Here, here! Well said Citizen!

The Democratic criticism of the war has always amazed me. There were so many ways they could have argued against it, yet still retain the impression that they wanted to win it (or at least end it in a way that did not look like a rout to the rest of the world).

They could have focused on shortcoming in supplying the troops, in their medical care afterwards, in the tactics used, in the failures by the intelligence community.

Instead, after voting to start the war, they turned around and did everything they could to trash the war effort. They gave their support when it was politically feasible, then pulled it back when it was feasible.

The sheer, bald-faced opportunism by the Democratic Party is breath-taking, and morally indefensible.

Outstanding post. I agree with every word!

Biden and fellow Democrats paint themselves into this amoral and treasonous corner by their very refusal to acknowledge things higher than themselves. They have no morality and no humility. Their dogma and policies are a direct result, and yes, it is nihilism. Thank you for putting this so succinctly and yet eloquently.

Your thoughts should be front and center in McCain's acceptance speech, and every speech he makes through is campaign.
However, belief in something greater than one's own agenda or power or even self, is being nudged out of the way evermore boldly.
What's taking its place is the notion that the person--and the personal--is enough, and whatever it takes is whatever it must take.

Excellent post. My feeling has always been that most of today's Democrat politicians have no higher interest than "themselves" and political power.

On the other hand he could be just another irredeemable A**hole.

Wow! Nothing at all 'random' about that jotting, but as 'to the point' as anything I've read recently.
Since it's logic and reason is unassailable, I'd expect Democrats to ignore it. One hopes John McCain will not.

Thanks, all! The encouragement is much appreciated. --John W.

All this has been said over the last seven years, but seldom as well, and not, I think, with Biden on the hook.

People always come up with justifications of their actions, of course, even if they are threadbare. We do this not only to keep others from accusing us, but to keep our own conscience from accusing us. With growing self-righteousness over the years, the Democrats have rationalised this dereliction of duty by two weak excuses.

First, they falsely appeal to a higher duty. If America were doing wrong, it would indeed be their duty to point it out. It does not follow that because they are accusing, therefore America is doing wrong. That they are entitled to make accusations does not prove that making accusations is a good thing.

Second, and related, is the claim that dissent is in itself a noble act, and even "the highest form of patriotism." This is absurd. It is America's tolerance of dissent that makes her free. People dissent in even totalitarian countries, but they have to do so under their breath or publish abroad. Dissent itself is not moral. It is the logical equivalent of claiming that because people are innocent until proven guilty, therefore acting suspicious is the highest form of lawfulness.

Hey, I like that. I'm definitely going to post that last bit on my own site. Thanks for the inspiration.

Principled criticism is necessary for a free society to function and advance.

Politicizing a war while our people are in harm's way is evil. As Lou says above, there are so many other ways they could have argued against the war that wouldn't have served to boost the enemy's morale.

I was raised a Southern Democrat. I've always voted Republican for president, but often Dem for state and local.

In 2006 I decided I wouldn't vote for any Dem for any office for the foreseeable future, for the reason you lay out so well here.

McCain wasn't my first choice as nominee, but, back when most of the senate was losing faith, he said he'd rather win a war than an election. I'll never forget that.

I haven't heard it put more eloquently, that higher duties and obligations are linked and touch upon the lower. That's just fantastic. As a Catholic Convert, I started by realizing that my protestant church could not simultaneously defend the helpless and stand up for abortion. From there, I realized that the phrase, "Culture of Life" has a much more expansive meaning. Much of what is believed by the Left is driven by this culture of death; that is a reduction in life and the dignity of life. Abortion and euthanasia are simple to see. Environmentalism, in it's unadulterated form claims that we, the living, are the problem. The animal rights movement seeks not to elevate animals so much as to eliminate the special status of people. The government welfare beloved by so many "social justice" Christians is a complete perversion of Christian charity. It uses the threat of violence to take from one, extract a living from this, give to the other. There is no gratitude, no examination of conscience or behavior on the part of the recipient, and no feeling of a deed well done on the part of the giver. I can think of little on the left that is not somehow tied to this degredation or open destruction of human beings.

I think the subject of "the Left" or liberalism is a very confusing one, because the left has changed.
All such ideologies started out as perversions of Christian and Jewish faith, by people who still had many of the habits of faith. So they invented new holy books and prophets, and often served their "truths" with saint-like self-sacrifice. They worshipped something that seemed at least to be higher than themselves.

But over the generations the habits faded, and most leftists now are just wearing their politics as a sort of disguise, to cover up the emptiness and self-worship inside them. (I've wrote a lot about this; click on "nihilism" in the category list on the sidebar.)

But guys like Obama or Biden are just assumed to be like the dedicated liberals of old, and millions will vote for him because they assume they are doing something for the poor, etc. They get a free pass.

The culture of death is just the result of worshipping the self. Others are expendable if they are an obstacle to whatever the self wants. (I can understand this perfectly well; in my selfish sinful moments I think the same way.)

There is a reason the commands of God begin with, "I Am the Lord your God" and end with, "You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor's." It's like a top-down - or God's-eye - view of the metaphorical Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: The final rotten fruit of all sin is godlessness, and the root of all sin is covetousness.

Covetousness is a multi-faceted phenomenon, so it can be viewed through any one of several prisms: Covetousness, envy, jealousy, lust, selfishness, or greed. It boils down to an unholy desire for anything God blessed another with, and that the sinner has no legitimate right to, and so covetousness in all of its forms leads to every other sin that there is: Adulteries, thefts, murders, &c.

The modern left, it seems to me, has become The Party of Covetousness, though to be sure there are plenty of Republicans caught up in that death-spiral as well, unfortunately. Leftists lust for nothing more than power, with money a close second - you might even call money the ultimate fringe benefit of the power they whore after - and they are envious to the point of violence in some cases of right thinking people's freedom to dissent, disagree, and oppose them.

Their lust for power, greed for money, and jealousy of their opposition's freedom is what leads to their treacherous and treasonous acting out, and so they are often reduced to being utterly and completely irrational and nihilistic in their thoughts, words, and deeds.

If you know what to look for, the signs of their spiritual sickness are literally written on their faces, from Nancy Pelosi's 250 BPM eye-blinking to Biden's ill-timed and inappropriate auto-reflexive smiles. In between are Al Gore's condescending tones - in every speech he makes he sounds like a hectoring kindergarten teacher addressing a class of unruly children - and Charles Schumer's slimy and intolerable superiority complex.

I have no proposed solution for the godless madness and spiritual desolation of the contemporary left, I only know that I will continue to oppose them, and I will not let them intimidate me into doing otherwise.

The only glimmer of hope I have to offer is that I too used to be a leftist.

Interesting thoughts, Hucbald.

I—sometimes—think that the calamitous nature of our times conceals a benefit. That is, that the lines are finally clearly drawn. The fight will be open. (Related link)

Only Murtha makes Biden seem even tolerable. Not a good standard...