Tiny Tom’s Anthem: My Party ‘tis of Me

March 10, 2002

by Bruce Walker

It is dumbfounding how quickly Tiny Tom Daschle switched from patriot to partisan. September 11, after all, was worse than Pearl Harbor. Unlike the war begun sixty years ago against America, the terrorist war is waged deliberately against totally innocent people. It is waged with a hatred of America which would have made a Japanese warlord or a Nazi Gauleiter wince.

These terrorists have not offered, as the Japanese and Germans did, to leave us in peace if we left them in peace. Instead, the monsters like Osama bin Laden have waged a holy war (or unholy war) against our nation and its ideals.

Moreover, unlike Pearl Harbor, there is no question that the man in the White House today did not leave us in this horrible situation. Pearl Harbor was a debacle of military and diplomatic incompetence unrivaled in our history. Compounding the disastrous loss of eight battleships and almost all our military aviation on the Hawaiian Islands, was the destruction of our entire B-17 force in the Philippines (who were not placed on alert, even after the attack on Pearl Harbor).

Franklin Roosevelt had served as Secretary of the Navy, so America and Republicans had the right to at least expect in this area of the war FDR would be adequate. Sadly, he was not: the calamities in the Pacific were matched by the failure of American naval forces in the Atlantic to even institute convoys for our shipping or blackouts of Atlantic ports until German U-boats had almost completely severed trans-Atlantic shipping (Britain received much more supplies before America was in the war than it did for the first year of American involvement).

Beyond horribly delusional war planning by Roosevelt and his "Brain Trust," FDR personally supported the unconscionable internment of Japanese, German, and Italian persons in America, some of whom were citizens and others of whom were legal aliens. FDR’s "off the cuff" demand for "unconditional surrender" at Casablanca is estimated to have cost half of the twelve millions human beings who would die in the Christian-Jewish Holocaust of the Nazis, and millions of other military and civilian personnel.

Only later would the full extent of Soviet penetration of the Roosevelt Administration also become apparent (after fervent denials for half a century by Democrat apologists), and only then would the full extent of the costs of that treason be clear: hundreds of millions of lives enslaved, trillions of tax dollars spent defending America and the free world, and hundreds of thousands of American military lives destroyed by death in combat or battle injuries.

Still Americans were utterly united in standing behind the war effort - and rightly so. There was no guarantee at all that we would win the Second World War. If D-Day had been one day earlier - June 5, 1944 - the whole invasion fleet would have encountered one of the worst storms recorded in the English Channel and Operation Overlord would have ended.

If the last Dauntless dive bomber from the last squadron had not taken the gamble of going over the last cloud bank in May 1942, then the Battle of Midway would have ended in the triumphant of the Japanese combined fleet (instead of the loss of four critical fleet carriers) and the hopelessly outnumbered American fleet might well have been destroyed and Midway captured.

The imponderables of the German war technology are truly frightening. Jet fighters and bombers, cruise missiles, nerve gas, intermediate range ballistic missiles, submarine launched missiles, and true submarines - all these the Nazis had and we did not. Had Americans not been totally united and completely dedicated to victory, then the Second World War could easily ended - and very likely would have ended - with a triumphant Nazi superpower in Europe and America alone with its English speaking democracies as allies in a cold, cruel, and dangerous world.

Less than six months into our war with the great evil of al-Qaida and bin Laden, Democrats have already run through their lifetime supply of patriotism. Unlike Franklin Roosevelt, who mangled our diplomatic efforts and our first year of war with that older Axis of Evil, George W. Bush has instead delivered America stunning (and unexpected) military victories and he has presented an intensely accurate and utterly coherent picture of what our nation is seeking.

Our president has not dragged children off to internment camps (as FDR did) and he has not authorized firebombing of German and Japanese cities (as FDR also did). Our president has not made caricatures of Arabs and Moslems (as FDR encouraged Hollywood to do with Japanese and Germans) and he has not demanded "unconditional surrender" (the least rational war aim proclaimed by any American president in any conflict, as FDR also did).

Some might say that the stakes were higher then. No, the stakes are higher now. One suitcase bomb in one American city would kill more Americans than died in battle in every war in our history. A second suitcase bomb in another American city might well force us to abandon Israel and the Persian Gulf, and create such riotous mischief in Asia that a greater, more deadly world war would only be a matter of time.

On the other hand ... if Tiny Tom is a good American now (instead of a calculating Democrat) then even worse things could happen: he could lose his position as Majority Leader of the Senate and become instead Minority Leader! That is serious!

Never in American history has the craven and mercenary political interests of one gaggle of "Americans" been more transparent. Deeply involved in a war we may lose, picking up the smelly remnants of Slick Willie’s "foreign policy," facing each day a very real threat that he may die at the hands of some suicide assassin, not since Washington and Lincoln has our nation had such a leader.

That is the good news. The bad news is that seldom, if ever, has the loyal opposition in America been so devoid of principle or integrity. If our fate lies in the bigness of our president, then we are certain in time to prevail. If our fate lies - even slightly - in the small hands of Tiny Tom Daschle, then victory is not certain and if won it will be won with oceans of blood and years of pain.

South Dakota, please send a message to Tiny Tom. Elect Thune to the Senate; pass a resolution condemning what your senior Senator has done; perhaps even hold a referendum on support for the president in this war. Your state pioneered the recall of elected officials. Perhaps there is something you could do in this area as well (it is ironic that Frank Church, the Idaho Democrat who almost single-handedly destroyed the ability of the CIA to stop terrorism, left office largely because conservatives in that conservative state were threatening him with recall).

Build Tiny Tom a castle next to Mount Rushmore, where he can see what real patriots look like, and pay him handsomely to stay there. You are a good people in a great state, and you have given us many great senators from both political parties (including a liberal Democrat who flew B-17s over Austria and Germany, and later lost with dignity the presidency). Take back Tiny Tom.

We cannot afford a Majority Leader whose anthem is "My Party ‘tis of Me." We need patriots now.

_________________________________________

Bruce Walker has been a dyed in the wool conservative since, as a sixth grader, he campaigned door to door for Barry Goldwater. Bruce has had almost two hundred published articles have appeared in the Oklahoma Bar Journal, Law & Order, Legal Secretary Today, The Single Parent, Enter Stage Right, Citizen's View, The American Partisan, Port of Call, and several other professional and political periodicals.

Send the author an E mail at Walker@ConservativeTruth.org.

For more of Bruce's articles, visit his archives.