Article: Progessives Need to Flex Their Muscles

Right now I have what we called in the Army “a case of the ass”. In fact I walked into the living room to get something and my wife asked me why I had this look on my face and I told her “My dander is up”. I felt foolish saying that, so I thought back on how I used to describe this feeling and there it was “A case of the ass”. I had just read Joshua Frank’s article “Democrats for War” and while I read it, I agreed with every word he wrote. I agree with it and I understand that we are totally irrelevant to the Democrats.

It’s like this; the Democrats have enough disaffected Republicans to offset our influence on their party. I use the word “their” party because anyone with half a brain can figure out that they really don’t represent the Liberal Progressive part of this nation’s population. The sad, truly sad part of this is if it hadn’t been for us Liberal Progressives, we would still have a Republican Congress. While the rest of the nation was being force-fed kool-aid, the government would still be claiming victory in Iraq.

The part that really burns me up, is that we don’t realize how much power we have. We are a force to be reckoned with, but always end up as the “poor cousins” at the Democratic Party table. The one thing that I want to impress upon my Liberal Progressive friends is that when you are the one bringing the roast to the table, why sit there and act like you are amazed that they had a place setting for you in the first place? The truth is that the Democrats regained control of Congress through issues that we brought up and followed through with. They won because Liberal Progressives joined the campaigns and carried the banners and woke-up our neighbors to the cold hard realities of Republican rule. Prior to our barnstorming, the Democrats were playing second fiddle to the Republican’s and trying hard to show their conservatism.

Understanding this, understanding that we were the impetus of the victory we saw last November, it’s a pretty hard pill to swallow to see the Democrats pandering to the recently converted Republicans that have defected from their party at the expense of the Liberal/Progressives that led them to victory in the first place. The desire of the Democrats to not be seen as unpatriotic by refusing to take a hard line on cutting funding for this President’s war, shows exactly why the Democrats have failed to show any leadership since 1994. It seems as if the only way that they know how to confront the Republicans is to take a stand on the proposals they make. Forget about coming up with their own proposals, just react to Republican proposals, it’s safer that way.

The Democrats have finally decided to bring a proposal of their own and as soon as Bush mentions the word veto, they let him know that after the veto, they will give him exactly what he wants. They still don’t want to be seen as not supporting the troops when even the troops themselves want out of this bloody irresponsible mess that Bush has gotten us into. It’s not only the war in Iraq. It’s the continuing campaign by Bush and his henchmen to take away American’s civil rights with things like the Military Commissions Act of 2006. What kind of opposition party lets the Republicans get away with destroying Habeas Corpus and allows the torture of enemy combatants and “suspected” enemy combatants? When are they going to do something towards restoring the rights that Bush has revoked from American citizens? When the NSA was found guilty of overstepping it’s authority in the wiretapping case, where was the follow-up? Why wasn’t anyone indicted? Why hasn’t an investigation on who ordered those wiretaps been held? Who’s asleep at the wheel? Apparently the American public wanted to follow-through on that, but the Democrats chose not to.

The American public wants us out of Iraq. How many polls do we need to get that fact through to our leaders? The Democrats were elected on the premise that if they could control Congress, than that’s what they would do. Hey, I live in South Carolina, one of the reddest, bible-thumping places on Earth, and the majority of people here want us out of Iraq. Then why are the Democrats loath to make a true stand? Are they going to sacrifice more American lives so that they can portray the Republicans in a bad light in 2008? Why haven’t they heeded the call of the American public and impeached this poor excuse of a President? They certainly have enough ammunition. Is it because with Bush and Cheney gone Pelosi would be President and that’s not what the party leaders want? When are they going to stop playing politics with human lives? Every life lost in Iraq is sadly, a wasted life. No good will come of more death.

The “state of the union” is dangerously close to being moronic. The news is not news by any stretch of the imagination. The media is doing it’s best to stay out of any controversy. There is hardly a network journalist that welcomes a breaking story anymore as they would rather report on the DNA of Larry Birkhart then 10,000 Iraqi’s demonstrating for America to leave Iraq and never come back. This world is being turned into a farce by the major networks and the government.

It’s past time when we should have been holding the Democrat’s feet to the fire. They need to understand that the Republicans that have defected are not enamored of them and their policies, they need to know that it’s because these Republican refugees hate Bush. When they get a decent Republican to hold the party’s standard, they will be right back with the GOP. Meanwhile, we’re not going anywhere. It’s only common sense to work with us. We will not be running back to the GOP, we will still be voting Democrat. Still, that is not guaranteed either, if the Democrats can’t respect the Liberal Progressive wing of their party, then maybe we should be looking for another home.