Not since the tear gas and mass arrests of Chicago 1968 have the Democrats put on a convention that better demonstrated to the American people the sorry state of the left's values and ideals.  From the opening refrains that echoed the macabre yet unifying obsession amongst Democrats in Charlotte to promote the killing of unborn children to the culminating moment of President Barack Obama telling us why we need more of him in our lives to survive, the Democrat National Convention revealed just how deplorable things have become in that party.

Truth be told, most casual observers could see the train wreck coming a mile away.  Once the speaker line-up for the convention's opening day had been released, the ensuing circus was completely predictable.  First, the Democrats would give the floor to a communist from the SEIU, followed by the most rabid abortion fanatic in the country.  Then, Harry Reid would take to the stage, presumably to tell everyone of a secret phone call he had just received informing him that Mitt Romney had once molested a pack of wild penguins.  He wouldn't have proof, because it's Romney's job to prove that it didn't happen.

And just in case the mentally unstable Senate majority leader wasn't embarrassing enough, corrupt Mayor Rahm Emanuel was invited to take a break from his busy schedule of presiding over Chicago's descent into the third layer of Hell to come lecture on good government.  Not that Emanuel's speech was necessary to depict exactly what Democrats see as an effective administration.  The stirring video tribute to the disastrous Carter years, as well as the keynote address from a man with the appropriate last name of Castro, pretty much said it all.

When Michelle Obama finally approached the microphone, she was following a procession of idiocy and buffoonery that no conservative commentator could even hope to parody.  And keep in mind that that was just the first day.

But lest you were tempted to think that the Democrats are incapable of equaling such incoherence, day two should have laid those fears to rest.  For that was the moment when the podium was handed over to a thirty-year-old woman whose life mission appears to be getting you to pay for her birth control.  Perhaps nothing better defines or encapsulates the left's view of government's appropriate role than having it function as a prophylactic Pez Dispenser.  And what does it say about the extent of liberal visionaries when a prime speaking role is given to an individual who is significant only because a popular radio host called her a nasty name?

Yet amazingly, Sandra Fluke wasn't the real spectacle of the evening.  Nor was the keynote speaker, former President Bill Clinton, who spent his time reminding Americans how he balanced the budget and created jobs.  Apparently, we were all supposed to just ignore the inconvenient reality that such success was predicated upon Clinton following the pro-business, free market policies enacted by a Republican Congress.  Absent from Clinton's speech, of course, were the multiple criticisms he has made in recent years of President Obama's decision to abandon that pro-growth approach in favor of economy-crushing, high-tax, big-government regulation.

But the pinnacle of the week came in two key moments.  The first occurred in an opening DNC video that included the jaw-dropping line "Government is the only thing that we all belong to."  Who exactly wrote the script for this video?  Chairman Mao?  As Mitt Romney appropriately tweeted in response, in America, "[w]e don't belong to the government.  Government belongs to us."  That Democrats see this foundational reality completely backwards is extraordinarily instructive.

Couple that revelation with the Democrats' decision to drop the one reference to God from their platform.  Now, in some ways this was a mere formality -- codifying what their public policy agenda has embraced for some time.  After all, when the leader of your party and president of the United States shakes his fist at the sky and tells God that His definition of marriage is bigoted, removing His name from the platform shouldn't really be a surprise.

And yes, after public outrage, the Democrats reinserted God -- to much consternation, boos, and hisses from the raucous crowd.  But the larger point comes in the context of a convention dedicated to the proposition that government is the new god.  It cares for us, provides for us, nurtures us, teaches us, corrects us, props us up, and wipes the tears from our eyes.  Without it, we can do nothing -- we are nothing.  We are a people of, by, and for the government.

So while we didn't witness SWAT teams and riot gear this time around, we were left to consider this pathetic reality: in 1968, most mainstream Democrats were embarrassed by what happened in Chicago.  In 2012, they are thumping their chests with pride over the spectacle in Charlotte.

Peter is a public high school government teacher and radio talk show host in central Indiana.  E-mail peter@peterheck.com, visit www.peterheck.com, or like him on Facebook.