I feel ridiculous coming here on Dkos to reiterate what everyone else on DKos knows and probably most of our senators and house members know, that to the Congress the US Constitution has given the "power of the purse" over the President.
I feel ridiculous having to write here what has been already written so many times before on this great public forum, that in November of 2006 we (the people) placed, by casting our votes, into our public service candidates from the party presumably opposed to the President's party, the GOP, because we believed that they were running against the President's ill-advised war.
Having taken that step toward popularly ending this unpopular war, we waited with great anticipation for our new Congress to lead us out of this bloody and despicable adventure. But what have we received thus far?
We've watched on C-SPAN attempts to figuratively slap the President's wrist with non-binding resolutions -- which the Republicans blocked in the Senate.
We've heard of some courageous legislation from Senator Feingold and we've watched him hold a hearing with distinguished constitutional scholars on Congress's war powers, and what it can do to legally end the war.
We've heard from Representative Murtha about defunding the war.
We've seen the Speaker, the one we had great hope for, our first woman Speaker, back down from supporting Murtha's proposal.
And at the end of last week we were teased by some news reports that Democrats were finally going to get serious about ending this debacle. So far this week we can only infer that the reports from last week were wrong.
Pardon me if I am not impressed thus far. I am sure I am not the only one.
This diary is not going to cite already well-known popular polls on the subject of the war, the President, his political party, etc. It is not going to remind anyone of the misdirection game that the Bush administration pulled on the American people by citing the litany of investigative reporting and even the government's own reports which unequivocally show the villany of our current administration. It is also not going to quote from our former and current military leaders who question the war path of this President. If you need to be reminded, you can google this information.
What this diary does do is ask you to carry out your constutional duty, which is the following:
- Represent the will of the people (we don't want this war).
- End the war (use your constitutionally given power of the purse: defund)
If you can't do the above, in other words, if you can't carry out your duties, then go home. Go back to where you don't have to make any tough decisions. Go back to where you don't have to represent the people of this country. Just go.
Either others will take your posts, or we can decide that we are fine with no longer living in a democracy. But that is a question for the people of this nation to decide, not for our public officials who work for us.