The Democratic mantra -- look, but don't touch

David Gelernter has a nice riff about how the Demos have become a party fanatically devoted to the status quo, circa 1974:

The filibuster scheme perfectly epitomizes modern Democrats. Republicans want to move forward, confirm some judges. The Democrats' response: Freeze! Or we talk you to death. Democrats are the Stand Still party. They adore the status quo. Conservatives won't settle for the status quo. They want this nation to champion justice, humanity, democracy. Democrats want America to tip-toe around the globe minding its own business, upsetting no one, venerating the Earth, etc. Why did Democrats leap to label Afghanistan and Iraq 'new Vietnams'? Vietnam was 30-plus years ago! But for Democrats it is always 1974. Things change — but Democrats don't. Republicans want better schools: Why not try vouchers on a serious scale? Democrats' response: Hands off! Republicans want to knock the chip off the U.N.'s shoulder and retune Social Security so that even the poor can leave assets to their children. Democrats' response: Hands off! Conservatives wonder, why not let the people's representatives in state legislatures determine the nation's abortion policy? Democrats' response: Are you crazy? The smelly masses? Why is it their business? Today's Democrats dislike democracy on principle, like Russian nobility circa 1905. Should Bush be allowed to pick federal judges merely because Republicans won the presidency, the Senate, the House, the country? No way! And why let the people decide about homosexual marriage when left-wing judges can make the law? Connecticut's governor just signed a law approving civil unions for gays and also stipulating that 'marriage' means a man and a woman. Whatever you think of the outcome, this is democracy — Schumerite Democrats should check it out. At the nation's universities, an occasional conservative wonders whether just maybe racism, sexism and 'class-ism' no longer explain every bad thing in the world. Could 30 years of affirmative action be enough? There are tenured professors who can't even remember a world without it. The Democrats' response: Hands off affirmative action!