UPDATE
If you've found your way to my little old diary today then I'm sure you've seen
Markos' latest on the front page, where he riminds us that the Senate is anything but "in the bag" this year. We can't take any seat for granted and that includes Michigan's senate race. To anyone still thinking about NOT voting for the Dem on their ballot, please keep Markos' warning in mind when you go to vote on Nov. 7th.
I've been thinking about a few of the comments left re
my diary yesterday. A couple people said they're not going to vote for
Debbie Stabenow because of her yes vote on the torture bill. I can relate - none of us likes torture and I'd bet each and every one of us are sickened at the thought that it's being done by our government in our name.
Make the jump...
But I'm betting we're all savvy enough to understand WHY the GOP leadership scheduled the vote on that bill when it did. They wanted to paint dems on shaky ground back home into a corner. Vote for the bill and you piss off your progressive constituents back home. Vote against it (knowing you're in the minority with no hope of blocking its passage) and you piss off the security moms and middle-of-the-road voters back home.
The GOP saw this as a no-win vote for Dems and they were right.
That's why I'm baffled by the folks who say they won't vote for certain dems because of their vote on this bill. Dammit people - if you withhold your support from any one Democrat over this issue then you'll be playing right into KKKarl Roves hands here. You're giving him the exact result he's after by hurting a Democrat's chances at re-election.
C'mon - we're not that stupid... are we?
The fact of the matter is this... that vote took place after the primaries. If it'd taken place before the primaries we could have thrown in with whoever was challenging the incumbent Democrat but it didn't and we're stuck. Candidates are locked into place and ONE of them - the Democrat or the Gooper - WILL be coming to DC in January to be sworn into office for a six-year term.
So we have a choice. We can withhold our support for the Democrat and accept that our new senator will be a Republican, or we can hold our nose - vote for the Democrat despite her or his fecked up vote on that bill - retake control of the Senate, and work like hell to either get them to change course on this issue or drum up support for a challenger in the primaries six years from now.
To me it's a no-brainer. If we refuse to support the Democrat then we're giving Rove exactly what's he's after - another Republican in the Senate. Period. End of story.
Each and every one of us needs to do all we can to make sure we re-take both houses in Congress. To refuse to support a Dem over a Rethug at this point is insane. We've been doing this kind of shit for years now and it's gotten us nothing but the minority in Congress, and Bush in the White House for 8 years. The Rethugs have the House, the Senate and the White House, and ya know why?
They stick together despite their disagreement with a candidate's position on one particular issue. With them - it's my party right or wrong and that's how they keep beating us at the polls. All the while, we Democrats are examining our own belly-button til we're blue in the face. These circular firing squads have got to stop dammit!
So my question to anyone who's planning on NOT voting for a Democrat over one issue or another is this...
What are you going to do about that elephant in the room?