Let us hope the House Republican Ethics Committee Investigation of House Republicans whereby not even a wrist-slap was recommended for wink and nodding Mark Foley’s penchant for cock-talking to young men is the last Whitewash the country has to endure for a long while.
We will see if the Democrats step up to the plate and put the ethos back into ethics and not get carried away by bi-partisan appeasement of crimes, misdemeanors and the ick of ethics.
For the last six years of one-party rule, the Republicans have never met a lie, betrayal or treason that it couldn’t explain away as partisan politics. It seems partisanship is a one-way street. When Republicans do it, it’s called patriotism and when Democrats do it, it’s called politics.
Too bad nobody calls it duty.
The problem with Democrats is they have no killer instinct. It’s something prized in the world of competitive sports, big business and Republican politics, but Democrats prefer the soft and fuzzy, “kumbaya” when it comes to governing the country.
More’s the pity.
Democrats seem to take over the White House after Republicans clusterfuck us to death with incompetence, greed and vainglory; from Nixon/Ford, Reagan/Bush and Arbusto/Halliburton, who so reminds me of Charlie Chaplin in the Great Dictator…
…Democrats are the proverbial pooper-scooper of the circus elephant’s waste and whatnot.
And, yes, I’m just assuming Democrats will win the White House in 2008, though Republicans will do their best to convince Americans that “divided” government is best. After all, look at the damage one-party Republican rule did to the country in just six years: broke the bank, ruined our prestige and killed, wounded, maimed and massacred the hearts and minds of millions. However, under these conditions, in a world on fire, a bi-partisan “divided” government at best can put band-aids on be-headings and atomizer mist on the flames of hell.
No, the conditions on the ground in America demand Democratic one-party rule for a few years just to get the country back on an even keel, let alone make progress to where we would have been if the Republicans hadn’t stole their way to power in a judicial coup in the great 2000 bait and switch – compassionate conservative, my ass.
In the 1990s the Republicans spent scores of millions on blow-job witch-hunts to hound a duly elected president from office because right-wing conservatives believe they know the truth from a hole in the ground, but they don’t. They mistake their own lunatic ravings for the voice of god and each and every time they get the chance they practice the insanity of forcing a square peg into a round hole over and over again with voodoo economics, wealth worship, gunboat diplomacy, spite toward the impoverished, and an inhuman predatory capitalism that makes Marx and Engels look like Jesus and Mary.
The first thing the President did after the November ass-kicking by an American electorate fed up with biblically proportioned nonsense is issue a call to the new majority party for ‘bi-partisanship.’ It’s as though after WWII Hitler and Mussolini said to the Allies, “can’t we all get along?”
It’s what losers say to the winners as they hoard away their ill-gotten gains from the light of day in fear of being caught up in the spoils of war.
And our Democratic leaders, always charitable and big-hearted, as they did when Clinton came to power in the wake of Iran-Contra, the S&L debacle and a decade of illegal, immoral and irresponsible CIA wars in Latin America, say, “bygones.”
What they should say is, “Look, you war-monkeys had six years to lead us out of the valley of death, but instead blood, bone, smoke and mirrors is all one sees from horizon to horizon. Instead you embraced corruptive temptation like a two-year-old’s teddy-bear, generated world-wide hate of the American brand of liberty, raided the treasury on behalf of your political contributors, waged endless illegal wars of aggression, refused all attempts at oversight and accountability and generally morphed into a reverse Midas touch that turned everything you laid your hands on into a clusterfuck of dross. Lawyer up.”
And who knows? I am not disparaging Democrats. They are politicians. Their profession is to talk out of both sides of their mouths. They may talk the talk of bi-partisanship, but may yet walk the walk of doing their duty to God and Country by establishing fairness, justice and integrity to the system.
Time will tell. And Democratic fortunes in 2008 will depend upon how the country perceives their performance between talk and walk. We all know the People did not vote for Democrats as much as they voted against lying son-of-a-bitch war criminals, economic nincompoops and vapid ideologues who mistake self-righteousness for governance. Impeachment isn’t necessary. I prefer the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But uncovering and exposing the high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush regime’s maladministration from unholy alliances with energy conglomerates to willfully cherry-picking intelligence to mislead the country into illegal wars to the obliteration of long-standing international treaties as regards the conduct of warfare to criminally negligent cronyism to the obstruction of justice to the shredding of Constitutional protections to the all around ickiness of ‘the ends justify the means’ no matter how wrong the means or misguided the ends.
Real justice may never be done as regards the crimes of Bush/Cheney. This administration will tie up every effort of the Democrats fulfilling their duty in the courts for years to come. The Democrats pursuit of oversight and accountability should carry the mantra of “patience and perseverance.” The worst thing that could happen is allow the rug to swallow the dirt of the most dangerous, immoral and diseased executive administration in this country’s history. Slow and steady is fine as long as justice is the aim and not surrender to a political penchant in the midst of Republican partisan name-calling to let bygones in the name “moving on.”
This world needs wise multi-polar leadership. America is not the world’s policeman, but part of a team that includes those with whom we don’t always see eye-to-eye like China.
If humanity does not find a way to environmental, economic and social justice, then fuggedaboudid, game over.
But America, as she currently stands, with dirt-clouds of Bush/Cheney hanging over her like Pigpen on steroids, won’t be included as an honest broker of peace and progress unless and until integrity and justice are restored at home.
America is busted, Republicans broke it and it will be up to Democrats to fix it. The question is whether the Center can do what is right as opposed to what is expedient. The One Party we need is not the bi-partisan centrists of Democrats and Republicans, the Corporatocracy, but the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party to step forward in an effort to make real and lasting change from the ground up. Our electoral and economic systems don’t need tweaks, but overhauls. We will never have social consensus in this country. But we can promote a society that stands for tolerance, fairness and the Golden Rule.
The Democrats have the chance to step up and make a real, positive and progressive difference in the country at perhaps the most critical time in history.
Will they walk the walk of change or talk the talk of the same old thing that drives good citizens away from their participatory democracy in droves as the more things change the more they stay the same?
Time will tell and time is short. The American People have woken up; they’re as mad as hell and they’re not going to take business-as-usual anymore.
Centrists may be a stabilizing force, but to make the status quo stable is to keep America headed in the wrong direction.
We have been Whitewashed to death. Too many layers of old paint, covering up wounds, scars and rot have taken their toll. We don’t need endless investigations that lead to nothing. We need action, answers and accountability.
Let our Democrats walk the walk or many of us will simply walk away. Liberal Democrats have been patient and loyal in the face of what we consider moderate Democrats willingness to go along to get along. But no more.
We don’t advocate partisan bickering and intransigence for the sake of one-ups-man-ship, pay-back or posturing for the next election.
Our needs are simple: peace, justice, equality, integrity, transparency and good works.
Politics-as-usual is a deal-breaker.
Crossposted from My Left Wing
