You know this whole "To Bork `em or not to Bork `em" debate going on in the liberal blogosphere is sad. It's sad because this is even up for debate among the activists. A 50 year-old ultra-conservative, anti-worker, anti-black, anti-woman, anti-environment, Federalist Society, totalitarian, corporatist political hack who could sit on the bench next to Clarence Thomas for the next 25 years has been nominated to the most important seat in the country and we're reserving judgment?
The question isn't IF it's HOW we fight!
We, as a movement are so convinced that there's something wrong with Kansas, when really the problem is US. We put these sorry excuses for leaders in power, refusing then as we do now to demand any real accountability.
They give us no vision and crap for policy to take to the American voter and we're so arrogant and blinded by the process that we wonder why the people aren't eating it up and asking for more.
My suggestion to everyone here is to get off the damn net and talk to people, the $10/hr working people, who the Democratic Party purports to be "fighting for."
Once you do that, you'll find out that the average American isn't a news junkie, yet they know they're getting pissed on. More notably you'll see that they're averse to the whole political process because they consider it all a song and dance; they know Democrats are blowing smoke up their ass just like Republicans, so they don't feel they have a dog in the fight.
God they're just looking for a fighter - someone - or some group to stand-up and yell at the top of their lungs: "FUCK YOU CORPORATE AMERICA" and mean it!
The majority of Americans know - they know the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer - they see it happening. They know that big business is looting the treasury. They know that every week the same executives meet to determine how to cut worker's benefits and pay while increasing executive salaries.
In the name of all that is holy, why don't we just stand up, say that and display the same type of disgust about the whole damn situation that the American people hold? That's how you mobilize these hundred million people who don't vote. That's how you get people to vote Democratic without having to spend an hour explaining the latest focus-group-tested product of the Democratic policy shop. That's how you get the American people to once again believe in the concept that federal government can help them.
If we want the American people to respond to the Democratic Party then don't give them a long-pitch on how the most recently released policy position will add a few extra billion to the education budget, WE TELL THEM COLLEGE EDUCATION WILL BE FREE. If we want the 45 million uninsured Americans to vote for us we don't tell them we'll make healthcare "more affordable" we tell them IT WILL BE FREE. And if we want the American people to form a negative opinion of Roberts, we don't wait six weeks in hopes that the argument that we're opposing him because he won't play the political game that is a Senate Confirmation hearing is a good sell, we tell them we oppose Roberts because he is a corporate lawyer who will screw the average person like he has been doing his entire professional career.
The majority of our Democratic representatives don't recognize the power of these ideas and arguments, they're detached and total enfranchisement is a potential threat to their personal power, but we - the movement - must force them to. We do these things and we do them loudly and unapologenically, because these are what our values dictate. We don't sit and decide whether we can sustain a filibuster - that is NOT our job. We work to define the debate in a manner that makes our opponents look bad supporting Roberts, and impossible for Democrats NOT to oppose him.
That's is the power of movements and the role of activists.