"Here the Dems have the first good shot in six years to do some real damage to the Bush&Co. machine, to start to build real momentum for wholesale change, and Pelosi is playing old-style, namby-pamby politics. There are a lot of Dems who will sit on their hands in November if Pelosi's type of Democratic action is what's representing the party. At the least, she should give herself some wiggle room, say something like impeachment is not in the cards 'unless more evidence of presidential malfeasance emerges,' or something like that."
"Maybe," I replied, "Pelosi is angling for 2008. Everybody else wants to be on that ticket, so why not her, as a V.P. choice? If so, she figures she's got to move toward the center for November."
"You Democrats never learn," said Shallow Throat. "Your party is seriously considering Hillary Clinton as your 2008 nominee! (Or maybe it's Rove&Co. trying to pre-select Hillary as the candidate they'd most like to run against.) Not only is she a craven piece of walking ambition, who will trim her sails to the prevailing winds, selling out the base of the party with nary a qualm, but she also starts out with the most astonishingly high and passionate negatives -- a third of the voters won't even consider her. That's quite a handicap to take into a potentially tight race. There are plenty of solid, reasonable, electable candidates to choose from.
"The country has changed considerably since Hillary and Bill were in the White House. The polarization of politics is even more pronounced. Bush has used and abused the Constitution in setting himself up as an old-style monarch -- he's more King George III than President George the W -- who wants all power in his hands. It's like 'I can do whatever I want whenever I want and you can't do a bloody thing about it' -- that's what America's once-admired democratic republic has come to these days, hostage to a poseur with a self-esteem problem.
"The U.S. already is involved in two wars, and now Bush wants to add another one, in Iran -- possibly using nuclear weapons! The economy, and future generations, are burdened by humongous deficits to finance Bush's wars and tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy. Our air and water are becoming more unhealthy as the industrial polluters effectively write the legislation regulating discharges. The courts are becoming dangerously politicized and unbalanced. The Congress, already a rubber-stamp, is ignored by the Administration. The conglomerate-owned mass-media are beholden to the powers that be and rarely do their journalistic jobs. The Administration is like a take-the-money-and-run crowd, with corruption everywhere you look. Iraq is even more of a disaster than anyone thought was possible. The entire electoral process is corrupted and infinitely corruptable, to the point where millions believe their votes are not counted honestly or accurately, especially since one party's supporters control the vote-tabulating systems."
"So," I asked, "do you think it's still possible, or desirable, for the Democrats to take over the House in November? And how do they deal with the likelihood of vote-theft and electoral chicanery?"
"Desirable? Yes, for sure. Despite what I think of most Democrats, the alternative is too horrible to contemplate: Two-and-a-half more years of BushCheney wars, billions and billions wasted, reckless bungling, authoritarian mayhem, the Constitution further shredded. Sure, both parties tend to serve the same corporate masters, but the differences between them are signficant indeed when talking about war and peace and respect for the Constitutional guarantees of due process of law.
"In short, the citizens -- on the left, in the middle, on the right -- are angry, frustrated, crying out for a wholesale electoral house-cleaning. And yet your Democrat friends still remain essentially clueless as to the necessity to fight and fight hard -- in short, to become a true party of the opposition. One that will take serious action to challenge the corrupted voting system in this country, for example. So far, not much concerted noise is being made in that regard, though the issue finally is making its way into the mainstream media, and some lawsuits are pending. The bottom line is that we may be a bit late in many states to meaningfully influence voting reform for the November balloting -- still, we have to pull out all the legal stops to do so -- but it's possible to get this issue debated and settled correctly before the 2008 vote for sure.
FIDDLING WITH THE RESULTS
"In short, the 2006 election could be stolen yet again -- unless we work our behinds off between now and November to make sure there is such a huge groundswell of anti-Bush voting, and demands for transparency in the vote-tabulation process, that the Republicans wouldn't dare fiddle with the results. But even there I wouldn't put it past them to try anyway; they're that desperate.
"BushCheney are destroying checks-and-balances, the separation of power, the independent Judiciary, the Congress as the true law-making body. Bush claims the right to torture, to break the law, to spy on millions of his own citizens, to lie the country into war -- wake up and smell the coffee, guys! It's time to gear it up and give those guys fits. Enough is enough. They're not walking over us anymore.
"Given how Bush has botched and alienated nearly everyone in the country and the world, the 2008 election could well be taken by a populist-type Democrat, who promises change, honesty, moderation, a return to competent rule, and unwavering respect for the Constitution.
"For these reasons, and no other, I, a born and bred Republican, will support the Democrat Party in November of 2006. Or else risk getting Jeb in 2008." #
First published by The Crisis Papers and Democratic Underground 5/16/06.
Copyright 2006 by Bernard Weiner.
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