Following Saturday night's Constitutional shred-a-thon, climaxing in the passage of the FISA bill legalizing six months of warrantless wiretaps on domestic communications, I was stunned and appalled. Fortunately, so were the rest of you. And so together we are going through The Six Stages of Political Grief:
abandonment, paranoia, rationalization, unfocused anger, focused anger, action.
Each of these stages is necessary, though we each experience them differently. The diaries and comment threads below helped me move through them. I hope they help you as well. Together, we will transcend this. Because we're good enough, we're smart enough, and gosh darn it people -- well, ok, people don't like us, but they damn well need us.
Stage One: Abandonment
A throwing up of hands, a declaration of "Fuck this shit, I'm going home," a return to apathy or at least Canada.
This stage, and all stages below, are critical for a healthy grieving process. I am grateful to inclusiveheart for articulating it so well in a diary last night
"Done. I am done.
Democracy is dead in America.
[...]
They are all liars, crooks and thieves who for whatever reason that I could care less about have decided to destroy our democracy. I could give a shit about their motivations here."
Stage Two: Paranoia
A denial that such a setback could occur honestly, an incomprehension of worldviews so different from my own, a desperate search for signs of foul play.
I am grateful to several commenters (especially nehark) in an enjoyable thread I participated in last night. Comments below are not all from one person.
I believe Pelosi and Reid are complicit in what is going on. They are doing everything they can to ensure that the Democrats lose Congress in 2008 by their pathetic performances.
I suspect that many of our Democrats are working for the Bush people. It's just a suspicion, but I think we're well beyond believing that politics plays an important role in all this capitulation... Bush is at 26% for God's sake. What on earth are they afraid of?
Stage Three: Rationalization
A struggle to understand, to dispense with conspiracy theories and see it from the other side, to explain how the unforgivable acts we see can be performed by the decent souls we believed in.
I was touched to see indy2dem, a Webb supporter, wrestling with it ("I only want to understand, and that may take a while, but it's difficult to think of a valid reason.") I found myself often thinking along the path followed by Jjc2006, again on Webb:
For pete's sakes, Jim Webb worked for the Regan administration. Ergo, he was way to the right of me. But his competition of George Allen, a Confederate flag waving, racist. Next to Allen, it would not be hard to look "progressive".
Stage Four: Unfocused Anger
A rejection of all attempts at understanding, and a blind seething contempt for those who would betray our principles. Fun, but exhausting. This was demonstrated by many, including Hesiod
The simple fact of the matter is, when it comes to protecting my family and my country from terrorists or our enemies, I no longer trust Congressional Democrats to do the job.
There is a very simple and easy to understand reason for this: They are pathetic cowards.
This is often followed by a return to Stage One, and the cycle repeats. It is rewarding to be guided at last to Stage Five:
Stage Five: Focused Anger
The shift from emotion to pragmatism, from blaming Congressional Democrats, or the Democratic Party, or the American people, press, and political system, to blaming those at whose feet the blame must lie.
Espoused most clearly and prominently by reliable luminary Meteor Blades in his front-page post today
I know what a lot of you 57 Democratic Representatives and Senators are going to be saying over the next month... [but] frankly, you epitomize weak. Your every pore exudes feebleness. You are surrender monkeys. And you’ve just casually tossed away a basic protection as if it were a banana peel."
Stage Six: Primary Challenge
Action. Having moved past emotional turmoil and having identified the problem, fixing it. Plf515 this morning wrote the diary I'd gotten up to write:
Representative Vote in 2006 Bush Vote in 2004
Jim Cooper TN-05 68.9 46.3 Time for a primary!
Jim Costa CA-20 Unopposed 48.4 Time for a primary!
Artur Davis AL-07 Unopposed 33.1 Time for a primary!
Brian Higgins NY-27 79.3 44.8 Time for a primary!
Daniel Lipinski IL-03 77.1 33.2 Time for a primary!
Charles A. Wilson OH-06 62.1 49.4 Time for a primary!
We need to go still farther. We need a populist challenger in every district, especially Bush-weak districts with Republican incumbents and, in my opinion, even Bush-strong districts with Blue Dog incumbents.
Do we risk losing those districts by running populist primary challengers? I think if a populist challenger can unseat an incumbent in a primary, then he or she has a decent shot at winning the newly open seat.
More to the point, the primary challenge itself may make a candidate more aware of -- and responsive to -- the populist, Constitution-loving segment of the constituency.
We have six months.