I give up.
If I die of a stroke before I'm thirty, it will be the fault of the Democratic Party. I have decided this for any number of reasons, the least of which is the current 'let's all fall on the grenade together' manuever of trying to muster a filibuster of Alito. I have a number of problems with this:
1. It loses the Democrats momentum. They had the initiative, and I fear they are about to completely and totally piss it away. Consider the events of the past months: Republicans caught in corruption scandals, the war still dragging on, the government's lackluster and incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina. I mean, talk about a gift from heaven. It was a gift from heaven. It was several gifts! It was practically a plate of wings and a stripper dumped right in their laps! Now, and I do mean right now is the time for the Democrats to put together a hard hitting, coherent, easy to understand program of issues for the Midterm Elections. Think up a 'Contract With America' you guys, and run with it! Keep smacking the Republicans hard on corruption, fiscal irresponsibility and the morass of other issues that they're not doing a damn thing about (like health care, for instance. And oh, could please propose some Social Security reform while you're at it?) and you might have a decent shot in the fall. Do this filibuster idiocy and it will screw you seven ways to Sunday. It will unite the Republican base like that and give them back the one thing they're lacking right now: momentum.
2. Shameless political kow-towing: I don't like it when President Bush kow-tows to the far right wing of the Republican Party by jumping on the 'intelligent design' and 'let's ban gay marriage' bandwagon. It drives me nuts. The lunatic fringes of the American political spectrum should not, in any circumstances be in a position to force their definately out of the mainstream views down anyone's throats and that goes equally for the far right as well as the far left. (This is not to say that they can't have those views, far from it. They can say whatever the hell they want as far as I'm concerned, but by forcing the hands of either party, it essentially means that the rest of us get stuck with government by fringe minority. And that's not democratic at all.)
Kennedy started this lunacy because he can. Not like the people up there are gonna toss his ass out anytime soon. Kerry jumped onboard because he discovered a shiny new toy (the blogosphere) and wants the nomination in '08, (God help us all if he gets it.) Once Kerry was on board, that meant Hilary Clinton had to support it or risk the wrath of the loony left and so on and so forth.
Let me spell this out for everyone: the far right wins more votes that the far left in this country. Period. End of discussion. It's not going to work any other way, and yelling and screaming at the rest of the country is not going to make everyone become flower-powery and Socialistic anytime soon. So stop it.
The Democrats are becoming too narrow. The Republicans, for all their many faults have a very, very big tent, and they like everyone on their side of the spectrum inside the tent pissing out and not outside the tent pissing in (to paraphrase LBJ) in other words, Conservatism is a big tent concept now. They can appeal to hard right religious types, they can appeal to small government libertarian types they can appeal to moderate blue state types. They've got wide appeal. The Democrats, by allowing the Far Left to dictate their agenda risking narrowing their appeal. They are going to need moderate and independant voters to win anything and tying themselves to the Socialist wing of their party isn't going to do a damn thing to change that.
Some caveats:
Yes, I know the Democrats are ahead in all the polls. But ask youself why: is it because the Republicans are increasingly seen as corrupt jackasses? Or is it because the Democrats are winning the battle of ideas and persuading people that their ideas are better? I think it's the former rather than the latter. There's been no big idea from the Left that's caught my imagination recently. In order to entrench a liberal majority in D.C. they've got to win the battle of ideas, not just be prepared to assume the reins of power because people get tired of the other guy's screw ups.
I know this is about the whole 'Roe vs. Wade' thing, but I'm not as worried about that as other people are. For some people, it's the end all be all of how they vote. Not me. And I'll tell you why: overturning Roe hurts the Republicans more than it hurts the Democrats. Consider: the Republicans need the culture wars to get their base pissed off enough to vote. Overturn Roe, it's no longer a national issue and you risk a total fracture of the Republican base (libertarian types being pro-choice.) Get abortion overturned, and it becomes a state issue. So what does that leave the Republicans with? Oh yes, rising health care costs with an increasingly old population. Advantage: Democrats.
The undeniable fact of the matter is that by sticking with Roe until they die, it gives the Republicans huge advantages with their base. They can point fingers and call the Democrats baby killers in as many ways as they can think of and certain parts of their base just swoon with joy.
A Supreme Court seat, while important, isn't always a sure thing. Conservative jurists have, so far as I've seen, a great respect for precedent, and I think they'd be reluctant to overturn something that's been considered settled law and upheld time and time again for years now. Plus, once they're on the bench, they can do whatever the hell they want. Consider David Souter for example. The Right still has nightmares about that guy. Alito could be a liberal's best friend. We just don't know, and if you don't know, I don't think it's worth completely blowing your chances in the midterms over. This would be a serious blunder for the Democrats.
But, I think it's one that they're going to make anyway. So, I give up. I hated the two party system, so now I think I guess I'm going to have to hate the one party system. There's still time though, I could end up eating my words.
I'm not betting on it though.
To check out the nexus of the gang that's pushing the filibuster, go and browse the fascinating blog: DailyKos
1. It loses the Democrats momentum. They had the initiative, and I fear they are about to completely and totally piss it away. Consider the events of the past months: Republicans caught in corruption scandals, the war still dragging on, the government's lackluster and incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina. I mean, talk about a gift from heaven. It was a gift from heaven. It was several gifts! It was practically a plate of wings and a stripper dumped right in their laps! Now, and I do mean right now is the time for the Democrats to put together a hard hitting, coherent, easy to understand program of issues for the Midterm Elections. Think up a 'Contract With America' you guys, and run with it! Keep smacking the Republicans hard on corruption, fiscal irresponsibility and the morass of other issues that they're not doing a damn thing about (like health care, for instance. And oh, could please propose some Social Security reform while you're at it?) and you might have a decent shot in the fall. Do this filibuster idiocy and it will screw you seven ways to Sunday. It will unite the Republican base like that and give them back the one thing they're lacking right now: momentum.
2. Shameless political kow-towing: I don't like it when President Bush kow-tows to the far right wing of the Republican Party by jumping on the 'intelligent design' and 'let's ban gay marriage' bandwagon. It drives me nuts. The lunatic fringes of the American political spectrum should not, in any circumstances be in a position to force their definately out of the mainstream views down anyone's throats and that goes equally for the far right as well as the far left. (This is not to say that they can't have those views, far from it. They can say whatever the hell they want as far as I'm concerned, but by forcing the hands of either party, it essentially means that the rest of us get stuck with government by fringe minority. And that's not democratic at all.)
Kennedy started this lunacy because he can. Not like the people up there are gonna toss his ass out anytime soon. Kerry jumped onboard because he discovered a shiny new toy (the blogosphere) and wants the nomination in '08, (God help us all if he gets it.) Once Kerry was on board, that meant Hilary Clinton had to support it or risk the wrath of the loony left and so on and so forth.
Let me spell this out for everyone: the far right wins more votes that the far left in this country. Period. End of discussion. It's not going to work any other way, and yelling and screaming at the rest of the country is not going to make everyone become flower-powery and Socialistic anytime soon. So stop it.
The Democrats are becoming too narrow. The Republicans, for all their many faults have a very, very big tent, and they like everyone on their side of the spectrum inside the tent pissing out and not outside the tent pissing in (to paraphrase LBJ) in other words, Conservatism is a big tent concept now. They can appeal to hard right religious types, they can appeal to small government libertarian types they can appeal to moderate blue state types. They've got wide appeal. The Democrats, by allowing the Far Left to dictate their agenda risking narrowing their appeal. They are going to need moderate and independant voters to win anything and tying themselves to the Socialist wing of their party isn't going to do a damn thing to change that.
Some caveats:
Yes, I know the Democrats are ahead in all the polls. But ask youself why: is it because the Republicans are increasingly seen as corrupt jackasses? Or is it because the Democrats are winning the battle of ideas and persuading people that their ideas are better? I think it's the former rather than the latter. There's been no big idea from the Left that's caught my imagination recently. In order to entrench a liberal majority in D.C. they've got to win the battle of ideas, not just be prepared to assume the reins of power because people get tired of the other guy's screw ups.
I know this is about the whole 'Roe vs. Wade' thing, but I'm not as worried about that as other people are. For some people, it's the end all be all of how they vote. Not me. And I'll tell you why: overturning Roe hurts the Republicans more than it hurts the Democrats. Consider: the Republicans need the culture wars to get their base pissed off enough to vote. Overturn Roe, it's no longer a national issue and you risk a total fracture of the Republican base (libertarian types being pro-choice.) Get abortion overturned, and it becomes a state issue. So what does that leave the Republicans with? Oh yes, rising health care costs with an increasingly old population. Advantage: Democrats.
The undeniable fact of the matter is that by sticking with Roe until they die, it gives the Republicans huge advantages with their base. They can point fingers and call the Democrats baby killers in as many ways as they can think of and certain parts of their base just swoon with joy.
A Supreme Court seat, while important, isn't always a sure thing. Conservative jurists have, so far as I've seen, a great respect for precedent, and I think they'd be reluctant to overturn something that's been considered settled law and upheld time and time again for years now. Plus, once they're on the bench, they can do whatever the hell they want. Consider David Souter for example. The Right still has nightmares about that guy. Alito could be a liberal's best friend. We just don't know, and if you don't know, I don't think it's worth completely blowing your chances in the midterms over. This would be a serious blunder for the Democrats.
But, I think it's one that they're going to make anyway. So, I give up. I hated the two party system, so now I think I guess I'm going to have to hate the one party system. There's still time though, I could end up eating my words.
I'm not betting on it though.
To check out the nexus of the gang that's pushing the filibuster, go and browse the fascinating blog: DailyKos
posted by Tom @ 2:56 PM
2 Comments:
At 4:19 PM,
Tahoma Activist said…
This seems like a very Vichy Democrat kind of screed. Like maybe you're just a CIA operative on political slime detail pretending to care what the left chooses to do politically to ingratiate yourselves into the sphere of the other side.
Listen, Democrats and the Democratic Party need to have ideas. Trouble is, they have them. They have lots of them. They have ideas you've never even heard of. They've got ideas on how to catch Osama bin Laden. They've got ideas for how to balance the budget. They've got ideas on how to save our retirement, and keep our streets safe from crime. They've got ideas on how to end the corruption of politics in Washington, by limiting the effects of big money donors. They've got so many ideas they don't have a basket big enough to hold them all. In the last Presidential Primary, each candidate had over thirty distinct pages on their websites for each platform issue. The fact is, Democrats have mad ideas. The only thing they lack is cohesion.
Cohesion. That subtle concept which basically differentiates the ball of yarn from the pile of yarn. The unified populace to the fractured Congress. Honest Leadership to Dissociated Madness, masquerading as Commitment to Our Common Goals.
Democrats that refuse to speak as Democrats are pulling the Democratic party into a widening whirlpool in the Center of the stage. All ideas that lean to the left are disposable, while compromise with the far right is inevitable.
Were you in the Senate, waffling on what to do here, I would tell you this:
"In such a situation, Senator, filibuster is your only choice, because it is your only chance to say to the man pushing the plan that you reject his notion that he has ultimate authority to rewrite the Constitution. You tell him that no nuclear option can dissuade you from fulfilling your ultimate Senatorial destiny. You have a job to do. You have a commitment to the people who elected you, to do the right thing this time, and every time. To resist the pull of moneyed compromise, and serve the interests of the people above all else.
That, Mr. Lieberman, is the essence of courage, being willing to pick a side and fight for them until the end. To risk death and dismemberment and loss of wealth, to achieve that most perfect of dreams: true democracy."
I hope you would do the right thing, and be a friggin Democrat. Thanks for your courage, and your resolve to serve the people well.
I hope you respond, and let me know what you think.
At 4:02 PM,
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