People need to realize that politics involves pragmatism and compromise. If you want to push for a vote for which you lack majority support, you will lose, simple as that.

nuff said.

Any citizen who has tried to meet with their representatives in Congress knows that numbers matter. A group of 6 will get the lowest ranking aide in the office, and maybe 5 minutes to present topics in the copy room. A group of 10 or more might get an inner office and an aide with more seniority. Rarely does a group get to meet with the actual rep without a PR event attached, and of course, if a lobbyist contingent shows up, fuggedaboutit, the constituents are toast.

We only matter in large numbers, and Move-On has those numbers, as elusive as email polls are. Tactics and strategies are what works now. I'd like to think that standing on my street corner with peace signs and 20 other idealists will make a difference, but the peace movement has very little credibility anymore, and symbolic gestures have even less in the real world of politics. The Democrats are craven cowards most of the time, but the are the only players we have in the chess game that is being played out right now.

It sucks, but it's true.

Or is their horse so high that they can no longer even see the semi-enlightened multitude down below, trying to do the best that they can with what they've got? Do actual results even matter any more, or is being irrefutably in the right good enough?

Here's what we can learn from the the pseudo-cons (I won't call them neo-cons, since there's nothing remotely conservative about their ideology or approach) - by combining unwavering faith in their convictions with a grandmaster's sense of patience and strategy, they actually made a difference (of course, it's regrettable that the difference that they chose to make is to defile not only the actual institutions, but the very ideals and soul of the constitution and government of the United States, but that doesn't really alter my point).

Patience, people. Slow down and think about what you are doing before you do it. Consider not just the righteousness of your cause, but the consequences of your actions.

There's an awful lot of damage that needs to be undone - the "war" (in quotes because it isn't a real war at all), while horrific, does not represent the sum total of what has gone awry in this country. It's not the disease; it's just the most painful symptom.

And that Middle-America Red State hoi polloi (that you secretly loathe so much) still collectively wields a significant amount of power, and their approval is ephemeral in the short term. If you doubt this, ask yourself - what do we know now that we didn't know leading up to the 2004 elections? And yet the worst President ever will forever go down in history as a two-termer!.

It isn't going to happen overnight. Be smart, and you'll know the exquisite satisfaction of being both right and victorious.

Peace.

I am one of the people who responded to MoveOn's original email urging the censure of President Clinton so that we could "move on" with the true work of government. I understood that they were offering us a strategy, not an ideology, and I have been grateful for the many, many ways they have continued to do this since 1998. They suggested approaches to passing policies and getting out the vote during a time when Congress was nothing but a rubber stamp for this administration, and the media (with a few exceptions) simply parroted the administration's talking points and called it journalism. Their pragmatic approach and serious efforts to keep us moving in the face of the Rovian battering ram kept me from feeling suicidal after the 2000 and 2004 elections. In 2006, they were instrumental in mobilizing enough voters to finally wrestle Congressional control away from the Republicans.

I am also one of the people who answered the poll and I agreed that we should fight to pass the bill, not because the wording of Eli's poll was deceptive, but because I'm politically aware and already knew what was at stake. The defeat of this bill would do nothing to end the war and would be trumpeted by Bush as a victory for his side. There is nothing high-minded about voting against this bill simply because it didn't give us everything we wanted. (That's the kind of self-destructive action that led over 90,000 people in Florida to vote for Nader -- and thus open the door to the Supreme Court's handing the presidency to Bush -- because they felt Gore wasn't ideologically "pure" enough.) This bill is a step in the right direction -- away from this war and away from Bush's policies -- and isn't that how all journeys begin, with a single step? Let's leave the leaping with a single bound towards our goal to non-existent Supermen and just get on the road towards finally ending this war.

I don't know why compromisers like Pelosi are seen as "practical." The "practical" effect of passing this stupid compromise is to go on record saying another two years of war is OK, provided this wonderfully trustworthy president keeps certifying progress. And it's OK to continue it using troops that aren't ready or properly equipped as long as this wonderfully trustworthy president says he really needs to send them.

And this huge compromise will be vetoed, even if it passes the Senate, which is unlikely to say the least. So the grown-ups brilliantly "practical" strategy is to concede all this for no practical effect at all.

I repeat: The concessions gained nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Way to go, Nancy! You saved the antiwar Democrats from having to go on record in favor of properly rested, trained and equipped troops and in favor of immediate redeployment. Best of all, you saved the Blue Dogs from having to defend their votes against properly rested, trained and equipped troops and against an immediate redeployment when primaries roll around.

Wow. Way. To Go. That's so much better than listening to those impractical, idealistic, anti-war hippies. If they had had their way, all you'd have accomplished was to preserve your integrity and give the vast majority of the American people what they clearly said they wanted in the last election.