tantrums, threats, profane personal attacks, and all manner of judicial chicanery. I don’t even know what you stand for anymore; I don’t speak drum.
  
  Yours was once the Party of Kennedy; it is now the Party that boos the national anthem. Own that – and then walk away. You will feel better about yourself, and you might just save your Party from the hooligans who have run it into disrepute.
  
  
  “Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment and watch for the upcoming release of his new book, “Capitalista!”