JFK Is Turning Over In His Grave

John F. Kennedy, whatever else you might think about the man, at least inspired generations of people. Even as a conservative today (I started out as left-wing as could be), I admire the strength that Kennedy showed in confronting the evils of communism. His 1961 inaugural speech remains a classic of American rhetoric:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge—and more.

To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom—and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required—not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right.

The Democratic party used to stand for ideals like freedom, support of liberty, and gave meaning to the term “liberalism”.

Today’s Democrats are apparently of a different lineage:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

“Well, look, if that’s the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now — where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife — which we haven’t done,” Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven’t done. Those of us who care about Darfur don’t think it would be a good idea,” he said.

First of all, JFK is turning over in his grave right now over the fact that the Democratic Party is no longer the party even pretending to care about liberty, or democracy, or freedom, or apparently, even life itself.  Genocide is no longer reason enough for intervention.  The “Never Again” of the Holocaust has been replaced with “Those of us who care about Darfur don’t think it would be a good idea.”

Second, Obama is either too clever by half or entirely too stupid to be Senator, nevermind President of the United States.  His logic appears to be that if we can’t solve all of the world’s problems, we shouldn’t solve any.  To bring up our inaction in the Congo as the reason why we should abandon the Iraqi people to genocide is an absolutely immoral position — if Obama was being too clever by half to try and justify his statement.  Or, it simply shows that he is, in fact, an idiot, despite the Harvard Law degree and such.  Either way, his statement shows that the contemporary Democratic Party is completely unserious in moral issues.

By his logic, the Chicago cops should immediately stop patrolling the streets, because if they can’t prevent all crimes, they ought not to prevent any.  Prosecutors should stop trying cases, because it is unjust to put one criminal behind bars, while others remain at large.  Doctors ought to stop trying to save one life, when many others continue to be lost.  It’s all or nothing, apparently, in Obama world, where we justify dooming the Iraqi people by our inaction in Darfur.  What a dogpile of nonsense.

We need to stay in Iraq, stand that government up, and stand behind the people of Iraq who have shown an incredible amount of courage — and continue to do so every day — by going out to vote in the first democratic election in the Arab world… ever.  We need to stay for a variety of reasons, but preventing genocide is a pretty good one.

Senator Obama is an unworthy inheritor of the mantle of JFK.  That he is one of the front runners for the Democratic candidacy for the President speaks volumes about the modern Democratic Party.  JFK would weep.

-TS