Halftime in the Locker Room
Sep 29th, 2006 at 10:01 am by Susie
Look, I’m furious. And ashamed, and bewildered, and just about anything else you can say about yesterday’s performance by the Democrats.
And yet.
And yet, we simply have no choice. We can indulge our anger to the point where we’re paralyzed - and boy, won’t that make Karl Rove happy! Or we can push on and fight harder.
Ours is not a generation known for patience. We do love the sprint, but we’re not so good on the long haul. Grow up, guys - reclaiming our country is a very long haul. These bastards are dismantling everything, regardless of merit. Should we let them continue? Are you okay with bad schools, poisoned food, unsafe workplaces and a stagnant wage in an economy where we’re supposed to be grateful for a job, any job? If you’re so morally opposed to torture, is your solution to sit on your hands and let it continue?
Is your need to punish the Democrats worth that? Some slippery ideals, there.
There was, believe it or not, some tiny improvement in the Democratic stance: Every single Democrat who’s running for president voted against the torture bill. There was a time not so long ago when that wouldn’t have happened - but it did. That means we’re getting through. Don’t give up now.
Boomers like shiny new toys and gadgets, and once we discovered politics, we thought it was simply a matter of mastering the operating manual before we could bend the nation to our will. Sorry to burst your bubble, but politics is and has always been an incremental game.
The other side took the debate to a new low yesterday by institutionalizing torture, but they did show themselves for the morally bankrupt utter bastards that they are. The Democrats who voted for it? Well, let’s say their souls need saving.
Let’s hate the sin and, if we can’t bring ourselves to love the sinner, at least help the sinner repent. We can fix this stuff after we win.
Glenn Greenwald has some wise words today:
… But a desire to see the Democrats take over Congress — even a strong desire for that outcome and willingness to work for it — does not have to be, and at least for me is not, driven by a belief that Washington Democrats are commendable or praiseworthy and deserve to be put into power. Instead, a Democratic victory is an instrument — an indispensable weapon — in battling the growing excesses and profound abuses and indescribably destructive behavior of the Bush administration and their increasingly authoritarian followers. A Democratic victory does not have to be seen as being anything more than that in order to realize how critically important it is.
A desire for a Democratic victory is, at least for me, about the fact that this country simply cannot endure two more years of a Bush administration which is free to operate with even fewer constraints than before, including the fact that George Bush and Dick Cheney will never face even another midterm election ever again. They will be free to run wild for the next two years with a Congress that is so submissive and blindly loyal that it is genuinely creepy to behold. A desire for a Democratic victory is also about the need to have the systematic lawbreaking and outright criminality in which Bush officials have repatedly engaged have actual consequences, something that simply will not happen if Republicans continue their stranglehold on all facets of the Government for the next two years.
If a desire to put Democrats in office doesn’t inspire you into action - and, honestly, at this point, how could it? — a desire to block Republicans from exercising more untrammeled power, and to find ways to hold them accountable, ought to do so. Disgust and even hatred are difficult emotions to avoid when reading things like this:
Republicans, especially in the House, plan to use the military commission and wiretapping legislation as a one-two punch against Democrats this fall. The legislative action prompted extraordinarily blunt language from House GOP leaders, foreshadowing a major theme for the campaign.
Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) issued a written statement on Wednesday declaring [emphasis in original]: “Democrat Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and 159 of her Democrat colleagues voted today in favor of MORE rights for terrorists.”
GOP leaders continued such attacks after the wiretapping vote. “For the second time in just two days, House Democrats have voted to protect the rights of terrorists,” Hastert said last night, while Boehner lashed out at what he called “the Democrats’ irrational opposition to strong national security policies.”
We can’t give up. If ever there was a textbook case of allowing the perfect to become the enemy of the good, this is it. People disappoint us all the time, and we recover. People do heinous things, and we forgive them. Anger is understandable. It’s healthy. But let’s get one thing straight: The Democratic party is not morally equivalent to the Republicans. They are not trying to enshrine a state religion, they’re not ignoring the poor, they’re not trying to start wars so they can give fat contracts to their donors.
If you can’t see the difference, your demand for perfection is blinding you. You need to get past that, and push even harder.
Our children are counting on us.
The problem is that the Democrats in the Senate didn’t even try. Saying, in advance, “we’re not going to filibuster!”, is just rolling over and playing dead. And it didn’t win them anything, again. The Democrats didn’t filibuster the bagman, the SECOND bagman, and the new Imperial Torture act, and I’m to sit around and hope that if they get a majority it will magically be all better?
If the Democrats in the Senate had managed to get a filibuster started, the B*sh junta would have pulled the nuclear option, which would have left the Senate in a position where a formerly vetoable majority could simply roll over the Evil Party. But, no, better just give up _and announce it to the press_ so 4 amendments can be introduced and defeated on party-line votes?
That doesn’t give me any faith in a Democratic majority. The Democrats can, of course, prove me wrong by getting their majorities and then going on a bill-passing frenzy to reverse _everything_ the B*sh junta has done in the past 5+ years, but if they can’t even hold their caucus together _now_, I’m not expecting that I’ll have to eat my words.
No, I’m afraid the Democratic Party is going to have to do it without my assistance. I don’t trust the party to do the right thing, no matter how many individual senators might stand up and give impressively doomed speeches while their caucus disintegrates around them.
So what are you saying - that you won’t vote for them, or you’ll vote for the Republicans instead? Look, there are no good MORAL options here. Your inaction (or vote thrown away on a third party) will effectively put the seal of approval on torture, because that’s exactly how the Republicans will spin it. “Look at all the people who voted for our policies!”
The Democrats are the only alternative right now. But even as we support them against the Republicans, we need to build a new party, a liberal party, that is not run by triangulators and timid political hacks.
I agree with glenn and susie.
I am holding my nose and voting for casey this year so i can send rick Santorum back home.
It will suck to vote for pro-life, pro-Iraq war casey, but unlike NJ residents, at least I don’t have to suck up the shame of voting for a torture democrat like Menendez, lautenberg, or Rob Andrews.
The democrats need to take congress.
Once they do, we can begin fielding primaries against the Eleven Torturers.
And Mary Landrieu is target 1
Given Pelosi’s holy-roller bloviatings this morning and given that the boomers have sold the country to the republicans, it looks like we have the government we deserve. This situation is a function of our culture. What is certain is that the republicans need to be stopped dead or more of us could end up dead. DScrew third parties. Is Ralph Nader dead yet?
Vote for whomever you wish. It no longer matters. The day Bush signs that torture bill, this democracy is officialy dead.
We’ve become a nation of cowards.
We’ve given away everything for the illusion of safety. Democrats won’t change that. They proved it yesterday.
«So what are you saying - that you won’t vote for them, or you’ll vote for the Republicans instead? Look, there are no good MORAL options here. Your inaction (or vote thrown away on a third party) will effectively put the seal of approval on torture, because that’s exactly how the Republicans will spin it. “Look at all the people who voted for our policies!※
I’m not going to vote for them. The Democratic caucus is not cohesive and not only did not try to filibuster this bill, but had 27% of the caucus defect to the Evil Party side. If the Democratic Party has to get 69 seats before they can even be assured of a simple majority (and 83(!) before they can be assured of a veto-proof majority), it’s really a lost cause.
But even if it wasn’t, it’s the principle of the thing. S. 3930 is _evil_ and should have been fought. The fact that the Evil Party was willing to trade (doomed) amendments for a promise to not filibuster meant that _a filibuster was possible_, but the Democratic caucus _unanimously_ voted to accept the trade. Cosmetic “no” votes are meaningless. When the caucus voted to accept the EP’s offer, they voted to pass that bill.
I won’t vote for them, because I no longer believe that they have the courage to vote differently. Now they have to prove their worth before I will assist them.
Jebus, Susie! Wonderul post. You hit on every one of the reasons that, while we may be apalled at what has happened, we can not just withdraw. I sympathize with David’s anguish but it is just wrong-headed to cede the field to the repugs. Not only is it wrongheaded it’s dangerous and frankly cowardly. Ideological purity in the face of disaster is no more acceptable on the left than it is on the right. I thought we were better than that.
Why keep this up? Because, FSM damn it, it’s all we f’ing have. Raise your face to the sky and scream curses to the cold, dead stars. Drop to your knees and beat the unyielding, uncaring earth as long as you like. Then get up and do all you can to vote the evil fuckers that actually came up with this monstrosity out of power. It may be that all we have to replace them are craven cowards, but that’ll have to do for now.
I voiced this in the comments of your post on the vote yesterday and I think it bears repeating (as it is one, small point that I think I’ve only seen Digby make).It boils down to this, liberals giving up is one of the reasons this whole thing was done right before the election. God, it’s a beautiful piece of evil.
It is important to remember the whole show (and it was a show) was if not stage managed then guided by Rove (et al).
This whole deal is a potential win-win-win for BushCo. (Another trifecta).
One - they get to use a no vote in ads and attack Dems as being weak on terrah.
Two - Dubyer gets have him his torture and secret detentions. And probably dress up in some second hand stuff Poppy Bush picked up from Pinochet.
Three - The motivated, passionate liberals who might actually get out and fight these bastards at the ballot box will be so disheartened that they’ll all stay at home.
We can’t do anything about the first two, but we have control over the third. Don’t do anything to make the Repug’s path to Nov 7 easier. Don’t give them a god damn inch!
Some smart, passionate and quick on the feet leadership from the Dems could have diffused this but that’s not what we have. Obviously.
Take the long view. Write down the names … and when the next primary comes around remember! And act accordingly.
I have two daughters and am partial responsible for three other children. These idiots want a nuclear showdown with Iran, fer chrissake. I don’t have time to wallow in ideological self-pity.
I like [http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2006/09/led-by-cowards.html Gilliard's] take, slightly snipped:
The torture bill is a cruel joke, so riddle with flaws, so uncostitutional, it won’t survive the District Court. Which is the calculation Dems in tight races made.
They once read people the first Amendment and most of them thought it should be outlawed. Given a choice between politics and right, politicians choose politics. So they duck their heads and pray. Don’t be shocked. We elect politicians to do our bidding and can be fired. And some will certainly be.
Debating torture is pointless. Because Bush cares ohnly about power, not the law. so if he has to strap the electrodes to gonads in Poland or Uzbekistan, well, that’s that. You cannot debate torture with Bush. You can only expose it and shame him. Because as bad as this is, and it’s akin to the Japanese internment or the forced removal of the Indians by Andrew Jackson, it is nothing compared to what is happening in Iraq.
But I save my true ire, not for the Dems, backed into the nastiest of corners, but who don’t have the power to stop such madeness, will is another topic for another day.
Congress is supposed to check the President, not ride his coattails. I’m going to read a lot of angry posts about how the Dems didn’t do this or that. What about the GOP? Defense of the constitution doesn’t just belong to select individuals. It is Congress’s job to protect the Consitution, not just run for office.
We cannot give them a pass. We cannot just say that’s the GOP. Because if some Democrats played politics, it is the Republicans who betrayed the constitution. It is far too easy to write off their duty to the nation based on politics. Oh, well, they’re wingnuts. No, they are elected to defend the constitution, not the Republican party. And in that, they have betrayed this country and it’s ideals,
We have a bunch of small business radical conservatives, people who worry more about taxes than the consequences of their actions for oh, American soldiers overseas. The Congress only cares about their narrow issues, and not the good of the county. And that should enrage all of us.
We have the worst Congress possible. One beholden to the White House and refusing to do their job for the sake of party loyalty. They don’t believe in America, they believe in the GOP. They are cowards of the worst sort, the kind that knows the consquences of failure and still refuse to act.
«I sympathize with David’s anguish but it is just wrong-headed to cede the field to the repugs. Not only is it wrongheaded it’s dangerous and frankly cowardly.»
If I’m not mistaken, (at least?) six of the 12 democratic senators who voted for the torture bill are _not_ up for re-election this year. They have already ceded the field to the republicans, and I should just grin and keep rewarding that behavior on the hopes that my representative won’t be the one who wakes up in the morning deciding to vote for some horrible law because, um, otherwise they won’t be invited to the good parties?
Uh, no. The Democrats need to prove that they can govern instead of the sort of random twitching you get when you poke froglegs with a power lead.
Instead of governing, we get speeches, and when something important comes down the pike (activist Supreme Court justices, S. 3930 (you need 40 votes
to filibuster. 32 + 6(see above) + Jeffords gets you to within 1 of a filibuster, and then all you have to do is lean hard on Nelson (D-Fl), who is being “challenged” by Katherine Harris and bob’s your uncle. And you’ve got five votes to spare. And if the Evil Party kills filibuster, they’ve just handed you a large spiked club that you can use as soon as you get control of the Senate), or voting to allow the emperor to preemptively invade random countries) the caucus sits there blinking, then either folds or has mass defections to the Evil Party.
What’s dangerous is putting up with that kind of behavior by the party I expect to be fighting a strong defensive battle. I pay for results. I vote for results. I am not getting results from the Democratic Party, so what’s in it for me?
Look, I don’t know if you’ve ever been poor - but I have. And being poor is all about accepting the infuriating discrepancies between the life you have, and the life you WANT to have. Clearly, we have some cowardly Democrats. How many can we afford to spare RIGHT NOW? None. Not one.
We can’t afford to purge the DINOs until we’re in power. Period.
Is it possible that the Washington Dems are trapped in the DC beltway and can’t see the GOP shenanigins the way those outside the beltway can? They should each have a staffer who’s sole job is to read blogs, all day, and report the findings to the congressman.
Prickle and Boom
You may be familiar with the standard system of the ancient division of elements as used by Hermetic magicians and neopagans, which by and large uses earth, water, fire, air and spirit. We Discordians, contrary buggers that we are, have…
“I am not getting results from the Democratic Party, so what’s in it for me?” Unfortunately, in all likelyhood damn little.
At this point the only thing I can offer is the “Law of Holes” which states: When you’re stuck in a hole, the first thing you need to do to get out is stop digging.
I do not argue the point that the current crop of Dems is for the most part a group of bleating sheeple right off the Island of Dr Moreau. What I am arguing, and I think others as well, is that the country is in a deep, deep hole and the only way to stop digging is to change the balance of power in DC. Once we’ve got the excavation stopped, then we can figure out how to climb out … but for the love of god! if the Repubs stay in power we’ll only go deeper and deeper.
As I see it there are only a few options:
Stop participating. Drop out. To hell with all of them. Cede the field to the GOP this November and allow them to continue on the path we’re on.
AS I said, I have kids … I’m TERRIFIED of the direction the repugs driving country in. My only action for this option is immigrate (I have the Canadian Immigration Service web-site book marked).
Fight at the ballot. Give the repugs not one damn inch! Put a less harmful group back in a postion to apply the brakes to some of this. Follow up at primaries down the road. (It can be done - ref. CT and Lamont)
Me - I’m going to fight, as I can. Yes, they are all bastards. But some bastards are worse than others.
AS a post script, I may have the opposite of your complaint with my local Dems. I am in Barbara Lee’s district. My particular vote really has no impact on the blance of power, and my views are being well represented. If I were to move just 25 miles or so I’d be in Richard Pombo’s distrct. About the only reason I’d move is so I could vote against that guy.
«Look, I don’t know if you’ve ever been poor - but I have. And being poor is all about accepting the infuriating discrepancies between the life you have, and the life you WANT to have. Clearly, we have some cowardly Democrats. How many can we afford to spare RIGHT NOW? None. Not one.»
Right now? 44 of ‘em. They won’t filibuster unless it’s really really important (dropping habeas corpus and legalizing torture is, apparently, not important enough), so the Evil Party can do whatever it wants no matter how many brave speeches individual Democrats give.
From where I stand, the push towards the Democrats looks like it’s being driven by a loathing for the reality the Evil Party is foisting upon us. If the Democrats have forgotten how to govern, this groundswell will be an ephemeral one and any good that can be done will be quickly erased. What I _want_ is a socialist government. What I’m willing to settle for is a liberal government. What I won’t settle for is the pack of frightened bunnies that the Democratic leadership has become.
I’ll shut up after this, but one other thing I thought of: I started hearing _we must support the Democrats to keep the Republicans out_ even before Nader came along. In that time, we’ve gone from D-president, D-Senate, R-House to R-president, D-Senate, R-House to the current R-President, R-Senate, R-House. There are obviously some people out there who aren’t learning, and the political contributions I used to make pay their salaries.
I disapprove of this.
[...] Fightin’ words from Susie: Look, I’m furious. And ashamed, and bewildered, and just about anything else you can say about yesterday’s performance by the Democrats. [...]