The Black Republican

Steve asked me the other day why I haven't been posting. The best answer I could come up with was, "Same old, same old." We are cursed by living in interesting times - so interesting, that I've lost interest. A confirmation battle or three may be looming over the Supreme Court - and where I have little confidence Originalism will win out. The media is obsessed with lost children, missing floozies, and manufactured scandals. And through it all, the Democratic Party manages to sustain a majority mindset from out of the jaws of minority election results.

And what do they do with this obscene Frankenstein-like majority of Democrats and weak-kneed Republicans? Why, they demoralize American troops in the midst of battle, of course.

President Bush plans to speak about Iraq tomorrow, and we hope he points out that this Beltway panic is hurting the war effort. General John Abizaid of the U.S. Central Command stressed this point last week. Troop morale, he said, has never been better. But "when I look back here at what I see is happening in Washington, within the Beltway, I've never seen the lack of confidence greater."

He added that, "When my soldiers say to me and ask me the question whether or not they've got support from the American people or not, that worries me. And they're starting to do that." Mr. Bush will no doubt remind Americans of the stakes in Iraq, but he also needs to point out that defeatism can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So it was with a bit of surprise that I read something today that inspired me to write. What did we say about mentioning Abraham Lincoln?

For when the time came to confront the greatest moral challenge this nation has ever faced, this all too human man did not pass the challenge on to future generations. He neither demonized the fathers and sons who did battle on the other side nor sought to diminish the terrible costs of his war. In the midst of slavery's dark storm and the complexities of governing a house divided, he somehow kept his moral compass pointed firm and true.

The author, who goes on to cite the irony of winning the seat Lincoln lost to Stephen Douglas, is none other than Senator Barack Obama. What is even more ironic, is how little this particular quote resembles the good Senator's own political party. And if that isn't irony enough in itself, read the whole column to find that there isn't one remark in the whole piece that ties this wonderful essay to the events of today. It's not even clear why Sen. Obama was asked to write the piece for TIME in the first place. The only thing I can think of is that Obama is trying to sound statesmanlike in order to balance out the negative drone coming from the likes of Dick Durbin and Teddy Kennedy.

I guess Republican ideals are only worthwhile when the Republicans are dead, co-opted by Democrats, and totally irrelevant to the conversation at hand.