Preface:  this article, like any that was written months ago, will sound a bit dated at first.  What's frightening about this article is how many of the predictions I made in it are on the verge of coming true five months after the article was written.  Enjoy anyway despite the depressing tone.

There once was a time when people knew me as being an optimist. My (mostly) rosy outlook on life sometimes led people to call me a "dreamer." Gradually (it didn't happen overnight), my demeanor became more and more pessimistic. I used to try to pass it off as simply being more "realistic." But with circumstances being as they are today, in the world at large as well as my personal life, there is no longer any doubt about where I fall in the old "optimist vs. pessimist" debate. And, I still call it "realism," thank you very much.

Six weeks ago, I wrote a blog warning about the consequences of voting "the wrong way" in the elections that were then about to occur. My worst fears were realized once the vote came down: the American people collectively gave the Democrats the second-greatest shift of congressional power from any one party to another in history. President Bush, already a "lame duck", now has both a House and Senate that are actively hostile to his policies. Any chance for those of us on the "right" to get our agenda advanced, such as overturning Roe v Wade, banning "gay" marriage, winning and then ending the war (in that order), and other issues just got thrown out the window. We're already seeing justification for my pessimism on this, and the new congress hasn't even yet been sworn in.

The new freshman Democrats in the House and Senate got there largely by leaning to their right; that is, they won because they made themselves out to be moderates or even conservatives though they belong to the Democratic party. Conversely, the Republicans lost because too many of them leaned too far to the left, even becoming liberals like John McCain. The country, as a whole, has a more conservative mindset; just read any national opinion poll. Yet, the country as a whole voted Democratic far more than Republican because they were simply fed up with the Republicans who were there.

Unfortunately, that means that they will (read: we will) get precisely what they asked for. Even though there are a lot of moderate, centrist Democrats about to go to Washington D.C., the party in charge is headed by some of the most liberal politicians ever to stink up our nation's capital. The Democratic party isn't being run by these new, middle-leaning wannabes; it's run by the likes of Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Carl Levin, and the worst of them all, Nancy Pelosi. Of these, only Clinton and Kennedy in the Senate and Pelosi in the House were up for re-election, but they also all won their races by comfortable margins. As the Speaker of the House-elect Nancy Pelosi, she will now be in a position to bring her brand of San Francisco pro-abortion pro-gay-marriage cut-and-run liberalism to congress. What Democrat is going to vote against her?

The answer, of course, is none of them. That goes for the Senate, too, where an investigation into the intelligence during the months leading up to the war in Iraq will lead to, I predict, the impeachment of the third-greatest U.S. President in modern (post-1900) history (behind #2 FDR and #1 Reagan), and likely his removal from office. Vice President Cheney would likely not be far behind. Pelosi could actually then become President of the U.S., a thought that's much more scary than the already frightening fact that she's about to lead our congress.

Whether that happens or not, we're about to see the end of our involvement in the war in Iraq. I predict that the Democrats will push hard enough for a full withdrawl from the region in 2007 that they will get their wish. Don't cheer too loudly, though. I don't like the war any more than the next person. But the fact is that leaving Iraq now will not only cause the entire region to implode in chaos, but two more things will result: the collapse of the democratically elected government we helped create there, and a new terrorist attack will occur on U.S. soil. Bringing our troops home will bring the enemy with them.

I'm not so bold (or pessimistic) to believe that this new terrorist attack will be as bloody as some claim, nor even that it will be as bad as 9/11. But it will be bad, and it will result in many lives lost, and the Democrats still won't get it. Here's proof: the recent incident where the six Imams were booted off a plane in Minneapolis - remember that? These six Muslim holy men, 3 of whom had one-way tickets to their destinations, made a deliberate spectacle of themselves by first praying excessively loudly prior to boarding, using numerous anti-American comments in their prayers (which were overheard by an Arabic-speaking passenger), switching seats from their original assignments such that they were all seated next to exits (2 near the front, 2 in the middle, 2 in the rear), ordering seat belt extenders which they did not need (the heaviest of these men was a mere 205 pounds, and he stood 6'2"), and then putting the unneeded seat belt extenders under their seats rather than attempting to use them. Although it took a while and involved a large number of people, they were eventually removed from the plane, to the cheers of the remaining passengers who had nearly all witnessed most or all of the suspicious behavior.

There is no middle ground here: either these men were plotting a terrorist attack or they were deliberately trying to frighten the airline into kicking them off so that they could sue for racial profiling or religious discrimination. It's one or the other! What's Nancy Pelosi's reaction? She wants to create a law which makes what the airline did illegal!! Not the suspicious behavior of the six men, she wants to make it illegal to have people removed from a plane just because people think they're acting suspiciously. And this is the person who is about to step in the leader's box in congress.

Unbelievable.

A word to any liberals or left-leaning blog readers who happen upon this: congratulations on your win. You got what you wanted, and now you'll get what you deserve. I hope you enjoy it.
 

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