Commentary on Gore

[AndyS40]

First of all I would like to praise Al Gore's speech (having read the whole thing but not seen it). I want nothing I am about to say to detract from the fact that I deem it a very important and powerful attempt to communicate with the American people on crucial matters that deserve their full attention (however much his speech will be dumbed down by the prostrate media and sheeplike masses).

So take what I am about to say as a disagreement-among-friends that is not meant in any way as an effort to take Al to the woodshed.

Must we ALWAYS line up the obligatory Republican yes-man when we want to "legitimize" something a progressive says?

The Republicans are not our friends. They aren't the friends of democracy, freedom, civil liberties or divided government (necessarily partisan government) either. Whether some Republicans have traditional issues or anti-government suspicions that momentarily align with progressive values, I think it's been proven over and over again what a huge mistake it is to cooperate in any way with Republicans in general or even individual Republicans who happen to be in office.

As proven by the current crop of Republicans in Congress and the White House and their paid, screeching media shills, what was formerly known as "bipartisanship" does not pay. In short there is nothing to be gained and everything to be lost in terms of having dealings with the Republicans, even if there is an agreement on one particular issue or set of issues.

Every time a Republican smirkingly points out erroneously or otherwise that "Democrats took money" from Abramoff or money Abramoff once touched, just remember that that Republican is rewarding the Democrats with the fruits of their "bipartisan" labors.

Appearing with Republicans to legitimize our points does not strengthen us, it only weakens us. It strengthens the predominate media meme that says nothing a Democrat says has any value unless it is backed up by the Republicans.

Similarly, cooperating with people who have extensive ties with the Republican party, either monetary or otherwise, is the kiss of death. By the Republicans' own admission, they want the Democrats destroyed. Merely being a minority isn't good enough for them.

The key to fixing our system of government and the overwhelming incompetence and corruption of the present isn't to join with Republicans we think "agree with us" on any particular matter, it begins with defeating the Republicans and that cannot be done by meekly playing ball with them when they agree with us and then crying "fascist" when they all too predictably use dirty handed tactics to cut the rug out from underneath what small effective opposition is left to their benighted policies.

What I suggest may mean some hard choices. Democrats should stop taking donations from major Republican contributors, stop co-sponsoring Republican legislation and generally stop any collusion with the Republicans on pretty much everything, even if such "collusion" is the normal way things are done in an expectedly collegial Congress.

Democrats need to wake up and smell the coffee: If the Democrats want to say the Republicans are criminals and fascists, then cooperating with them makes them criminals and fascists as well. That then means this is not a party of opposition, but one of resistance. You cannot use the words of a resistance party and then act like it's merely a business-as-usual opposition party and expect to get anywhere with the people. The hypocrisy of such obvious doublespeak is palpable.

Even as I speak, the freepers and wingnuts are ripping through the blogs attempting to spread the meme that in order to win elections, Democrats must cooperate with Republicans in power, to become more "bipartisan". And as usual they have a half-point; ever have people on the right been ever quick to smell blood; this being what they do. And what the freepers point out IS one half of the stark fork in the road in front of the Democrats. So what people must do is ask what they believe: Do they believe the Republicans in general and that they are leading this country to ruin as progressive blogs and the like would have us believe, or not?

What is true about what some right wingers say is that in the short term, having our opposition becoming more staunchly one of resistance isn't free .. there ARE costs and what-passes-for-elections will be lost.

In the short term, adopting the resistance course may even cost any chance of winning back Congress in the short term and the Presidency in 2008. The right wing media will mock resistance Democrats and their well oiled media machine will effectively Deaniate any elected Democrat official who elects not to cooperate with the powerful entrenched Republican Party state.

But for all those who would say "oh no, we can't have that" remember this: The true left and the progressives have been in the right on every single issue since the beginning of Bush's presidency. We've been right and all our naysayers have been wrong from the very beginning. Completely wrong. On everything. People are beginning to realize this. More will as the Republican/Centrist Democratic rhetoric increasingly collides with reality. The more progressives allow collaborationist Democrats and Republicans to coopt part of the message of the left, yet allow them to claim we've been "cooperating" with them all along, the weaker we become in the long term.

My view is this: Democrats who cooperate with Republicans are, to put it quite simply, collaborators. Al Gore is a collaborator for metaphorically "sharing the stage" with Bob Barr in his speech. He's not a bad man, and I'm not even saying Bob Barr is a bad man for all this. Whether Bob Barr is a bad man or not is irrelevant to my point; he's a Republican and that's all that matters for purposes of my argument.

Al Gore simply believes in how this country has functioned for 200 years and that accommodation with the two party system is best for all. He was behind the curve regarding what was being done to him in the 2000 election and he's behind the curve now. While I don't fault him for wanting to believe in that, it is still collaboration if this country and its presidency is run by fascists.

So the choice for so called "centrist Democrats" is to deny what's been said all along; either the Republicans are a legitimate governing party or they're not. It's high time we got rid of Democratic doublespeak about this.