The Democrats learned the wrong lessons from the 90's and the 00's.
They learned that in a fight between the President and congress, congress will always lose.
This ignores the fact that Clinton was immensely popular, and the republicans had already destroyed any credibility they had.
So what happened? Clinton closed down DC, and Guess what, the Thugs lost that fight, hands down.
The Dems learned the wrong lesson from this event
What followed was Clinton, instead of Saying that Monica Lewinsky was nobody's business but his family's, he twisted in the wind as if he was guilty of some worthy of notice. The correct response when attacked on "character issues" that are either meaningless or direct lies is to refuse to discuss them refuse to even deal with any one that brings them up, and if they still don't leave it alone, Walk away from the table and shut everything down.
Then we allowed every lie Bush told to be ignored, and every statement Gore made to be called a lie.
BUSH LOST THE FLORIDA VOTES. We know this to a near certainty. We claimed the discrepancy in exit polls in Yugoslavia, a few months later was Q.E.D a fraud because the exit polls did not match the vote that was tallied. Yet here using the same methodology, exit polling was junk science. Despite that fact that virtually every election but the very closest could be called early in the evening, and called with astounding accuracy.
The constitutional rules regarding the electoral collage are simple
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
Constitution Article II section one.
An analysis of the results of Florida not resolving their votes in time to meet the deadline to submit there electoral votes to congress is given in the articleWhat if Florida can't vote in the Electoral Collage?
Essentially this article says that if Florida's electoral votes are not submitted to the House of Representatives by the mandated deadline, they will not be counted.
No Constitutional issue at all. No reason, jurisdiction or even legal right for the Supreme court to even entertain a request to get involved' let alone hear the case. Article II section one says that selection of electors is for the State to decide, and it says that in a way that suggests the Federal government is not allowed to meddle.
A key paragraph is of this analysis is:
Should the Florida vote remain uncertified on Dec. 18, the state would be unable to select its electors and their 25 votes would not be cast in the Electoral College.
So either way, by resolving the issue in time with an accurate vote count, or with Florida's electors not Counted, Gore won.
All of these facts were know at the time, within days of the vote, and completely ignored.
The lesson the Democrats learned: The Republican's represented a majority of the nation, and the Democratic party's ideas were out of step with the nation.
The real lesson, the gloves were off, and even constitutional rules rules no longer applied. In a sane nation that should have resulted in mass protests and refusal of congress to even certify the vote of the electors until the Supreme Court vacated it's ruling, citing a lack of jurisdiction. By that time, Florida with have completely missed the deadline, and the election would have been decided by a majority of the certified electors.
In 2002, we followed the lesson we had mis-learned and lost several areas that we should have won. Again there were irregularities in several contests, by the lesson we had learned was that no one would allow us to to question the results. This time out only a couple of areas had recounts, and they were to marginal to really change much.
In 2004 applying the same lesson, Mike Wallas's reporting of documents that showed Bush cover ups were claimed to be a lie, with abundant proof that they were true. Results: Mike Wallas lost his job, and the Democrats refused to even question the lies that said the documents were fake. Again we learned the lesson that we could not fight back, instead of the real lesson that it was long past the point to get off the floor and fight back with everything we had. In boxing the analogy would be that the moment had come for Rock balboa, and instead we took a dive.
Then came the swift boat lies. Instead of forcefully shouting " those are lies, shut the hell up. Kerry danced and shuffled and was kind of apologetic, as if the lies were true. Again the same voting irregularities occurred in Florida, only this time, the Democrats' lesson was it was not worth challenging. Ohio, with it's electronic voting and large numbers of tallies being erased immediately after the first counting is still unknown to this day. The exit polling suggests that it probably went for Kerry, by a razor thin margin, again with a number of irregularities that probably equaled the number of votes the exit polls said we won it by.
Now the Dems, instead of shutting EVERYTHING down and forcing a constitutional crises followed the lesson they had learned so well. The Republican''s had won fair and square, and there was no point to fighting back.
Despite our growing lack of balls the public spoke loud and clear in 2006, "WE WANT THE REPUBLICANS GONE" The Dems still followed their mis-learned lesson. While accusation of treason and and other high crimes by the administration, Impeachment was off the table before congress even met. Instead of learning from Clinton's impeachment that the public knew the difference between personal issues and high crimes, the Dems had learned that the public had no stomach for impeachment no matter what.
Now despite poll after poll after poll that even some of Limbaugh's ditto heads say "enough is enough, STOP the war, and stop Bush's corrupt policies and repeated attempts to outright violate the constitution" the Dems followed the lesson that in a fight between an immensely unpopular President, and a huge hew and cry from the public, that somehow the public would desert us if we even offered a token resistance.
The rules that were rewritten by the Republicans refuse the minority party the power to suggest a bill can be taken up by a committee, heard by a committee or sent to the floor. Yet everything the administration asks for is passed with little more debate that reading the bill on the floor.
The lesson that we should have learned is that if we shut down everything, defund the executive branch and only discus the bills we want, and send them over and over and over again. Each veto would only reinforce the hatred of this criminal administration. THE PUBLIC KNOWS WHEN CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT STAND TOE TO TOE, WHICH SIDE RIGHT AND WHICH SIDE IS WRONG.
By unbelievably large numbers the public says that Bush is out of control and that congress not only should act, but must act. EVERY SINGLE TIME THAT WE ALLOW BUSH TO GET WHAT HE WANTS WE LOSE VOTES AND MORE IMPORTANTLY WE LOSE ALL OF OUR CREDIBILITY TO GOVERN AT ALL.
Truthfully, I have heard people say out loud, but softly, that if congress will not act, it may be time for people to act.
We need shut Bush down, immediately as in November 7th, or the power to govern could very well be removed from the hands of both parties.
Read what you will into that statement, but hear it well. I am not suggesting that that is the appropriate action to take, only that others are starting to suggest that action out loud.
My personal views are not yet something I am ready to share, but many of my relatives went to war to oppose lesser abuses of power than this administration has committed. Unarmed monks stood up against the Army of their nation to defend Democracy, how can we do less?