I must save this government if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will not do; but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed. - Abraham Lincoln
When Lincoln said that, it was a Civil War which threatened to divide our country. Today, there isn't a war between citizen and citizen, but between citizen and government. Why? Because the Bush administration has attacked the interests of the American people, squandered its fortune, and caused so many to die in war. Today's divide is not between north and south, but between the people and its government, a government which has proved over the last few years that it is created by and for the powerful rather than the citizenry of these United States.
There are times when a certain form of governance becomes toxic, where those in the public trust act not as civil servants, but as self-serving politicos. We are living in such a time.
The Congress no longer belongs to ordinary Americans; it belongs to the lobbyist who can cut the largest check. The Presidency no longer leads, but misleads. And the Judiciary (specifically the Supreme Court) is set to belong to the most vile, extreme, and un-American element of our society.
Democrats can either surrender this government to a party which seeks to destroy it, or we can take Lincoln's advice and play our available cards. To those who say filibusters--judicial, patriot act, etc--are too politically costly, I say that failure to filibuster is conceding that this nation isn't worth fighting for. Instead of worrying that we will be labeled "obstructionist," I say we filibuster Alito, filibuster the Patriot Act, filibuster time and time again until this crazy government comes to a screeching halt. Enough is enough. The list of scandals is overshadowed only by the list of names of the 2,190 whose deaths have yet to be honored by this administration.
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t what point will our party realize that it's not just the midterm elections at stake here? Politics is secondary to the fact that our country has changed,
drastically, over the last several years. What is that change? It is the unraveling of the American flag thread by thread. It is erasing the Bill of Rights letter by letter. It is, ultimately, about waking up one day and not recognizing this great society as the "America" we know and love.
This new year requires a new attitude by the Democratic Party. The party must acknowledge the gravity of the political climate today. It is not a time to crack jokes on Sunday talk shows; it is not a time to mince words or to parrot political consultants. It is a time to speak with the courage and conviction that is required when one is fighting for the heart of their country.
Democrats will not win by pledging to "do better." We will not gain a majority or even the Presidency in 2008 by approaching the American people as politicians. If we are to win, we must rediscover what it means to serve at the will of the people. We must show voters that we are willing to fight, not just talk, for their interests.
Time and time again, we've heard pundits gleefully recount the fact that the GOP is suffering, but the Democrats can't capitalize on it. It's true, to an extent. Where Bush is at 40% approval, he should be at 10%. Where we are ahead in congressional polling by 10 points, we should be ahead by 30. Why have we not been able to react properly to the plethora of scandals the GOP has laid before us? Because of fear.
Fear is what stifles the speech of our leaders, tying their tongues so they can't say the word "LIE." They write letters blasting the administration, but it is fear that holds them back from expressing the same level of outrage when speaking on national television. Fear is what caused so many Democrats to run away from Murtha's plan. We fail as a party not because we lack conviction, but because our words and actions are paralyzed by fear. We're afraid to be labeled as cowards, as commies, as traitors.
And in those rare moments when Democrats have spoken based on conscience rather than poll numbers, we, the party faithful, get all excited. The blogosphere buzzes with cheers for the "smackdown". Thousands of comments are dedicated to the discovery of "a spine." But what does it say about our party that we rejoice in what should be a commonplace event?
A Democrat speaking clearly, truthfully, and following through on his speech should not be an anomaly. It should be the norm in our party. Yet where there should be outrage and action on the part of our leaders, we get instead silence or mealy-mouthed platitudes and ineffective soundbites.
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If you're anything like me (read: a political junkie who loves her country), then you're thoroughly exhausted. You're tired of being outraged by scandal after scandal. You're sick of waiting for the truth to be exposed. Your heart is still filled with sorrow from the 2000 and 2004 elections, because you mourn for what this country could have been, and what it has become.
WE get it. We're the heart of the party: the ones working ourselves to the bone day after day. We're the ones without healthcare, the ones with our family members serving overseas. We're the ones kicked out of public events and placed on watchlists because of our political beliefs. We're the ones with kids who are taught "intelligent design" as part of the war against science. We're the ones who can't get married, the ones whose homes are subject to sneak and peek searches, the ones who have to wait 12 hours to vote and who pray that our votes will actually be counted. It is us, goddammit, who truly realize what this country has become and where it is headed. It is our rights being stripped away from us, our America slipping away before our eyes. All we ask is that our party recognize this. That a holistic approach towards government is needed. That while the Democrats focus on individual battles, it is our entire government which needs to be saved.
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s Lincoln noted, our nation will never be destroyed from the outside. We are the world's greatest military power. No terrorist or rogue nation will ever be able to destroy us. Not with hijacked planes or nukes or cavalries. No, if we are to be destroyed, it will be from within--because we destroyed ourselves. It will be because we, as a party, were too afraid, too complacent to stand up as the Constitution is being pried from our clenching hands.
I admit, I've let myself get hopeful about our party's effectiveness. Bursts of courage, from Murtha to Feingold, have led me to conclude that our party is up to the task of saving this government. But a little part of me anxiously fears that such instances of courage may be isolated events, rather than a shift in our party's approach to politics.
Now is the time for courage. Now is the time for our party to realize the enormous task before us: saving this government. If we embrace that theme, we will once again know victory. And that victory will not just be defined by how many congressmen have a "D" after their name. It will be defined, ultimately, by restoring America to the nation it once was: a nation with a government for the people, by the people, and the greatest country on earth.