Weak-Minded Fashions
by Vincent Fiore

"The purpose of the Blue Bracelet Project is to reverse the current climate of fear and negativity in America, and to challenge the divisive ideology of George Bush and the extremist neoconservative wing of the Republican Party."

So goes the litany of hostility that masquerades under the noble pretense of a "mission," as stated by the "Blue Hope Bracelet" web site. This site, among two or three other sites, sell bracelets that--if the main stream media have their way--are destined to become the newest cause celebre among the hyperventilating left in America.

For twenty bucks, you get a package of ten "solidarity" blue bracelets, with the words "Count me Blue" inscribed on them. Fully 90% of the proceeds for these bracelets will support other so-called progressive causes, while 10% will go to UNICEF.

As generous--or niggardly--as that may seem to some at first glance, I'm sure the New York Times would gladly point out that as a percentage of the Blue Bracelet Project's GDP, it is eight times more than George W. Bush's America gives to world charities.

But, after all, that is what the 10% is there for--to buy some cover and legitimacy in an otherwise bankrupt cause that should have ended with the past election.

Not only designed for liberal Democratic "blue staters," in America, but to all malcontents who detest the person of George W. Bush, these blue bracelets will undoubtedly be seen from Brussels to Burbank, California.

The message imparted to the faithful is clear: fear, rampant negativity, blind opposition, loathing, and instilling a mindset among the progressive voter as that of the besieged. As another "mission" bracelet web site, www.countmeblue.com expresses, "We want to keep working together for a saner government."

So just what has been sane about the behavior of today's modern day left, specifically its actions regarding this past election? Americans have seen much over the past several months to remind them that, thankfully, presidential elections come once every four years.

Besides the noisy and ceaseless attacks on Bush's policies, the debasement of his character has been unrelenting as well. After all the poison pen books, 266 million dollars worth of 527 drive-by political ads, and Dan Rather's attempted coup d'etat--in prime time no less—I suspect that one would have to be functionally insane to want the job of president.

One would think the Democratic Party would start to see some patterns developing over the last 10 years. And one would think that losing the House of Representatives, the Senate, and finally the presidency would send some sort of signal to the party hierarchy.

Instead, Democratic Party politics has become a study in what not to do. As a party, it has devolved into a years-long display of discordant policy and strident public discourse. It is rife with angry self-denial and self-delusion as to what the party has become and where it is headed in the future.

With bomb throwers like Michael Moore and Howard Dean--who currently leads the pack to become the next chairman of the DNC--as the face of the party, it may well be a future of continued minority status. For certain though, it is a party that desperately wishes ill-will upon Bush, and if possible, even more so upon the voters that put him there.

As uninspiring as the Democratic Party platform may be to a majority of the electorate, the party's continued dalliance into unnecessary and politically stupid hostility is distressingly counterproductive.

We have seen this hostility throughout Bush's first four years in office. We will see it again at the upcoming inauguration as well, where liberal protest groups will show up to embarrass not only themselves, but further debilitate the political viability of the Democratic Party.

Worse, the hard left that populates the party is inexorably manacled to the Democratic Party mainstream, where all considerations on future party policy and platform not only seek the approval of this vocal minority within the minority, but cannot be competitive without it.

Even though these "Color me Blue" and "Blue Hope" bracelets may not shape up to be much in the way of a meaningful political movement, they will provide another reason why America will continue to turn their backs on the Democratic Party.

These bracelets are just another gimmick from the uber-liberal wing of the Democratic Party that signals nothing in the way of fresh ideas for the future but instead reinforces the current and fixated stance on being 21st-century Cassandras.

Here's a novel idea for the Democratic Party mainstream: make some bracelets of your own that say things like "America first, kooks last" or "Say no to liberal constituency groups."

Until the party of FDR and Kennedy exorcises the Vietnam-era campus hostility and the intellectual laziness that came with it, the Democratic Party will be reduced--election by election--to simple-minded hate chants and weak-minded fashion statements that mean nothing in the way of governance.

Vincent Fiore is a freelance political writer who lives in New York City.

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