From the Wishful Thinking Department..

Comes this little missive

The party intends to yield nothing to President Bush next year. Arguments that recall supporters employed against the governor Democrats will fling at the president, on whose watch a budget surplus became a deficit, Torres said.

"The Republicans gave us a blueprint. All we have to do is use their exact words and sound bites and they'll reveal Bush's weaknesses."

Yeah, I know I took two paragraphs from the entire story and posted them here, but for me, it is those two paragraphs that tell the story of just how delusional the CA Democratic Party is.

First off, Art Torres believes that the people of CA were (and are) actually angry with President Bush, and since they couldn't touch the President, they went after Gray Davis. Projection anyone? Does Torres actually believe Bush is responsible for the 38 billion dollar deficit currently facing California? Does Torres actually believe that Bush was responsible for the California energy crisis? Does Torres actually believe that the weak California economy had anything to do with President Bush, at all? Well to hear him tell it, in print and on TV, he does. Simply put, Art Torres, along with DNC National Chairman Terry McAuliffe, are completely broken men. Torres and McAuliffe have taken the party of Truman and Jefferson and completely sold it out to special interests, radical environmentalists, trail lawyers, and of course Big Labor. They took a major political party and sold it out to the politically correct lobby.

I for one find that extremely disheartening. For in the long run our system requires diversity of thought and opinion, and when only one point of view is available, everyone pays the price. However, I would be dishonest if I did not want this current state of affairs to continue awhile longer. Right now the Democratic Party is held hostage by it's radical left element, every single Democrat Presidential candidate must appease this element, and that, of course, benefits the Republican Party specifically, and the conservative movement as a whole. However, there will come a time when the bill must be paid, there always is. The price to be eventually paid is that good people will not even seek to enter government service. I personally know dozens of people who could not, in good conscience, ever affiliate themselves with the GOP, however, since the Democratic Party is currently in thrall to it's Hard Left lobby, they cannot, in good conscience, affiliate themselves with it either. So where does that leave these good people? Simple, out in the cold. A friend of mine would make a good Congressman from Texas, he lives in a largely Democratic part of the State, and if he decided to run he would win. But, despite my best efforts to get him to run, he will not. And that is just a damn shame. Liberal Democrats are always big when it comes to talking about disenfranchising voters, however, what about my friend? Is he not disenfranchised by the very politics of the Democratic Party? Of course he is.

Now of course the simple, and easiest, response for him would be to just switch parties, the assumption being of course that a good person can get elected to public office regardless of political affiliation, but the fact remains he cannot switch, or he won't allow himself to switch, for he believes he would be betraying his principles. I respect that decision in all honesty, not enough people stand on principle nowadays. So my friend, since he won't sell out his Democrat principles, sits out in the cold, along with the dozens of other Democrats I know, hoping that the day will come when they will be able to reclaim their party from it's radical element. I sincerely hope my friends are able to do this, for when I debate them, I take it as matter of pride and honor to disagree with them on issues of substance, and not issues of division. For you see my friends, unlike the current crop of Democrat presidential hopefuls, have plans when it comes to what they would do differently than Bush, as it relates to the War on Terror, tax and spending cuts, for my friends get the point. They hold traditional Democrat values and principles, principles held by John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and of course Thomas Jefferson. As I said I disagree with them on substance as I am, generally, a Republican and they are Democrats, however they understand just where it is I am coming from when I criticize the modern Democratic Party for it's weakness on issues of National Defense, taxes, and spending, they share the same criticisims as I do, but they do not share my vision for how those problems need to be fixed. It is refreshing to debate with them on issues of substance without them saying their dissent is being crushed, for my friends understand that debate is healthy and that debate is the only real way to keep our Republic strong. They understand this, today's Democrat Party does not. And that is just a damn shame.

When the day comes (as it surely will) that the modern Democrat Party listens to, and I mean really listens to, Democrats like my friends and Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, the Republican Party is in serious trouble, then, perhaps, politics will be fun for everyone who doesn't hold a Master's Degree in Political Science. Until that day, I can only wait and watch.