Dave Lindorff: This Revolution Could Be Televised on Fox

This Revolution Could Be Televised on Fox
Tue, 11/13/2007 - 16:00 — dlindorff


Now even the New York Times is saying it. In an editorial on Oct. 20, the Times wrote, “Every now and then, we are tempted to double-check that the Democrats actually won control of Congress last year.” Noting how the Democratic House and Senate had rolled over and given the president permission to massively spy on Americans without showing any probable cause, the Times concluded, “It was bad enough having a one-party government when Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. But the Democrats took over, and still the one-party system continues.”

There is no question about it. The Democrats, after persuading voters to hand over control of Congress to them last November, have been worse than failures. They have betrayed the trust of the voters.

Although the party clearly has the power to end the Iraq War by simply refusing to approve funds for continuing the mayhem and madness, it has instead given the president every dollar he’s asked for to continue it, and then some. Although every leading Democrat admits that the president has been torturing the Constitution, not one member has submitted a bill calling for the president’s impeachment, and the one bill submitted calling for Cheney’s impeachment, submitted by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, has been pushed off on a siding by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her gang of “leaders.” More recently in the Senate, where 41 Democrats could stop any presidential appointment, 53 senators (with the help of six Democrats) instead approved a new attorney general, Michael Mukasey, who refuses to say waterboarding is torture and illegal, and who, even worse, says that in his view the president has the power to ignore laws passed by the Congress. The Democrats in the Senate had the votes to stop this outrageous nomination, and didn't.

I would go the Times one step further. There is no need to check to see if Democrats won control of Congress. It doesn’t matter. The Democrats have simply ceased to be an opposition party. The party of Franklin D. Roosevelt is now simply a collection of incumbent hacks who are looking to their own re-election, and who stand for nothing.

So what is to be done?

Various left-leaning activist organizations, like Democrats for America and Progressive Democrats of America, and pseudo-progressive organizations like Move-On and DailyKos, argue that liberal Democrats need to work within the party to elect more progressive candidates and party officials. But this strategy is doomed for several reasons. First of all, the leadership of the Democratic Party doesn’t want real liberals or, heaven-forefend, lefties. It wants candidates who can appeal to the corporations that bankroll both parties. And second, the leadership undermines those liberals who do have a chance of replacing the hacks who currently hold Democratic seats in Congress. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/?q=node/65

death warrant (metaphorically, you NSA fart-knockers!)

A third party could displace one of the two major parties in the bat of an eye, or just as likely, a third and FOURTH party, one progressive, and the other American Taliban. If all that was left of the Dems & Repubs were corporatists, they could hold their conventions in a phone booth--booth at the same time.

Simple, vote the mother #$%#$% out of office. Replace them with Dems who want to fight for Dem principles.

There is a simple reason the current crop of losers suck so much. They are more concerned about pleasing their corporate masters and getting re-elected than they are about representing their constituents.

The ONLY, and I mean ONLY thing that they are scared of is losing their cushy-assed perk-encrusted jobs.

Send their asses home and send a message - that is the only power we have.