Most of us in the party are beyond listening to the words said by Congress and our candidates...it is what they do that matters. The lectures to us to understand just are not sinking in.
A recent post pointed out that many here are making unreasonable demands and putting forth expectations that can not or will not be met by Congress.
Here's the thing. I think when most here are expressing anger at the congressional leadership and the fact they are not standing up to Bush....they are using rhetoric they know is exaggerated.
That is what people do when they realize the party, the country, in fact the world are spiraling out of control. People faced with being unimportant in the party do say things like that. I don't blame them.
They know we don't get to pick the House and Senate leaders. They know that congressmen have to represent everyone. We all know that. It is known factor. Trouble is that most of the people oppose the war and want us out of there. People overall are fearful of attacking Iran and what could happen.
The majority of Americans do not want the government using illegal wiretapping. The fact that congress is about to let the retroactive immunity slip through is angering so many.
Words don't matter much now at all. Only actions matter now. The condemnation of MoveOn and the resulting glee at the right wing blogs disheartened many. Pelosi's telling the activists near her home that they were not her constituents made many of us realize they just don't understand a very important concept.
That concept is that every single vote in Congress affects all of us in every other district. Nancy Pelosi DOES represent my interests, though I am not officially a constituent. I don't think she understands that. I don't think Harry Reid gets it either.
They as a rule look on all the Democratic party who are activists and progressives or liberals or netroots...as a problem. They do consider us a problem because we don't "understand." They say and do things to make us feel marginal and unimportant.
We have done horrible things the last 6 years, and our Democrats are not innocent. Much of it they could have prevented or spoken out about, and they did not. They choose to be silent and complicit.
America has done things that are against everything we stand for. We bombed a country that was not a threat, we killed hundreds of thousands of them, we have used torture. We killed their leader and allowed it to be videotaped, and we had previously killed his sons. We put their bodies on public display.
So please forgive those of us who think Congress has failed us. Forgive those of us who believe the candidates for president are not being forceful enough.
Sometimes people speak out knowing they are not being realistic. One good thing about Democratic Underground, though. There are many here to remind us if we question things too much. Some are much nicer than others and that is appreciated.
I was almost a conservative person politically until Iraq happened. My husband was also. But the day we questioned our church about supporting the war, the day they called us unpatriotic...something changed within us. We are not the same.
Yet I am talked to here the same way as those who are far more left than I am. It is like an effort to "set us straight" if we question too much.
Words no longer matter from our party...actions matter. This is a turning point because our country has never been here before, we have never done things like this. There is no opposition party anymore.
On September 1, 1970, Senator George McGovern spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate when he introduced the McGovern-Hatfield Amendment. I can only imagine the rush the congressional leaders would have made to condemn his words.
Every senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood. Every Senator here is partly responsible for that human wreckage at Walter Reed
and Bethesda Naval and all across our land - young men without legs, or arms, or genitals, or faces or hopes."
"There are not very many of these blasted and broken boys who think this war is a glorious adventure. Do not talk to them about bugging out, or national honor or courage. It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Vietnam, because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes."
"And if we do not end this damnable war those young men will some day curse us for our pitiful willingness to let the Executive carry the burden that the Constitution places on us."
To those who say "the left" needs to "understand", or the "activists" are just not aware of "how things work".....those are becoming meaningless reprimands now. The burden is on our party which holds a majority now. If they can't fix it, they must speak up.
They must stop passing trade bills and FISA bills covertly. They must stop acting like we don't matter. We do matter. We are the people, they work for us. We are all their constituents.
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