Ask not what Democrats must do for you . . .
Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 12:29:33 PM PDT
It's natural to be discouraged with politicians during stressful moments in election years. The ramp-up in any major cycle will involve extreme displays of polarized proposals - in law, policy and rhetoric - by most candidates and their supporters.
I feel that this latest series of threats by the Bush Administration to our Constitutional right of habeas corpus, the necessary upholding of international laws covering treatment of prisoners and even the moral notion of whether the USA represents a nation of torturers . . . is mostly election-year politics.
With plenty of ass-covering and neocon ridiculousness, of course. Sending the cultural assumptions of our electorate towards the "extreme right", relative to our collectively herded implications of what national security actually implies, can only help Republicans to further move future consideration of their insane actions into the realm of fabricated boogeymen and Daddy-Knows-Best policies.
Still, this is not a reason to walk away from our only realistic hope for turning around this tide of dark selfishness.
Consider following me over the flip . . .
I originally posted the following as a
comment within a discussion at digby's Hullabaloo, but felt that it probably warranted a more critical viewing audience.
Recent discussions at DKos have led me to believe that this is such an audience. Here goes.
Calls for not supporting Democratic candidates (or, the general party) are becoming more Election 2000-style, false equivocation garbage that is about as transparently useless now as it was then.
I mean this seriously and without malice to those - like myself - who are feeling disappointed and disillusioned by the current lack of visible fighting en masse against the latest Bush Republican garbage, concerning the legalization of torture, arbitrary suspension of habeus corpus and public airing of our government's insane willingness to represent this nation as not respecting international law or even basic human rights. In or outside of wartime.
There's some additional context to consider before we tearfully redirect our personal ideals away from the intense, ongoing efforts to promote and improve the Democratic party . . . and look for something else to represent us in the halls of government.
Republicans represent the BIG WHITE GRAB of our century in the USA, which has brought most of us beyond the boundaries of despair and clouded many expectations of achieving healthy, sustainable or secure futures.
Republicans have built up to this point of batshittingly extreme, far-right building of business connections and motivations as the basis of government even more than the DLC, which has merely ridden upon those coattails in attempts to curry related influences. Albeit, poorly and as second-class citizens in the political world.
ALL that we have complained about up to this point has been uniquely, unilaterally and uniformly created from the minds of immensely grandiose, insanely selfish plans of far-right conservatives under the Bush Republican umbrella. It has grown since at least late Carter days, but all has culminated as actionable ends NOW. Means are justifying the ends, both being horrible for the majority of USA citizens - and now, much of the world where we invest resources of almost any kind. Whether it's slave-based work and prostitution in foreign states to support our cheap imports, or industry policies meant to support corporate ownership and related Executive profits, all such notions have been solidified by Bush and his Republican enablers.
Again, organizations such as the DLC and sympathetic, careful Democratic politicians have primarily supported elements of this overall movement up until now - perhaps not seeing, or even considering, the possibility of what was hoped by scheming Republican businesspeople to occur some day - and I consider such enabling politicians, lobbyists and others to have been either living in the structure too tightly and/or not being cynical enough to accept that the previously idealistic notions of prosperity and rights in this country could be placed into a box and set aflame quite so easily. I do blame collective inaction and lazy minds, simple political profiteers and surely the true, triangulating bastards on all sides in varying, contextual measures . . . but, even all those folks only helped to buy the ammo.
The Bush Administration has taken off all the safeties, loaded the guns. And, they've begun firing. People are dying in all sorts of horrible ways, not always quickly.
Think about this.
Democrats have been relatively powerless since 09/11/2001 and frankly showing confusion that any party - let alone individual, aberrant pockets within a party - could be so intensely bent on pulling all manner of power, influence and markets into their pockets by boldly using the United States government as a primary enabler to access their business channels of choice.
It's all about the money.
And, in these furious, righteously anguished comments at DKos and similar sites, we have the impractical and unfortunately myopic notion that Democratic party members in office are either hopelessly naive or actually seek to become the new Bush Republicans.
Do you have other options that you can point to which won't take another 15 years to build into national prominence against what the Bush Republicans are now solidifying?
No, you don't. I don't, either.
Look, many of us have said that things would get worse before they got better. We're in the downturn now. The Bush Administration is pulling the triggers to some heavy guns just before an election.
I am sad, incredibly mad and frightened for the future of my children. Just like many of us - we are peers.
So.
Graft and pork is usual in politics.
Openly and brazenly raping a country's mind and infrastructure, regardless of short-term injury or long-term disease to the country being assaulted, in the eyes of the ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD has nothing to do with politics as usual.
No.
It is a brand new, violent revolution in the USA we are living through - by a few people, for a few people.
The Bush Republicans are pulling triggers and firing.
Some of our representatives and hopefuls will stand in front of the guns and hope to survive, showing their strength to the nation. Others just want to tactically avoid the guns and fight another day, when our strength has been increased after the elections, I suppose.
The core Democrats did not pull these triggers. We need them to help disarm the Republicans, more than ever.
Please stay and fight, from rage funnelled into purpose, if so desired.
We can make change happen far more easily with Democrats than with contemporary Republicans. One day, perhaps the conservative Republicans will be rebelling against their party for following the successful Democratic policies made over gains of 20-30 future years.
I am not implying that Democratic representatives will make change on their own, not at all - for, as New Deal democrat stated in the comments section:
It is the job of the grass roots and activists to make sure that the easiest, most abjectly craven route for a congresscritter to take, is to stand with us on our principles.
I feel that will matter most (from a practical standpoint) after we displace enough of the trigger-pulling Republicans with our own folks to actually be effective.
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