Why I Hate the Democratic Party September 20, 2006
Posted by Kilgore Trout in Campaign, Fighting Dems, National, Politicians, War.trackback
This shit upsets me more than a little. I get an E-mail saying this.
With all the respect due Congressman John Murtha, when the following headline appeared on page one of the Washington Post and was flashed around America, he did a great disservice to the Democratic Party and to Democratic challengers for seats in the Congress:
Hawkish Democrat Joins Call For Pullout
Which led me to respond with this.
I respectfully disagree, actually I’m leaning more towards the disagree…
If Dems are still afraid of Republican slogans than they have no right to be in government. The great disservice come from those who are not willing to stand up to those who break the law out of fear of persecution. The majority of Americans want at least a timetable to withdrawal from Iraq. Yahoo News: War Critics
Im just gettin’ warmed up
Why is it that 57% of the country supports an issue and yet whenever someone says it people within the party attack them? This is exactly why the Dems are going to continue to be irrelevant. There are so few Dems who are willing to stand up for the will of the people and every time they do are they encouraged? does the party say three cheers? no they get attacked by the republicans with You don’t support the troops crap, and attacked by the Dems because Democrats aren’t supposed to have opinions. People try to claim that by not always going after those in the middle they hurt their chances of winning. The problem it that only 35% of the country votes and so 18% can elect a president and so less than that can elect a senator. Have the republicans gone after the swing voters? No they have energized their base, they knew that if they could get the 15% that gives a shit about politics on their side then those people could influence another 5% and they have a president. Remember those in the middle/ undecided are there because they don’t care about politics, why would you rely on ambivalent people as your base? When the I don’t cares are your base then its hard to stand for any thing and that’s exactly why the Democrats are weak its not on security the Dems are weak it’s because they are weak on every issue, some stand for things and the rest watch, they stand against the Republicans and that’s it. The Dems stance needs to be for an immediate plan, a timeline with clear-cut goals, then attack Hillary and Lieberman for still supporting the war, and you can disagree with Murtha saying that an immediate withdrawal is too soon which is fine but this idea that we need to be afraid of “cut and run” is bullshit, its pathetic that there are people who still fall for that Republican tactic. Why do we even care when the Republicans call us childish names? The Republicans have been Parrots for the last few years, some one says withdrawal, or we need a plan and they respond with “cut and run, cut and run” or “stay the course” well I’m sorry but talk like a Pirate day was the 19th, you only get to do that once a year (btw: there really is a talk like a pirate day, not exactly official but still the coolest holiday ever, Sept 19th) the only people who still care about the stupid name calling are right-wing repubs who obviously aren’t going to vote for Dems anyway so why do we care what they think? Until this party can stand up and be unified on at least one single issue, the war would be perfect because everyone has an opinion on it and it’s highly dividing, until they can just say we want a plan that’s it “I want a Plan for the war”, if they can’t do that then the Democratic Party is doomed to failure and if that’s the case then good riddance.
If I were head of the Democratic Party I would say we are going to vote against every appropriations (except food for the troops) for the entire military until we see a clear plan for the war in Iraq. I want to know exactly how you plan to rebuild the nation and the government or else I’m cutting you off, no more money to Halliburton. So in case I haven’t been clear enough for you the Democratic party needs to stand together on the issue of the war, they need to say that they will not be Lemmings, they need a clear plan for the war or else there is no reason to continue the occupation. If they cannot win back the house this year then they are pathetic and need to be replaced by a party that can show some leadership.
Art of the Possible 
Don’t hold back, tell us how you really feel. I think you’re spot on– we should be energizing the base, especially since a majority of the country agrees with the base.
The support for a pull out has, according to recent polls, been decreasing while Bush’s acceptance polls have gone from 31 to 41%. Considering the fact that because of a poorly planned illegal invasion, faulty intelligence and even worse strategy, Iraq has now become the epicenter of Terrorists who live only to destroy us and our way of life.
The Administration now has teeth in it’s argument that we must stay and defeat the terrorists where they are. The Dem response is to pull the plug and let the Iraqi people fend for themselves in a mess that we created..
Bush’s “new” approach is totally unacceptable because as Rep. Murtha has so vehemently proclaimed, we can spill a lot more blood but we can not possibly win until we secure Iraq’s porous borders. Neither the Administration or virtually all of the Dem leadership have the guts to call for what is really needed at this time; a National Draft to secure Iraq from the horrendous mess this country has inflicted on it’s people. Indeed, an increasing number of Iraqis are now openly stating that things were better under Sadam.
I am an active duty Veteran, with a chest full of citations and awards. I fully realize that war is much more blood and guts than glory. However, I have never shifted my responsibilities to someone else, let alone a victim of my making. Taking a bull headed and selfish position of bailing out and allowing the Iraqi people to stew in the mess of our own making and allowing Hezbullah and El Kaida to co-opt the country is neither smart or humanistic.
Extremely valid point.
(had a feeling Id get comments on this post)
Stay the course is absolutely unacceptable. We do need change, I agree that a pull out would screw Iraq even further. I hate the idea of pulling out and leaving Iraq in this horrible mess that Rumsfeld created. I understand the rational of putting I don’t know half a million troops on the ground and laying down the law. Ridding Iraq of terrorism with brutal force would probably work, then we help establish a government there. So far so good. My issue is that eventually we will leave, I hope that is part of the plan at least, and the government is probably going to be a pupet to some extent or we won’t allow it to gain power. So now there is a puppet regime and we leave, so either the people rise up and over throw that puppet, because they have great resent for anything created by the infidels or else that puppet is a brutal dictator who rules with an Iron fist, and if thats the case then what has been gained compared to Saddam? We would be back to Saddam circa 1985. So either they get screwed right now, or we screw ourselves now and let them get screwed later.
The other big issue is the draft, has the draft ever been effective durring a war that was widely opposed? People resisted the draft in 1812, and we were actually under attack then. If you began forcing young people like myself to fight do you really think that they will be helpful? Sure many of them will trudge along just following orders. But enough will resist, they will run the gammit from simply being a pain in the ass, to questioning and dis-obeying orders to out right killing of CO’s or fragging as I believe the term was. oh and don’t forget mass-disertion. Do you think that if people were drafted today they would just go quitely to the base and do as their told, fight a war that no one has yet to be able to give a single honest answer as to why the fuck are we there? If I were drafted every time I was given an order I would say, “Sir!, why are we at war? Sir!” (Id go to jail) untill that most absolutely basic question can be answered in a satisfactory method I would resist with every ounce of my body. Even if support for the war has risen a little lately it is still far far from universally supported, so what do you only draft supporters? that would get rid of supporters real quick.
I don’t think pulling out is the best answer far from it, the best answer is to have never gone in the first place, but at this point I do not see another viable alternative. I hate the idea of leaving Iraq in the mess that we have created but I don’t know how we can solve it.
Oh and I didn’t even get into the fact that of course Iraq is the new terrorist holyland thanks to bush’s war, but no matter how many we kill off that does not solve the problem of terrorism. Every moment we spend in Iraq and every time we kill an innocent person more terrorists are created. The War on Terror cannot be won with guns, you might be able to win it if you stop giving them reasons to hate us.
plus we don’t have any money to pay for an escalation of the war.
Also the typical democrat fear of saying anything controversial is exatly why I DO support Eric Massa, that dude has some balls. He’s willing to say exactly how he feels. He’s willing to talk honestly about issues that others avoid. Thank you Eric, and other local dems without them I would probably have given up on the party and may have registered as a Green. Oh sorry Max Cleland, Feingold, and Murtha need to go on that list of great Dems. Theres also Hillary… (crickets chirping)
Dude, you’re getting bashed over at DKos. I tried to stand up for you and ended up getting troll rated. Apparently you’re considered a “hit and run” troll because you didn’t stay and comment.
Thanks I cant spend all day on that site
I read about half the thread over at Dkos. And I posted about the Del Dem diary after a commenter linked to it in comments at my site.
Del Dem and various others regularly shove out that sort of thing as voting approaches.
LOL I was a life long Democrat. But the confluence of the party and the likes of Kos, Dkos and Dem party thugs has really trashed a new medium (the nets).
– Marisacat
I was user ID 97 at Kos. They banned me August 05. As for the party… well I have fully given up hope.
It is up to the people now.
Dude come and join us at misfit Kos island at nowhereweb where the fun never stops.
Del Dem fancies himself a digital version of an old Daley-machine-style thug. He, DHinMI and several other frontpagers have destroyed any hope of a real dialogue at that faux liberal site.
Republicans in Dem clothing, like a lot of the odious candidates they support.
thanks again for the support folks. and actually this whole debate ended up flowing over to MyDD as well. although I don’t have the link handy at the moment, its on my most recent dkos post. So again Thanks!