In his grave in upstate New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt is undoubtedly doing summersaults – so disgusted must he be at Senator Joe Lieberman losing in Connecticut to the appeasement wing of the Democratic Party.   Afterall, it was FDR who lead America through another tough war upon which the future of our world depended – one where we faced many setbacks, and which ultimately came at a steep price: over 400,000 American dead and countless more wounded.  For Roosevelt and America, no price was too steep to pay to ensure the freedom of Europe and Asia against the evilness of Hitler and the totalitarian ambitions of Tojo.  We went, we fought, we won.

Of course, FDR led a Democratic Party that truly believed in the cause of America, that understood our exceptionalism as a social and political system, and wasn’t afraid to make  sacrifices in the name of freedom and democracy.  What a difference fifty years makes. Consider what the Democratic Party stands for today.  Instead of embracing the goodness of America and all that it stands for, it wallows in a sea of self doubt and self disdain – believing at its core that our efforts abroad (and specifically in the war on terrorism) are infused with imperialistic zeal.  Ours is not representative of the principles of human rights, human dignity and freedom, a shining city on a hill.  Rather, we offer the world an arrogance of power that does far more damage than good – an embarrassment to the civilized world (like in Europe) that embraces its secular multi-culturalism to the point where there is no difference between peoples, ideologies or cultures.  Good is evil and evil is good. 

And it is in this vein that Lamont’s victory in Connecticut should be viewed – for it represents a key victory for the “new” Democrats – the secular professional class that is internet-savvy, sees the world as truly “flat” and makes little distinction on moral issues.  These Democrats want us out of Iraq and out of the world – believing that our very presence is the reason that we are hated by the Arab street and treated with disdain in Europe.  Tellingly, in his acceptance speech on Tuesday night, Lamont sought as a primary goal "respect" for the United States from the rest of the world – as if Iran, Syria, North Korea, Libya and other violators of human rights are nations we should be courting.  But this, of course, is at the core of the new Democratic belief system:  Opinion matters more than fact, and it is ultimately more important what others think of you than what you stand for.

So, on a day when Scotland Yard has foiled yet another plot to blow up American planes, a sizable portion of this country celebrates the victory of an appeaser and touts what they hope will be a new era in American politics, marked by a Democratic victory in November, a precipitous pull-out in Iraq, a censure of Israel and a defeat for democracy.  

Sounds like a victory for the terrorists to me.

If you haven't seen it, check out Lanny Davis' Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal today -- its a classic.  Lanny, a FOB (Friend of Bill...and Hillary, too) and stalwart Democratic activist, has been campaigning on behalf of Joe Liebermann in Connecticut.   While on the campaign trail, he comes across the left-wing bloggers who are skewering Joe at every turn, using hate-filled personal attacks to do the job.  This is shocking to Lanny -- who has believed (in a 30-plus year political career) that such hate mongering was the sole domain of the mean-spirited Right Wing.  Lanny?  Are you there??

Wow.  Now, I have to admit, that I believe prima facie that liberals generally live in a different world than me.  There's is a nice place, where people are good and conflict can be avoided if we can just sit down and talk to each other.  There is no real evil in the world -- only the vanquished, the dispossessed and the misunderstood.  This is a world that looks to the UN for help and where negotiating with Iran, Hezbollah and North Korea makes good sense -- as if these are nations which would actually stand by their agreements.  Fantasy Island.

So, Lanny has awoken to smell the coffee.  Perhaps his clock radio was turned this morning to Air America, where he heard the comedian Al Franken wax on about his deep knowledge of international relations, while bashing the Bush Administration at every turn for their mistakes.  Or, perhaps he just opened the New York Times and read -- well -- anything at all on the front page.  If so, he would clearly see and hear that liberals do, indeed, spew hatred, lies and half-truths in the furthering of their causes -- be it the immediate withdrawal from Iraq, the need for more government and/or  the raising of taxes on the so-called rich (that's me and you, by the way) by 1000%, compounded hourly.

Lanny is yet another example of how the Left, so secure in the rightness of its views and so convinced in its correctness, lives in almost total ignorance of the reality around them.  Yes, Lanny -- MoveOn.org, Huffington and the littany of left-wing bloggers do actually exist -- and give Joe McCarthy a solid run for his money.

Having lived in Europe twice and having "hopped the pond" almost 30 times now, I have to admit a deep and undying affection for the place.  Sit me down at a cafe in the Latin Quarter, or in a pub in Covent Garden, or give me a chance to listen to a classical quartet playing for spare change on the banks of the Danube, and I'd be quite content to while away an hour or a day.

At the same time, however, I must admit a deepening rift between my feelings -- and memories -- of Europe, and my growing disdain for how Europe as a whole is choosing to deal (or not to deal, as the case may be) with the threats we now face.  From my vantage point, the world is a scary place right now. We fight an enemy who genuinely defies any notion of human diginity, who operates under a code of behavior that is better suited to the Middle Ages, and who enjoys all kinds of state-sponsored support thoughout the Islamic world. Further, this is an enemy who stops at nothing -- not even self-immolation -- in the pursuit of their ends, however depraved and misguided they may be. As I've written previously, this is no less a struggle for our very lives, against an enemy determined to destroy not only our capacity to wage war against them, but our very existance as a people.

You would think that Europe, of all places, would understand this kind of threat; having watched with barely a peep as Hitler built his arsenal of murder and destruction during the 1930s, and having stood by while Stalin purged the Soviet hinterland of millions who might dare think for themselves, Europe should surely recognize the kind of depravity we face now. Afterall, Europe saw first-hand 6 million Jews go to Hitler's ovens in the name of ethnic superiority.  Of all the places in the world to be attuned to the threat of radical movements intent on genocide, Europe must surely be the place.  Right?

Sadly, Europe has fallen again into a rabbit hole, that dream world of Alice's making filled with paradox, the absurd and the improbable. Out of Brussels and the capitals of Germany and France comes a steady stream of wishful thinking about the nature of the threats we collectively face: Terrorism, islamic radicalism, Iran, Hamas and yes, Hezbollah. In Europe's looking glass, it is American "imperialism" that is mostly to blame for terrorism, the United Nations still holds the credibility and wisdom necessary to deal with the problems in the Middle East, and the current Israeli aggression against Hezbollah and the "poor citizens of Lebanon" is very much the problem, not the solution. Forget the fact that Hezbollah, armed to the teeth with Iranian weapons, sits across a narrow strip of land from Israel's Northern border, threatening its security with long-range missiles capable of hitting the whole of the nation -- a threat, incidentally, that no European nation would find acceptable to live with.

It has become axiomatic that in Europe's collective view, any solution to any problem in the Middle East begins with the assumption that Israel is the aggressor against the "poor, oppressed Arabs". Under pressure, Israel has largely been in retreat over the past decade: out of Lebanon, out of Gaza, out of the business of ensuring its security whatever the cost.  And now, as it attempts to defeat Hezbollah (again), its hands have been tied by the cowardice of world (and especailly European) opinion; instead of the Israeli Defense Force that has previously defeated the Arabs with ruthless determination, we now have an IDF that is unwilling to attack with the force needed to assure a decisive victory.  Not even Israel is immune to the pernicious drum beat of appeasement.

For those who choose to remember history, this should sound familiar: concede ideas, ideals and territory to the enemy in exchange for a promise (real or imagined) of peace. This is the devil's deal that Europe made with Hitler in the late 1930s; turning a blind eye to Germany's (illegal) military build-up, and then allowing the Third Reich to annex the Sudetenland with nary a protest among Europes frightened elite. Give in to his demands and he'll go away, right?

Sadly, Europe makes the same mistake today. The crucial difference is that this enemy makes no bones about their stated intention: the total destruction of our way of life. Even in the face of such certitude, Europe waffles in their wonderland.