THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 218, September 4, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
GUSTAV'S "CAT FIVE" POLITICAL SPIN
By Christopher G. Adamo
PARTISAN POLITICS, THE POLITICAL LEFT, & HURRICANES: LIBERAL DEMOCRATS SEEKING TO DERIVE POLITICAL
GAIN FROM HUMAN MISERY & SUFFERING CAUSED BY SUCH NATURAL DISASTERS AS HURRICANES -- THE POLITICAL
LEFT UNRELENTINGLY PURSUING ITS AGENDA OF BLAMING REPUBLICANS FOR EVERY MISFORTUNE, EVERY PERCEIVED
MISFORTUNE, & EVERY FABRICATED MISFORTUNE -- THE DEMONSTRATED WILLINGNESS & PROPENSITY OF DEMOCRATIC
PARTY POLITICIANS TO GLORY IN SITUATIONS OF LIKELY WIDESPREAD LOSS OF LIFE & PROPERTY & TO USE SUCH
SITUATIONS OF ILL-FORTUNE & TRAGEDY FOR THE BENEFIT OF THEIR PARTY & ITS CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNMENT
OFFICE -- LIBERAL LEFTIST DEMOCRATS AS A POLITICAL FORCE WHICH CAN NEVER HAVE AS ITS PRIMARY MOTIVATION
THE GENERAL WELFARE & NATIONAL INTERESTS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
FULL STORY:
Despite dire warnings that Hurricane Gustav might exceed the 2005 Hurricane Katrina nightmare in terms of damage, lives
lost and overall intensity, this latest storm to strike the Gulf Coast was barely a Category Two by the time it made landfall.
Perhaps more significantly, it missed New Orleans by seventy miles, and this resulted in far less damage to that city.
Even so, the winds of Liberal political grandstanding blew much harder this time around. Having descended to a level of
utter shamelessness over the past eight years, Democratic Party politicians regularly show that absolutely nothing is
beneath them. If human misery and suffering could be effectively translated into political points for the political Left, as it
was in 2006, then the more suffering that occurs, the more Leftists will celebrate the situation. Liberal glee at the advance
of Gustav towards U.S. shores was unrestrained. But, in the wake of its less than catastrophic pass over coastal Louisiana,
Liberals were forced to quickly change the subject.
This disgraceful pattern of opportunistic politicians exploiting despair and adversity is nothing new to the human
condition. Throughout history, just as surely as human beings suffered pain and deprivation from their natural
surroundings or at the hands of their fellow humans, so were aspiring despots quick to recognize the benefits of turmoil
and upheaval when seeking to garner loyalty and submission from the distraught masses. Yet, efforts of Democrats to
apply this detestable recipe for “success” have, in the past few decades, clearly reached new lows.
When pondering the remorseless exploitation of a calamity, few can recall any situation exceeding the vile political games
played by the Clinton administration on the occasion of the bombing of the Murrah Building in downtown Oklahoma City
on May 19, 1995. The rubble had not yet completely settled before Clinton and his mouthpieces were offering up a
“laundry list” of political enemies against whom they claimed ultimate blame for the event should rest.
Throughout the remainder of Clinton’s terms in office, a dark pattern emerged, wherein every dire occurrence would be
similarly invoked by the Clinton “War Room” as a means of bludgeoning the political opposition, no matter how tenuous
or nonexistent the connection between any presumed effect and the Clinton administration’s asserted cause. In the wake
of an unexpected cataclysm, a “whipping boy” or two, invariably on the political Right, would be targeted for blame by the
Clintons.
The horrendous scope of the 9-11 terrorist attacks resulted in a brief respite from this pattern. As a result of those attacks,
America did indeed rally around its leaders, and Liberal political operatives were sufficiently astute to realize that they had
nothing to gain, and much to lose, were they to go against the tides of public opinion while emotions ran so high. Yet, as
the 2002 midterm elections confirmed, neither could Democrats hope to regain political dominance by acceding to the
rightness of the Republican administration’s response to the ongoing terrorist threat.
An America that understood the dangers posed by hostile foreign entities was an America that could never again be
scared into accepting any precept of the Liberal ideology. Thus, in the days immediately following the Iraq invasion, the
political Left implemented an unrelenting agenda of blaming America and its leaders for every misfortune, every perceived
misfortune, and every fabricated misfortune of the war. Facts and truth be hanged. If anything bad happened anywhere, it
was somehow the fault of the Republicans.
This ruse reached a crescendo with the onset of Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005. Decades of a virtual Democratic
governing monopoly in Louisiana, left that state mired in corrupt misuse of the enormous federal funds intended to shore
up its barriers and infrastructure against the eventuality of a massive hurricane. Yet, this obvious lack of adequate
preparation was ignored. Instead, all blame for the post-Katrina chaos was directed at the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA).
Democratic Party politicians' claims of rampant ineptitude and assertions of racial undercurrents to explain the slow federal
response to the crisis, along with some real malfeasance within GOP ranks (such as the Mark Foley scandal during the
following year), contributed to the demise of Republican majorities in both houses of Congress in the 2006 elections. The
lesson learned by Democrats was to scream loudly and unceasingly that every dreadful situation could be recast as the
direct consequence of those evil Republicans.
Many would see such conduct as the blatant manipulation that it is. Nevertheless, a sufficient number might be fooled by
such antics to deliver a needed electoral victory. And, after all, that is the primary concern of the Liberal Democratic
political machine. Being devoid of any worthwhile ideas or policy agenda, a political ploy of this nature seems well worth
the risk.
Yet, it may indeed be in the process of backfiring for the Democrats on an enormous scale. Hurricane Gustav ultimately did
not wreak the destruction on New Orleans that some had predicted. At the same time, the state resources of Louisiana were
clearly far better managed to deal with the emergency by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal than was the case in 2005,
when Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco was at the helm.
Perhaps most revealing of all was the unfettered jubilation of Democrats at the prospect of a horrific natural disaster, which
was being greeted at the Democratic Party’s highest levels as yet another opportunity to affix blame on the GOP for every
dire aspect of the situation. Donald L. Fowler, former National Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (1995-1997),
exulted that Gustav, growing to terrible intensity at the time of his comment, was nevertheless a sign that “God favors
Democrats,” in which sentiment he was echoed by far-Left movie producer Michael Moore.
Though Don Fowler later conditionally recanted (It was, after all, Jerry Falwell who drove him to it.), the former Democratic
Party leader’s initial willingness to glory in a situation of likely loss of life and property was unmistakably reflective of the
propensity of Democrats to use tragedy for their political benefit.
A more severe storm might have brought about the desired effect for those on the political Left. But Gustav simply did not
cooperate. In any case, the penchant of Democrats to overplay this hand was on display for all to see.
Leftwing Liberals and Democrats constitute a combined political movement and political party, a political machine that
derives gain from ill-fortune, and is quite transparent in its attempts to do so. Such a political force, by definition, can never
have the best interests of the American nation as its chief motivation. This is a lesson that devoted and conscientious
Americans should take with them to the voting booths, come November.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics & Political Competition:
Elections, PACs, & Political Parties
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists;
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer who lives in southeastern Wyoming and works in the field of industrial instrumentation.
He is actively involved in Wyoming's political process, serving as a delegate to successive Wyoming State Republican Conventions
and as a member of the Wyoming State Republican Central Committee. He has assisted Republican candidates for local and state
legislatures and for the United States Congress. His articles, which appear regularly in The Progressive Conservative, U.S.A.,
and on a number of other websites, reflect a major concern with the damage being done to Conservatism and Conservative causes by
the Liberal Leftist faction in the Republican Party as well as by the much larger and more powerful Liberal Leftist faction in the
Democratic Party. During the early and middle 1990s, Adamo was Editor of the Wyoming Christian Coalition's official news organ,
The Wyoming Christian.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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