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THE COURAGE OF ONE’S CONVICTIONS; and the 32 Harlot
Democrats who voted for Rice
by Frank Pitz
That time worn admonition popped into my mind
unbidden this week when the Senate votes for Madam Rice were
tallied, 85 ayes and 13 nays. I immediately thought of the above
titled phrase, I suppose in relation to the 12 Democrats and 1
Independent who chose to vote against the Rice confirmation. By my
math then, that means that of the 85 votes for confirmation 32 of
those were Democrats. Now I suppose an argument could be made by
those Dems who cast an affirmative for Doctor Rice that her
confirmation “was a given,” and there is no doubt about that. What
I find troubling – and I will attempt to lay it out here in a
two-fold analogy – is that the majority of these acquiescent
Democrats are quick to “cast the first stone” (as it were) when it
comes to castigating that silent majority known as the non-voting
public. This chastisement – of course – takes the verbal structure
of things like, “you need to vote and have your voice heard;” or
“every vote counts.” (More on this farther on). Now, if that is so
much a self-evident truth as these astute politicos would want us to
believe; then the question begs asking: Why in the name of all that
is moral, did you vote for confirmation? My fondest desire is to
sit down individually and ask each and every one of those Democratic
Senators to account for their reasoning I assume the spin would
literally bring on a severe case of vertigo.
Now as to the
second part of my analogy I borrow from the words of Mark Twain.
“It is curious – curious that physical courage should be so common
in the world, and moral courage is so rare.” I believe that sums it
up quite succinctly regarding the affirmative votes cast by the 32
Dems. Now that Bush and the Christian right-wing nuts have labeled
this the dawning of the age of morality, one would think that
Senators such as Feinstein, Dodd, Schumer, Nelson, Clinton,
Rockefeller, Obama, Mikulski, et al would have seized the moment and
mounted a moral protest by casting a no vote for Condi Rice. Or,
perhaps, that does not fit with their concept of moral value. As a
progressive voter – and think about it-- these folks have to stand
for election in a couple years – I would certainly be prone to
listen to any opponent (save for a Republican) who could mount a
plausible argument against these moral cowards. And moral cowards
they are regardless of whatever spin may come in the future.
In the first
paragraph I throw out the old hackneyed phrases about “every vote
counts” etc, as oft time uttered by politicians. Given the
peculiarities surrounding the 2000 election – and that one we know
for a fact was stolen – and the nagging questions being continually
raised about the 2004 election, we now know for sure that every vote
does not count. We further know especially those votes don’t count
if you are black, or if you are an ex-felon – either real or
imagined. But the votes that do count, in that August chamber on
Capital Hill in DC are constantly being cast in defiance of – and
detrimental to – the express wishes of the people who do give a
damn, and do trudge out there to vote in spite of the overwhelming
odds. They do this wishing – and hoping - that their elected
representative do the right/moral thing when they cast a vote on the
floor of that aforementioned chamber.
And each and
every time that that elected representative casts a vote in
opposition to the express wishes of the voter who put them in that
chamber, that representative is no more than a harlot for the
special interests that are ruining Democracy in the United States.
I know that I am not alone in feeling this way, there are many of us
with these sentiments, as a writer, and speaker I listen to many
people express views such as this. The sad part of it is that many,
many of these people are dropping out of the system – of course this
is the end goal of the tyrant – and that bodes ill for our
Democratic form of government. To those 13 Democratic and
Independent Senators who voted out of conscience against Madam Rice,
we salute you. To the 32 Democratic Senators who voted for Rice,
you should be driven from the Democratic Party, you have no
conscience – you have no shame. And, it can be presumed that this
op-ed piece can also be applied when
Alberto – the
terror – Gonzales is confirmed in a few days.
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- Take care.
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- Frank
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Frank Pitz (fpitz@comcast.net)
lives in South Florida with Patricia and a beautiful Irish Setter
named Dory. Frank has a background in journalism, community
development, as well as community organizing.
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