Commies in Congress

Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, discusses a disturbing element of the Democrat Party.

The Intolerant Left

The intolerance of the liberal Democrats was on full display recently when Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid accused fellow citizens of being “immoral,” “un-American” and “evil mongers” for opposing government-run healthcare. Far from isolated incidents, they were just more evidence of the growing totalitarian impulse of the Left to silence dissent and smear those with policy differences. Here are two more disturbing examples ideological extremism that should concern all Americans who cherish liberty.

President Obama recently appointed Mark Lloyd to be the “diversity czar” at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which regulates the nation’s broadcast airwaves. Lloyd has expressed some outrageous views regarding the First Amendment and the concept of free speech and a free press. For example, Lloyd wrote this in 2006:

“It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press. This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies. [T]he purpose of free speech is warped to protect global corporations and block rules that would promote democratic governance.”

Lloyd made this statement in a book that essentially championed government-controlled media. Shocking as these views may be, they do help to explain his admiration for the anti-American dictator Hugo Chavez. Just last year, Lloyd said this:

“In Venezuela, with Chavez, is really an incredible revolution - a democratic revolution. To begin to put in place things that are going to have an impact on the people of Venezuela. The property owners and the folks who then controlled the media in Venezuela rebelled - worked, frankly, with folks here in the U.S. government - worked to oust him. But he came back with another revolution, and then Chavez began to take very seriously the media in his country. And we’ve had complaints about this ever since.”

Lloyd is not alone in his admiration of left-wing Latin American dictators. Left-coast liberal Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA) recently said this:

“It was just mentioned to me by our esteemed speaker, ‘Did anyone say anything about the Cuban health system?’ And lemme tell ya, before you say, ‘Oh, it’s a commu–,’ you need to go down there and see what Fidel Castro put in place. And I want you to know, now, you can think whatever you want to about Fidel Castro, but he was one of the brightest leaders I have ever met. And you know, the Cuban revolution that kicked out the wealthy, Che Guevara did that, and then, after they took over, they went out among the population to find someone who could lead this new nation, and they found… an attorney by the name of Fidel Castro…”

Having talked to political prisoners of Castro’s Cuba, I am repulsed by these remarks. I find it very troubling that this anti-American, anti-capitalist ideology has a voice and a vote in the Congress of the United States, and finds refuge in today’s Democrat Party.

America and our free market economy have done more to free and feed more people around the world any other nation or economic system. While deluded Democrats sing Castro’s praises, Cubans die trying to reach our shores. Those who don’t make it die in his jails for trying. By the way, the country that loony liberals love so much is also running out of toilet paper. Yet we’re supposed to adopt their healthcare system!