Liberal Street Fighter

“My country has been beaten and they are calling me back to make peace and sign an armistice.”
– Henri-Philippe Pétain, upon the fall of France

“Now it is time for Democrats and Republicans to join together and make Congress work for every American.”
– Senator Harry Reid, upon the Donklephants gaining control of Congress.

That the Republicans were so ably using the REAL powers of the minority yesterday shouldn’t be a surprise. That’s what a party that actually functions does. It differentiates itself from its opponents. It drives the debate by refusing to play except on its own terms. This is the power that Harry Reid and the rest of the Democratic Party leadership steadfastly refused to use when THEY were in the minority. Eager to mirror the Republicans, not to set themselves apart. What is important is maintaining the basic functioning of the status quo for the Donklephants … they stand for nothing else. The few that DO try to fight for liberal values and their constituents are left out in the cold:

That‘s not what it‘s about.  The fact is, the president and the Republican leadership are so out of touch with reality of the American people is, they don‘t understand that this war is a disaster, and the American people want us out of there.

Now, the problem is, it‘s a little easier for them to pull a stunt like this, because the Democrats are being too weak as well.  We‘re talking about primarily just whether or not we‘re going to have a weak resolution about the escalation.

But the election in November, we hadn‘t even heard about the escalation.  The issue here is, how can we, as Democrats, working with some Republicans, find a way to end this war, to have a timetable to end it, and to get tough on this thing?  It‘s going to take forever just to get to this escalation resolution, if we don‘t come up with something that‘s a lot more serious.

And that‘s my concern on the Democratic side is, we‘re being too timid.  We‘ve got to take on this war directly. […]

It‘s a stunt.  The fact is, there should be a debate on this.  It‘s a bipartisan resolution that I think is too weak.  I‘d like to fix it.  I‘d like the chance to have amendments.  But if nothing else, whether you‘re on one side or the other, we should have a chance to amend it and to debate this war and to debate it now.

So the idea that they are somehow not getting treated fairly, to simply have something like this come up, is a—in my view, a ridiculous argument.

And it is time to debate the Iraq war.  More importantly, it‘s time to debate getting out of Iraq, not just figuring out a way to prevent this surge or escalation by the president.

You can watch Senator Feingold here and read some more of what he has to say here. Reid and the rest will not listen to him. They won’t listen to you, they won’t listen to me. They won’t listen to voices of reason, decency or righteous passion. They won’t listen to the screams, to the crying children, to the supplications from families left bereft both here amongst military families and in Iraq and Afghanistan amongst those unlucky enough to be “collateral damage” of our supposedly “accurate” modern munitions.  

No, Reid and the rest will listen to the wealthy landed gentry of this country who want their investments in Big Oil and Big Weapons to continue to pay off. There will be no universal healthcare that doesn’t protect their investments in Big Insurance and Big Pharma. There will be no listening to a rabble that can’t understand the importance of maintaining the appearance of a once-almost-great nation.

Forever Reid and his ilk surrender to greater, more belligerent powers, to the big campaign checks and clubby leather boys club of the US Congress. Forever the surrender to the militaristic culture of death and destruction that this country wallows in. Forever the careful adhearance to what IS, not what could be. He and the rest will remain blind to the splashes of blood staining the marble halls of power, for what matters is the power, not what it is used for. He will not fight, only capitulate. He will not lead, only go through the motions. He likes to drone on about how he learned to fight when he was a boxer, but he boxes only with shadows, careful never to land a blow.

The Donklephant party isn’t a functioning political party, it is a ponzi scheme, a weird combination of grifter and the Washington Generals, with Reid and Schumer and Clinton standing flatfooted whilst the Republicans twirl arguments on their fingertips and pass the debate around and around a mocking circle. It exists only to collect money and to provide the appearance of a contest, and Reid more than any of them exemplifies this sad truth. They represent the Left in exactly the same way that the Vichy represented France … empty and venal, an illusion of governance while supporting monstrous conquerers.

So not vote for them. Do not give them money. The Donks are a dead party, and they don’t represent you. Principled politicians like Feingold should join Senator Sanders as an Independent, and convince other progressive and liberal Senators and Representatives to join them. It won’t happen, because even he is a politician, and thus a careful man … he knows better than any just how utterly corrupted by money our “two” parties are, and how they have structured government to make opposition all-but impossible. Maybe he’ll surprise me and make this leap … I’m willing always to hope for a bold move toward real change. The building of a real opposition will take time, and it will require the destruction of the Democratic Party, a scary prospect I know, but there is nothing else. One need only look at what happened to Dean in Iowa and look at the heavy hands of Schumer and Emmanuel in the 2006 to see how change from within is impossible.

In order for this country to save itself, the party of Senator Pétain must die. Abandon them, now.