by: F.R. Duplantier

"Since the 1960s, the Democratic Party has increasingly focused its politics on the exploitation of perceived, or even government-exacerbated, ethnic and social divisions in America," observes Terence Jeffrey, editor of the national conservative weekly Human Events. "It has pitted black against white, poor against rich, and women against men. When the liberal elite, aligned with the Democratic Party, pushed back the frontiers of socially acceptable behavior in America, the Democrats even moved to exploit new divisions," Jeffrey recalls. "They now pit self-avowed homosexuals against straights. In foreign policy too," he adds, "the Democrats have projected their vision of ethnic and social struggle into world affairs. . . ."

In a recent issue of Human Events, Jeffrey argues that "the politics of the modern Democratic Party cannot work in a healthy nation in a time of peace and prosperity. The Democrats need the turmoil and strife of ethnic division and economic resentment for their strategy of exploiting grievances to work," he explains. "A nation full of people who are happy, prosperous, and comfortable living with one another is unlikely to give a liberal Democrat control of their government." To Jeffrey, "Al Gore's strident leftwing rhetoric and special-interest politics seem like the dialogue and plot from a bad movie about the 1960s, not a vision for 21st Century America."

Americans in the heartland understand that the biggest threat to "continued prosperity and continued peace" are "a big intrusive government that wants to run people's lives . . . and a liberal ideology that is antithetical to the moral values that make peaceful communities possible," Jeffrey asserts. "Moral repudiation of a morally bankrupt Democratic Administration is the driving force reuniting the Reagan coalition at the dawn of the 21st Century," he concludes. "The Republicans can keep it together," Jeffrey counsels, "if they keep prosperity rolling by sticking to their principles on low taxes and small government, and if they do not abandon social conservatives on the core issue of right to life, and if they resist the temptation to squander American lives and treasure on an unnecessary war."

A landslide looms. Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and their lame-duck mentor/nemesis will all be buried beneath it, unmourned and soon forgotten. The only question at this point is, Will the Democratic Party survive the debacle? Let's hope not. The persistent fomentation of class envy and sheer stupidity in the electorate is something we can do without. Voters who respond only with emotion can always find a third party to support -- or, better yet, stay home on election day and refrain from abusing a franchise they're unfit to exercise. What would the demise of the Democrats do to our two-party system? It might just cause the Republican Party to split in two. Imagine that: A Grand Old Party and a Grand New Party. The center shifts to the right, and we have a choice between two versions of conservatism, instead of two versions of liberalism. The dawn of the 21st Century is looking pretty good.