The Alito hearing has me ashamed: ashamed of the Democratic Senators who have failed to go all out to stop his nomination, ashamed of the organizations whose sole purpose is to defend freedom AT THIS VERY MOMENT, and ashamed of the activists who have failed to require any accountability from either group.
Everyone, from me and other members of the Kos community to Senators Leahy and Reid, must be blamed for reversing centuries of work toward justice when Samuel Alito is sworn in as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. By allowing this nomination to go through we are spitting on the millions of courageous individuals who without reservation stood up for racial and economic equality while facing threats far greater than losing the next election, death threats directed not just to themselves, but to their spouses and to their children...their children. We all, each and everyone one of us, soil the graves of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in pursuit of the unpopular, whose dying wish was simply for good people to continue the fight, to continue to do what is right.
We have failed them. We the activists, the Democratic Senators and the leaders of progressive organizations are disgracing King, Malcolm, Evers, Goodman, Cheney, Schwerner and the 360,000 Union soldiers. Our time to honor their memory and to respect their sacrifice has come, it is now, and we are letting it pass.
The books of history will record that in this moment at this time, no Democratic Senator stood up to filibuster the nominee, and that the very organizations and people entrusted to defend justice were silent. Request to block the nomination were weak, lacking incentive and made without a threat of repercussions. PFAW, NOW, NARAL, NAACP, organized labor and other organizations whose principle interest will be drastically harmed for at least a generation and possibly irreparably never drew a line in the sand. Activists did not proclaim that they would never again vote, walk or donate to a Senator who failed to stand up at this critical moment.
What shame we all should have.