And I appeal here for someone to explain it:

It is argued that democrats are different from republicans because of the votes against the policies we are discussing. So despite the fact that the demo leadership is corrupt or incompetent, there is still a saving remnant, as it were, that we need to work to supplement with other demos like them so we can slowly shift the balance. But it seems to me that these abuses are so egregious that if I were one of these minority democrats watching this happen--wars with people dying, torture, suspension of habeas corpus, and so on--it would seem to me that it constitutes an emergency. And if soldiers are willing to die for their country then maybe this good minority might do more than simply vote against the policies? Why not have demonstrations in congress to stand up for conscience? I think buy God I would get together with my remnant friends in the senate and so forth, and if I were for real, so some kind of radical demonstration; stand around the leadership with gags on my face, or chant against them like a street demonstration had come to the chambers of congress, and make them remove me by force. And member after member would keep on doing this until all 161 on the page Glenn linked to who voted against it would be hauled off to cngressional detention or jail or whatever they do with such congresspeople when they act like this. Until the business of government was so disruptted that everyone would begin to become aware of the situation.

But they don't do that. They only vote or talk. And so when I read che pasa and others like him I find myself wondering if they are right. And then Glenn, you get on their case for being defeatist or not offering solutions, and that is what has triggered this post from me. Because while I want to feel like there is something there in the system to work on, I am left with the dilemma that it seems me no decent person in a position of power could just stand by and only vote and talk talk talk when they above all are in a position to at least protest and make things known. so it makes me think well hell these people are just putting on a show with their 161 votes against this stuff, because since people are dying and being tortured and they are in congress and all they do is vote and then say oh well I am just in a minority you know what can I do then I think they are not for real at all. Not at all.

Maybe che pasa and those like him are not holier than thou are as it were intellectually posing but stating their belief in the realities of the situation.

Imagine congresspeople of conscience: would they not at least stage some kind of real disruption, some real civil disobedience in the midst of all this, if they were for real at all?

And these are my honest thoughts. I respect all you posters and Glenn here quite a bit. I am just so hacked off at these democratic so called good ones who only vote and talk while people die (and worse than our soldiers dying, all the Iraqis who have been killed for no good reason and had their lives totally destroyed. To terrible for words). I despise all those democrats right now, even the ones who vote and talk against it, because all they do is vote and talk when people are suffering and dying. I despise them all.

To be sure, that IS a difference - whether it's a meaningful difference in light of all the circumstances is something everyone can decide for themselves.

Yep, that the rub for me. Is it a meaningful difference? Given the circumstances?

I appreciate what you are doing here. It helps me to think about it, even if that thinking becomes sometimes more like a shriek. Heidgegger once wrote of Nietzsche that his thought was like a man shrieking, but that this was appropriate: because the times have become such that a shriek is perhaps the most thoughtful thing one can do in the face of such circumstances. You blog helps me shriek more lucidly, perhaps. Thank you.