radical rants shouted from Liberal Street Fighter
I learned from a blogger I have come to respect that I’ve been radicalized.
This observation came after I made several statements, statements that seemed obvious to me, starting with:
I have a problem with an opposition party that won’t oppose.
I have a problem w/ a class of corporate mercenary lawyers running everything for both parties and on k-street while our entire social infrastructure rots away.
I have a problem w/ everyone saying that since it can’t be won, it’s better not to fight.
In the long run, Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse didn’t stop the westward march, but they at least went down fighting.
In the long run, the Light Brigade rode into the guns, but their example inspired those who came after.
In the long run, the defenders in the Alamo fell under Santa Ana’s assault, but fueled a revolution.
In the long run … sometimes you have to fight and lose in order to inspire those who come after to fight the next battle. All morning long, one voice after another … “the Dems have nothing to say against him …”
My only question is how long it will take them to fold, how long until the shut up and allow a voice vote so his confirmation looks unopposed on the record.
I’m expecting not long.
Yup, that’s pretty radical.
So what exactly IS worth fighting for? If you want to ask why no one trusts the Democrats anymore, one can start with understanding how Americans see themselves, the stories Americans like to tell about what it means to be an American.
When we’re kids, we all learn about how General Washington, after a string of disasters, with starving and freezing and dying troops, launched a suprise attack, about how he held together his troops and helped to create this nation. That our nation was founded by brave fighters who kept fighting, against overwhelming odds.
We love stories about the Alamo, about brave families building homesteads, about pilgrims and fighters and “Give me liberty, or give me death!” John Brown, Martin Luther King, Elizabeth Cady Staton, Susan B. Anthony, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, “Rocky” and numerous others. That’s how Americans like to think of themselves, and how they want to see their leaders.
The Republicans recognize this, and play to it. The Dems make lots of noise about how important an issue or a fight is, then …
… well, then nothing. The leaders of this party in DC are like whipped curs, quivering, afraid to bare their teeth, for fear of their master’s hand, a hand they also love to appease. As I put it in the booman thread, regarding the idea that the Dems need to be careful, pick their battles:
(this) is triangulating)
and any Dem who votes to confirm this troglodite-in-Prince-Charming’s-clothing should be on the left’s hit list. They should be hounded in their next primary, jeered in the public square. Their name should be mud, though I think we all know which whipped curs (aka Vichy Dems) will be JUST FINE with this guy, this enabler of criminal corporations and a police state.This is EXACTLY why the party telling us we should support Casey and Langevin is WRONG. Those are EXACTLY the kind of assholes who cross the aisle, who put a bipartisain stamp on the dismantling of our nation’s freedoms.
THIS is why Reid shouldn’t have been minority leader … he AGREES with Judge Roberts on so many issues. How can you “oppose” if you’re ON THE SAME SIDE in the culture war?
Don’t need to wait and see. I know exactly what this guy is. No matter how many times some infotainment talking head assures me there is no record, I know damned well there are PLENTY of records.
I won’t win this battle, but frankly I’m ready for the party to split if the whipped curs in DC continue as they have been. Let’s break the fucking party if Dr. Dean isn’t successful in reforming the party, in overcoming all of the obstacles they’re placing in his way. Lets form a new party around the Progressive Caucus if we can get them to join us. I’m sick of this. I’m sick of “centrism”, I’m sick of a lack of conviction, a lack of spine, a fundamental lack of ANYTHING remotely admirable about so many of “my” party’s leaders in DC.
Fight dammit!
This is, of course, the observation that renders me “radicalized”.
It’s radical to stand up, (or type), a demand that a political party that represents you fight for what they claim to believe. It’s radical to expect that a radical jurist who believes our body of law was frozen in Amber in the 18th Century should be opposed. It’s radical to expect that POLITICS happen in Washington, that the two party system actually express itself in more than comforting soundbites as America is dragged back to the Robber Baron era by a coalition of wackjob Fundamentalists, out-of-control greedheads and reactionary legal scholars.
The electorate will never rally to a political party that stands for nothing. A political party that won’t bloody it’s knuckles, that won’t risk a loss after a bruising fight, will never be trusted as “American”. No one wants someone on their side who won’t “have their back.” As the party has tacked with the wind-driven polls, trying so hard to keep to the “center” (wherever THAT is), as it’s abandoned the poor, labor, women and minorities, is it any wonder that people aren’t eager to rush to their side? To “our” side?
Great movements grow out of noble battles lost. When the hell are we going to pick a battle to fight?
