Letters to the Editor

• This blog hasn’t been worth a crap since the love letters to William Timberman the other day

  [Read the article: The latest revelations of lawbreaking, torture and extremism ]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Ever since a couple of his admirers tried to turn this site into eharmony.com, it’s all been downhill. Now with Glenn's lates post - horrors! - we have defeatism and whining, because shooter242 and others similarly sympathetic to our plight told us so.

  Seriously (and William Timberman’s always well-expressed and insightful thoughts easily deserve the admiration), it sounds more like self-doubt and frustration and an open willingness to express same, which are advantageous weapons to have in your emotional arsenal if you are not a right-wing authoritarian follower. There is some pessimism mixed in, too, but who wouldn't be at least a little pessimistic given what has transpired since 2000, and the Democrats apparent capitulations on several key issues? But pessimism is a far cry from defeatism.

  You want defeatism? Both karrsic and Jordan Orlando spotted nobalzbabbler’s complete moral capitulation to the whims of his enemies. I would bet he would be on board with Gen. Pace, the latest fantasy episode of the right-wing’s obvious infatuation with military dictatorship. No other comment is even in the same galaxy as far as defeatism goes…

  Except possibly for shooter242 and P.D. Po Steele mocking the discussion as “whining,” mainly because they are unable to comprehend those who would question the leadership and motives of their party of choice, who don’t profess unbinding loyalty to it, and who even may try to change it. Like their radical party leaders, they arrogantly see such circumspection as weakness.

  Oh, to be a right-wing authoritarian who can establish his/her own worldview early on and only have to change it to add more enemies who inevitably come in conflict with it. The certitude and simplicity of crediting the good in the world to those who are like you and blaming the evil on those who are not must be personally very comforting (even though it tends to wreak havoc everywhere else). And shooter242, Carolyn C’s C/C use for Kerry’s campaign wasn’t desperate, it was prescient. If more of us had made such sacrifices, the world likely would look a lot better today.

  But enough about what most of us here fortunately are not. One thing we are is frustrated about the seeming snail’s pace with which change is occurring. However, most of us realize that actual change would not happen unless there were enough votes to override a presidential veto, and if we had any doubts about that, the Republican’s latest votes, the lockstep refusal to condemn Rush Limbaugh and apparent unwillingness to assist needy children in obtaining medical services, should put that to rest.

  What frustrates us more than anything is the Democrats’ unwillingness to date to even stand up to Bush/Cheney and the Republicans and force overrides and filibusters on crucial issues, beginning with Iraq, and their seeming obliviousness to and even support of the radicalism of Bush/Cheney. The Democrats do not appear to understand the concept of political clout, which is the one thing Bush/Cheney and the Republicans clearly better grasp. And while I fully agree that change in a democracy is often slow by design and that some of the problems being inherited from these Mayberry Machiavelli’s will take decades to unravel at best, acknowledging this radicalism and the ease and quickness with which it took root is where I depart a bit from Kovie’s usual fine comments.

  Jay Rosen and Glenn have called the radicalism of Bush/Cheney unprecedented and I couldn’t agree more with them. Even though Cheney and others may have been planning such madness for quite some time, most of the degradation could not and did not occur until they took office six and three-quarters years ago. (There have been a lot of bad people with bad plans out there that never attained the political wherewithal to fully execute them.) Bush/Cheney have accomplished quite a bit of degradation in this time, and could do quite a bit more damage with the year and one-quarter they have left, even assuming just the same rate of destruction and not factoring in narcissistic desperation and short-timer/lame duck attitudes. Look what they did with A.G. Gonzales and torture, and this was just after the aforementioned defeat of Kerry. And we can probably thank the military they have not attacked Iran yet.

  Political patience has its place, but, given Bush/Cheney’s proven capabilities for extremist mayhem and mendacity and their tendency to react to the results of their bad policies with even greater extremist mayhem and mendacity, this is not it. The Democrats seem to feel they have all the political cards for Election 2008 and give all indication that they believe the country can afford them playing it down the so-called “middle” until then. For those of us who disagree, and believe the Democrats should at apply any political pressure they can to slow down any further disasters of policy contemplated by Bush/Cheney as well as to gather bipartisan support to uncover and reverse past disasters, we should make it clear our patience is limited and that they should not assume our vote is theirs in any event.

  A lot can change in a year’s time, especially with these extremists in power. For the Democrats to know that a large segment of their support is not at risk is a sure recipe for political mediocrity and irrelevance, as well as an open invitation for continued expansion of extremist policies, even after Election 2008.

  By the way, helluva piece, Glenn.

  Permalink Friday, October 5, 2007 05:33 AM