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I had my hopes up – I truly did. I hoped, albeit it with trepidation, that when the 6th came they would stand – as one - and roar the message out. Scream it with such conviction that the press would notice, the pundits would notice, and more importantly America would notice. Taking their cue from 101 pages of fraud meticulously detailed by Conyers and his staff, they would pin America on its collective posterior with tales of Blackwell and Diebold and Triad. And fraud. Yes, the F word would be spoken today – not from the mouths of the broad-brushed loonies, but from the hearts and minds of souls of those who read, and studied, and concluded that it could be nothing else.
Yet, when the time came, our representatives went, as per their custom, gently into that good night. On the Senate side, they left one courageous woman alone. Completely alone. Not a single Senator stood with her when the walk needed to be walked – no, they left her alone, on the island, an easy mark for the right now to cover in tin foil and marginalize. Instead, we got another dose of weak-kneed rhetoric designed to neither fool nor impress. Cowering in the face of the jack-boot, they “courageously” spoke of election reform, all the while prefacing their comments with a carte-blanche request for the other side to steal elections from now until forever. As car after car careens off the cliff, they talk of how important it is to have rescue crews available for each and every injured person, blindly ignoring the fact that until the cars are fixed the injuries will never abate. So afraid were they of taking even the smallest of stands that both the new and the old made sure to tell us all that they would not contest this election. Instead, they spoke of lines and disenfranchisement and spoiled ballots, thinking that this is the remedy. Come 2008, when Republicans provide machines for all but the dirty little software secret still lies fallow in the fields, what then? As votes turn 180 degrees under cover of darkness and Pioneers tend herd on our so-called right to vote, what then? Another “impassioned” speech by those worried about prospects over process?
The House, save the brave 33, finds itself in a similar situation, the cowardly 80+ there reciting the same “no convincing” evidence mantra that the other side uses. Comforting, yes? One hundred and one pages, and nary a bit of convincing evidence anywhere? Ah, well, wrap it up in yesterday’s paper and move on.
I would love to think that today was some type of victory, and that just the fact that someone stood up in some fashion is reason for glee. I cannot think that, for that puts me in a land of naiveté that I choose not to live in. Today was the change for Democrats to be Democrats again, and to take a page from their Republican counterparts and hit back. Hard. They didn’t. Save for Boxer, Tubbs-Jones, and the rest of the CBC they did virtually nothing. While I hate to say it, they will be ignored from now on, for they let their chance to once again be a force for democracy evaporate under yet another Byzantine gentleman’s agreement brokered with those who are decidedly not gentlemen.
I can only speak for myself here when I say that the activist who stood in the sleet and snow for Wes Clark is a pessimist today. I saw nothing (save for the Brave 35) to make me want to pick up the cry and work for a Dem in ’06 or ’08. I wish I could look at things with the rosy outlook of many here that find today to be the beginning of something, but I have been around the block far too many times. I grow tired of thinking that this time will be different, or that this time is surely the start of something different. Far from it. I see today as nothing more than the majority of the Democratic Party failing yet another test of party unity, failing to even bring all their members and their candidate to the floor for such a momentous event, and failing to provide myself and millions of others a reason for supporting them that does not begin with the phrase “because they’re not Republicans.”
To Ms. Boxer, Ms. Tubbs-Jones, Mr. Conyers and the rest of the CBC who proved their mettle today, you have my undying gratitude. May the rest of your party learn from your example, or may you find kindred spirits who do. You have shown me how democracy works, and you have opened my eyes. It is indeed a shame that today many of your own party closed theirs.
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