“It’s shameful either way, Sol.”
“It’s life either way, Seth.”
— Deadwood
So the three posts directly below, ie Holden’s poll/speaks posts and Scout’s video clips, illustrate pretty nicely what the Democrats gave in to this week. (Not all of them, and John Kerry, you’re back on the boyfriend list, and Russ, you never left it, but most of them.) It can’t be said often enough now: Democrats caved to a president the American people despise, in order to continue a war the American people want ended.
And it’s things like this are what make me want to tear my hair out. Because you’re going to get fucked with it anyway, guys. You’re going to get called pussies and worse. You’re going to go home to a Memorial Day weekend and be criticized for trying to stop the war. You were gonna get slammed with it anyway from the moment you were elected. So long as somebody, somewhere, sometime, might have maybe smoked pot and listened to Neil Young you’re gonna get nailed for being a military-hating hippie. I thought you’d all gotten over it, guys. I thought November might have been the national therapy session you fuckers seem to need, in order to feel confident in the size of your governmental cocks again. I guess you need more than that.
Maybe you need the White House, too. And a veto-proof majority. Oh, but then, there might be someone on talk radio or GOD FORBID Fox News who’d call you a chump, so you still would have to compromise yourselves in order to “get something done” and “restore civility” and a whole bunch of other shit that nobody really cares about as long as you’re making their lives better. News flash to the known universe. The Bush administration didn’t lose its shine because it was rapacious and merciless and nasty and mean and people were oh so tired of that. It lost its shine because people’s lives started sucking and they connected that to their crappy leadership.
Nobody cares what they call you so long as you’re improving their lot in life. Nobody cares what they call you so long as they can feel good about being represented by you. You do stuff like this, and it doesn’t matter what Republicans say, because even if they were civil and fair (and they won’t be), you’re still the guy who got taken by a dude who says things like, “They need to be eating US beef. It’s good for ’em. They’ll like it.” You just got hosed by THAT GUY. You are now the equivalent of Goliath, only instead of being slain by David, you just got slain by Flounder from Animal House. Nobody, and I mean nobody, feels good about being represented by that guy.
What keeps killing me is that the way around this is so EASY. Just be the people we elected you to be. Be obstinate. Be unreasonable. Be good goddamn right for once in your miserable lives because this is a time when you’re either right or you lose your fucking soul. Be steadfast. Be the people we elected you to be. Good God, it can’t be that hard. I can think of a thousand jobs in the world that are harder than following your conscience and the dictates of your office, and most of them involve walking point in various hellholes in and around Iraq, and if those people can get up every day and do their jobs where they are, there’s no reason you can’t do your jobs and bring them home.
Schmucks.
A.
Outstanding A.!!!
How can that many democrats be so dumb? And spineless.
This is crazy-making shit. I have officially gone over the edge to cynical at this point. I read I don’t know how many polls yesterday and the thing that stood out was that independents agreed with us in huge numbers and why the Democrats cannot read polls is beyond me.
They have the fucking support of the country to get this done and I’m just completely staggered by this whole thing.
Excellent, A.
.
“I can think of a thousand jobs in the world that are harder than following your conscience and the dictates of your office…”
Are you sure they didn’t?
c_h, if you look at the TPM piece I linked, it said that despite their conviction that the war was wrong and needed to be stopped, they caved out of fear of criticism.
A.
It’s like the Dems are thinking, “Hmmm, 28 percent agree with Bush, what if my vote is perceived as anti-troops–it could cost me 23 percent more of the electorate, and I’ll lose in the next election!” Why can’t they just put the bulls-eye on the preznit and make him continue vetoing funding for the troops?
We castigate the Pukes for putting politics over the nation’s welfare, now the Dems deserve rebuke, as well.
I think we need a new song:
“Where have all the balls gone?
Long time passing…
Where have all the balls gone?
Long time ago…
Where have all the balls gone?
They’ve been neutered, every one…
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn…”
Sing it with me, everybody!
In the past, I have put my heart and my money into supporting Democrats, only to have my heart broken time after time and my money flushed down the toilet. This year, I’m being a lot more careful. What are they afraid of? Tell me, someone, please tell me.
Grandmere Mimi, they are afraid that the Republicans will campaign against them. Maybe, they think, if they just roll over with their paws up and their tails likewise, and they pant hard enough, the Republicans will forget that they are in existence. Do you all realize that if Gore enters the Presidential race, all he has to do to win the whole thing is speak out against this miserable occupation of Iraq, plus promise, with his hand on a Bible, that his first act as President will be to order the withdrawal of our soldiers. The other candidates will just fade away and vanish.
It should be obvious by now that Congress, no matter who is there, will not be the agency for bringing the troops home. That job requires someone with balls, as BuggyQ implied.
For starters, the Democrats HAVE to stop playing a card game set up by the neocon Republicans. If the deck is stacked against you in the first place, you will never win.
If only they would stick to their guns and portray the last six years as a great national distraction and promise to get the nation back on track.
Russ Feingold is my boyfriend forever and EVER. On Wisconsin!
Also, as pertains to Athenae’s “Americans are certain” post:
Study: 38 Percent Of People Not Actually Entitled To Their Opinion
Many Democrats in Congress proved today they stand for nothing other than getting reelected.
A very small percentage of Bush’s base still supports him but he doesn’t abandon them.
A large percentage of the Democratic base was abandoned by their members of Congress.
I wish the media would cover the amount of military industrial dollars that flowed into campaign coffers today and the role of lobbyist in the vote.