Letters to the Editor
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Democrats
and it seems many Salon readers can't see past the next election. No wonder the Dems don't have a coherent message. Until they come up with policies that (a)appeal to their traditional base and (b)outlast the next news cycle, they're doomed to play second fiddle.
The Dems are wandering in the wilderness because they made an unholy pact with Bill Clinton and the DLC to take for granted labor, blacks and liberals and move to the right in an effort to co-opt what originated as Nixon's southern strategy. Running away from their base has proved to be good for fundraising, but disastrous for the party and the country. The DLC strategy has never worked and should be abandoned. Clinton needed Perot's help to win and Gore and Kerry lost what should have been cakewalks. Large congressional majorities have become sizeable minorities under the genius of DLC strategizing.
What we are seeing now is a party that vaguely remembers its FDR/JFK/LBJ heyday but has been captured by a DLC that opposes the politics and economics of the earlier Democratic Party. Liberals, labor, blacks and the other elements of the traditional Dem coalition should demand a return to the politics that won elections and the economics that made the country prosperous. If the Democratic Party can't do that, we should drop them in the grease where they belong.
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Not so
the US is not a fascist state and Cheney and Bush are not goering.
There is a sensible article on Dissent (of all places) about anti americansim. You liberals should read it. It's about europe but it applies to you home grown america haters too
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Fenella Fellater
How was the Kook-Aid they had you drink? First, Rumsfailed is Goering. Rove is Goebbels. Cheney is Himmler. George can't grow a moustache and sucks at public speaking-shit, just plain speaking- so he ain't Hitler. That would be, collectively, Perle, Wolfoshitz,and the PNAC fascisti. If you're so pro american, buttbreath, how do you reconcile using the Constitution for a roll of Charmin, and shredding the bill of rights to make us all "safe". Kinda like East Germany was safe. Real tight borders. Achtung, Fellatio.
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Republicrats - Democrans
Bush's war on terror does need to be addressed. Our country is drowning in fear and Democrats share responsibility for it. But let's be honest, with an election right around the corner Democrats and Republicans care more about vote counts than they do about the people that cast them. There is not time to think about what the right direction for our country is, there's real work to be done.
Who can blame them? Politics has become a fashion show while the unfortunate majority of Americans are wrapped around the block waiting for a ticket at the door - and it’s raining. The unfortunate reality is that most of our politicians are completely out of touch. There is more talk of political posturing than there is of public accountability on the hill these days. It seems as though once a representative gets elected they've done their job and they spend a majority of their term playing catch-up with the latest party junket. I realize that their are those undeserving of these accusations and I'm realistic enough to know that all politicians aren't pompous posers, but with all the rhetoric coming from the wires recently its hard to believe those good people to be the majority.
As a self-described "liberal" or "progressive" and a registered Independent, I have always found myself looking for the Democratic Party to give me someone or something to vote for. Even if they don't I usually take the lesser of two evils. Unfortunately my faith in their strength has grown weaker as has the majority of everyone else's. The problem, however, is not them, and while I would love to say it’s the Republicans, it's not them either - it's us. American citizens have lost their spine. We are so caught up in the corporate crazed capitalist American dream of a reality that we have no time to hold our government accountable while they whittle away at our liberties behind our backs.
What happened to real marches, protests, and truly concerned citizens - the war in Iraq was temporarily interrupted by the birth of Tom Cruises baby! The truth is there's just not enough time in the day to squeeze a rally in between Timmy's soccer practice and Grey's Anatomy what's a person supposed to do? And what happened to the newly educated progressive minds entering society - there too busy paying off their exorbitant loans at a 9-5er that doesn't pay overtime and has no dental coverage.
Perhaps this is all a little exaggerated, but for some, if not most, such notions do ring true. Yes, there are plenty of people working hard to hold our government accountable and there has been a recent surge of progressive grassroots efforts due largely to the exponential growth of the Internet and self-publishing - I will not argue with that. But if you read a lot of them - if you sort through the endless daily liberal blogs or pod casts, or whatever - its articles or postings just like this one, espousing the pitfalls of the Democrats, damning the Republicans, and calling on someone to do something before it's too late.
Enough talk, let's do it! Despite this rant, there are organizations out there getting people involved and I would urge anyone who reads this to find one near you - make their job easier. Articles like this are only blowing smoke and spreading an already exaggerated epidemic of national inaction. If you want to rap about this some more try www.critcalgrass.com and post something to that effect.
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Failure
We are now in the third election cycle since 9/11 and the American people remain prey to a curious cognitive dissonance. Even in 2004 a majority had pretty nearly concluded the War in Iraq was a mistake, but, a clear majority still favored Bush on his overall handling of the War on Terror, and we re-elected the President. In the intervening two years, a nearly 60/40 majority have consistently expressed a belief that Iraq was a mistake, but the President still scores significantly higher for his stewardship of the larger engagement. The curious thing about it is the War in Iraq remains overwhelmingly the major commitment of the administration's conduct of the GWOT: a commitment in treasure, and tragically, in the lives of young Americans. We remain at this late date still creatures of our fears, wanting very much to believe we have been well led since 9/11, and that our safety has been looked after at least well enough to stick with Bush and Co..
I propose to end this confusion by pointing out an inevitable consequence of their actions would be that, if there had been Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, they would be in Osama bin Laden's hands today.
It is undeniable.
They betrayed their most solemn obligations to our safely with their planning, and grossly compounded their errors in the execution.
Ultimately there were two reasons that persuaded the American people on the Iraq War. The first was the possibility Saddam Hussein might sell or give away Weapons of Mass Destruction to terrorists. In both reason and experience, it was a weak argument. What mattered about the threat was that Americans – hovering in an anxiety of fear and outrage after 9/11 (and well cultivated in that by Bush and Co.) found it plausible. That was enough. The second reason persuading us to the war was the idea that introducing a stable, democratic, pluralistic, prosperous regime, right in the heart of the Arab/Muslim world, would do much to achieve momentum in a direction, beneficial to ourselves and to the people of the region. This latter reason was put forward by the administration before the war, but was hardly emphasized to the public at large in the immediate run up to launch. It was, however, the reason accepted by most of the country's opinion elites, including those who might normally have opposed going to war with Iraq in the first quarter of 2003. In the aftermath, however, it was offered as the raison d’ être for nearly everything: a statement the administration’s ‘core strategy’ for the whole of our engagement with Islamic Radicalism.
With both of these causes for action Bush and Co. manifestly and incontrovertibly failed to act in a manner consistent with vital American interests. They betrayed us all, and thereby forfeit any claim to our trust.
You cannot invade Iraq and assume such Weapons of Mass Destruction as there are will fall into your hands like fruit from a ripened vine. You must go in prepared to win fast and then lock Iraq down as completely and thoroughly as possible, sealing its borders. The regime we were driving from power now would have every reason to sell or give away weapons to terrorists. An Iraq roiling with the fog and frictions of war offered an ideal opportunity for WMD's to be transferred to terrorists and spirited out of the country. The historical record incontrovertibly witnesses that they planed for, and succeeded in, winning fast, but did not plan for what our national security absolutely required. If there had been Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, the terrorists would have them. The only thing that saved the President (and us!) is that Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction in the first place. But that is not what the administration believed. By their own understandings they failed utterly.
If your 'Grand Strategy' is to produce a stable, democratic, prosperous, pluralistic Iraq to serve as a template for transforming the whole Arab/Muslim world, then you must first produce civil peace. Without that NOTHING ELSE is possible - NOTHING. For that reason you have to go in fully prepared to establish civil order in Iraq. The President has described the conflict with terror as the defining struggle of this century. Whether it took three hundred thousand, as General Shinseki proposed, or five hundred thousand, or more, you had to succeed. NO EXCUSES! And yet their plans for Post War Iraq explicitly failed to provide for the force it would take to achieve civil order. The only saving grace was that the initial failure in planning, however crippling, might have been remedied. But instead there has been an almost unredeemed circus of blundering and corruption, bringing us to the point where our only options appear to be remaining in the frying pan or leaping into the fire. In this they failed not only their own strategy, and American national interests, but the Iraqi people as well.
With respect to both of their causes for action in Iraq the American people see failure - failure which opened us to short term catastrophe and long term disaster. Trust them still further? Trust them any longer with the defining struggle of the coming century?
Sadly, you do not need to fool all of the people - some of the time or all of the time - only a majority of those who vote. If we do not get them in this election cycle, yielding at least one House of Congress willing to use the power of the subpoena, they will have gotten away with it. We will have defined the greatest failure of citizen responsibility in the history of the Republic.
R. K. Rodebaugh