Democrats: Desperately Seeking Archie Bunker

"Once again, the Democrats attempt to define the GOP not as it is, but as they wish it were."

Gay Patriot West is talking here about the DNC's desperate attempt to weaken Rudy Giuliani's candidacy for the White House by "highlight[ing] Giuliani’s stance on gay issues in order to play on the bias of social conservatives, assuming that these Republicans would never support a candidate with such a record."

GPW goes on:

They even feature quote by Pat Buchanan. It’s amusing that while nearly all Republicans, including social conservatives, have distanced themselves from that angry man, the Left continues to define him as “Conservative Leader.” Buchanan’s politics have increasingly come to resemble not those of the conservative mainstream, but those of left-wing activists.

Once again, the Democrats attempt to define the GOP not as it is, but as they wish it were.

What this release really shows is that Democrats fear Giuliani’s candidacy. They want bring his differences from social conservatives to the fore in order to heighten divisions within the GOP and prevent his nomination.

To be sure, the former New York City Mayor will not have an easy time winning over many social conservatives. But, he has impressed the party’s rank and file with his leadership and resolve.

Read the rest here.

Remarks. Watch for the Democrats to keep trying to play this losing hand. Whenever a strong, sensible, social moderate like Giuliani comes up in political conversation, count the number of nanoseconds it takes the Democrats to start talking about the GOP conservative "base".

Wherefore "base"? Because when the DNC talk about the "conservative base", they want you to picture bible-thumping rednecks. As I noted in my post on Mary Cheney's baby, the liberal Left needs Archie Bunker. The Democrats can't win a debate on the real issues, so they have to create a caricatured image of their opponents and hope that you, the public, will be too dumb to see through it.

But as Gay Patriot West observes,

Instead of Rudy snubbing the conservative base, as the Democrats contend, he has been reaching out to them, highlighting areas of common ground, notably his intention, once elected, to appoint strict constructionist judges to the federal bench.

This is a real issue, and a real conservative issue. But it's not what the Democrats want to talk about. So they'll throw a bunch of stuff at Giuliani and hope something sticks.

I won't duplicate Gay Patriot's effort in dismissing the irrelevant Pat Buchanan, so let's take the DNC's quote from David Frum. Here is Frum as quoted in the DNC press release:

Frum Said Giuliani Can't Win. Neoconservative David Frum, ex-speechwriter to President Bush, put it bluntly when asked about Giuliani's shot at the nomination. "He has one obstacle in his way: the social conservatives. And he shouldn't just assume he can get past it," Frum said. [New York Daily News, 11/15/06]

Emphasis in original. Now here is the quote as it appears in the New York Daily News:

Neoconservative David Frum, ex-speechwriter to President Bush, put it bluntly when asked about Giuliani's shot at the nomination.

"He has one obstacle in his way: the social conservatives. And he shouldn't just assume he can get past it," Frum said.

It is, of course, the same quote. But I'm repeating it because I want you to see what it looks like without the DNC's all-important interpolation: "Frum Said Giuliani Can't Win." Frum certainly did not say Giuliani can't win, at least not in the quoted text. What he said was that Giuliani "should not assume" that the social conservatives will not present "an obstacle". In other words, Frum said exactly what GPW is saying here:

To be sure, the former New York City Mayor will not have an easy time winning over many social conservatives.

But as GPW explains,

If he can focus on those issues which unite our party, he could persuade those currently opposed to (or skeptical about) his candidacy to support him, particularly given the alternative of a Democratic president beholden to the far left.

And this is what the Democrats are afraid of.

Related. Mary Cheney's baby.

Comments

[Jeremayakovka]

Very interesting and worthwhile topic. Archie Bunker is a "Reagan Democrat" through and through.

Giuliani is a centrist without cynicism. I read somewhere that he ought to commit to appointing conservative judges. Since many Republican judicial appointees have proven to not be strict Constittionalists, the reasoning goes, they'll have nothing to lose by going with Giuliani.