But more spending doesn’t mean better results. Look again at the District of Columbia. Per-student spending here is third highest in the nation, but student achievement is dead last. That’s why a bipartisan group of politicians, including U.S. senators and the Democratic D.C. mayor (who opposed them for years before finally coming around), support a voucher program.
How about the war on terrorism? Earlier this year, the United States led a successful coalition effort into Iraq to depose a terrorist-supporting dictator. Saddam Hussein paid blood money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. He massacred more than half a million of his own people. And a recent government memo proves he had close ties with Osama bin Laden.
Today, American troops are serving bravely in Iraq, helping to build a democratic government that will provide a model for the entire Middle East. Progressives think that’s a bad idea.
“[President Bush] has pursued the most arrogant, inept, reckless, and ideological foreign policy in modern history,” announced Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in a recent speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. He put his money where his month is by voting against the president’s $87 billion package to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
His solution? Punt. Turn operations over to the United Nations. Fellow “progressive” Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, was first to press this approach. “We need to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out of Iraq,” he says.
But the U.N. can’t possibly handle this job. When terrorists bombed U.N. headquarters in August, virtually the entire U.N. staff withdrew from Iraq. Only the United States has the will and the might to rebuild Iraq. And rebuilding it is the only way we’ll make any progress in the Middle East, and thus the war on terrorism.
One would expect “progressives” to want to make progress -- move forward -- while “conservatives” might be expected to want to stand still. However, that’s clearly not the case. Today, all the successful ideas are coming from the right.
Liberals can change their labels, but unless they change their policies, they’ll have no progress to crow about.