Attention Democrats: Where is Our Shame?

Never before in our history has the stubbornness of the Democratic voter been made more blatantly obvious than it has over the past seven years.

In the face of BushCo’s ability to rewrite history, spin every fallacy into accepted dogma, and drag our nation into the depths of despair, the ideology of the Democratic party has persisted in its stiff-necked refusal to embrace the liars and the lies, to support those who refuse to uphold the Constitution, to accept the empty promises that consistently foretell any number of successes regardless of the fact that they will never materialize.

Where is our shame when we criticize a president during a time of war? Why can we not simply ignore the fact that it is a war he created himself (“War on Terror” – patent pending), and proceed as though it were something legitimate, something realistic, something based on fact rather than a steady stream of fabricated intelligence? Why can we not ignore its dire consequences, and act as though we believe there is some good to come out of this entire debacle, and that victory is not only achievable, but imminent?

Where is our shame when we point our fingers at the immoral behavior of elected family values Republicans, and staunchly refuse to accept I asked Jesus to forgive me, and he did as being an end to the matter? Can we not just pretend that confessions of wrongdoing are spurred by a desire to clear the conscience, and the fact they surface after the fact of being caught are merely coincidental?

And speaking of coincidence, where is our shame when we discuss the profits of war-profiteers like Halliburton and their ties to the increased wealth of administration members and their respective families and friends? Can we not just marvel at the incredible coincidence of such occurrences, and be done with it?

Where is our shame when we pursue investigations into government corruption? Must we always be so righteous in our indignation that tax dollars have gone missing without explanation, or that bribery has become business as usual at the highest levels of our government? Can we not simply accept our losses, chalk it up to experience, and move on?

Where is our shame when we prattle on endlessly about the plight of the less fortunate? Why can’t we just jump on the it’s all about ME bandwagon, and agree to stop wasting money on social programs that assist the poor, the homeless, the down-and-out? Why can’t we just dismiss these lazy sub-humans out-of-hand and look out for only ourselves?

Where is our shame when we stand up for the rights of homosexuals who want to be treated as equal under the law? Why can’t we just ferret out some Bible verses that condemn their behavior, and insist that they have a foresworn agenda whose only purpose is to undermine the fabric of society?

Where is our shame when we staunchly refuse to agree that the Constitution is just a piece of paper that should be shredded and/or rewritten to accommodate more modern views of our nation and its relationship to our global neighbors? Why can’t we abandon all notions of freedom and democracy, and learn to go along to get along?

Where is our shame when we don’t fall into lockstep behind our elected party members, regardless of whether we agree with their positions or not? Why can’t we just go along with those who allegedly represent us, and not question them when they take impeachment off the table, or accept their kow-towing to the opposition as being a matter of compromise for the betterment of the nation as a whole?

Where is our shame when we steadfastly stand our ground on issues like torture? Why can’t we talk ourselves into believing that it isn’t immoral or illegal, and convince ourselves that in spite of the sanction of its use, we are still the good guys who hold ourselves above such barbarism?

Where is our shame when we raise issues about vote-counting, and our election system as a whole? Why can’t we just defer to the better judgment of Diebold, and embrace the idea that if certain citizens wind up not being able to vote, it’s probably because they shouldn’t be able to vote in the first place?

Where is our shame when we talk about support for our troops actually being non-existent? Why can’t we just put a bumpersticker on our vehicles and declare that as support enough?

Where is our shame when we suggest such outlandish ideas as diplomacy in our international dealings, and candid discussion with our enemies as well as our allies? Why can’t we get behind the idea that anyone who doesn’t agree with this administration is the enemy, and should be destroyed without hesitation?

Where is our shame when we question administration policies that have been proven, time and again, to be detrimental to world peace and the security of our country? Why can’t we stand behind failed policies and just pretend they have been successful in the past, and will continue to be successful in future?

Where is our shame when we call attention to a draft-dodging, ill-informed PNAC puppet making a fool of himself over and over, domestically and internationally, and even dare to question his sobriety and mental stability? Why can’t we at least act like the emperor has some clothes, even though his nakedness is readily apparent?

Where is our shame when we deride our so-called journalists and news media for failing to report the facts? Why can’t we blindly accept their biased parroting of right-wing propaganda and accept it as the unvarnished truth?

Where is our shame when we brazenly exercise our freedom of speech through protests, or calls for investigations into obvious wrongdoing? Why can’t we just shut up and go about our business, and ignore the fact that the running of our country is our business, and that our voices are meant to be part of the process?

Where is our shame when we adhere to fact in instead of ever-evolving fiction, science instead of ignorance, common sense instead of nonsense? Why can’t we just join the hopelessly ignorant and abjectly stupid among us, and denounce intelligent thought as the work of the devil?

Where is our shame, my fellow Democrats? Why do we cling to outmoded, outlandish ideas like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Why do we persist in ensuring that such concepts shall not perish in the face of those who seek to manipulate, convolute, and reinterpret their intent and their meaning?

Why can we not give up and give in; repeat the talking points as though they were truth, accept corporate greed as the highest form of patriotism, adopt the idea of war being the only sure road to peace?

Why can we not sever, once and for all, the connection we feel to our fellow global citizens who are discriminated against, dealt with unjustly, left to suffer and die because they cannot survive without our speaking out on their behalf?

Where is our shame? Are we pretending that it simply does not exist, or are we choosing to bury it under the insanity of being true patriots who believe in our party’s, and our country’s, lofty ideals?

I have no easy answer. Perhaps the best course of action is to continue our shameful conduct – because without it, there will be nothing left of our country for anyone to be proud of ever again.

:kick:

Yo, you stone-hearted lizard-brained lurkers, READ this post or I'll waterboard your asses so fast you'll have to redefine the definition of 'trickle down.'

Marvelous, Nance. Thanks.

post
off to the Greatest

Very nice.

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who do not act because they believe they will win by doing nothing! Because the national Democratic leaders know the people have no other choice than to vote against GOP and vote for Democratic candidates they actively do nothing to upset the applecart.

The DNC may be correct in their assessment. I will never forgive them their inaction in the face of such blatant high crimes and misdemeanors.

You will find I agree with all you have written here. Yours is an honest voice speaking to power with grace and dignity.

You do not go far enough. It is time to clear away the old Democratic leaders who are responsible for allowing shameful un-American behavior.

"President Bush's success rating in the Democratic-controlled House has fallen this year to a half-century low, and he prevailed on only 14 percent of the 76 roll call votes on which he took a clear position.

"So far this year, Democrats have backed the majority position of their caucus 91 percent of the time on average on such votes. That marks the highest Democratic unity score in 51 years."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1728952&mesg_id=1728952
http://public.cq.com/docs/cqt/news110-000002576765.html

Don't let the media rhetoric fool you. The Democrats have acquitted themselves quite well--especially given their bare majority in both houses, and a relentlessly obstructionist Republican minority.

this 110th Congress has had more roll call votes this year than any
other Congress in history, almost doubling the number under the previous Congress overseen by Boehner
and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL):
The House last week held its 943rd roll call vote of the year, breaking the previous
record of 942 votes, a mark set in 1978. The vote was on a procedural motion related to a
mortgage foreclosure bill. When the House adjourned on Oct. 4 for the long weekend, the
chamber had reached 948 roll call votes, putting Democrats on pace to easily eclipse 1,000
votes on the House floor in 2007.
Last year, the Republican controlled House held 543 votes, and for historical comparison,
the last time there was a shift in power in Congress, Republicans held 885 roll call votes in
1995. The Senate, which has held 363 votes this year, isn’t on pace to break any
records, but has already surpassed the 2006 Senate mark of 279 votes.
Much of the lack of progress can be traced back to obstructionism by conservatives. Approximately “1 in
6 roll-call votes in the Senate this year have been cloture votes,” noted a JulyMcClatchy report. “If this
pace of blocking legislation continues, this 110th Congress will be on track to roughly triple the previous
record number of cloture votes.”
It’s interesting that Boehner is criticizing the 110th Congress as doing nothing. After all, the House, under
his leadership, met for just 101 days during the second session of the 109th Congress, setting the record
“for the fewest days in session in one year since the end ofWorld War II.”

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Jumping up and down is not moving forward. (Loved the way you were able to respond within two minutes to my original reply.)

The whole 'dog and pony' show on the Mukassey appointment for Attorney General is an example. The national Democratic leadership allowed the discussion to be _only_ about waterboarding as torture. Senators Schumer and Feinstein allowed the narrowest of discussions on the issue of torture for fear of having to act. This is unforgivable.

Do the DNC leaders truly think the people are so stupid to accept their contemptible behavior?
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Attempts to "prove" the democrats in congress have done well in 2007 demands that we abandon common sense and overlook that they have provided Bush & Cheney for every penny they have requested for the maddness in Iraq. It would also require that we forget what the 2006 elections were about.

A few good things that are happening:

There are countless investigations going on. Healthcare is on the table. The internet is safe for now. Our wounded vets are no longer lying around in their own urine. The Senate Ethics Committee is back in action. Many 9/11 Commission recommendations are being passed. A bill to increase financial aid for colleges has passed--the single largest increase in college aid since the GI bill. The President's signing statements are being investigated. Legislation to restore habeus corpus has been approved. The Senate Armed Services Committee has passed legislation "that would grant new rights to terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. The unions have a voice in the government now—as do gays, women, and minorities. The environment has a fighting chance. The House passed the Taxpayer Protection Act, to protect taxpayers against "identity theft, deceptive Web sites and loan sharks." It also makes it "easier for taxpayers to retrieve property lost as a result of a wrongful Internal Revenue Service levy and directs the IRS to notify lower-income people that they qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit." The House approved a bill spending $1.7 billion over five years for cleaner water. There's a new House committee devoted solely to addressing the issue of global warming. And so on.

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Be proud of what the Congress is doing so as to be seen doing something. 'Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano man' is not going to cut it.

shrub and Co.'s action (at least they are acting in what they believe) make me ashamed. Democratic leaders inaction to stop the high crimes and misdemeanors is worse, they are not acting on anything they believe.
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Nance Rants (superb as usual) and a cup of strong coffee.
The real shame lies in our corporate media for ignoring the real crimes committed against humanity, by real criminals in our name. If they only had a stained blue dress...........

I really enjoyed reading this. Outstanding!

Nominated.

and a hungry nation's children cry out for justice.

I can't hear you over all of the back slapping and high fives.

for the Greatest Page from now on. You're always on target.

I'm not aware of anyone in the M&M who writes so well. You are SCARY smart.

Something to be proud of?


http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955">Thanks my strong Democrat soldiers. Thanks for nothing.

Miserable!

I tried to recommend it twice because it's so good. It's too bad the democrats don't ask you to do one of their radio broadcasts. IMHO, a fire would be lit that no republican could extinguish.

.... you have a gift, you should be getting paid. Most of the crap that passes for editorial isn't even in your league.

The rest of the populace is mesmerized by shopping tips and Cold Case:Aruba.

(Please drop a note to your Senators & your Rep. about media consolidation.)

Some good responses in the thread as well.

Just considering the job of upholding the Constitution alone, all too many Democrats are doing a terrible job.

...and the winking and the nodding our Democratically-controlled Congress has been offering up for "leadership" is progress, and worthy of "onward and upward" cheerleading?

*Some* of the Dem *voters* are following this laundry-list prescription, and writing letters and making phone calls with their demands for justice. The leaders? They are too busy planning for Election 2008 to bother with holding to account the current crop of criminals in office all over the land. Nothing to show for their time in office since January 2007 but inconsequential bones thrown to the restless masses, while they fund an illegal war and and conduct the longest and most expensive election campaign in history, with carefully-staged "debates" replete with pre-prepared and carefully managed questions, and no time for substantive answers. They're playing with us, and they expect us to play back. And we are. Where is the shame in the Dems' refusal to participate in these shams they are calling debates?

Where is our shame that we go along to get along with all this? Where is our shame when we pursue investigations into government corruption which go nowhere, but allow "us" to buy time until salvation comes in November 2008?

I would be the happiest of citizens if this list were a true reflection of what We the Dems are standing up for, en masse. It's clever; it stirs the blood. But is it a reflection of what is, rather than what we wish for? Or is it a "deja vu" look back at what we as Dems have always claimed to stand for, and ardently hope to recover? And how do we separate out our integrity as individual voters when we support elected leaders who are not doing our bidding?

(The usual kudos come with these comments for remaining hopeful in a time of darkness: "The thought is mother to the deed." Hope and reality are joined at the hip, and we give our all to one and ignore the other at our own peril.)

Being "nice guys" is all well and good but actually accomplishing something is their job. A lot of nice posturing, a dirty look or two, with a tisk, tisk here, and a tisk, tisk there doesn't cut it for me. Sorry. Being out voted is one thing, caving and flinching is another. From the shameful response to 9/11 and Bush administration pressure to the passing of the Homegrown "Terrorist" resolution- Solid stinky bullshit. This abomination could only have lasted this long because of the Democratic congress' failure.

Oh, we should start with Gore giving up to Bush.

There is no fight in the Democratic party. Not enough anyway. Maybe it's because Republicans apply business strategy. Results! Gains! Accomplishments! There are lives at stake. With every passing hour of every day suffering, death and destruction are tolerated by well meaning sock puppets.

...like this one, which are composed of good cheer and hope (I'm not inherently against those things), but which fly in the face of the facts; to wit: We are losing (have lost?) our democracy, and being party loyalists, based on what we used to be, is taking us nowhere.

I've really wrestled with Gore's giving up. I agree he should have stayed and fought. And then I think of those mobs in the street in front of his house, those mobs in Florida trying to stop the vote-counting, Paul Wellstone's "untimely" death... and I wonder what caused Gore to throw in the towel. Fear for his own safety and that of his family? We are a nation with a history of assassination of our leaders, after all. It's one thing to give your life for your country if you can believe it will have some meaning. It's another thing to throw yourself in front of a truck to make a statement when staying alive to act later might better serve the country, and yourself.

The Democratic Party we've known and loved is no more(or perhaps it never was, and we're just coming out from under the ether). I'd love to think it will revive, and we'll find home again, but I can read and I can think, and I'm not good at pushing truth under the rug. The memories linger, however, of a better time, and perhaps that's what this OP was attempting to do -- remind us who we are! It feels a little like looking at pictures of myself and my classmates in my high school yearbook, however! And your "well-meaning sock puppets" are the kids who used to sit in the back of the classroom and throw spitballs, but now they're Congressmen/women!

But on the hopeful front: I heard Tom Hayden speak on CSpan the other night, and he said there's change in the air, but for those of us who want the war ended yesterday, or even tomorrow, it won't happen. It will be a protracted fight, but he sees reason for hope. He feels that we just have to start over and build from the ground up, defeating traitorous (my term) Dems, and voting in real progressives at every level. He's only a little older than I am, and I doubt either of us will live to see our country as it has been/should be again. I wonder if he really feels much hope, or if he simply using his good name to light a fire in the younger generation to act, as he did in his youth, for the good of the country.

Thanks again! As Mark Twain said, "A difference of opinion is what makes horse races." We need a good horse race!

... of what our party has traditionally held as it core ideals, and that those ideals are worth fighting for.

After seven years of hearing from the other side that Democrats are cowards (because we don't rush to war as the 'first resort'), want to give money away to the lazy (because we believe in social programs that assist the needy), don't support the troops (because we question the validity of the war they are being asked to fight), and want to undermine our economy (because we don't want to see the privatization of every government service - which, of course, means a hefty profit for the private service providers), I wanted to set out what it is we are really all about as a party.

In addition, it should be obvious that those Democratic ideals are much more in keeping with the ideals this country, as a whole, once pointed to as what made our nation great: the rule of law, the Constitution, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, freedom of speech, freedom of religion -- things that the Republicans, especially during the tenure of BushCo, have tried to convince the masses are now somehow negotiable, needful of revision or reinterpretation, or should be dismissed out-of-hand as no longer viable in today's world.

I believe we have a LOT to be proud of as a party, when it comes to what we believe in and why.

How our current party 'leaders' are conducting themselves is a whole 'nother matter. But we should remember what we're in the fight FOR, and how many of our fellow citizens are in the fight with us.

...of we the Democratic *voters*, but there's a gulf as big as the Grand Canyon between We, the Voters, and They, the "Leaders." So where does that leave us as Democrats? Declaring what we've always stood for is small comfort when we've lost Habeus Corpus, the right to have our votes counted, the "ear" of our elected officials, as evidence by their conduct in Congress, the right to peace and privacy in our persons and our homes. And we've lost those things, shamefully, with the aid and abettance of the Democratic Party.

To patriotically point out that our Dems are holding hearings has become a hollow and insignificant claim. They're playing for time, and we need to say that, rather than praise them for the charade they're handing us, like good citizens who appreciate our games as the Romans enjoyed those their leaders delivered up to them as a way to pacify the restless mobs.

Now I should be part of the solution, not just a pointer-outer of the problem. So should you. But we're living through something of a historical time-warp, with the same tired tyrannies that have worked in the past working pretty well again. Yes, we're the good guys. But how do we make that apparent outside of this kind of inbred venue? You write, they cheer, I write "yes, but," you respond with your own "yes, but," and the beat goes on.

We're being Good Germans in a lot of ways, when we fail to confront not just the other guys, but our own guys. The first step in any 12-step program (I've never been in one, but I can read) is to admit the truth to ourselves. From that point, hope can flow.

I abso-fuckin'lutely love your writing. You're a pro through and through. You are an inspiration both in your writing style, content and your demeanor. You are a valuable asset the progressives and liberals in America.

That said, from where I stand, my ability to pause and appreciate my party is a strain. I have tried to fend off the "good-cop, bad-cop" argument hundreds of times in political "discussions" but honestly, I'm beginning to wonder if I've been wrong. I have worked on campaigns for local Democrats some of whom I know very well and I know that their passion and hearts are in the right place. But it seems as if the system has a way of polluting those hearts and perfecting a kind of deceptive game where progressive values are worth less than ego, cash and complacency.

My fire is burning hot for change and reformation. My style may be caustic and crude but my passion is true. We've been assaulted, not once but many times. I'm not a Christian, there will be no turning of cheeks unless it's my butt cheeks for a knuckle dragging "republican" to kiss.

...She's the best we have around here.

I look forward to reading more of your posts.

Peace, and no BS!

Turning your "butt cheeks" for the next slap from a "knuckle dragging republican"

I wouldn't volunteer for that if I were you. Given their recent record, They'd take you up un it and enjoy it.:spank: :rofl: :rofl: :applause:

Bravo.....my friend....Bravo

:toast: