BDS ON THE RIGHT

Ever since George W. Bush won the presidency by preventing Al Gore’s hanging-chad attempt to steal it, liberal Democrats have become progressively infected with BDS – Bush Derangement Syndrome. 

Here’s how I think that the contagion of BDS is now infecting a number of conservative Republicans.

If you’re a guy, perhaps you have endured this unpleasant and bewildering experience.  You’re in a relationship and you and the lady have had some disagreements but nothing major.  From your perspective things are pretty ok.  Then one day you and she disagree on some minor trivial issue – and suddenly, inexplicably, it escalates as she unloads on you. 

It seems like the love of your life has had a personality transplant, you’re facing a virago disgorging a torrent of anger, and all you can think is, "Where did this come from?"

If you’re a guy, you’re nodding your head in understanding.  If you’re a gal, you’re muttering, "Men are so clueless.  We give them all these hints for so long that things are bugging us, they never get the message, then when we finally can’t take it any more and snap, they’re mystified."

I think you get the analogy.

A relationship that suffers this trauma can survive only if both parties calm down afterwards, focus on their mutual interests and commitment, and work together to solve their grievances.

If not, the consequences can be ruinous.  A friend of our family’s had the American dream – beautiful home, husband who loved her and worked hard to support her, two great boys, the whole nine yards.  She exploded over a small matter, stayed enraged, walked out, got a divorce, ran off with a younger man who took her for every dime of her settlement, and ended up destitute and suicidal.  It took her a long time to put her life back together.

Yes, this could happen to us conservatives, and yes, the Dubai Ports deal is a small matter.  It is a red herring.  What conservatives should be unloading on Bush for is his refusal to protect our borders from illegal invasion, and his refusal to reduce rather than enormously expand government spending.

But no.  They let all this slide, then lose it over a business deal with an Arab ally.  Yes, ally – just ask any of the folks in the DIA or CIA, who’s not a left-wing rogue weasel out to smear Bush, and who’s actually worked in the Middle East, and they’ll tell you.

Or if your prefer, ask Rush Limbaugh or Ollie North, who says:

The UAE has become one of America’s closest allies in the Global War on Terror, apprehending terrorists, shutting down their financial networks and providing tangible support for U.S. military operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq. It was this close cooperation that led the multi-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — to green-light the transaction.

It’s to be expected that a smarmy liberal Democrat like Harold Ford (D-TN) will make a campaign ad in Baltimore demagoguing that "President Bush wants to sell this port to the Arabs and outsource our national security."  It’s a complete lie and he knows it (no ports are being sold, offloading terminals are being leased;  the Coast Guard remains in charge of port security as always).

But it’s another thing entirely when Duncan Hunter (R-CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, goes around the bend and offers a bill to make all foreign ownership or leasing of any cargo terminal in any US port illegal.  Duncan, my buddy whom I’ve gone quail hunting with, how could he get so nuts?

There are some 3,200 terminals in US ports.  80% of them are foreign owned or leased.  Unions and government regulations have made it impossible for US shipping companies to stay in business, making them bit players in the international shipping business.  (See this story in the New York Times, US Companies Weighed Anchor on Ports Long Ago.) 

Duncan’s bill would cause astronomical damage to the US economy, but he doesn’t care because he’s on a BDS rant.

But we should care.  Because if we don’t, Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president of the United States and the Democrat Party is going to be in charge of our national security.

Perfection is in heaven, but until we get there we live on earth in a real world and not of fantasy.  Americans are successful in this world because our game is poker, where you play the cards you’re dealt, and you don’t whine about cards you wish you had.

George W. Bush is a far from perfect man and far from perfect president.  But let me tell you a little story.

In late December 2000, just after Gore conceded, he had a meeting with Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz to get their views on what to focus on in his administration’s foreign policy.  After they were through, he asked, "What about India?"  They stared at him.  "It’s a democracy of one billion people," he explained.  "We need India as an ally.  It’s the only country in Asia that can stand up to China.  I want a policy for India from you."

After two weeks, he bugged Condi again.  She had forgotten.  No one but Bush understood how important an alliance with India was to America’s national security.  Thus the triumph of Bush’s India visit last week.

And of course, right on schedule, the Democrats are yelping about it, about India’s nukes.  It is absolutely critical for India to have a nuclear deterrent against China.  We cannot withstand China’s dominance of Asia without India.  Bush understands it.

This is just an example of Bush’s geopolitical smarts.  Do you really want to join the Democrats in an orgy of Bush-bashing, turn control of Congress over to them so they can spend the next two years in a revenge-crusade to impeach him, and elect Hillary in 2008?

Bush could have done so many things better.  But what are the real world alternatives to him?  We call To The Point the Oasis for Rational Conservatives.  It’s frankly time for conservatives enraged with BDS to regain their rationality. Listen to Rush, Ollie, Tony Snow, and Charles Krauthammer.  Then reflect on George Bush’s character.

Who among us could have withstood the unceasing barrage of hatred and lies directed at him by the Democrats?  Just think of a disgusting recent example, where Jimmy Carter and others used the funeral of Coretta Scott King to dishonestly insult him in front of his wife.  This is a honest decent Christian man who is almost superhumanly gracious to those that hate him.

BDS is not a flippant term.  It is a real sickness in the soul of liberal Democrats.  Conservatives may rightfully and vehemently disagree with Bush on a number of issues, but conservatives cannot afford to be as deranged as liberals.  In that direction lies Caesar’s doom.  If the Democrats divide us, they conquer us.