GOP's have thrown in the towel. What do the dems do?
How 'bout that. The GOP quit. There's not really anything they can do now to push their agenda--and note the lack of screaming from Virginia and Montana (well, maybe a little--but NOTHING like I was expecting). Since I'm not in the States, I'm not seeing all of this first hand, but they're going out with a whimper. The GOP, for the moment, is completely wrecked--abandoned by the old-school conservatives like Buckley and Will as well as the NeoCons and the crazy right-wingers. There really ISN'T a Republican party right now--look at the right wing pundits. They can't even define themselves--look at their blogs. They're trying to pillory anyone and everyone they can.
This is a --Potentially-- good backdrop. It doesn't mean, however, that the Democrats have a well-oiled machine going (yet), or that they won this thing based on the sheer brilliance of their party. They have a ton of work to do--both in terms of running the damn congressional show as well as trying to define their own values and agendas.
If those values are aimed entirely at demolishing and humiliating W and the GOP, however warranted it might be, things won't go well for them, 2008 will be a wash, and 2006 will be a fluke. The country is in crisis on nearly all fronts, and they have to go and show 300 million people that they're going to do something about it. Depending on how an Iraq war investigation is run, and to what extent it drains the resources and attention of congress, I could support it. Bush's seeming reconciliation is nothing more than a ploy to cover his own ass--we all know that. The last 6 years shouldn't go unpunished. But, that said, what I want to see is the Dems get shit done. I want to seem them demonstrate that they are a strong, functional political party, and one that is representative of the general will of the US. No games. If they can get W to crawl out of the Oval Office in shame, great. But don't let it get in the way of getting stuff FIXED.
That's the point of this whole diatribe--my issue isn't really whether the dems try to be progressive, or bi-partisan, angry or conciliatory. I want to see a powerful, principled party out of this--a goddamn juggernaut that will inspire people to vote for them even if they don't agree with everything on the agenda du jour--because they get things DONE. If that happens, there really wouldn't be much of a danger of them being too much like the GOP, OR of being so far to one side that they're out of touch.
Just some thoughts...
posted by AntFarm16 @ 10:20
4 comments
4 Comments:
I have a feeling that things will probably go like you (and also like I) want them to. Not that I really have anything to back this up, but I don't think this new Congress is going to be out for blood or anything. It's just clean-up, fix-up time for them.
So you post the same thing on this blog AND your other blog? Dude, I think we're worthy of a separate post, not this cut-and-paste crap. Does it matter that Idid this once myself? No, of course not!
The most pressing thing is for the reality of Iraq, the reality of the corruption, and just the reality of so many things (the economy, the environment, etc.) to make it into the "national conversation." In many cases I don't think it's a question of whether the new crop of legislators will be a bunch of "wacko liberals" with a "wacko agenda," it's just taking the fucking reality of things and facing up to it, and not spewing a bunch of lies to suit your own agenda.
A wise man once said..."You can't stop reality from being real."
I don't think there's any danger of the Dems being too far to the left...despite what the spinmeisters and their pandering media outlets would like you to believe, they're a rather moderate bunch. Unless you're Bernie Sanders, you can't be a flaming liberal and win a Senate seat. The majority leaders and Speaker of the House set the tone; Reid is from fucking Nevada, which isn't exactly a liberal outpost; Pelosi is from San Fran, which is a liberal outpost, but she's reportedly been drifting right; and Murtha is moderate from what I know of him (hopefully Steny Hoyer will not become House Majority leader - I have heard of his crookedness).
yeah...ya LIKE that cross post. Actually, I wrote it on here first!
Yeah, the new cong may do good things--although I'll get annoyed when the whole "netroots" bunch goes and whines whenever there's a compromise. I hate 90% of those people, although if it weren't for them, we wouldn't have done so well...
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