No, really. You are losing me, and thousands (maybe millions) like me who see our democracy in danger of collapse due to the actions and agenda of President Bush and the Republican Party. Why? Because you refuse to publicly acknowledge the danger we are in, and to take steps to condemn it.
Violations of the first amendment (arrests of peaceful protesters) go unquestioned. Violations of the fourth amendment (warrantless wiretaps) go unexamined. Voting irregularities, and outright voter suppression, in each of the last three national elections, always favoring Republicans, go unreported. Scientists who are supervised by GOP public relations hacks are told to keep quiet or they’ll lose their funding and/or their jobs. Corruption in Congress is rampant where Republican politicians are bought and sold as if they were commodities on the open market.
We went to war in Iraq based on lies, and our government literally let New Orleans drown. An outright racist was appointed to the Supreme Court. And our President openly asserts that our laws only apply to him if he willingly chooses to accept their limitations; i.e., he claims that his power and authority as Commander in Chief during “this time of war” literally knows no bounds. Indeed, the practice of torture is now sanctioned at the highest levels of our Government, as is the unlimited detention of prisoners without any due process review by our Judiciary. The waging of aggressive war in violation of the UN Charter is now official US policy.
Gay men and women are demonized as evil and held up as scapegoats, and women’s rights are under a constant and insidious assault. Liberal and progressive voices of dissent are called treasonous and marginalized in our Republican dominated and intimidated media. Whistle blowers are persecuted (and prosecuted) for disclosing the wrongs/crimes they see being perpetrated by the federal government at the behest of our Republican overlords.
Our national debt is increasing to astronomical levels with no end in sight, as is our trade deficit. Our schools are breaking, and our Army and Reserve forces are broken. Our veterans are ignored and their benefits are slashed. Wages and salaries for most Americans are stagnant or falling even as the wealthiest corporations and individuals profit all the more from government tax cuts and government largesse in the form of no-bid government contracts. Health care costs are on the rise, and more and more average Americans are without any health insurance coverage, living on the edge of disaster should a medical crisis hit their families.
Yet with a few notable exceptions (Senator Feingold and Representatives Murtha and Conyers please take your bows) most Democratic officials and their hordes of out of touch political consultants and staffers routinely sit quietly on the sidelines . . .
. . . with only the occasional meek objection to the raw, naked abuses of power by the ruling Republican Party. Anyone with half a brain can see that Democrats should be shouting from any media platform they can about the corruption, the incompetence, the lies, the erosion of our rights and liberties and the open destruction of our democracy by Republican politicians bent on one party rule at all costs.
Yet, our so-called Democratic leaders keep their mouths shut, afraid to rock the boat, hoping that this time the Public will finally put them back in power if only they don’t say anything that might be conceivably controversial. I got news for you, ladies and gentlemen in the upper echelons of the Democratic Party. You’re headed for another round of election failure unless you come out fighting.
To make my point a little more clear, let’s consider a hypothetical. In an alternate universe, say, one where Dems control the Congress and the Presidency. Where the Democratic President has lied us into war after war with no end in sight. Where government budget deficits are on the rise, and Democratic politicians are held in deep disdain by the majority of the country for their corruption and failure to respond to the needs of most Americans. A place where the Democratic President’s approval ratings have been steadily declining, and are now in the lower 30’s, heading toward the 20’s.
In that hypothetical world, where Democrats rule America (rather than the real world where Republicans do) ask yourselves just one question: What would the Republicans do?
Would they sit idly by hoping that the Democratic Party would simply self destruct come election time, or would they be kicking the Democrats while they were down, harping repeatedly to the media about the failure of Democratic policies and Democratic leadership? Well, I think you know the answer to that question, don’t you?
Republicans wouldn’t just be seeking a censure resolution, they’d be demanding the impeachment of the President every chance they could get, in every speech and in every television appearance. They wouldn’t threaten to shut down the Senate unless Congress investigated all the President’s crimes, they’d do it. They wouldn’t wait for good things to happen to them come the first Tuesday in November, they’d make them happen.
They’d be taking an active role to ensure that their candidates would be making victory speeches, not concession speeches. They’d be putting Democrats on the defensive, and the media too, with allegations of “liberal bias.” In short, they’d be following the maxim that “God helps those who help themselves.”
For over five long years this is what we, the political activists and concerned citizens of this country have been telling you to do. Stand up for your principles and forcefully attack your enemies, both in the republican party and in the media. Be proud of what your party stands for: civil rights, civil liberties, the rule of law and a concern for the welfare of all Americans, no matter how rich or how poor they might be. In other words, just stand up for the basic principles of a liberal democracy.
We aren’t fire breathing lefties, folks. We aren’t some weird fringe element of the party like your consultants claim we are. We’re ordinary Americans who believe the same things you do. We have backed you with our dollars and with our activism. We’ve campaigned for you, registered new voters for you and taken them to the polls to vote for you, even though you have barely acknowledged our service on your behalf. Our advice to you on the issues we care about has generally been dead on. Yet, for the most part you have ignored our advice.
And that’s okay. We don’t want recognition, and we don’t crave rewards. We simply want you to represent us like you said you would. We want you to advocate the policies and political principles that drew us to you in the first place. But be warned. If you won’t fight for us, we’ll abandon you. And that could come sooner than you think, my friends, much sooner.
Because we are fed up with your mealy mouthed excuses and your wishy washy public personas. We are tired of your concern that challenging this ludicrous President will make you appear weak on national defense. Most of all we are tired of voting for Democrats who, once safely in office, turn around and parrot Republican talking points, claiming that we, your most faithful and loyal supporters, the very people who got you elected, are a fringe group of leftist agitators that don’t represent the Democratic Party.
Well, that’s a lie, and you know it. Because the truth is, we are your base, like it or not. If you lose us, you will lose, period. And I don’t just mean the elections this year or in 2008. I mean your status as a major political party.
So it’s on your shoulders, Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama, Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid, and all the rest of you. Come out swinging. For starters get behind Senator Feingold’s Censure resolution. Then shut down the Senate until you get real investigations of the administration’s illegal surveillance programs and its misuse of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. Use the word impeachment in every other sentence that comes out of your mouth. Let America know where you stand.
Because if you don’t, I’m warning you, you’ll lose more than just this year’s elections. You’ll lose all of us too.
