Thomas Finch – 11/29/05

This page was last updated on December 17, 2005.

Democrats vs. Republicans; Thomas M. Finch; Beaver County Times; November 29, 2005.

I enjoy it when folks like Mr. Finch write letters like this because we get to hear from people who believe they represent the Democrat party and what it stands for. I could write all day and not do the damage to Democrats that people like Mr. Finch do in less than 300 words.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“After reading Dan Reeping’s illogical ‘Democrats are Clueless’ letter on Nov. 22, I’m convinced that the only one who’s clueless is Mr. Reeping. Let’s examine a few facts.

“It is false to assume that only cities/states with Democratic leadership are subject to urban squalor and crime in the streets. Drug-related gang violence has no party affiliation. Do some research; you’ll find that areas controlled by Republicans are just as bad. In typical Republican fashion, when they have no answers, they just blame someone else. It doesn’t solve anything, just serves to mislead the public. Rush and Karl Rove would be proud of you!”

[RWC] Mr. Reeping never claimed, “only cities/states with Democratic leadership are subject to urban squalor and crime in the streets.” He merely pointed out that areas that should be socialist utopias because of long-term Democrat control actually failed. Regarding Mr. Finch’s claim that “areas controlled by Republicans are just as bad,” I’d like to see the data. Why? I know of no major city run by Republicans for any significant length of time. While NY has had two Republican mayors in a row, Messrs. Giuliani and Bloomberg are liberals when it comes to domestic policy as is the NYC council.

Regarding “no answers,” what are Democrats contributing? Read this entire letter and you won’t read one solution.

“As for Democrats not knowing how to win a war, I think FDR and Truman did a pretty good job leading us to victory in WWII.”

[RWC] You’ll note Mr. Finch didn’t mention two more recent wars, Korea and Vietnam. Truman was president during the Korean War and JFK and LBJ got us into Vietnam. Regarding Korea, I guess Mr. Finch hasn’t noticed it’s run by an apparently unstable communist dictator who not only has nuclear weapons, but who also sells that technology to all comers with the money. Let’s remember Presidents Carter and Clinton were the guys who negotiated the 1994 “treaty” that resulted in the U.S. funding North Korea’s nuclear weapon program. Yeah, Democrats are really the guys I want to deal with national security issues.

“Did you forget they were Democrats? Republicans - especially this corrupt gang of incompetents presently in power - are out of touch with what is important to most Americans, but through effective use of propaganda, they garner support from gullible masses who believe their lies. I’m glad to see by his plummeting approval ratings, that America is finally wising up to the fact that supporting inept, corrupt, leadership isn’t ‘patriotism,’ it’s just stupidity.”

[RWC] Ah, the liberal position that if you don’t vote for liberals, you were duped. In other words, if you don’t agree with Mr. Finch and his fellow travelers, you must be stupid. You’ll note this is the tactic Democrats in Congress are using regarding the Iraq War. Despite seeing the same intelligence reports and making even stronger statements than the Bush administration, Democrats are claiming they were duped. We know Democrats could not have been duped because they constantly tell us how stupid President Bush is. <g>

If you disagree with me I believe you’re wrong, but I wouldn’t call you stupid solely because you have a different opinion.

Regarding “supporting inept, corrupt, leadership isn’t ‘patriotism,’ it’s just stupidity,” I agree but when did we start discussing the Clinton administration? In any case, I didn’t refer to Clinton supporters as stupid.

Since Mr. Finch told us what isn’t patriotism, let’s look at what passes for patriotism for many leading Democrats and liberals.

· Base your party’s success on failure in Afghanistan and Iraq.

· Before we went into Afghanistan, we were told we couldn’t prevail because the British and Soviets failed.

· Before we went into Iraq, we were told we would fail and tens of thousands of our soldiers would return in body bags.

· Almost from the beginning, we were told Iraq was Vietnam and a quagmire. Our enemies now us this same language.

· When you’re in a foreign country, make sure to bash the United States.

· Refer to an exit strategy, but never a victory strategy.

· Demand international observers for U.S. elections because our election officials cannot be trusted.

· If you’re a former president, make sure to bash the current administration, especially when you’re abroad. As an added inducement, if you bash loud and long enough, you’ll receive a Nobel Peace Prize (Jimmy Carter - 2002).

· If you’re a former U.S. Attorney General, claim Saddam Hussein can’t get a fair trial and become a member of Hussein’s defense team.

· At every opportunity, be sure to tell the world our president is a lying moron.

· Label your president as a draft dodger for joining the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. When this doesn’t catch on, allege the president was AWOL and/or a deserter during his National Guard service. When the previous smears don’t work as well as you’d like, manufacture evidence to prove the president received special treatment to get into the NG and his AWOL/deserter time was covered up. When you get caught with forged documents, stand by the story and collect awards from the news media.

· Evade the Vietnam draft by deceiving an Army colonel into admitting you to the ROTC program. Run back to school in England and actively protest your government. To make it even better – and after you’re 100% sure you can’t be drafted, be sure to write a letter to the aforementioned colonel describing how you duped him.

· At every opportunity, be sure to tell the world the Iraq War is illegitimate, even if you voted for it. If you voted for the war, fall back on the “our president is a lying moron who duped me” excuse.

· When possible, be sure to tell the world we can’t win in Iraq and should leave immediately.

· Make sure to report every bad thing occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan while refusing to report anything good. If you’re forced into reporting a good event, like an election, be sure to report it doesn’t really mean anything because the next (fill in the blank) is the “real test.” When the next “real test” is met, demean it and repeat the process.

· Related to the previous point, misreport what’s going on, especially if you’re a member of the House of Representatives with a manufactured reputation for being a “hawk.” For example, despite the fact that the enemy has decided its strategy is to kill Iraqi civilians, tell U.S. citizens our soldiers are the main targets.

· When the President is abroad, be sure to repeatedly ask questions intended to try and embarrass the President.

· Compare terrorists in Iraq to our Founding Fathers.

· Blame us for 9/11 and all other attacks on U.S. citizens. More generally, blame America first for anything bad that happens in the world.

· By word and deed, be sure to tell the world you believe our military is little more than a gang of torturing thugs. To help make your point, be sure to compare our soldiers to Nazis, Pol Pot, and Soviets in their gulags. Of course, this requires you not to report the actions of the enemy.

· Despite proof to the contrary, claim that our soldiers are in the military only because they are America’s disadvantaged. In other words, our soldiers aren’t really patriotic; they just needed a job and never expected they’d actually need to defend our country. When you learn a high school student showed interest in enlisting in the Marines, assert he “was probably brought up to be a two-faced traitor to his country.”

· Prohibit military recruiters from appearing on college and high school campuses.

· During time of war, step up your game to discredit the U.S., thereby providing aid and comfort to the enemy.

· To make sure people don’t get the wrong idea from the above points, be sure to assure everyone that you “support the troops,” just not anything they are doing.

I could continue, but you get the idea.

“This whole ‘war on terror’ lie allowed us to get bogged down in a war of attrition that can’t be won.”

[RWC] Does Mr. Finch really believe we’re not at war with terrorists/Islamofascists intent on killing or subjugating us? We also read the Democrat position; we can’t win.

Didn’t folks like Mr. Finch also tell us we couldn’t defeat Saddam Hussein? The list of what we couldn’t do was endless. Despite all the Democrat defeatism, Iraq has had two elections, approved its constitution, and will elect its “permanent” government in mid-December. Democrats told us none of these things could be done; yet they were.

“Haven’t we learned anything from Vietnam? All of Southeast Asia didn’t turn Communist when we pulled out, and terrorism won’t ‘win’ if we leave Iraq.”

[RWC] I guess Mr. Finch doesn’t count the millions killed by the communists and figures like Pol Pot after the U.S. left.

“War is not a proud test of manhood. Flag-waving war-hawks act like this is a football game. War is the worst thing we can do to the human family, and it should be avoided whenever possible.”

[RWC] Mr. Finch has it backwards. It’s folks like Mr. Finch who don’t take the war seriously. Otherwise they wouldn’t give aid and comfort to the enemy by caring more about partisan politics than national security. I bet our men and women in Iraq really like it when high-ranking Democrats say we can’t win and it’s broadcast over and over to our enemy by outlets like al Jazeera.

I also love the way Mr. Finch refers to supporters of the war as “flag-waving war-hawks.” He appears to believe that people who support the war actually like war. As the vast majority of people I hate war. That said, we didn’t start the war. Would Mr. Finch have us sit back, allow terrorists to gather strength, and deal with each attack on a defensive basis? Wait, that’s what we did for over 20 years and that got us 9/11.

“If the war is so justified, why aren’t Bush’s twins and Cheney’s kids over there fighting it?”

[RWC] I can’t believe people like Mr. Finch keep trying this lame position. I wonder if Mr. Finch asked this question about Chelsea Clinton when Bill Clinton committed U.S. troops to serve in the Balkans.