Reply #27: Won't argue with you

[PATRICK]

Can't fantasize(as the GOP does to an utterly insane extreme) that progress, real as it is, is great and glorious, and grimly, progress seems still veered toward the cliff. If we look back we are repulsed at where we came from with such difficulty. When we look ahead we are repulsed with the slowness and uncertainty of getting out of the horror. And we can't face the fact that our only ultimate choices in 2008 may not be enough, may still leave dangerous policies and leaders certified(much less unpunished) and better choices, leaders or parties are not in the cards yet at all.

Glossing it over by the immense sigh of VB Day(Victory over Bush- who retired on schedule, whoopeee) that MIGHT see some Dem in charge to start cleansing the worst cronies and abuses out of our crisis laden nation and world is something that will happen. We need the voices of truth and in order to save horrendous situations, much less make REAL progress as the idealistic heart knows it, we must support these real criticisms. If something has to be stated differently to ensure that WORSE will not happen for our idealism(another Bush dynastic crony, beyond our personal conscience of one little vote, then we must realize our own compromises and political sacrifices are a bit similar(just with fewer dire consequences, less responsibility) to those faced by the people in Congress, where also people like Kucinich also hold the flame without being shot or imprisoned(yet), and try mightily to have some real influence about making the truth the effective ruling policy of the US.

There are times when people will be passionate and wildly enthusiastic about simply not having the US collectively headbanging for the Bushes or having real public servants mundanely trying to do the right thing and the right job. In these times of national shame and horror everything will go on even without the catharsis of a brutal or cynical reaction or revolution. What are we to do? First hold to the truth and to where we must go. Then do what we can.

I was impressed by the radio rebroadcast of the WWII war vote. In that re-broadcast the genuine pacifist woman Rep. voted against the war, obviously distraught with the hopelessness and the horror that peace was not possible even as a theoretical answer anymore. The universal boos, probably the loudest by those infernal GOP hypocrites who had been "pacifist" and isolationist for entirely political and RW reasons, washed over the sound. The narrator, Walter Cronkite, I believe, typical of corporate press lousy judgment, also condemned her even after all those years, blind as most of his generation to the general horror of the entire establishment creation of war and fascism, deaf to the manipulative hypocrites sneaking in under the flag in a show of "unity" and "national resolve". Still the unrewarded heroism of someone who did not have to fear she would make the nation cave in to Hitler and paid her price for principle alone has still been cast under the treads of tanks like the German democratic parties and socialists before her. Despised, out of sync, defeated and despite idealism, people who were at least seen as useful tools and zero obstacle to corporatist rape of democracy.

We know what is right- mostly and lot of what is true. But what do we do to push progress once and for all- as is necessary to simply prevent mass deaths and perhaps extinction- in the realm of the politically possible- and not ally ourselves with the worst hypocrites but the best public servants we have? Some of the messiahs in my generation were flawed as much as if not more than Edwards and they shot and killed. Our goal now is to clear the air so that the people are not some semi-hypnotized mass of dupes swept up by enthusiasm but the informed progressive, decent humans they are. Then the majority of leaders can reflect the majority of the public instead of the madly conflicted playing to the lies and the clouds themselves for a compromised muddle that seems most valuable to clear minded villains and lunatics.

I supported Dem losers and Clinton and Gore. We didn't always win and I was never convinced this was the best we could do or what was truly needed. If I was truly far superior to any of them I would support them even more because I would be wiser by definition. These are true public servants and pointed in the right direction even if veered with blinkers off the saving track. They are not "the lesser of two evils" which is cynically true of ALL human choices. They are where we are going to. If that were not true I would be a Green or something else in grim despair and acceptance that no progress can be expected with a Dem victory. I can measure that luxury of clear conscience unfortunately, now, today, in a trajectory that would cost innocent lives in the millions. But if we support and try to progress this major party according to its best possibilities- which are very good- the burden is on us all not to abandon either truth or idealism in the progress and not leave the "winners" feeling rewarded for their own compromises and illusions by not understanding our vote. Nor leaving the power of that vote inactive after November 2008 and totally delegated to the hands of the present crop we had been forced to choose among and the recidivist system and philosophy that will continue to threaten humanity's very survival.