Reply #19: Wake up - stop the self congratulatory stuff - we are failing

[pdillett]

I have a huge problem with this (Nancy Gregg's piece), starting with one of the initial assertions "we know the next president will be a Democrat." Wake the f**k up. If the election were held today (and let's remember it is more than a year away) Rudy
Guliani would be president. This is not what I want, mind you, but that's the way
it is. As many people as there are who say they will vote for Obama or Clinton, you
can subtract about 20% in the real election. That's because, we Democrats are
gutless, or plain pathetic, when it comes to putting our votes where our mouths
are. How many election seasons will we hear "the electorate is truly energized,
particularly young people." Then after the election, young people have voted
in the smallest numbers of any age demographic. Even with Paris Hilton voting for
president every year we still can't get enough young voters. Barack Obama would do well to chat with Howard Dean about how fast a grass roots movement based in young people can dissapear.
But young voters are only a symptom of a larger problem. We are gutless as legislative block as well. We gave up during the post 9/11 Bush steamroller, and since regaining control of Congress in 2006 we have made almost no progress. We have not stopped Bush from getting what he wants, let alone getting anything the American people want. As tough as it was being in the minority for us, the Republicans are making mince meat of us even while they are in the minority. There are endless parlimentary methods to keep things from happening even when you are in the minority. Why didn't our Congresspeople use them when we were in the minority? Because we have been, and continue to be, gutless.
We like to say 'the American people are ahead of lawmakers on the war, they
are showing a lack of support that makes it clear they want change." Well, lets realize
that the American people are out in front of lawmakers on everything. They are blaming
Congress even more than the president at this point for the state of this nation. If you think your Congressional seat is safe if you play it safe, you are dead wrong. Letting Bush 'run out the clock' under the assumption a Democrat will be president next is an act of treason. Is is a dereliction of duty far surpassing that of voting for the war based on faulty information. In this situation there is no deception, just hubris
and the overconfidence that righteousness will prevail automatically. If there is
one thing we should have learned by now in our "spreading of democracy," it is that there is nothing automatic about democracy. Only people who act righteously can make righteousness prevail. People who pontificate righteously, without backing up their words with action, can look forward to several years of whining on talk shows about how the election was stolen or we were tricked or Bush scared the people into voting for the wrong candidate. All of this may be true, to some extent,but we have allowed it to happen.
Wake up, we are in danger of losing the Presidency and the Congress without so much as trumped terrorist event. If you add in an unfortunate internatinal event you
can be assured the American people will elect the leader the think has guts. Hope
you like Guliani time