More screaming from Liberal Street Fighter
Study for the Head of a Screaming Pope, 1952 – Francis Bacon
Almost one year ago, I first posted Vichy Dems at Liberal Street Fighter and DailyKos, on April 24th, in response to the Democrats offering compromises on Bush’s extremist judges:
The Dems are winning the PR war on these issues, AND THEY ARE OFFERING COMPROMISES?!?!
Tell me again how great Reid is. Let’s hear the latest round of excuses as to why once again they will sell us out because they don’t want to feel uncomfortable when bumping into their “collegues” in the cloakroom, or is it because the lobbyists are asking for everybody to work together?
Tell me again that they are “fighting dems” and not spineless Vichy Bastards that hold the doors open while the Republicans and lobbyists rob us all blind.
This is, of course, a running pattern with the party leaders. Just enough of them cross the aisle to give the Republicans what they want while still giving everyone votes to cover themselves with the voters at home. Bankruptcy, ANWAR, Torquemada Gonzales … we all know the long, long list of failures and betrayals, yet we all keep hoping for the best, we keep cutting them some more slack, while the last appeaser Daschle settles into his cozy new job on K Street.
Support the real champions of the base, but stop cutting slack for the likes of Biden, Reid and the other center and center/right “leaders” so willing to work across the aisle. The continuing Faustian bargains with the right, the dividing up of districts so that both parties have “safe seats”, the elimination of alternate voices, the willingness of Schumer and others to sell out their base for “centrist” candidates … it’s all of a piece.
They are not fighting for us, and they won’t until we stop providing mindless support for the appeasement to the new one party state.
As we all know, in the eleven months since, those judges are all safely installed into their lifetime appointments. We know more now about a multitude of crimes that were suspected then, or rumored … crimes which have since not only been confirmed by principled groups filing Freedom of Information Act requests, but also by King George himself, on camera, before the world, without shame and full of righteous belligerence.
Surely, after all that has transpired, the opposition party will have certainly found their spines, found a way to fight back … for the American people, for human decency, for the Constitution? Right? RIGHT?
Okay, stop laughing now … or are you crying?
U.S. Launches Major Air Assault in Iraq
Senator Feingold stands up and offers a principled opportunity to finally go on the record, to finally say ENOUGH to these criminals. Yet still, the poodles run and hide behind the skirts of their consultants, standing up on hind legs for lobbyists’ checks like tender little puppy treats.
Still the bombs keep flying, the bodies keep dropping, the bullets keep whizzing, the FBI goes on spying, the NSA keeps on listening, Halliburton keeps on looting, refugees keep floundering and Blackwater keeps on patrolling. From the Democrats, the “opposition” party, we still get the self-emasculation of a weak Congress.
When is doing NOTHING going to be enough for a majority of Americans on the left to walk away? When are more of us going to realize that continuing to support former Republicans — so-called “fighting dems” willing to sell out women’s autonomy or vote for the corporations over the people, and Dempublicans like Biden and Lieberman and Clinton and Reid — WHEN are we going to just walk away from them? We’re past appeasement at this point in the game. The Democrats in Washington are nothing but slimy fences now, helping the Republicans launder their looting of the national treasure, or simple ghouls, assisting the right as it hides the bodies, hoses off the blood, sucks out the souls of any and all who stumble into their path.
This is past cooperation and surrender, and well into aiding and abetting. We face a political party and movement that has created an atmosphere of fear and hatred, that has fostered a climate where its supporters feel justified to threaten the lives of Supreme Court Justices in the name of “life”, yet all we get from our “champions” is soft words and equivocation and betrayal. Sadly, though, the word NO still can’t make its way passed the puckered lips of Harry Reid … if we hear anything from that hack, it’s much more likely to an abject apology to his Republican masters.
Profiles in spinelessness
Hell, even Jessica Simpson knows enough to say no to a criminal eager to use her to advance his agenda.
The reason for the decline was Simpson’s concern about politicizing her favorite charity. The final decision came after a day of back and forth reports from her camp and event organizers.
Reuters, which first reported the story, quoted people close to Simpson as saying she refused to appear at the fundraiser sponsored by the of National Republican Congressional Committee even after she was offered a private meeting with Mr. Bush.
A modestly talented young woman, basking in her time in the spotlight, probably advised by PR flacks not unlike those used by numerous celebrities and corporations, seems to know more than the so-called leaders of the Democratic Party. Her flacks apparently have more sense than Schrum and Carville and Begalia and the rest of the hacks only too eager to be quoted in bald-faced Republican agitprop in the New York Times, being quoted again and again off-the-record in story after story about how afraid they are of scaring that mythical “centrist” voter.
It doesn’t get any clearer that there is no real opposition party, that principled politicians like Feingold, Boxer, Conyers and other progressives trying to do the peoples’ work will only get undermined and hamstrung by the institutional party. Split … the … party … now. Put it out of its misery. It’s a desicated shell, a pale revenent, suckling on the accomplishments of it’s previous life while too ethereal to accomplish anything of worth now. Ignore the bleating of the blogheelers at the Big Boy Blogs … they only want to be the next Shrum/Carville/Begala.
Almost a year ago I finally had had enough. Since then, it’s only gotten worse, the rotting stench of fecklessness and cowardice wafting out of the Capitol like sewer gas and settling down on the electorate, choking off hope for real change, for the preservation of our Constitutional system, for the rescue of our sacred honor. That post above was only one of many frustrated fusilades launched at these clowns, posts that led to endless conflicts with the hacks at the Daily Kos until I was “invited” to leave, much to the betterment of my spirit. Now there is a blog called Vichy Dems, and loud calls for change and a fight where a year ago voices saying as much were roundly condemned on the more populous realms of these internets. Now there are more and more people who are fed up, who’ve had enough … there is a welling impetus for change. Not just on blogs, but on the street. I wasn’t the first to walk away from the Vichy Dems (Marisacat was trying to wake me up for months before that piece). I will certainly not be the last. Many Americans see the peril we are facing, are eager for courage and leadership.
We WON’T find it amongst the institutional Democratic Party.
Not another dime. Not another mile of GOTV. Not another vote. Support genuine agents for change. Reject the fear-mongering, the insistence that you HAVE to vote for these hacks or the Republicans will win. Perhaps they will, but from the ashes of those losses something better can rise. We will NEVER have genuine change under the current party regime.
Say no to the Vichy Dems until they learn how to say no to King George.
A note about the Simpson quote above. The page I took it from has disappeared, and CBS News has since amended the story to now insist that Jessica is a “big fan” of the President. Apparently the flacks thought better of being honest about the decision. The blockquote above is a straight cut-and-paste from the original story.