Red, White and Blue

As the Democrats prepare to take over leadership of the House and very possibly, gain a majority in the Senate, I think the words of Leonard Pitts, a Liberal columnist for the Chicago Tribune should be required reading for every Democratic politician who will crow about how this election “vindicates” the “Democratic position” on domestic and international issues:

So, if you [Democrats] win power here, please don't assume it validates anything you've done. If you win, it's because of Mark Foley and Terri Schiavo and Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush and Jack Abramoff and Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter and Dick Cheney and Hurricane Katrina and 2,800 dead soldiers and because, as my mom used to say, enough is enough and too much stinks.

More to the point, you don't win because of you. I don't even know who you are. Ever since Bill Clinton left town, you have been inept at defining yourself, communicating your ideals with all the clarity of, well, John Kerry trying to tell a joke. I don't know what you believe, what you plan, where you want to take the country. I daresay most people don't. A victory here just means you were the only other game in town. And yet, it would give you a rare opportunity.

I suspect I speak for many when I say I'm tired of wedge politics. I'm tired of stupid, I'm tired of greed, I'm tired of polarization, I'm tired of red and blue mattering more than red, white and blue.

I want to know what it's like to have a sense of national mission, what it's like to strive for instead of against. I want to be hopeful about the future again, want my country to be looked at with respect again. Most of all, I want to see statesmen again. Meaning men and women who can debate, do battle, compromise and disagree over issues of great importance, but not let party, partisanship or politics stand in the way of doing what is best for the country.

Words well written. Why is it, then, that I have a very bad feeling that Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and other Democratic leaders will move in exactly the opposite direction? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.