I Must Be A Progressive - Rant II

[Steely_Dan]

I can't believe that some feel that all we do is complain...

I was the original poster on the thread "I Must Be A Progressive" and I simply wanted to express my deep disappointment in my party. Apparently, it has touched a nerve.

The point of my original post is to say that...

I keep waiting and waiting and waiting for something to finally give on this administration. I remember right after Katrina, so many here were expressing the view that "this is it!" This will be the final blow to the Bush administration...there is no way they can survive this.

As it turns out, Katrina was just another unbelievable screw-up by the Bush administration that they seemingly recovered from. How can this happen. I mean, this pattern of disaster and recovery has been going on since day one...

When Bush made jokes about no WMD, I thought...no one will stand for this. He's outta here.
When Fahrenheit 911 was released and exposed the Bush lies and corruption, I thought...Great, now everyone else will see Bush for what he is...He's gone!
When no WMDs were found...and it was understood that Bush lied and people died, I thought...That's it! He is outta here!
When the Gitmo pics of torture and humiliation were shown, I thought, he's outta here.
When the Downing Street Memos revealed themselves, I thought, there ya go...he's definitely outta here.
When the Plame disaster was revealed, I thought...Okay, for sure, he's gone.
When it was shown that our troops were ill-equipped and being killed as a result...I thought, no president can survive this incredible error. He's outta here.
When Cindy began her protest and some momentum was established, I thought...finally, we will see the end of this administration...He's history.
So, when the Katrina disaster hit and he was off playing guitar and cutting cakes while poor Americans died, I thought...He can't survive this...He's gone.
I could go on and on and on (as we all could).

Now, more Gitmo pics are to be released, the Plame issue is going to get hot, DeLay has been exposed, Frist is in no better shape...etc, etc. And I'm supposed to be hopeful that this nightmare will end??? Not a chance. I'm outta here.

With all that has happened, we can no longer say that the electorate is "uneducated" to the real issues...they still voted for him. His re-election confirmed in the minds of our allies that we are all crazy over here. I will not live long enough to see repaired the damage that this administration has done.

The only thing that I can blame is the lack of balls by the Democrats to take advantage of this mess that the Right has put us in. Don't fool yourself...this is a war and those that represent out point(s) of view are not fighting a very good battle.

Can you imagine RFK putting up with this crap? Or how about Cuomo, Dean or MLK??? No, they would fight with everything they have. It appears that our party leaders are just waiting for the Right to self-destruct. Meanwhile, we continue down a road that we may not be able to return from.

Yes...I'm complaining. It is not only my right to complain as a part of the democratic process, it is my obligation as a good American.

Hell, many Republicans are just as pissed off at the Bush administration as we are...but even with their disgust we can make little or no headway.

For those who believe that there are some Dem leaders that are doing something about all this....All I can say is that it isn't enough and it isn't going to be in time to save what little freedom and dignity that we have remaining.

There was a time when I was much younger that I looked at our leaders with admiration. I thought of them as the best and brightest among us. It took this administration for me to understand that these people (most all of them) are no more capable inspired leadership than I am. They are not super-human...they are not a cut above us, they are not necessarily the brightest and best that we can offer.

There is a vacuum of leadership in our party...As bad as the Bush administration is, we seem not to have an inspired message to offer those who have had enough.

-Paige

-----------------------
I leave you with this from JFK...September 14th, 1960:

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

[xchrom]

1. it's a legitimate critique.

all systems under go degradation -- it's a natural process.

the frustrating thisng with human systems is they can see and understand their own degradation -- but are often unable to do anything about it.

and that seems to be the crux with so many of the democratic leadership.

so it becomes two problems instead of one:

a democratic leadership that is vigorous, vibrant and able to grasp real action

and a republican party given over completely to corporate authoritarianism and overt corruption.

there are more complications of course --i.e. corporatism inside the democratic party and the role it plays contributing to the organizations degradation come to mind -- but it's how i've broken down our current place in history.