The Far Left - Let No Voice Be Heard But Their Own

The last time the Democratic Party went to the far left, it culminated with the nomination of George McGovern for President, circa 1968. It proved disastrous in the long run for the Democrats. Is there any reason to believe that a hard turn to the left will result in any different consequence now?

The far left are every day speaking louder and louder, and all members of the Democratic Party are listening with uneasy attention. The first real demonstration of the far left's new found power was the successful inquisition directed at ousting Joe Lieberman from power, thus insuring ideological purity. Now, the far left feels they hold the trump card over most, if not all Democrat office holders. The party of Roosevelt and Truman is now the party of Kos, Moveon.org, Michael Moore and George Soros.

A hallmark of the far left seems to be that speech should only be free if it is in concordance with their own deeply held views. Certainly, the hallmark of free speech and open debate is precisely that -- you seek out others whose views differ, and you debate them. Not so for the far left, and today is but the latest example.

The Nevada State Democratic Party is pulling out of a controversial presidential debate scheduled for Aug. 14 in Reno and co-hosted by Fox News, according to Democratic insiders.

The debate was being hosted by Fox News Channel and Fox News Radio, the Nevada State Democratic Party and the Western Majority Project.
. . . .
The state party has been under pressure from progressive activists across the country, led by MoveOn.org, to cut its ties with the debate.

According to MoveOn, more than 265,000 people signed a petition sent to the Nevada State Democratic Party.

To his credit, Harry Reid had the correct take on a debate hosted by Fox News --

In announcing the event, a statement posted by the state Democratic Party has Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) offering high praise of the debate partnership with Fox.

“This is more great news for Nevada,” he said in the statement. “I'm happy FOX News will be a partner for the August presidential debate. Western issues will be a major focus of this debate in particular. With FOX News as our partner, candidates will have an opportunity to not only speak to Nevada voters, but voters across the West who will be instrumental to electing a Democratic president in 2008.”

In other words, Reid looked forward to reaching out to the conservatives and moderates who make up the Fox News viewer base -- which just happens to be the largest in Cable News.

But such was not to be allowed in the far left corner of the world dominated by Kos and MoveOn.org. Harry Reid proved once again his lack of any principles and, as the shrill cries came from the far left, he quickly folded. Reid now allegedly shares "activist concern about the event."

I personally think this is suicidal. Not that I am complaining, mind you. The ever greater drift to the left of the Democratic party left me behind a decade ago. But those voters still in play - the swing voters who do not share the purity of the belief of the far left -- are watching. And grossly ideological acts like this which both cast a pall over freedom of speech and evince a refusal to countenance any other opinion to be heard cannot be good for the Democratic Party.

Update: The following official statement from Fox News appears on Drudge:

News organizations will want to think twice before getting involved in the Nevada Democratic Caucus which appears to be controlled by radical fringe out-of-state interest groups, not the Nevada Democratic Party. In the past, Moveon.org has said they ‘own’ the Democratic party — while most Democrats don’t agree with that, it’s clearly the case in Nevada -- David Rhodes, VP