Thursday, May 24, 2007

Democrats Cave In

I know we are supposed to be aghast at the Dems latest cave-in to the Bush administration. That is, the Dems capitulating on the Iraq spending bill and stripping the bill of a timetable for getting our troops out of Iraq And I truly am pissed. Not aghast, but pissed. I’m pissed at feeling so powerless. When the Dems gained control of the House and Senate I felt that now we had a voice. I felt it gave us the edge we needed, a chance to change the wholesale sell-out of the United States government to every malevolent power group on the face of the planet. But I had forgotten that the GOP and the Bush administration are like Big Julie in “Guys and Dolls” who was so powerful in the Chicago mob that when he brought his own dice with no spots to a crap game, everyone caved in and let him use them. Big Julie said he could remember where the spots were. Now that the Dems have given in, again, to the worst President the US has ever had, I’m wondering, WHAT DID WE EXPECT? The Dems have a simple majority in the House and Senate but no powerbase for ensuring that votes go in their favor and no power to override the president’s veto. Yes, I’ve seen Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment. And yes, I’ve read the rants and tirades and the claims that sometimes you have to remain true to your beliefs even when you know you are going to lose. Olbermann’s Comments were wonderful! He was righteously (in the true sense of the word) indignant, furious and very articulate. But I still find it difficult to be enraged at the Democrats who are in a crapshoot with the Republicans who have changed the laws of the land so that they are allowed to use dice with no spots because they can remember where the spots were. I just don’t know where not ceding to the Republicans on the Iraq war bill would have gotten us. The Dems have chosen to engage in practical politics and to get on with it. But isn’t it still the Republicans who were willing to hold up funding their Iraq war until hell froze over, just because they could? Isn’t it still the Republicans who are going to suffer at the polls and be voted out? Isn’t it still the Republicans who are the warmongering, war-profiteermg, intransigent fascists who have betrayed Americans for their personal gain? Isn’t it still the Republicans who are wire-tapping and spying on Americans? Isn’t it still the Republicans who have changed the laws in the United States and violated the Constitution? The Dems stance on illegal immigrants is wrongheaded and stupid. But I think wrath at the Dems over the Iraq spending bill is misplaced.

1 comment:

Barry Schwartz said...

You can read at my LJ what the Democrats have done that is so awful.

Incidentally, because military expenditures require the occasional passage of a law, Democrats in Congress can simply do nothing. Or at least they could before now. I favor doing this--the political risk be damned--but unlike at least one major blogger out there, who imagines Bush to be a clever fox instead of a halfwitted sociopath, I don't kid myself that this guarantees Bush would bring the troops home.