I want to tell a story about how 22 weak-kneed and spineless Democratic U.S. Senators just made my life and active participation in the political process just a little bit more difficult. It took me a week to figure out why I was so angry, but I just figured it out. Follow me beneath the fold to understand my full rage....
Like everyone else here I was pissed off last week when 22 Dems in the Senate caved and voted for Cornyn's anti-MoveOn 'Sense of the Senate' amendment. Because of all the lies, distortions, and general BS coming out of the White House about "progress in the war" and the "success of the surge" and the fact that I knew that Petraeus was just going to push and spread more of the same, I cheered internally when I saw the "General Betrayus" line in the ad; I did feel betrayed by this military man, whose salary I pay part of, who was willfully participating in political kabuki in front of Congress in order to deceive the American people. OK, I am a Dem partisan and vehemently anti-war, so I suppose being pissed off about this was not an abnormal reaction.
Then, appropriately, in context, I was more pissed politically when Senator John Cornyn introduced legislation publicly condemning a major national organization for exercising its right to free political speech. Who in the hell is he to try to introduce and pass legislation in the freaking U.S. Senate condemning a freaking political ad. I understood it was par for the course for Republicans to do shit like this, but it still always pisses me off.
Next, I thought I'd nearly completely lost it when 22 spineless Dem Senators helped the Reactionary Publican Party pass a piece of legislation that condemned the MoveOn ad. I mean, I have reluctantly come to expect that Republicans don't really give a shit about the constitution and will pass any legislation or employ any tactic--constitutional, obstructionist, whatever--that will advance their political agenda. Republicans don't give a shit about anyone but themselves and their kind, and I get that. But when Democrats--including ones to who I contributed in the 2006 election (Webb and Tester!!!) climb on board the reactionary train with fascists like John Cornyn, I see red and probably look like and sound like the traditional media's current parody of 'the angry leftist'. It's all political anger that derives from the frustration and sense of political helplessness of Jan 2001-Jan 2007.
Because of my participation at DKos, I finally decided to get off my political ass and do something to help in the 2006 elections. I participated in phone banking through MoveOn, and made several hundred phone calls. OK, no big deal because many of you donate phone banking time, foot-soldier time, campaign planning time, etc., and are the party activists. That's fabulous and I thank and commend you for it.
But, of course, not all of us can do that. You see, I am an adjunct faculty member (read: part-time) at several local colleges. Adjuncts don't get paid a lot, and so to make ends meet, many of us have to take on as many as 6-8 classes in a semester--that is double to triple the load of many regular full time faculty, and a medium overload for most of the rest of full-time faculty. And we get paid per class with no benefits. Mind you, I'm not [my edit]here to complain about the job front. I chose the field, and, so far, this is what's available to me. My point is that teaching this many classes is tremendously time consuming, and leaves a bit of time for family and significantly less for other things, like political participation and activism. And with this, I come to my point, if you're still with me.
Because of my difficult scheduling problems due to running all over the northern part of my state, MoveOn was a blessing for me last year. I could actively participate by phonebanking from my home on my own schedule. As I said, I made a few hundred calls. And all the hang-ups really sucked. And all the crap I got from people who were unhappy about being called at home really discouraged me. But I kept at it, and those few calls where I connected and got people to commit to voting Dem were really rewarding, but, as I'm sure most of you know, it's a lot of work with only a few rewarding moments. Even that I'm not complaining about.
What I am complaining about and what I just realized this morning and that got me REALLY, DEEPLY, and PERSONALLY pissed off is that those 22 Democratic Senators, including WEBB and TESTER for whom I phonebanked my ass off through MoveOn.org in 2006, JUST MADE MY TIME DONATION INCREDIBLY MORE DIFFICULT AND INCREDIBLY MORE POINTLESS BY HELPING TO MARGINALIZE MoveOn.org.
Here are my personal thanks to those 22 Democratic Senators: Feh!