The Democrats are Scared- A Letter to the DNC
by Becky Burgwin
(How the behavior of the Democratic party
could prevent Howard Dean from winning the general election, thus
reinstating a regime that should make us all afraid"very afraid.)
"The Democrats are scared." So says a political analyst on
George Stephanopolis' Sunday morning show after heralding Howard Dean's
accomplishments of the past week. Well, you know what, you should be
scared. It's going to be extremely difficult for you to win this election
since no one, with the exception of Dr. Dean himself, seems to have a
backbone.
What's really scary and irresponsible is that you're accusing him of political views that aren't even accurate"that could seriously harm Dean's chances of getting elected. In my opinion, if you're going to go after a candidate, you should at least do your homework.
Yes, Karl Rove is scary. He's famous for
dirty, no, disgusting political tricks, which have done great damage to
the American electoral process. Everybody knows this. But instead of going
after Herr Rove for his highly unethical and probably illegal election
high jinks, you're tearing down your own candidate.
Here's something you seem to be forgetting. WE WON THE 2000 ELECTION"in
spite of Karl Rove and the wicked witch of the south"with a candidate
that was about as exciting as dental floss. I like Al Gore. He's a
brilliant man. I voted for him, as did the majority of the country. But no
one even bothered to back him up when he was accused of things that were
way out of line. Not one single Democrat stood up and said, "These
allegations are simply not true." Not until it was too late.
But this is how you've behaved for the last 3 years. You whine but you
don't do anything. The Bush boys steal the election in 2000, almost
without a fight. John Ashcroft, a man who lost an election in his home
state to a DEAD MAN, and was appointed, not elected, uses the despicable
"Patriot Act" to trample our inalienable rights "not a peep.
You allow this administration to lie to the American people, insult all of
our allies, invade Iraq and kill thousands of innocent people almost
unopposed.
Even Bush, Sr. thought sending troops into Baghdad was a very unwise move. In A World Transformed; The Memoirs of George Herbert Walker Bush, Bush Sr. said, "Trying to eliminate Saddam...would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible? We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. There was no viable 'exit strategy' we could see"Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."
Junior
never listens.
But now that we have an exciting candidate"a candidate who has shattered
Democratic fund-raising records"who draws thousands of ardent supporters
to his public appearances"whose grass roots contingency voted almost
unanimously to forego outdated campaign finance rules and managed to give
him another 5.3 million dollars in the process"and what do you say?
Waaah, what if we don't win? Waaah, what if Rove is mean to our candidate?
Waaah, what about George McGovern and Michael Dukakis? Waaah, how can we
discredit Howard Dean before he wins the nomination?
My God! This election is against the most
incompetent, dishonest, greedy bunch of crooks ever to cross the threshold
of the White House. Even John Dean from Watergate fame basically said that
these guys make Nixon look like Little Bo Peep. Dean in Salon.com,
Oct. 2003. "I thought I had seen political dirty tricks as foul as
they could get, but I was wrong"Bush's people have out-Nixoned Nixon's
people. And my former colleagues were not amateurs by any means."
So, what do I expect my party to do? Well, I
expect you to be my voice. I expect you to yell loud and clear, "The
Emperor has no clothes." I expect you to make sure the world knows
that the people of this nation are against this war. I expect you to use
our money to expose Rove's antics in the last election. And I expect you
to notice when we have a highly capable, wildly popular candidate and
throw all your support behind him.
Here's a chilling quote from investigative
journalist Wayne Madsen in an article written for CounterPunch Magazine,
in Nov. 2002. "German opposition figures in the mid-1930s often
lamented the fact that they could have stopped the rise of the Nazis if
only they had been more united in a common front when they had a chance.
However, they fell prey to the media manipulation of Goebbels and fought
among themselves more than they did against the menace from the far
right." Sound familiar?
The reason Madsen was saying this was to motivate Democrats to pull out
all the stops in the 2002 elections. As we all know, we didn't. We dropped
the ball big-time and Madsen's fears and all of our worst nightmares came
true. We now have a Republican president, a GOP controlled congress and,
as Madsen warned, "an out-of-control and anti-constitutional regime with
the Rasputin-like Rove at the"helm."
Scary? Yes, it's scary as hell, but like
children we want our parents to act as though they're not afraid so that
we won't be. But instead we are faced with a party who is frozen with fear
and negating the work of those who are trying and succeeding in giving our
besieged nation and its grief stricken citizens hope. Come on team. We can
do this. We must do this. So many of us are deeply convinced that we are
at a crossroads in our country's history no less important than the
American Revolution and people like Howard Dean are writing pamphlets
called "Common Sense" and quoting men like Thomas Jefferson, Ben
Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, FDR and JFK.
If anything good has come out of this dark, dark period in our country's history, it's that we are united. We are united in a common purpose and that purpose is to rid our beautiful country of men who would pillage it for personal gain; decimate our land and our exquisite waterways; trample on the sacred rights our founders fought and died for; all the while claiming to have been chosen to God's will as they blithely murder thousands of innocent people. These men must be defeated and Howard Dean is the man for the job. Now let's get to work.
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Ms. Becky Burgwin Pittsburgh, PA, rburgwin@aol.com has been writing letters for over 10 years. Her letters have appeared in Newsweek, Time, New York Magazine, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Tribune Review as well as several online Op Ed sites. She has had the pleasure of meeting and working with Howard Dean while also being involved in gay rights, women's issues and the environment. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family. This article is copyright by Teresa Simon-Noble, originally published by opednews.com Permission is granted to forward this or to place it on a website as long as the article is included intact, including this statement.
