The following quote probably better explains the machinations of the Bush administration and current circumstances better than anything else that's been said, so although it's not recent, I return to it:
''in what we call the reality-based community people believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality That's not the way the world really works anymore, We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'' - Summer 2002, senior adviser to Bush as recounted by RON SUSKIND of the New York Times, October 17, 2004
The Democrats are in trouble. Oh I know what the polls say, and I've heard all the speculation that they're going to take back Congress. Maybe they will. But they're in deep, deep trouble never the less and so are the rest of us; the "reality" they occupy is not their own and they do not control it. Wes Clark recently said the Neo-cons were finished as a movement. He could not have been more wrong.
I'm not alleging that there are not small groups or individuals who mean the United States harm. But until the attacks of 9-11 are exposed as the US facilitated attacks a veritable mountain of evidence shows they were, the entire "war on terror" is not only false, but each step further into it has created the reality exactly as the senior White House aid explained it would to Ron Suskind. In attempting to regain power by "out-hawking" Bush on national security, the democrats are building and maintaining that which traps them, and will continue to trap them.
Likewise, with his overt lies which lead us into Iraq, the aforementioned claim on behalf of "history's actors", has been given life; Although there was never any connection between Iraq, and terrorism against the United States or Al Qeada, because of the occupation, Iraq has become what they claimed it was. Democrats flounder about claiming they can address a situation with no solution more effectively and not surprisingly, they offer no solution that doesn't involve leaving. And of course getting out is the only choice we have left, but everyone knows it means advocating a defeat.
The Democrats are not going to get out of the trap they are in unless they cease fighting their battles within the paradigm, and begin fighting the paradigm itself. As it stands, they have languished roughly 3 years behind their own constituents, a sizable minority of which have woken-up and smelled the coffee. But they have failed miserably to lead, and the rest of those constituents are neither motivated enough to educate themselves, nor willing to embrace so-called "conspiracy theories" set forth by other citizens, even if they're correct.
To escape the trap, the Democrats need to do two things:
They need to openly and boldly accuse this government of complicity in 9-11 to affect the war on terror, and they need to declare the war in Iraq a defeat and un-winnable.
The difficulty in selling both of these truths shows the strength of the trap they've fallen into, and each day that goes by with them claiming to be "more effective" at winning the war on terror" further strengthens the trap; like Bush, they are in a hole and they continue to dig.
Ned Lamont, God bless him, has begun his candidacy with an embrace of the war. No, not Iraq, but the bigger picture of the so-called "war on terror". The people of Connecticut know something's very wrong with the current picture and they want change. But a majority of them are still living in the reality manufactured by Bush, and Mr. Lamont has done little to alter that reality; it is as though a candidate arose in WWII Germany in opposition to Hitler, claiming we need to get out of Poland and secure Russia, while never questioning the claim that the Jews burned the Reichstag. As it stands today, most of the Democrats could be lead by the nose to confront Iran, and in fact they are. The threat presented by Iran's entirely lawful pursuit of nuclear power for peaceful purposes simply doesn't exist. No more than Saddam's "Mushroom cloud over an American city".
There have been glimmerings of hope regarding the exposure of the supreme crime of September 11th; a healthy sub-culture of dialogue has developed through symposiums, University research, and the blogosphere. A very sizable percentage of the American people now believe that the Bush administration had a hand in the attacks, either by complicity, or actual involvement. It's probably far ahead of the doubts about the Kennedy assassination 5 years on. But other major elements of the opposition have allowed themselves to be silenced by gate-keepers such as Daily Kos, who actually forbid discussions regarding government complicity in 9-11. Most of their membership actually believes the government was complicit, but the leadership of Kos is so fearful of confronting it and being labeled "Tin foil hats", they act to maintain the Bush imposed reality. It must end.
Ned Lamont and other Democrats intent on stopping this madness, must embrace the 9-11 research to educate themselves. They must then have the courage to tell the truths which are sure to create a fire storm in the media; "Bush was complicit in 9-11". They must accuse aggressively and without relent and teach their constituents what the real object of their fear should be; Bush. If the current manufactured "reality" is not shattered soon, it will be too late; they will simply "act" again.