Like justice.

And until we learn how to make real demands - and impose consequences when those demands are not met - we will continue to be strangled to death by the governing elite.

As much as Salon's readership would like to believe otherwise, the civil rights struggle was not waged by writing letters to newspapers or legislators. People risked their lives, and sometimes lost them, in the pursuit of social justice. Cities had to burn before the governing elite began to contemplate the distasteful reality that citizens who are perpetually fucked will not accept slavery indefinitely.

For every injustice imposed on the citizenry, there must be a cost associated with it.

There are no consequences for today's political operators. Until that changes, we have no basis whatsoever for expecting anything other than naked tyranny.

Anyone who believes cops don't beat, jail and victimize American citizens for no reason other than feeling insulted or "disrespected" is living in a dreamland.

What happened to Henry Gates happens every day in this country. We don't hear about it because the victims are rarely "prominent" and, therefore, don't warrant our concern.

No doubt race played a significant role in the way this specific event unfolded, but the crux of the matter is authoritarianism, a cultural epidemic that grows considerably worse with each passing year.

We live in a police state. Get used to it.

Oh, wait. We're already used to it. It's just verboten to call some things what they truly are - and that goes double when The State is involved.

But little things like that haven't stopped Senate Democrats like Max Baucus and Kent Conrad from caving to the right before, so why change now?

Baucus & Conrad don't cave to the right. They are "the right" - and they have a lot of company on their side of the aisle, as well as in the White House.

Erroneous descriptions of buckling, caving or spinelessness only further the mass hallucination that magically transforms a nakedly corrupt Democratic Party into a righteous bulwark between the powerless and the powerful.

They don't buckle.

They don't cave.

They aren't spineless.

After the shameful, embarrassing performance of the Democratic Party in the long, dark shadow of George W. Bush, it is extremely difficult to understand why so few Democrats understand the extent to which those they elect actively work against their most fundamental interests.

The insider/outsider dynamic goes a long way toward illustrating exactly why it is that Democratic politicians are so reluctant to confront their [ostensible] adversaries.

Regardless of the numbers in terms of Republicans and Democrats holding elected office, the U.S. political agenda is firmly anchored in conservative, neoconservative and Fascist dogma. The policies manifest from that agenda directly benefit all members of the governing class (i.e. insiders), including the wealthy Democratic politicians who, like their Republican siblings, are savvy PR frauds who have convinced voters that they are something else entirely: well-intentioned defenders of the public good. But public has nuthin' to do with nuthin'.

Such is life in a kleptocracy.

A few years ago, a common refrain among liberals was that the conservatives, neoconservatives and assorted Bush-worshippers who declared support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq should enlist in the U.S. military.

Now, having wept tears of joy over the election of Obama - a man who, as a presidential candidate, very clearly stated his intention to increase the American military presence in Afghanistan - yesterday's indignant anti-war dissidents have transformed themselves into cheerleaders for the bloody American empire.

Is it any wonder shut up or enlist isn't a popular retort among The Democratic Faithful these days?

The Democratic Establishment despises firebrands, whether in the ranks or the leadership.

Seasoned observers can be certain of two things: (1.) the campaign to embarrass, discredit and unseat Grayson has already begun, and; (2.) that campaign will have numerous overt and covert participants on both sides of the aisle.

The price of membership in the Democratic Club is an unyielding, if saccharine, reverence for Civility™ and Bipartisanship™ - the two massive, rotten fig leaves which have long made it possible for the grossly corrupt Democratic leadership to flagrantly betray - without consequence - the stated principles of the party, its voters and the nation.

If the Democratic Leadership can't tame Rep. Alan Grayson - whose refreshingly hyperbolic style exposes the spoilers, tools and anti- health care guerillas of both parties - then, one way or another, he will be excised from the DNC.

Democratic officials who assist their ostensible opponents in the coming Graysonectomy, whether they do so by commission or omission, will be rewarded with the full support of the DNC party apparatus. If entrenched behavioral patterns are any indication, the vast majority of rank & file Democrats declaring solidarity with Alan Grayson today are the same voters who will reward his duplicitous, conspiring adversaries with yet another hitch in elected office, where they will be free to continue their good cop, bad cop charade while working diligently on behalf of Big Business, Big Brother and Big Money.

* * * * *

This will all be just fine with Alex Koppelman, who has clearly surrendered to the delusions of grandeur so common among the perpetually shifting and gelatinous political middle. Koppelman, not unlike other career-minded equivocators in the media arena, is mindful of being taken seriously by those who might be signing his paycheck later (and who knows what that demographic might be?). He'll issue a caveat or three events unfold, a few teaspoons of empty calories and clueless indignation to begrudingly satisfy the ravenous, cranky extremists - you know, people like you - Koppelman so disdains.

Finally, well after Alan Grayson has been rendered a fleeting footnote in the Google News Archive, Alex Koppelman will regale us with wistful tales of What Might Have Been if only the Democratic Party didn't eat its own.

Brilliant, Alex. At this rate, you could be the next George Stephanopolis!