Earth to Democrats: No Excuses Anymore
Posted on
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
by Gary A. Ballard
By now, you should have all heard the good news. The Democrats wrested control of the House of Representatives from the Republicans in yesterday's elections. Though still in doubt, there's a very good chance that they will also gain control of the Senate, contingent upon Virginia's Jim Webb defeating George Allen and Missouri's Claire McCaskill defeating her opponent. I'm mostly tickled pink about this, as "Slap a Neocon Day" appears to have been celebrating nationwide. And while I'm quite sure most of the neocon Republican and conservative apologists will find some excuse for losing that doesn't involve six years of wrongheaded incompetence and willful corruption, but let me set the record straight. Republicans lost so badly for the same reason Democrats lost in 1994.
They became so stratified, so isolated from the pulse of their constituencies and so drunk with their own pork-fueled power, they forgot that they exist to serve the people. The people do not exist to feed them riches. They exist to protect the citizens, to provide for the citizens those things which the citizens cannot provide for themselves within reason. It's not gay marriage, it's not flag-burning, it's not the terrorist boogyman, it's not San Francisco values (whatever the fuck that means). It's not any of those things. It's a dereliction of duty for personal gain and it got the Republicans bitchslapped.
Now it's going to be tempting for the Democrats to rest on their elected laurels. After all, the Bush administration has made assigning blame so easy, one need not even make an effort. The Democrats can play the blame game in God mode if they so desire. That would be wrong. And worse, it would be suicidal for 2008. Whoever runs for president on the Republican ticket in 2008 is going to have a convenient scapegoat for the abysmal state of the government in the Democrats, so complacency is not an option.
So now is the time to kick this pig into gear. The democrats had better have a coherent, actionable plan and they better start implementing it the very nanosecond after that gavel strikes the podium. Whatever they choose to do, they better do it right. They have a host of fuckups to fix, from Iraq to the deficit, growing class disparity, generous tax cuts to the rich, corporate greed, Haliburton's fraudelent actions in Iraq, Katrina cleanup, making FEMA a viable agency again, repealing the Torture Bill, etc. Those are just the things off the top of my head. What they can't do is allow themselves to get bogged down in useless showboat shit like gay marriage or Terri Schiavo circuses. Get things done and sent to the President to veto, so that you can quickly override those vetos.
You've got no more excuses. Time to prove that you do indeed have a better way, or 2008 will be another harsh slap in the face.
They became so stratified, so isolated from the pulse of their constituencies and so drunk with their own pork-fueled power, they forgot that they exist to serve the people. The people do not exist to feed them riches. They exist to protect the citizens, to provide for the citizens those things which the citizens cannot provide for themselves within reason. It's not gay marriage, it's not flag-burning, it's not the terrorist boogyman, it's not San Francisco values (whatever the fuck that means). It's not any of those things. It's a dereliction of duty for personal gain and it got the Republicans bitchslapped.
Now it's going to be tempting for the Democrats to rest on their elected laurels. After all, the Bush administration has made assigning blame so easy, one need not even make an effort. The Democrats can play the blame game in God mode if they so desire. That would be wrong. And worse, it would be suicidal for 2008. Whoever runs for president on the Republican ticket in 2008 is going to have a convenient scapegoat for the abysmal state of the government in the Democrats, so complacency is not an option.
So now is the time to kick this pig into gear. The democrats had better have a coherent, actionable plan and they better start implementing it the very nanosecond after that gavel strikes the podium. Whatever they choose to do, they better do it right. They have a host of fuckups to fix, from Iraq to the deficit, growing class disparity, generous tax cuts to the rich, corporate greed, Haliburton's fraudelent actions in Iraq, Katrina cleanup, making FEMA a viable agency again, repealing the Torture Bill, etc. Those are just the things off the top of my head. What they can't do is allow themselves to get bogged down in useless showboat shit like gay marriage or Terri Schiavo circuses. Get things done and sent to the President to veto, so that you can quickly override those vetos.
You've got no more excuses. Time to prove that you do indeed have a better way, or 2008 will be another harsh slap in the face.
Labels: Politics
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 9:44 AM
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