Lost In Palsy

Democrats Out Of Touch With…Everything

From the WaPo…

You can look in vain for major legislative initiatives on the issue from Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; you have to strain to hear clear statements from our leading presidential candidates — Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards — or even to find a mention of democracy in their campaign Web sites’ foreign policy sections. The party’s leaders have gone quiet in the larger discussion about values, liberty and human rights; they seem to see no broader purpose for U.S. foreign policy other than self-interest and an end to the Iraq war. When democracy activists from around the world (including those from center-left parties) visit Washington, they often find it easier to get the time and attention of Republican senators than of their Democratic counterparts. Democracy promotion, they are sometimes told, has become “their” — i.e., the Republicans’ — issue.