Democrats appear to have altogether forgotten their place, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin's bilious and incoherent attack on America's citizen soldiers — apparently for the undeserving sake of those who wish to subjugate us all — only the latest step in a trail of disgrace miles long, from the liberation of Iraq to the liberation of Afghanistan and the incarceration of the terrorists who once kept her people living in fear.
This is a principal fault line along which the Democratic Party threatens to fracture, and it is the weirdly adolescent self-destruction that leftism's relativists promise for the country. As the Wall Street Journal rightly stated in yesterday's lead editorial, the Democratic Party's demise may not be so helpful if it is cancerous. Senator Durbin is far from the only irresponsible Democratic lawmaker but his incontinence is that which even a jaded, postmodern capital cannot let pass. Durbin should resign: if he is not superlatively ignorant of history then he is surely aware that his rhetoric matches that of our enemies. The Republican Party has reportedly taken action commensurate to the offense, demanding that the Democratic Party — in a letter, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — abjure prevailing standards and finally hold its members accountable.
There is nothing ignoble in the permanent censure of those who prefer treachery to statesmanship. Durbin's outrage stands in a crowd of them. Republicans will have done a favor — even if in vain — by trying to shake Democrats out of their delirium and reminding them what, in their treble politicking, they have become.