Surfing by Yahoo this evening I notice some interesting headlines.
Ney to Temporarily Cede House Panel Chair
Poll: Delay Losing Support in Own District
Cronkite: Time for US to Leave Iraq
Over at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, there's a nice faq about the Abramoff case which clearly lays out many of the points our side has been vociferously making.
What is the primary focus of Dkos talk today? Those "weak, spineless" Democrats.
Believe me, I'm right there with you that we (all of us who hate war, have respect and compassion for our fellow humans, believe in fairness, justice and equality) are gonna be fucked but good for the next few years. And I, like many of you all, have a terrible deep yearning for someone of consequence to stand up and say ENOUGH!.
But why must we continue to spend precious time, energy, thought and resources in these semi-regular acts of fratricide? Energy and Resources that could be used to support, magnify and further broadcast many of the positive developments for Democrats that are happening right now, and will keep on happening? Long drawn out court cases like the Plame affair and the Abramoff case are gifts that will keep on giving, if only we can learn how to accept those gifts, and invest them toward continued blossoming of public opinion that has already shifted to our side in many many areas.
I agree with one of the diarists who said here earlier that we lost the SCOTUS on 11/2/04. And the Alito confirmation, if it happens, will just be another nightmare made real in the series of painful clairvoyances about 2005-2008 I had on that day. And yet, I find myself still struggling to find some small speck of positivity in this development. And sometimes I think that the only way America's true "silent majority" will wake up is if some of their very basic rights begin to be stripped away. The federal right to an abortion is gone if Alito is confirmed. Everyone with a brain knows this to be true, as true as we knew in 2002 that an invasion of Iraq was inevitable. Is this a silver lining? Not in the way I would ever hope a silver lining to be, but having watched scandal after scandal fade into the ether of oblivion, continuing to watch a disaster of a war unfold in more death and destruction with each passing day, I'm beginning to think there is no bad news that Americans cannot absorb and wring out with another round of football, shopping and video games.
But losing the right to an abortion? This will impact a lot of people, and more Republicans than would ever care to admit it. Not all of them are fundamentalists. Just the ones in charge.
As to the calls to "abandon ship"... we are not a parliamentary system. If we were, I'd be right there leading the charge. There are only 2 sides in our political system. I'm not talking about Democrats and Republicans. I'm talking about Winners and Losers. I'm tired of being a loser, but I can never ever in a million years imagine myself being one of them, the gloating, loathing, sneering, bellowing, arrogant, bigoted people that make up the "winners" that are in charge of our country today.
The next time we decide to expend precious resource on throwing stones at our own house, let's take a moment, hell take a few hours, and remember where this rage comes from. The Diane Feinsteins and Joe Liebermans of the world may not be our knights in shining armor, but they are not responsible for the position we find ourselves in. They're not the ones fucking us right now. It's true they may not be doing enough to make it stop, but they're not the perpetrators.
I know there'll probably lots of you that will say of self criticism "That's what makes different than them". Yes losers are different than winners. Who wants to win?