Pulling Their Covers

An interview with Harry Reid in today's Washingon Post reveals that the Senate majority leader is now willing to "compromise" with the Republicans on the matter of troop withdrawals from Iraq.

In this case "compromise" means, "We compromised and the Republicans won."

Reid said "his previous firm demand for a spring withdrawal deadline had become an obstacle."

An obstacle to what? An obstacle to standing for absolutely nothing?

I would respectfully suggest that we boycott the Democratic Party in the 2008 elections, unless sometime between now and then they should decide to change their approach and take steps to become a real opposition party.

People like Reid are phony liberals and a phony opposition. They voice disapproval of administration policies while at the same time making sure that no effective steps are taken to change those policies, usually motivated by a desire to achieve "bipartisanship" or some such nonsense.

We had a somewhat overused but true saying back in the '60's: If you aren't part of the solution you're part of the problem. It's become increasingly clear over the past eight months that the Democrats are not part of the solution.

"Who, pray tell do we turn to instead of the Democrats?" a debater on another forum asked when I introduced this argument.

That's an honest question. And the honest answer is, right now, nobody. We won't have anybody to turn to until quite some time after we stop believing the Democrats' lies, that is, after we stop believing they're who they say they are.

That honest question echoes the plaintive statement of the popular and well-regarded Democratic blogger Digby, ("Hullabaloo", at digbysblog.blogspot.com) who admitted at one point she supports the Democrats, "because I don't know what else to do."

I think Dennis Perrin has the Democrats down cold when he says, "...the Dem leadership can't wait to show that they, too, can wage war and bomb "rogue" countries like Iran, so really, what would be their complaint -- that Bush was reckless concerning Iraq? That Bush has hurt the U.S. global image? This is about a far as the Dems will go. They don't want to indict, much less dismantle, the present system. They want control of it, to prove that they're effective managers of empire. Think the global capitol-religo war will end should, say, Hillary be elected?"

I'm one who lived through the Democrats' splendid little war in Vietnam a generation ago. I already knew what phonies they are. That's why I hate to admit that I was fooled again by these wolves in sheeps' clothing in 2006, but such was our desperation to get out from under the Bush regime.

The Democrats are, in short, enablers of war and lovers of the corporatocracy. They subscribe to this rotten system of misgovernment every bit as much as the Republicans. They just pretend not to.

But I have a feeling that their failure to end or ameliorate this war will finish them. This might be the Last Waltz.

And then, after some time passes, the vacuum left by the departure of the Democrats will be filled, but at this point we know not by whom, or what. Let's just hope we get a real opposition party this time, one that recognizes "bipartisanship" and "civility" as the pious frauds they've been all along.

The Democrats have no excuses left. It's time to cut them loose, and look elsewhere.