David Michael Green’s website, Regressive Antidote, is a must read for those of us who are overnourished by excellent political commentary of the progressive kind.
Green’s latest article is the best analysis I’ve seen regarding the capitulation of the Dick Cheney Democrats over Iraq illegal occupation funding legislation. Here are the highlights:
At a time of moral, constitutional, international, governmental, political and environmental crisis, the Democrats have taken a firm stand on the issue of trying not to offend anybody in America. And, of course, getting themselves reelected.
At least you can’t say that they have no principles. And at least you can’t say that they’re inconsistent. They never fail to fail. And they never disappoint while disappointing.
But this… This there is no excuse for. Not now, not ever. This is precisely the inverse of the situation in 2002, which makes it mind-boggling to contemplate just what would be required for Harry Reid to close the sale here. Just what is necessary for the Democratic leadership to acquire the political courage for doing what was the morally correct thing from the very beginning?
So it’s beyond astonishing, really, if you think about it. Democrats had a morally correct and absolutely defensible position, even in terms of the whole supporting-the-troops mantra. They had popular support and a public mandate to act. They had majorities given to them for that precise purpose. And they had an adversary who needed the legislation far more than they did, and who has a history of bullying when allowed, but folding when pressed.
Democrats now own this war as never before. They were already massively complicit. Many of them voted for it when any fool with the slightest bit of reasoning power could see that it made no sense and that the Bush junta was lying with every word they spoke. They were silent again when the O’Neill and Clarke memoirs, along with the Downing Street Memos, turned those obvious lies into proven facts. And now, when they had every opportunity to do what they know to be right and even what the public wants them to do, they have secured affirmatively their spot in what Dante aptly described as “The hottest places in hell … reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality”.
There is much more to this article including a discussion about reasons to have hope. I recommend everyone read it, especially the Dick Cheney Democrats.
I’ve been ruminating on the DC Democrats cave-in and have come to the conclusion that the Progressive Netroots, and frankly, the American people, won’t be taken seriously until an electoral scalp is taken.
These people will do anything to hold on to power (see Joe Lieberman), but with the right candidate and the right message, there’s the possibility of a break through. Just winning the primary is not enough, since the established DC Dem will just run as an “independent” in the general.
Until the American people decide to take a scalp or two, all of this is just hand waving.
Chad Luepkes has mentioned Rep. Rick Larsen (DINO-2nd CD) as a potential take down. I’m down for that.