Michael Barone: A Home Run, As Usual

Leave it to Michael Barone, one of the more astute observers of the political scene, to articulate so well what I have often called the 'progressive' infestation of the Democratic Party. Here's Barone:

One reason that the Democrats are squawking so much about Rove's attack on "liberals" is that he has put the focus on a fundamental split in the Democratic Party -- a split among its politicians and its voters.

On the one hand, there are those who believe that this is a fundamentally good country and want to see success in Iraq. On the other hand, there are those who believe this is a fundamentally bad country and want more than anything else to see George W. Bush fail.

Those who do not think this split is real should consult the responses to pollster Scott Rasmussen's question last year. About two-thirds of Americans agreed that the United States is a fair and decent country. Virtually all Bush voters agreed. Kerry voters were split down the middle.

Pay particular attention to that last sentence: Kerry voters were split down the middle - as to the question of whether the U.S. is a fair and decent country! Make no mistake, the Democrats need to jettison the progressive elements, even if it means more losses in the short term. When close to half of Kerry's supporters cannot even agree on the proposition that the U.S. is fundamentally decent, how can that party hope to earn the trust of the electorate?

Barone concludes:

Half the Senate Democrats attended the Washington premiere of Moore's movie [Fahrenheit 9/11] and laughed and cheered its ridicule of Bush and denunciation of American policy -- at a time when Moore proclaimed on his website that "Americans are the stupidest people in the world."...

...a party that happily allies itself with the likes of moveon.org and many of whose leading members have lost the ability to distinguish between opposition to an incumbent administration and rooting for our nation's enemies has got serious problem.

Indeed it has...