Whose Tent Is Bigger?

According to Democrats and the mainstream media, Republicans are narrow-minded and exclusionary, in contrast to "liberal" thought. Yet, today's left is anything but liberal----intolerant of religion and faith, unwilling to credit conservatives with reason or intelligence.

Friday's New York Times prints clear evidence of lefty lock-step--yet still manages to libel Republicans. The article's about the new co-Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC):

Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, has asked an Ohio Republican who supports some abortion rights to be his co-chairman, stirring the ire of social conservatives.

Mr. Mehlman's choice is Joann Davidson, who was chairwoman of the Bush campaign in the pivotal Ohio Valley region and a former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. In an interview on Thursday, Ms. Davidson declined to discuss her views on abortion. "My focus is on building a stronger party," she said.

Note the word "ire," based on one interview with one Ohio conservative activist, who didn't use the term.

You'd think the Times might notice that Republicans aren't uniformly anti-abortion, or praise the broad spectrum of opinion, and ideological diversity, of the more conservative of the major parties. No. You'd hope the Times might contrast Republican openness with the Democrat's enforced-from-above policies, which drove the late Bob Casey, Governor of Pennsylvania, away:

"Abortion is a defining issue in politics; in fact, it may be the defining issue," says Casey, a tall, lean man sporting a red button reading, IM A PRO-LIFE DEMOCRAT AND I WANT MY PARTY BACK. What does it say, for example, when we can't even come out in favor of parental notification for teenagers? It says that the last person a child should talk to about such a momentous decision is her parents, when they should be the first people she talks to." An unregenerate liberal in policy matters, Casey understands that Americans may not want abortion but they think there is something seriously wrong about 1.7 million abortions a year. They want some restrictions, and they wonder about a Democratic Party that can't bring itself to say even this much. . .

And for all the talk about "choice," there is little time for opposing views. When Casey wrote to DNC chief Ron Brown asking for permission to address the convention, he got no answer. The same happened when he petitioned Chairman Ann Richards. In the end, he was given a copy of a letter from the party's legal counsel to the convention's parliamentarian full of legalistic mumbo-jumbo about why the rules don't permit it. This in a convention that did permit Jesse Jackson, two AIDS victims, a colorguard of homeless veterans, and entertainer Mac Davis, who announced to a startled audience that people were "starving to death" in America. . .

So committed is the party to its abortion albatross that people of more moderate blood have but two choices: move decisively left or be shut out altogether.

For reporters and editors at the Times, the Republican big tent is just another excuse for claim the right's on the verge of a riot. Yet it's the Dems who have painted themselves into a corner--a platform popular in the North East, Upper Mid-West and Pacific Coast but almost nowhere else. Meanwhile, Democrats define tolerance to include only those with whom they agree. And their intolerance intensifies into ire whenever intersecting with believing Christians or Jews.

A Republican train wreck? Dream on--and fix your own house first.