“How many times are we going let George Bush and (Vice President) Dick Cheney say, ’You guys don’t support the troops. You’re not patriotic,’ and let them push us around? We have to stand up to them.” – Russ Feingold on The Daily Show, March 22nd, 2006.

Here in Philly, the progressives are not just sitting around letting Ed Rendell and Chuck Schumer push us around. You can read about our insurgency against City Hall here, here, and here. The response from the Democratic Party? Fistfights, slashed tires, and nasty phone calls and emails from the offices of wardleaders, Representative Bob Brady, and Governor Ed Rendell. We are aren’t going to let them push us around.

Politics ain’t beanbag, and it’s prudent to have bodyguards when you set off to take away someone’s power and position. It’s unfortunate that we have the charge of fighting entrenched Democrats just to get to a point where we can fight the real insidious enemy, the Republicans. I encourage everyone to get involved in your local party and to organize to put in fresh blood that is unafraid to stick up for core American principles.

But, that is a long term project. In the short term we have to live with the fact that the Democratic Party has a different set of priorities than we do. And they have decided to recruit and promote a lot of candidates in the primaries that we don’t particularly like. Now that we know what we are up against we are getting organized. The fact that the goons are coming out to intimidate us means that we have enough power to be taken seriously. And there is no way that we are going to go back to being passive witnesses to the kind of appeasement the Democrats have displayed over torture, illegal domestic surveillance, illegal detention, and preemptive war.

Russ Feingold is our standard bearer by default. It’s already too late for any other Presidential aspirant to get on the bandwagon. Over at Daily Kos, Markos ran a poll of the Big Orange citizens. The results?

dKos reader poll. 3/21. 11,117 respondents.

                         Mar  Jan  Nov  Sep  Aug  Jul  Jun

Feingold        48  30  19  19  16  10  10

Clark           15  22  26  34  35  34  26

Warner          11  12  14   4   3   5   5

Edwards          7   8  12  10   7   7   8

No Freakin' Clue 4   6   6   6   9  13  17

Other            3   6   2   3   4   4   7

H. Clinton       2   3   6   8   9  10  10

Richardson       2   3   5   3   4   4   4

Kerry            1   3   2   2   1   2   2

Biden            1   1   1   3   3   3   3

Bayh             1   1   1   1   1   2   2

Vilsack          0   0   0   0   0   0   0

Dascle           0

—–

The ship has sailed for Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, and any other Senators that have failed to take the principled stands that Russ Feingold has made ever since 9/11.

No one can question our patriotism, and no one can cower when our patriotism is questioned. That is, not if they want our support. Political calculations and poll-driven policies are not what it is about anymore. It’s about a lawbreaker in the White House. It’s about lawbreakers in Congress. It’s about our fourth amendment rights, our children’s future…it’s about our role as an international citizen, it’s about our legacy, it’s about who stood up and fought when it still mattered.

Feingold was there. The rest of you were not.