Reply #48: dont know about that...

[cenacle]

the dems cut off his funding...they asked him to run and then decided that they wanted to go a different route...they treated him poorly...for all the talk of free debate, and listening to all sides, and giving people a chance, in the end the Dems want to win...they are a business and want to put their people in charge, and reap the benefits...over and over the truth is stifled on all levels...and yet this formula, this republican-lite win at all costs by being everything to eveyone and not anything offensive to anyone, loses...the repubs put up nixon, claws and avarice, and the Dems put up humphrey and mcgovern...the repubs put up reagan with his strange combination of populist appeal and conservative disdain for most people, and the dems respond with mondale...the dems put up gore and kerry against bush* and what should have been runaway victories are turned into very fishy close race defeats...there's no way it should have come down to one county in 2000, or ohio in 2004...bush* should have been beaten easily in 2000 but gore was too busy saying i'm not clinton i'm not clinton...in 2004 kerry should have been the shining liberal war hero and peace hero but instead he was the ducking weaving gloves over his face patsy...

it's not that hackett is the most important part of this story, it's that he is just one more part...sheehan too...they should have both been well supported for their courage in speaking out when most people were keeping silent...we need heroes again, people who stand alone for truth when the cowards herd into the shadows...but no, both were shuttled to the door, and a thank ye for your view...

i fear most the dems wont take back the congress this year, but i fear second most that they will and just not much will change...these past five years have betrayed all of us...we're not going to simply recover in a year or two...American standing in the world is in ruined tatters...and moreover the feeling of alienation and disappointment in the possibilities of democratic republicanism is deep now...

i wish i had more faith in any of those slimeballs in Congress, or in DC as a whole, but i simply do not...i see individuals making gestures at times...byrd, feingold, kennedy...but i do not see leaders, visionaries...i see career bureaucrats...raising no faith in anything much...