In 2002, the base of the Democratic party tried to make it clear to the party leadership that the Bush administration’s case for war wasn’t just faulty, but that it would inhibit our ability to fight the global war on terrorism. Then we watched in dismay as Democrats didn’t just vote in favor of action… but engaged in a Rose Garden grip and grin with the president who proceeded to wage a congressional campaign that labeled Democrats as traitors. The Democratic rush to embrace the Bush rhetorical nonsense on Iraq was not only stupid, but it was politicaly dumb.
We are now 2,131 deaths into the war the Democrats in Washington conceded to the President, along with an Al Qaeda that has been able to realign itself and grow – ready to hit us with an attack that makes 9/11 look like childs play. There are some Democrats who are realizing that this war is not only Bush’s folly, but their own, and are proposing alternative strategies to end the insanity in Iraq and rededicate ourselves to fighting the long hard war against terrorists who want to kill all of us and our allies.
We have a moment now to turn back the tide of stupidity that has infected Washington for over five years. It is clear that the Republicans, left to their own devices, have not learned a damned thing from their mistakes. The same band of jackals who thought Iraq would be a quick and easy weekend jaunt are the same morons who let New Orleans drown while crowing about the “heck of a job” the emergency response apparatus was doing. These are the same mentally deficient gang of knuckle draggers who went wild with Microsoft Word and wrote a “Victory Strategy” that shares it’s lunatic optimism with a Strawberry Shortcake cartoon.
But if there’s one group of people who make the job of the modern conservative movement easy as pie, it’s the Democratic party. There are some people in the Democratic party – Senator Clinton and Senator Biden, for instance – who have this misguided notion that it’s still 1996 and we exist in an environment that simply being less evil than the Republican party is the cure for what ails us. I seriously wonder if these folks and the people who work for them were even awake for the last four years. There is no middle ground with the right. They do not care what Democrats think about anything — not just in the people in Washington, but in the entire country. George Bush considers himself not the President of America, but the President of Red America.
There are two responses to a President like this. One is to be Joe Leiberman, to become just another appendage of the right, sitting stupidly on Dick Cheney’s lap as he operates your mouth with his bloody hands. Or for once you can stop buying into the conservative propaganda that blankets the mainstream press and stand up for what is right.
For the love of God, the Republican party is filled with children. Children who believe in fairy tales about magical democracy flowing across the middle east – and if 2,000+ Americans have to die for it, so be it. While they indulge in their fairy tale version of a world that doesn’t exist, people are dying. Like children, they opposed the creation of the 9/11 commission because they didn’t want their homework to be checked. Thankfully they were rebuffed — and grown up Republicans (few and far between) like Thomas Kean showed why they were so afraid — the children are failing. But the result of this is worse than being held back in class, people will die.
Look, the Democratic party needs to pull its collective head out of its collective ass. Waging war in Iraq was a mistake, and while there is no way to bring back the lives lost, there is still ample time to end our mistakes there. I wish nothing but success for the people of Iraq, but to be blunt I care more about New York, Washington, Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago than I do about Baghdad. And I think the Democratic party needs to realize that their jobs, the reason they are in D.C., is to stand up for America and to do what’s right. There is no moral victory or political gold to be found in simply being just a little less evil than the right – it’s a loser on all fronts. The Democrats have made themselves into losers for years now, offering milquetoast responses to Republican nonsense.
It’s way past time to end it.
Democrats cannot win on the war alone. The war is a fluid situation that can change for the better or worse at any time. The war is not the same issue locally that it is nationally and cannot be used effectively to overcome the GOP in the House or Senate.
The only real issues are these: integrity…the administration lied about everything not just the war, Oliver. Transparency….our government cannot be a democracy if everything is done in secret like deals with the energy companies, war contractors, etc…and Corruption…there is so much sleaze going on among the new GOP that it must be made an issue.
People who are against the war still may have children overseas and attacks against W can be turned into attacks against the troops…it is very easy considering the short attention span of the public. BUt the corruption of this GOP is evident and must be made the issue because it is the
corruption of the lobbyists and politicians that has gotten us into this mess.
It is not the war, Oliver, it is how we got there ….obsfucation, lying, corruption…those are the issues that will resonate.
A one issue party is like a football team that has only one play. Eventually the opposition will get around to defending it.
Most everyone, Democrats included, supported the war in Afghanistan. That made more sense if we were to go to war against terrorism. That was where Bin Laden was. So far we have failed miserably in tracking him down and if we ever do catch him I hope we don’t treat him like we have Saddam. We should hang him in a very public area for the whole world to see. Then we should tell the rest of the world leaders who are supporting terrorists that they had better clean up their own terrorist camps or they will be next. We need to make the rest of the world be so afraid of us instead of trying to win their friendship. No rules in the war on terrorism.
Oh, people who go for the Greens are just as clueless as spineless Dems.
Congratulations Oliver – first post of yours where it seems that you actually understand that our problem is not the Republicans, it is the spinelessness of Democrats.
Keep it up and maybe we won’t be forced to vote Green again.
Right on, Oliver. Righteous rant, and spot on, on all accounts. One of the things I do when I have the time is mass e-mail all the Dem Senators about exactly this sort of behavior, not that it makes a dent, but you never know. You have identified and codified the A-number one problem with politics in our country. Shout it from the rooftops, brother.