Hillary and Tipper and Hadassah, Oh My

I never understood why the Republicans hated Clinton so much. Sure, he occasionally talked left, but this is a guy who balanced the budget, destroyed welfare, ended affirmative action, screwed over gays again and again, attempted to censor the Internet, prevented technology from being exported, expanded wiretapping, and gave us the DMCA. And not just as President, under duress from the Gingrich revolutionaries; back when he was governor of Arkansas, he was the only governor who allowed Reagan's people to use one of his state's national guard bases for illegal Contra-funding missions.

This is the kind of stuff conservatives love.

The real problem, I think, is that Republicans aren't conservatives anymore. Look at W: He's destroyed the balanced budget. How? By spending more than anyone in history, mostly on a massive nation-building exercise that would have made Goldwater or Reagan blow smoke out of their ears (and, if it weren't both misguided and misapplied, would have made the hippies proud).

Unfortunately, the Democrats now are conservatives, since the Democratic Leadership Council's successful takeover. If you've never heard of the DLC or their agenda, read Nader's viewpoint, or the same thing in their own words. Then come back here.

But forget about their Reaganomic policy for a moment; the worse thing is that they've turned the Democrats into the anti-fun party. There's something horribly wrong when the people who went to Woodstock (or wish they did) finally take over the Democratic Party and immediately use it to try to prevent the MTV generation from hearing bad words (remember the PMRC?) and follow up by trying to prevent the PSX generation from seeing badly-animated simulated sex without nudity. Yes, these are the wives of Clinton, Gore, and Lieberman in action.

The sad thing is that you can imagine W having a good time at a concert, while Gore stands outside giving out leaflets against the band. The question isn't, "How can Democrats like that win," but "Who in their right minds would want Democrats like that to win?"