Ideology vs. Partisanship

I’ve been amused by the mock-outrage of the Democrats over Karl Rove’s statements the other day.

I just read an letter from John Kerry urging me to demand the resignation of Karl Rove (Why the Senate feels is should have ANY input into the makeup of the President's Cabinet other than a rubber-stamp approval is beyond me. That issue was decided back in Washington's first term...).

It’s interesting in that in the rhetoric of the Democrats, it is made clear that they refuse to acknowledge that there is a difference between being a Democrat and a Liberal. Rove’s comments made no mention of the Democratic party, just the ideology of Liberalism, which is a set of beliefs that historically (or at least since the late 60s transformation of modern liberalism) show compassion for and a willingness to try and understand those who commit acts (sometimes egregious), be it criminals or those who commit war (case in point: Noam Chomsky’s writing). And while I may disagree with it, there is nothing inherently bad about that mindset. But it IS the ideology of liberalism.

The Problem for the Democrats is that modern America is historically more conservative, and as such Liberals tend not to want to be open about their ideology, because they wouldn’t win elections (it’s why you’ll almost never hear a Democrat run openly as a Liberal, whereas conservatives do run as such).

At any rate, it’s telling that John Kerry and his compatriots believe that Ideology is the same as party. Or in other terms, an idea is the same thing as a party. It helps explain why Democrats right now are rightly perceived as having no ideas: all they are is a Political Party. And who can get excited about that?