Damn Dems: Maybe We Don’t Want to Win

Egads. Some Democratic leaders are suggesting that it might be better if the Dems lost in November, because it would be more politically advantageous to let a GOP majority shoulder the entire responsibility for Bush’s failures, because the Dems “would also be under increased pressure to come up with its own solutions to the problems afflicting the country,” and because, according to Bob Kerrey, the former Dem senator from Nebraska and current president of the New School, the “loudest voices…will be those that feel the strongest about their certitude. That’s going to be the left: Impeach him! Investigate him!”

Oh, the horror of actually having to govern and possibly do your fucking jobs.

Listen up, Democrats—this is a disgusting attitude. By this rationale, it would also be more politically advantageous for a Republican to win the presidency in 2008, too, and start the clean-up ball rolling before the Dems swoop in and finish the job. But that’s contingent upon an assumption that the GOP won’t do even more damage than has already been done. You want to stake our lives and futures on that?! Fuck you. This isn’t a game to us, you pricks. You might keep getting your tax-payer funded salaries, or your big consultant fees, and all the perks that don’t really suffer even when your party loses, but we’re not so goddamned lucky. To us, it matters what gets done when and by whom in Washington.

Yeah, I’m clever enough to understand why it would be more politically advantageous to let the GOP be solely to blame for the disaster we’re in, but I’m also, unfortunately for you, clever enough to know that the rubber-stamp Congress who aided and abetted this disaster was not solely made up of Republicans. The Democrats who have been there were all too happy on too many occasions to facilitate the GOP’s various schemes. You’ve been part of the problem, too, and now you need to be part of the solution ASAP—not hang around hoping to pick up a couple of seats but not the majority so you’re not actually expected to do anything until the time “feels right.”

And let me tell you a little something about our “certitude.” The “loudest voices” on the Left who are clamoring for investigations aren’t some thin minority of lunatics. That demand is coming from a majority of the American people. Just yesterday, I spoke to a friend who was so disengaged from politics a couple of years ago that I had to beg and plead with her to vote for Kerry, because she didn’t see a huge difference between Kerry and Bush. And now she’s bloody well engaged. I can’t actually begin to explain the depth of change in her political awareness. She’s pissed off about what’s happening in this country, as well she should be, and she wants something done about it. She isn’t a radical Lefty—she’s an American citizen who’s paying attention and is dependent, as are we all, on an opposition that actually gives a flying shit about opposing the continued ascension of the conservative agenda.

It was the unmitigated failure of the Bush presidency that cast into stark relief for her that there is a difference between the two parties. Don’t betray her hope. Don’t validate the widespread apathy whose roots flourish in a belief that there’s no difference between the two parties by turning away from your responsibilities. Step up to the plate and swing. At least give yourself the bloody chance to hit one out of the park. We’d rather see you strike out swinging than praying for rain so the game gets called before it ever starts.