Letters to the Editor
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Why no mention of the Democrats who have NOT blown it?
Mr. Kamiya,
While I enjoyed your article there was no mention of the democrats(yes, few but they DO exist) who standup to Bush's mideast policy and see a very different world. Even better would be the media's role in crucifying anybody that does not support everything Israel wants(or maybe its just the media caving to the Israel Lobby). So your article would have been even better if you had lamented the fact that people like Mike Gravel who challenge Bush and the entire hegemony on Middle East policy are deemed, in the case of Mike Gravel, as crazy or dismissed as having no chance of winning. After Mike Gravel got angry about the resolution calling a part of the Iranian military a terrorist organization, Clinton was asked to respond- at which point she laughed!
While I agree with you that the Democrats in general have blown it, aren't you required to write about the candidates who haven't?
Niklas Moran
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The "Fix" Is In?
These are excerpts from the column of conservative Iraq War opponent Chuck Baldwin:
The "Fix" Is In
By Chuck Baldwin
September 28, 2007
This column is archived at
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2007/cbarchive_20070928.html
"Bush quietly advising Hillary Clinton, top Democrats." This is the title of a much under-reported news story, which appeared in The Examiner on September 24th. The Examiner opens the story by saying, "President Bush is quietly providing back-channel advice to Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging her to modulate her rhetoric so she can effectively prosecute the war in Iraq if elected president."
The story stems from an interview with White House Chief of Staff, Josh Bolten, for The Examiner's Senior White House correspondent Bill Sammon's new book, "The Evangelical President."
Mark it down: Hillary will keep U.S. troops in Iraq. She will also follow through with whatever other military plans Bush has already put in place.
So, come November 2008, Hillary Clinton will be your President, and she will continue the same basic policies of one George W. Bush, who continued the same basic policies of one Bill Clinton, who continued the same basic policies of one George Herbert Walker Bush. One would think that eventually the American people would begin to catch on.
Until they do, however, the "fix" is in.
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two halves-same coin
The failure of the American democracy in the middle east, and at home, owes as much to the Democrats as it does to the delusional, obtuse, war criminal currently president. 73 senators including Hillary and Edwards voted to go to war without much thought, unquestioning the propaganda, and with little feeling about what was foretold would happen, death, destruction, depravity, and societal collapse. For that they and America are culpable. Instead of doing the right thing later when the right thing became more than obvious, taking blame, seeking to impeach, and refusing to fund, the Senate approves time after time funding to continue the debacle, line the pockets of Republican cronies in war related businesses, and perpetuate the descent into the hell America created in the region and for which it is forever tarnished. The marginal changes a Hillary or another might make with an illusion of movement or dramatic speechifying wont undo the damage. In destroying the village to save it from itself, America destroyed part of its soul. The damage caused from the bellicosity of Bush only augmented what has gone before in that America long lost its role as arbiter in the region with steadfast principles. The irrational support of Israel no matter what is chronic, and a product of the political calculations of members of both parties. A savior might alter the universal loathing of America that permeates the mideast and a great part of the rest of the planet. But this wont happen because none of the Democrats have it in them. None of them are heroes. They are safe gamers, opportunistic politicians, plying their quadriennial trade in the hunt for power, fame, and the privilege of calling the shots for the rest of us. It is true that everything changes, and this too will pass away eventually. But the cost of now a second profoundly immoral and unwise war to America and its collective psyche will remain. The Democrats, Hillary and the rest, cannot escape their ongoing role. They may spout words of good intentions on occasion, but, "Good and evil lie in a rational and social being's deeds, not in his feelings. Likewise, virtue and vice are terms applied to deeds, not feelings." Marcus Aurelius.
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Ron Paul, Please Help Us.
Ron Paul can win this one, the democrats have officially lost faith, just like the repukens.
and bitchery deserves to go to hell.
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Democrats helping Republicans Win Next Election - sesanders
Even though sesanders is insulted by my characterization of his or her post, it is none the less an accurate characterization. As an example, sesanders repeatedly claims that the American public "will not tolerate" defunding the troops. This is an often repeated statement, especially from people who live their lives inside the DC beltway.
However, as the Washington Post/ABC News poll shows (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/01/AR2007100101235_2.html?sid=ST2007100101284) this statement is entirely an inaccurate. People do support defending the troops to end the war, only a quarter of American adults want Congress to fully fund Bush’s war funding request.
I do think it is accurate, however, to say that Democrats are too afraid of being attacked by Republicans to even try to cut war funding and do not have the stomach to fight back. It's just a cop out to say that "Americans will not tolerate not funding the troops".
And what have the Democrats accomplished sesanders? They give Bush everything he wants. He admits he has been illegally ordering the NSA to spy on us and demands Congress make it legal, and they hurry up and rubber stamp it. Not even a peep out of them, once again they are too afraid of being attacked by the Republicans and don't have the stomach to fight back.
Or wait, what was it then? Were Americans clamoring for Congress to give the Bush administration the power to authorize secret surveillance over the authority of the courts? Something tells me you may think so sesanders.
The point is, if the Democrats want full support they have to do something to get it. That is one thing Democrats could truly learn from Republicans. Republicans know that if they want people to vote for them they have to appeal to their voters by passing legislation, taking stands, and fighting the good fight. Democrats act as if they think they can just order people to shut up and vote for them, which in the end seems to be all you are saying.
You keep talking of political realities, and here is one that is staring you right in the face: people aren’t going to vote for ineffective politicians. The Democrats have to work for their votes, not just their campaign dollars.