Article: The THIRD Option (Systematic Primary Challenges)

What is it going to take for the majority of the American People to get the attention of Congress? In this piece we will propose the simple, necessary, and what should have been self-evident, answer to this question. Many more people are speaking out every day, emailing and calling their members of Congress on the issues. It is not just that we need to engage even more people in political policy activism, because we need to do that anyway in any case. But our current Congresspeople have not yet made the connection between people speaking out, and the loss of their own seats when they fail to heed our voices. We need to help them make that connection on a more personal level. Since before the last election the Democratic party has been operating from the assumption that they cannot be challenged from the progressive side. They have systematically taken their own natural supporters for granted, thinking that no matter how pathetic they proved to be in the majority, that most of us had no other choice because we would not vote for an overtly ideologically hostile member of the other party. But we the people have a third option . . . systematic primary challenges. Some heard what they wanted to hear, thinking that electing Democrats last time would end the occupation of Iraq. We knew better. Besides promising some deliberately vague "new direction", we know first hand that where they had a choice, in the last election cycle the Democratic party honchos systematically refused to support any candidate even implying that our troops should be quickly brought home. But whatever the so-called leaders of the Democratic party were actually up to, the American people were desperate enough for change to give them a chance. And they have blown that chance completely. We were told before the last election that impeachment was "off the table". And some of us chose to believe that the official Democratic party position might change in the face of further revelations (which has since happened) of the manifest ongoing constitutional crimes of the Cheney White House. But what might have on first blush have been taken as altruistic deference of personal ambition has degenerated into congenital and irredeemable cowardice. Since that last election, what have the Democrats done with their majorities in both houses of Congress? They have not delivered on a single major agenda item without surrendering on an even larger principle. For example, they could have rallied the American people in support of the minimum wage increase standing alone, but instead surrendered on hundreds of billions of additional war spending to get it. They have surrendered on things they did not have to surrender on. And while the Republicans have filibustered at a record pace from their side, the Democrats this week couldn't even get it together to filibuster pro-torture and pro-imperial presidency Mukasey, even though they had the votes to do it. And that was without the votes of every single Democratic senator running for president, who didn't even bother to show up. It is reported that the Mukasey appointment was traded for temporary handful of talking point beans, which they will end up giving away also at the next confrontation. Does anybody else remember these lofty words asserted in the wake of the resignation of previous attorney general Alberto Gonzales, referring to any replacement? "The nominee must also pledge to cooperate with ongoing congressional oversight into the conduct of the White House in the politicization of federal law enforcement." Mukasey promised no such thing. In fact, he would not even concede that the president had to follow the law. What a sad joke on the American people is the current majority leadership. They keep telling us that next week they'll finally find a backbone . . . really. The only backbone to be had will be the one provided by the people themselves, and their new and DIFFERENT representatives as the last resort required now. Suppose there was a baseball team manager who lost every game, absolutely every one, who made nothing but bad trades. How long do you think it would take before they got sacked by the owners? We the people are the owners of our representatives in Congress. They work for us, not the other way around. And it is seriously time to start sacking them. There is hardly a Democratic member of congress who will not admit that the Cheney White house has committed unprecedented constitutional crimes. And yet, when you challenge them as to why they will not call for impeachment, they give some lame excuse about their dereliction in not doing so. Do they seriously delude themselves into thinking that the American people will give them a bigger majority based on their abject failure to exercise the power we have already given them? There is a live Cheney impeachment resolution before the House Judiciary committee right now, H.Res. 799 (renumbered from H.Res 333), thanks in part to the mocking arrogance of the Republicans in opposing the motion to table as a lark. But for the moment that is the perfect place for it for mobilizing purposes, for the Judiciary Committee is exactly where real articles impeachment must emerge from. The Judiciary Committee's first reaction when it was referred to them was to say they were busy with other things for the next two weeks (which things they likely aren't going to get done either). Cheney Impeachment Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/hres333.php Facebook Version: http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum709 Well, we have a message for each and every member of the House of Representatives. Either publicly come out in support of Cheney impeachment in the next two weeks, and commit yourself to dedicating everything you've got to make that happen, or you WILL face a serious primary challenge. You want two weeks? OK, you've got two weeks. We'll just keep mobilizing in the meantime, if you don't mind. We could have picked any number of other issues as a litmus test, for example cutting off the funding for the continued vain debacle in Iraq. But impeachment contains within itself the entirety of the cure for all other policy evils, for it represents the one thing that Congress has fundamentally failed to do (notwithstanding a single override of an infrastructure bill veto), confront the constitutional bullies in the White House. Even were Congress to cut off all new war spending some commentators believe the Cheney gang would just steal the money from somewhere else to continue it anyway. In fact, unless we act now, they are dead set on starting a new and even larger war with Iran by next summer, so that we the people no longer have a choice. Protecting and defending the Constitution is job number one for every member of Congress, and if they can't even do that they are forever useless to us. Were a Democratic administration to commit even a tiny fraction of the outrageous abuses of the Cheney White House, the cable TV news bullies would be screaming wall to wall for impeachment 24-7. They railed about every trumped up little cosmetic indiscretion for 6 years during the Clinton administration, and finally blew up a blow job into a capital offense. The Republicans were punished by the American people in 1998 for pushing for impeachment in defiance of the will of the American people. The Democrats will be similarly punished in the general election for defying the will of the American people by NOT pursuing impeachment, if we don't do it first in the primaries. What's that you say, the Republicans for partisan reasons would never protect and defend the Constitution now? Let the American people clearly see that! We propose no exceptions. None. Members of the House of Representatives, either do your job and stand up to the Cheney White house or get out of the people's House. Most of the seats we are talking about have already been gerrymandered such that whoever wins the Democratic primary will also win in the general election. As the clamor for impeachment grows louder we are finding out just how poorly represented we are, just how truly cowardly our representatives are. We the people are not cowards. And we will not be represented by cowards, no matter how long they have unjustifiably held their seats. And we have a message for all public leaders in the impeachment, antiwar or any other progressive movements. You are already out there giving better speeches than any member of Congress. YOU MUST RUN YOURSELVES. We have a message for those who have been dragged out of Congressional hearings, rallies, excluded from today's Memorial Day parades, assaulted by security guards, and everything else. Your track record of courage is already of public record. YOU MUST RUN. Will we continue to heckle from the parking lots, heard faintly if at all from distant, designated free speech isolation cages, or will we wield the gavel ourselves? You have sat in offices. You have demonstrated. You have pleaded the case of justice. Now you must understand that there is one and only one message that members of Congress will ever actually heed, that their own seats are in jeopardy. We must galvanize around that unavoidable fact. If they lack the courage to cast the votes of conscience, we will find someone else who will. So what is the first step? What can you do, whether you can see yourself running for Congress or not? Very simply, speak out for impeachment now yourself at every opportunity. Cheney Impeachment Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/hres333.php Facebook Version: http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum709 And keep doing it. In every district of the country patriotic Americans are spontaneously coming together, organizing themselves in the growing impeachment movement. All you have to do to be part of this movement is speak out now. And those who most effectively organize now will naturally become the candidates the people seek. Just get out there and help mobilize around the impeachment issue. The people will find you. Be ye not concerned about how you will finance a congressional run. The most important single element in any election campaign is people power. Sufficient boots on the ground will defeat any amount of opposition money. Put on your own boots and get out there. Help mobilize now around impeachment, and whatever money you really need to run will also be there. In particular, massive primary challenges will have the additional boon of boosting primary election turnout, which may be necessary for example in California to defeat the snaky attempt by Republican operatives to cut up the electoral votes ONLY there by party. On this one piece of electoral subterfuge may turn the entire 2008 presidential election. It has not been necessary for us in this piece to name names, to advocate for or against the election of any particular member of Congress. Those who must go will self identify themselves in the next two weeks, by their response to the voices of the people's demands.