The Cost of Surrender

[CrackpotAmerica]

The Cost of Surrender | The Absence of a Filibuster:

AGG


We are in a tight spot here.

Because many if not all of us are fervent in the belief that it is absolutely necessary for us to regain as much of the Congress as possible, I feel that we are becoming unwitting pawns in an eerily familiar Democratic Party strategy. It seems that they have locked into a cyclical strategy of surrender, survive another day, and repeat, which does our Party exponentially more harm than good and is based on the assumption that we will play along because we are faced with little other alternative.

For the past few days, the blogosphere has been abuzz with threads urging members to “light up the switchboards” of Congress and particularly Democrats in the Senate to persuade them to filibuster the Alito nomination. Many a horror story has been recorded regarding a “cold shouldered” response from what I feel is a collection of great acts of patriotism. I propose that the “cold shoulder” we are getting is indicative of our Party’s afore mentioned strategy.

It seems that the only time many politicians want their constituents to “let their voices be heard” or “participate in government” is when it is time to cast a vote in an election. This is a dangerous institutional ideology. Further, it serves no purpose but to place an ever-growingly impervious barrier between the government and the people.

If there is no filibuster, or no evidence of an attempt at one, we must assume that the Dems have decided to make another of a plethora of political concessions, which serve to “keep them alive” in Congress for a day or two longer. Worse, we must assume that they are “banking” on our support and vote in November out of pure opposition to the President, the GOP, and the Republican majority.

It seems that the primary cause for our Dems to make this assumption time and time again is the pursuit of money. Therefore, it can be assumed that our Dems share a similar political motive that supersedes the will of the people; to satisfy the whims of those in the lobby before attending to the needs of the constituency.

Should our assumption be the correct one, our beloved Dems think far less of us than we would like to assume. For, it should be construed that they feel that they can perpetually manipulate us because they are the only alternative to a Republican majority.

This “follow along or perish” thinking is identical to the thinking and methods of the President, who has shown us by his unmatched failure that the methods of fear, intimidation, and ignorance are woefully dangerous to the sanctity of our wounded nation. This thinking is little else but extortion and should be abhorred by the Democratic principles of our blessed constituency.

While I cannot endorse a threat to withhold my vote from the Democratic Party, I feel strongly that if nothing is done, I will have failed to do my duty as a citizen. This conundrum is often perceived as our Party’s “catch 22” and worse, it has been exploited perpetually over the past six years not only by the GOP; but also by the leaders of our own party.

I am saying to you now that this cyclical blight on our party must once and for all be broken. Therein lies our dilemma. What can we do? How can we get off this horrible ride? It seems that few have addressed this dilemma and even fewer have made any recommendations. While we cannot conjure a miracle cure-all remedy for this problem overnight, I feel strongly that it is in our best interest to address the problem head-on in order to reveal the steps we must begin to take to alter our path on this treacherous journey.

It is clear that our Party leadership is not working on this strategy. Thus, we must pick up the cause for the good of our nation.

We must begin to hack away at the barrier that has long separated us from influencing our government, which means that we must begin to devalue the worth of political contributions from the lobby. This money is used to pay for polling, advertising, and direct marketing. It is used as a platform to pay for fundraisers and dinners that have a much greater return than the original amount. It is used to hire speech writers and advisers, pundits and spinsters. It is deemed necessary to “influence the people.”

What I would suggest is that we begin to refuse these items. We should return each mailer we receive to the sender. We should participate in no poll, attend no event, nor contribute any funds to a single item that has roots in funding provided by the lobby. We should resist all attempts to reciprocate on any items that have been paid for by the lobby. We should give no indication of how we may vote to institutions funded by the lobby. We should pointedly pursue forcing these institutions out of our way by denigrating their worth to our elected officials and therefore force our leaders to view their constituency at long last as the primary source of influence in their decisions.

Additionally, we should seek out and develop our own new systems of fund raising for our Party that is external to and independent of the industries and corporations that try to “purchase” our leaders.

I propose that for us to recapture our rightful place as the primary influence on our leaders, we must become a lobby ourselves; a lobby pursuant to the interests of liberty and justice; of dignity and of integrity. Only when we realize that we are forcibly ignored by our leaders and take steps to break this cycle will we begin to end this cycle political slavery and extortion. Only then will we begin to hear the echo of our voices from our leaders.