Letters to the Editor
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Head in the sand Democrats
Many theories have been proposed to explain why the Dems have not been more aggressive in persuing investigations of and taking action against the Bush administration's extreme, radical and often illegal policies and activities, such as torture, rendition, indefinite detentions, signing statements, warrantless surveillance (it goes way beyond wiretaps, of course), national security letters, politicization of the DoJ, etc. These theories include spinelessness, cluelessness, cynical political opportunism, complicity, collaboration, etc.--with the favorite, default position of most being appearing to be spinelessness--i.e. Dems are gutless and need to "grow a pair".
Well, no doubt each of these theories has some validity, to one extent or another, depending on the specific Dem and situation. And no doubt more than one of them is at play with many Dems and in many situations. I'm not a big believer in the "one grand theory that explains everything" school of politics (or anything, really), and I think that it's an oversimplification to say that the Dems behavior is due to one reason and one reason only, such as spinelessness--even though, I would agree, that this does apply to quite a few Dems. But so do other reasons.
And I think that one of those other reasons, that hasn't been getting as much attention, is what I think of as a "head in the sand" mentality among leading Dems. I.e. they know, or strongly suspect, that something is seriously wrong, and has been for years, but choose to pretend that things are not THAT bad, or they're bad, but it's a passing storm, that will go away once the Bush administration is no more, and Dems increase their majorities in congress.
And so they rationalize that the administration's policies and actions, however radical and bad that they are, can be waited out for another year or so, and then all will be well again, and there's no need to fight them, since they'll end soon anyway, and why subject oneself to the difficult, divisive and politically risky experience of having real oversight and investigations, when this is going away soon anyway? I.e. kick the can down the road, keep the powder dry, live to fight another day, because this is not a fight that they feel that they need to have now, nor one that they want to fight, nor one that they feel that they should risk fighting.
Of course, this is certainly spineless. People don't stick their head in the sand unless they're trying to avoid something that they fear and lack the courage to face. But it's not, and cannot possibly be in my opinion, just spinelessness. I think that it's spinelessness, combined with cluelessness, along with active self-delusion, complicity, collaboration, political opportunism, and all these other motivations. But on a functional, operative level, I think that Dems believe, or have chosen to believe because it suits them, that things aren't as bad as they clearly are, and that they don't need to fight this fight, and can just wait things out and all will be well again.
Which I think most of us would agree is a wrong and dangerous position to take. But these Dems have the luxury of not having to listen to us right now, and of being able to deny reality (or what most of us view as reality), and the likely serious consequences of doing nothing meaningful to oppose and investigate these radical and illegal policies and actions. And whether due to spinelessness, cluelessness, complicity, opportunism, etc., pretending that things aren't that bad and can be waited out, these Dems' unwillingness to do this is a manifestation of an overall head in the sand mentality that is going to be extremely hard for us on the outside to penetrate. Not that we can't penetrate it, and shouldn't try. But as many have noted, they live in an elite, protected bubble--the beltway, the "Village", "Versailles", etc.--that shields them, in the near term at least, from outside criticism and influence.
I think that it can be penetrated, and will become somewhat easier to penetrate, as the campaign season gets underway at the congressional, as opposed to presidential level. Between a refusal to support incumbents, to support for primary challenges, to activist groups such as MoveOn running attack ads on the most egregious Dems (and Repubs), to holding rallies and protests and other grass-roots activities, to prominent bloggers (and a handful of courageous and honest journalists and pundits such as Dana Priest, James Risen, Sy Hersh, Paul Krugman, E.J. Dionne, etc.) not letting the matter rest, we to can have some influence. It may or may not make the difference, but it's certainly worth trying.
But simply calling these Dems "spineless" in self-righteous indignation and giving up in disgust is not a solution, and in its way is just as spineless itself. This is not a spectator sport, and anyone who is upset with this is morally and ethically obliged to do something about it beyond complaining about it. At the very least, we should all be calling our members of congress and letting them know that they need to be far more aggressive in standing up to the administration. But we can do much more, I think, and should.