On
Nov 3, the Irish American Community woke up, relieved
to find that the United States had evaded the clutches
of the indecisive, spineless, shameless opportunist,
John Kerry. The millions of jubilant Irish American
GOPers nationwide, and the thousands of deliriously
delighted NYS Conservative Party members of that
ethnicity, would, no doubt, be perplexed to learn
that, in the words of Teflon Taoiseach Bertie Ahern,
their ancestral homeland enjoys “a special
relationship with the Democratic Party.”
Camelot
is ancient history. The Democratic Party has long
ago deserted the values and ethos of Irish America.
For Irish Americans, Uncle Teddy, his assorted nephews,
Bill, Hill, their Clintonista acolytes, John Kerry,
and Terry McAuliffe, among others, are merely figures
of fun, ridicule, disdain and derision. This election,
like none before it, has emphasized the yawning
ideological gap between the Dublin 4 establishment
and the Irish American Community. In the words of
Michael Collins, “There’s more than a
stretch of water between them and us”.
An
indisputable Electoral College majority, with an
overwhelming endorsement of the popular vote, has
propelled Dubya back to the Oval Office. He is the
first president, since 1988, to obtain a majority
in both the college and the plebiscite. More Americans
voted for him, close on 60 million, than for any
other presidential candidate in U.S. history. Even
in the Blue States the trend was positive. In New
York State, Dubya’s vote increased by 350,000
over the previous contest. Incredibly, here in “Moscow
on the Hudson”, AKA New York City, his share
was up by 36%.
The
GOP increased its majorities in both the House of
Representatives and the Senate. The party also controls
a majority of gubernatorial mansions. Thus, the
election result imposes a definitive stay on the
erosion of traditional values and the deconstruction
of the American ethos. All eleven states, which
had Gay Marriage as a ballot issue, decisively rejected
the concept.
The
Republican and conservative grassroots have been
energized. Disoriented, confused Republicans, like
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who have
dared to hint at a challenge to Dubya, the people’s
champion, are suffering their wrath. Specter, who
intimated that he might not endorse strict constructionist
judicial candidates proposed by the president, quickly
realized that his coveted chairmanship of the Judiciary
Committee might be the penalty for his disloyalty.
As
per the New York Sun, it was only “after
submitting an extraordinary statement underscoring
his support for Bush judicial nominees” that
he received the endorsement of the other GOP members
of the Judiciary Committee. The final decision will
rest with the full Senate in January. That leaves
plenty of time for the confused one’s aspirations
to be frustrated.
The
election result was a major repudiation of the national,
and international, left wing elite, and their media
mouthpieces, who salivated for Dubya’s demise.
In their lust for a GOP defeat, The New York
Times, CBS a la Dan Rathergate, ABC a la Memogate
and CNN glaringly exposed their transparent anti
Bush agenda. They have lost all credibility and
continue a well-deserved slide into oblivion. These
conceited, elitist left wing propaganda organs arrogantly
misjudged the shrewdness of the ordinary American
citizen
In
the weeks before Nov. 2nd, the global leftie media
establishment, in a last pathetic effort, endeavored
to adversely impact Dubya’s campaign. Paragons
of objectivity such as The Guardian of the
United Kingdom, Le Monde of France and Spain’s
El Pais, commissioned a series of polls in
ten countries, Canada, France, Britain, Spain, Japan,
South Korea, Australia, Mexico, Russia and Israel.
Allegedly, a clear landslide in favor of Kerry was
the outcome in eight of the ten, including Australia.
However,
it was the Australian results, which emphasized
the utter lack of credibility that permeated the
exercise. “The poll” found that only 28%
of Australians supported Bush. A week later, in
the general election, the only poll that matters,
and in which Australia’s Iraqi involvement
was a major campaign issue, the pro Bush John Howard
and his Conservative Alliance were returned to power
in a landslide. As the comedian said “It’s
the way I tell ’em”. For the prejudiced
left wing pollster, it may well be, “It’s
the way I ask ‘em”. .
In
addition, The Guardian audaciously inserted
itself into the election, by calling on its readers
to write to the residents of Clark County, in Ohio,
urging them to vote for Kerry. The county in going
for Dubya gave The Guardian a loud, clear,
unequivocal reply.
The
main mouthpieces for the Dublin 4 establishment,
RTE and the Irish Times, certainly have egg
on their faces. One could only squirm on witnessing
the performance of RTE’s Carole Coleman, in
her interview of Dubya. For Ireland, it was an embarrassment
of epic proportions. Ms. Coleman came across as
a rude, arrogant, obnoxious, prejudiced, hectoring,
anti American radical. She exhibited not one iota
of professionalism or objectivity. The general reaction
from Americans, who watched the debacle, was shock,
followed by dismay at the immature, amateurish standard
of Irish “journalism”. Blissful in their
ignorance, RTE and Ms. Coleman were cock a hoop,
believing that they had pulled of some kind of coup.
They really should try and get out of their fish
bowl more.
An
editorial endorsement of Kerry, no matter how ill
founded, following a balanced presentation of opinion,
is one thing. However, in the months, weeks and
days before Nov. 2nd, the Irish Times went
into an anti American frenzy. The thinly veiled
implication, in its editorial endorsement of John
Kerry, regarding “Irish people and their relatives
and friends who have a vote in the US” was
certainly more subtle than The Guardian’s
intervention, but it was hysterically partisan nonetheless.
For
months, the rabid, shrill anti American and anti
Dubya invective on its opinion pages has been effusive.
It is incredulous that, in a country, which has
benefited so much from American munificence, D’Olier
Street cannot find some pro American opinion to
present. Suppression of dissenting views, and the
muzzling of those who would contradict Dublin 4
orthodoxy, is afoot methinks.
The
two primary Irish American publications, the Irish
Echo and Irish Voice, were also major
losers. Since its emergence in 1987, the Voice
has been the organ of that interminable, incestuous
cocktail circuit AKA the Irish American left. It
is the uncritical adolescent, starry-eyed in its
championing of Gerry and Martin. It is the soap
box of a Manhattan based, unrepresentative, delusional,
self aggrandizing, leftie pseudo intelligentsia
of the bash the bishops, burn both flags, blast
the culchies in their county associations, and any
one who even hints at traditional values is a bigot,
genre.
In
particular, during the reign of the Clintonistas,
the Voice degenerated into a base, transparent
propaganda sheet for the bizarre left. Besotted,
as it is, with Uncle Teddy and nephews, Bill and
Hill, Terry McAuliffe, Frisco outlaw Gavin Newsom,
ultimate stage Irishmen the McCourts – Sure,
God help us! – and other persistent players
of the victimology violin, such as Pete Hamill and
Jimmy Breslin, the Voice’s endorsement
of John Kerry was to be expected. .
For
decades, Irish America has been moving steadily
into the embrace of the GOP and the NYS Conservative
Party. Accordingly, the Irish Echo, for much
of its existence, has been careful to remain above
the partisan fray by refraining from political endorsements.
Since the advent of a new, insecure, pseudo intellectual,
Noam Chomsky enthralled ownership, the paper has
been trending steadily to the Left, in a frenzied
catch up with the Irish Voice. Its recent
precedent breaking endorsement of John Kerry has
completed that adolescent journey of self-discovery.
The
Echo has metamorphosed into an interesting creature
indeed. In a classic case of intellectual colonialism,
it is now a publication based in Irish America,
yet receiving its philosophical inspiration direct
from Dublin 4. Intermediary, be damned! Don’t
you know those unsophisticated Irish American “colonials”
are just not capable of rationalizing, or, analyzing
for themselves! We now have the interesting scenario
of an Irish American Community, which is center
right to conservative, being, purportedly, served
by two publications, which are well to the left
of center. Fertile soil to be tilled, anyone???
The
fact that neither publication could bring itself
to endorse Irish American GOP candidate John Fleming,
in the NYS senatorial (Bronx/Westchester) race,
a contest, which generated a great deal of interest
in the local Irish American Community, yet further
illustrates this ever widening ideological chasm.
Even
after the GOP/conservative landslide, the leftie
media establishment is still in a state of denial.
For days after the victory, the headlines and editorials
in national, and international organs, were of the
“How could 60 million Americans be so dumb?”
school. Even the prestigious and relatively balanced
publication “The Economist” found
it difficult to assimilate reality. George Bush
won “after a technical wrangle in a heavily
contested state”, it grudgingly whined. Huh???
That is a pretty elasticized definition of what
was a very decisive win and an overwhelming endorsement.
As
the Anvil dropped, the editorials and headlines,
of the “Now Unite Us” genre, came spewing
out. Translation: “Even though you won, capitulate
anyway, and implement our agenda”. The lefties
just don’t, or, won’t accept it. America
has decisively rejected their failed ideology. An
ideology, which brought our country to its lowest
point, September 11th 2001. The American people
have risen, sending a loud unequivocal message:
“We bow to neither earthly prince nor foreign
potentate, nor unrepresentative elite, foreign or
domestic.”
Patrick
Hurley is president of the Regular Republican Club,
30th Ad, Inc, in Woodside Queens, New York City.
He is also a member of the Queens County Executive
Committee of the GOP. Hurley was a founding member
of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement and is
active in Irish American affairs. He is a regular
contributor to Irish, Irish American and non-ethnic
publications.
