Today's betrayal of the Democratic Party by 5 ostensibly Democratic U.S. senators should not be allowed to go unanswered. I believe that each of the Democratic senators who voted for the confirmation of Sam Alito the the U.S. Supreme Court should be forced to defend themselves in primary challenges this year.
The four offenders are: Byrd (WV), Nelson (NB), Conrad (ND), and Johnson (SD).
Quixotic, you say? Counter-productive? Read on:
I am convinced that one reason the Democratic party keeps losing elections is our lack of party discipline. Republicans are able to successfully portray us as not having a coherent agenda because Democrats can be found on nearly every side of nearly every issue. Turncoat Democrats like Lieberman and DINOs like Zell Miller are trotted out to show the public that even Democrats hate Democrats. Those images work. They stick in people's minds. The elctorate sees a united republican party, all pulling in the same direction, and then they see democrats in disarray, running in many directions. Is it such a leap to conclude that the republicans must be on to something and the dems must not have a clue?
It has to end.
Party discipline has GOT to become a key value if we hope to get anything accomplished. And folks, there is precious little left to lose. So many times key Democrats have cautioned that we need to keep our powder dry for the "big" fight, whenever that comes. Well, the powder has been kept dry, but the palisade has been burnt to the ground. The dryness of the powder is going to be increasingly less relevant as the stores are looted and the women and children carried off.
The elevation of Sam Alito to the Supreme Court was not a foreordained certainty. It was not fated by God. It was not unstoppable. But it was not stopped. And those who were elected for the specific purpose of stopping such events and who turned traitor against their voters, party and values, must be held to account.
Whether or not there is a chance in hell of actually winning primary challenges against any of these people is beside the point. The symbolic act of running challengers in response to their treachery will serve as a caution to other fence-sitting Dems to think twice before supporting an agenda of repealing the 20th century. If I lived in Nebraska or Indiana or West Virginia, I would enter the race myself. Unfortunately I do not.
I beseech thee, Kossacks. Somewhere among your ranks are natives of the aforementioned states, people of conscience and righteous anger who can step forward and offer themselves up on the altar of taking back our country. You will almost certainly lose, but you will have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that (a) you actually care enough for our country to put your body in the breach, and (b)we're not going to take this shit lying down any more.
Voters are inspired by displays of dogged commitment. That is the only possible explanation for the success of the republican agenda. It is the only possible explanation for what continued support George W still has.
The status quo is not accpetable, and if allowed to continue our country really WILL become a theocratic, oligarchic empire led by a dictator. We're a hell of a lot closer to that reality than we used to be, and is we don't get our house in order, demand real leadership from our leaders, and punish them when they fail to deliver it, we're going to wake up in the Handmaid's Tale a lot sooner than you think.