I wanted to go to Vermillion Tuesday to see what former Senator Tom Daschle had to say. Unfortunately I couldn’t get away from work and paying taxes. Fortunately, there has been a lot of coverage. The Argus Leader provided us with insight into how deep the far-left ideology penetrates the Gannett organization via the words of Gannett mogul Al Neuharth:
Neuharth took a sharper tone. He criticized South Dakota voters who turned against native sons Hubert Humphrey and McGovern in the 1968 and 1972 presidential elections.
"Everyone knows now our country would have been much better off if either Hubert Humphrey or George McGovern would have beat Richard Milhouse Nixon," said Neuharth, who likened their defeats to Daschle's last year.
"I say in that election, shame on those selfish, special-interest out-of-staters who pumped large money and bigger lies into South Dakota to mislead voters and defeat Tom."
But it was Daschle who was lying in the 2004 election. Today, David Kranz provides us with some insight:
Regardless of how the speech was intended, Daschle seemed more comfortable speaking his mind Tuesday than he did during his 2004 re-election campaign.
Jon Schaff provides more details on that point:
Let’s set a couple of things straight right now. I don’t want to hear anymore Daschle supporters telling about how Tom was just a middle of the road guy who was tarred as a left-winger. All that Thune stuff about how Daschle said one thing in DC but another thing in South Dakota was a lie, they say. Well, here is Tom Daschle embracing an extreme "progressive" (read: left wing) view of freedom and America. Look at the title of his speech. Daschle is aligning himself with "progressivism." Lest anyone be confused, progressive is now what the left-wingers call, well, left-wing politics. He is aligning himself with the McGovern wing of the Democratic Party. Also, Daschle is taking a very Progressive stance, harkening back to the Progressives of the early 20th Century. Daschle is positing a notion of freedom unrecognizable to the American Founders. This is not a freedom where we pursue happiness free of government interference, but a freedom which demands government provide us with all sorts of material needs as a precursor to "real" freedom. These ideas were popular in the works of Woodrow Wilson and Herbert Croly. The two explicitly rejected the American Founding, the Constitution in particular. The Progressives where highly influenced by German philosophy (e.g. Max Weber) with notions of science, social evolution and historicism as their grounding, as opposed to constitutionalism and natural rights. I don’t wish to turn this into a treatise on American political thought. And this is not to say that Daschle’s views are good or bad. I will leave that to the reader. But there is no doubt that Daschle has aligned himself with notions of freedom and the role of government that have more in common with the radical social democrats of the early 1900s than they do with the American Founders. Dorothy, I think he’s not from South Dakota anymore.
Jason Heppler, the newest blogger at SDP, says this about the Daschle speech:
Notice the lack of ideas presented; the only talk was about how great they are. Daschle never talked about "vision." He basically said we need to keep propping up the welfare state--Liberals have been saying that for 70 years. Daschle exemplifies why the Democrats keep losing: they have no ideas.
Daschle said following the election he wanted to be a "quarterback" getting laws over the goal line, but his legacy became that of a "defensive lineman." He was right: his legacy is blocking anything from getting done. The Wall Street Journal didn't call the Senate "Daschle's Dead Zone" for nothing. Again, what has he accomplished after 10 years as Senate leader? Nada.
Yes, the Thune campaign did a masterful job of showing the people of South Dakota the true DC Tom Daschle. Al Neuharth still can’t accept the fact that the people of South Dakota are smart enough to figure what is true and what is far-left propaganda. Many of the South Dakota Democrats also haven’t accepted that fact. Also, Neuharth’s colleagues in the MSM haven’t figured out that Americans are smart enough to see through the MSM’s far-left propaganda.
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