A friend of mine who is a radio commentator in California lamented to me that night that things were all wrong and the prorities were off. Why wasn't the first acts of Congress overturning the Military Commissions Act or ordering the withdrawal of troops from Iraq?
I really felt for him. Years of frustration is turning to hope in the unusually spring-like weather of DC and we want it all NOW.
But having worked on both sides of the political coin, things are never as they appear.
My first thought was that Congress is softening up the President like a boxer softening up his opponent. First pass ethics reforms, then pass stem cell research and minimum wage increases. If Bush vetoes those he looks even worse and then we move to the big stuff.
But after meeting with several friends who work on the Hill, it turns out that is not the problem at all. Most of the committees are only partially staffed. Education and Workforce, which deals with minimum wage issues is one of the few that has close to a full staff.
Judciary is much slower and has almost no new staff in an office that doubles in size when it takes the majority. In fact the phone numbers were not even switched over to make the Dems the majority office. In order to undo years of damage to civil rights in a way that does not make us look soft on terror and crime, it needs to be done properly rather than the swift and careless way the GOP instituted it. When I say swift, keep in mind that it still took nearly a year after the Hamdi ruling to draft the Military Commissions act and took three months to pass it.
Rome was not built in a day, but neither was it destroyed in a day. While raising minumum wage is a small change in the law, civil rights must be restored in a proper manner because of years of jurisprudence on the issues.
Similarly, we need to build a consensus on Iraq, have a plan and STICK WITH IT. So far it looks like the Dems are starting to get the backbone to say "no" to the surge (which is promising). But to have a real counter plan we need one that will get a majority and that the Heath Shulers and John Sestaks can take home to their districts. Kucinich, Skelton and others need to find a real plan and make it stick. This too will take time, but needs to be done quickly.
We can put pressure on our Dems, but let them know we support them too. Cindy Sheehan interrupted a press conference to protest the war even though Rahm Emmanuel and Nancy Pelosi are on their side in opposing the surge. PDLA picketed the offices of Henry Waxman because he would not support the McGovern plan yet. Waxman is no Joe Lieberman. He is as progressive as they come on most issues and will be our best weapon in investigating the Bush administration. Publicly embarassing and confronting sympathetic elected officials only earns ire and makes us look irrational no matter how just our cause.
The best approach is to meet with our Congressmembers, tell them how we feel and remind them that Dems need a backbone. But that is not a license to act like children who want their cookies now.
I heard hope in the halls of Congress for the first time in 12 years on January 4th. There was talk of restoring due process rights, making home loans more affordable by reforming Fannie Mae to lift the $300,000 ceiling. and many other ideas that would restore justice and opportunity to our country.
Let us keep the pressure but show we can sustain a lasting majority without turning into a circular firing squad.
It took 8 years for the far right to get only a percentage of what they wanted. It will take us some time to right the balance but if we do it smartly, right and time will be on our side.