Boiling Over
I try not to link to too many articles in Salon because I figure most of my readers see them anyway. Lately, however, Salon's coverage and commentary of the Iraq situation have been so excellent with respect to tone and detail that I can't help myself. The problem is that reading these articles is like scratching a mosquito bite: it's incredibly satisfying for as long as you do it, but it hurts later. After reading the transcript of Rep. Peter Stark's cut-to-the-bone speech during the so-called debate in the House of Representatives before I went to bed, I actually woke up in the middle of the night in a rage. Why are these words of truth left in the mouths of a few quirky back-benchers (including my own glorious representative, "Baghdad" Jim McDermott)? Where are Daschle and Gephardt and Hillary Clinton or that cringing toad Lieberman or Terry McAuliffe, the supposed "leaders" of the Democratic party? Where's the principled opposition to this war-crazed, unelected, smug and barely-competent administration? Why have they left Gore and the few people willing to give voice to the millions and millions of Americans who are, to say the least, uneasy about this course of action, twisting in the wind?
All my life, I've been a Democrat. It's caused me to cast some ugly votes in my time, but I swallowed my concerns and pulled the lever. Lately, I've been giving money to both the local and national party (though all it seems to be buying me is a lot of unwanted mail asking for more money). Yes, the D's are better, in theory, on practically every issue, from the economy to the environment to the courts, though it rarely works out right in practice. But here we have the defining issue of our generation - perhaps one of the most important decisions in American history - about whether our democracy should wage a single-handed, unprovoked attack against another sovereign state based on an unproved case because our idiot President feels like doing it. If there’s any time to stand on principle, this is it.
Unfortunately, principle seems to be missing from the Democratic party. Maybe it was burgled out of the DNC offices in the Watergate in 1972, because it hasn’t been seen since. The silence of the Democratic leadership is more than a failure of will. It’s a betrayal. And it’s threatening to become a habit. This is worse than confirming Clarence Thomas, worse than voting for the tax cut, worse than the few odious D’s who carried torches with the Republican lynch mob that tried to sack Clinton. By failing to offer opposition, they are making all their supporters complicit in a potential disaster, international crime, and human tragedy. History won’t be kind to their cowardice and neither, I suspect, will their membership.
I have no stomach for the prissy, humorless PC orthodoxy of the Greens. I’m certainly not about to join the Rush Limbaugh set. But as far as the formal apparatus of the Democratic party goes, they can count me out. I will continue to vote for and support candidates who happen to be Democrats, and give to issue organizations that can advocate on my behalf across party lines if necessary. The DNC, however, need not apply. God help the next phone solicitor who calls asking for my support.
9:19:11 AM 
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