GOP's Culture of Corruption Vs. Democrat's Culture of Weakness

The American Heritage Dictionary describes the term "weak" as "lacking firmness of character or strength of will, lacking aptitude or skill, lacking the ability to function normally or fully or lacking authority or the power to govern." Incredibly, even with President Bush at an all-time low, we are watching the Democratic Party in Washington fulfill all these definitions and more.

Let's just forget about the fact that congressional Democrats refuse to take a serious position on the Iraq War - the most pressing national security issue of the day. Let's forget about what a joke it is for the party to think it is going to compete on national security without taking a serious, contrasting position on the war. Let's even forget about the fact that the party is still too afraid to do this while polls have now shown for 3 years that the American public wants a change of direction on war policy. Let's just take a look at what's gone on over the last week.

First, you saw the House Democratic Leadership publicly pee down its leg in knee-shaking fright, removing a major report on Republican corruption from its website. Why? Because they feared the GOP would yell at them about it. Now, a sane person would say - that would be great! If the GOP did that, it would call attention to the report, right? Yes, you are right - but today's congressional Democrats are apparently so afraid of their own shadow, so self-absorbed and comfortable in the minority, that they are afraid even to bait the GOP into doing what they should want them to do.

Then, yesterday, you saw Democratic Senators run for cover when one of their own - Sen. Russ Feingold (D) - courageously asked the U.S. Senate to stand up and defend the Constitution by censuring the president for breaking the law with his illegal, no-court-order domestic wiretapping scheme. Again, polls show the public believes the president should have to get a court order, and should not be able to simply make up laws on his own. Yet, Senate Democrats - cowering in fear in the comfortable confines of the Senate cloakroom - refused to back up Feingold.

more ( David Sirota)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0314-31.htm

I'm a democrat. Does that mean I'm weak?

I getting pretty sick and tired of you freepers calling Dem's weak and generally bitching all of the time. The Dem's are not weak. The Green Party is weak. The Socialist Party is Weak. The Democratic Party is Strong - Very Strong. The Democratic Party and the leaders don't always have to come to DU to consult YOU when they use tactic or use a specific strategy.

If you don't like what you see then go out and run for office and make change happen.

Gunsaximbo

The original post clearly was talking about the leadership of the Democratic party. Our leadership is weak, very weak. Any objective look at the situation tells us that.

Maybe the Democratic party will become strong again. But for that to happen, we have to have some real leadership on tough issues. And it wouldn't hurt to be a real opposition party now instead of a cringing, disorganized group.

Maybe they believe that censuring and impeaching the president is worthless folly. Maybe they think all of this is smoke and mirrors and will SOLVE NOTHING.

You want to start an opposition party then go somewhere called OPPOSITION PARTY UNDERGROUND.

Gunsaximbo

A party bound and determined to bend over and take it, again and again- that shows little initiative and no resolve (not to mention one that's lost 6 congressional elections in a row- and from the looks of it, soon to be a 7th)- that denotes WEAKNESS in any reasonable person's mind.

That's why adjectives like that are thrown out there so often- because that's what the vast majority of the public perceieves. Even the party's own base....

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you may need to rejoin the reality based community and do some reflection and analysis.

History is what it is- and it wouldn't take "an expert on the Senate" or really, much of an expert on anything, to recognize dysfunctional patterns right there in front of your face. Of course, you'd need the courage to look- which it seems, beneath all of the bluster, may be lacking....

BLACKMAILED?

maybe they are maybe not maybe their children have been kidnapped by the republican crazies and ARE being blackmailed.

Part of my point is that you / we are not in the know as much as we THINK we are.

We are not on the SEnate floor. We are not talking to everyone on the floor like they are. Obviously there wasn't enough support for a censure. FROM EITHER SIDE! If you vote and lose you look the fool.

You choose the battles you can win.

If Censure is only a symbolic gesture, then just the mere fact of bringing it up is sufficient.

:popcorn: :hide:

you know what they stand for and they actually vote consistently with those values.

Some Democrats stand up for New Deal values.

Unfortunately, too many mouth platitudes then on crucial issues, do the business of the very wealthy. Lieberman is the most obvious of these, but even my superficially more liberal senator, Dianne Feinstein, supports the war and even profits from it through her husbands contracts in Iraq.

Be careful what you wish for. Progressives are going to push the Chamber of Commerce Democrats out of the party, not in an ideological purge, but because we can't afford to have one and a half parties that screw people to carry water for the corporate agenda.

I'm not sure what's strong about remaining silent or even voting with the most corrupt, dangerous, and now unpopular president in our history.

had nothing on these people.

(and yet, I will shortly be going to work for them AGAIN, like a bad bit player in a rigged reality show who's outcome is known long before the actual Reality Show airs)

"Several Democratic strategists said surveillance issues are not Bush's most vulnerable spot, and they fear the party may appear extremist."

Excuse me Democratic strategists, don't you political professional types call Karl Rove a genius for attacking opponents on their strongest points. Didn't they take us to the cleaners in 2004 by attacking Kerry's war record? Didn't they manage to portray the Crawford Cowboy as more warm, more compassionate and more of a real human being than the ludicrous caricature they created of Al Gore?

Attacking your opponent on is strengths is how you win! Refusing to engage on the issues is how you lose--but then you guys wrote the book on that, didn't you.

"We can do better."

We can invade other countries and make them say thank you.

We can outsource jobs but remember to cluck and tsk about how bad it is.

We can give a few more dollars to schools AND increase the size of the military even though we have no enemy that can touch us technologically or even put a plane in the air unless we allow it.

Even if it doesn't immediately hurt Bush, it shows people what Democrats will stand up for.

If people had voted their consciences before the war, that would have hurt in the short term but paid long term dividends.

DU is my friend (except the freepers)

You guys... You have to use Finesse in politics. You can't just go in there and say f%#@ you. This is what we're going to do.

Bang Bang Bang Bang!!!!

You have to use finesse.

This is bad timing for Censure. I'm all for Censure. I'm all for getting bush, chaney and all the HITLER YOUTH out of the WH, but the timing is not good.

If you go in "gunsaximbo" blazing away and censuring bush. The republican voters will circle the wagons. In 8 months we have an election and we need a good turn out. If the wagon are circled we might lose some of the elections which will turn the HITLER YOUTH out. If we win then we can say to hell with censure..... IMPEACH and prosecute!

Does that make sense?

Read this - this explains what I have been trying to say.

<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0603160158mar16,0,6825867.column?coll=chi-ed_opinion_columnists-utl>

Gunsaximbo

Absent some divine intervention, 2006 will be no different.

The Dems blew major opportunities over the past two months that could have changed their image and led to a political realignment. At this point, the tone's been set for the year- and it's going to hurt the party at every level, down to state and local government.

You'd get nothing done. Then you'd start calling people names.

Yawn...

Armatures