www.missing.org/democrats
As I was making my cereal for breakfast this morning, I SWEAR I saw a picture of the Democratic donkey on the side of the milk carton. Something about how they went missing in late September 2001 and haven't been heard from since. They even had the donkey digitally aged to show what he might look like now if anyone spots him.

I was listening to the BBC last night. They were talking about how it was the one year anniversary of a speech by President Bush to West Point graduates which introduced his new radical philosophy of pre-emptive deterrence. They did an interview with Michigan Sen. Carl Levin who said that now he thinks that radical philosophy might not be such a good idea. BRILLIANT OBSERVATION SENATOR LEVIN... too bad you didn't think of it nine months ago.

This is pretty much the story of the federal Democrats during most of Bush's term. They say nothing when the neo-conservatives are jamming their radical program through Congress (one those occassions when they actually deign to deal with Congress in the first place). Usually during this process, Democrats fall over themselves to show how they are good, acquiescent little soldiers. Then later on, when they need an issue, they re-visit that which they so eagerly supplicated themselves earlier and slam the president on it.

It makes me sick when I hear a Democrat who voted for the Patriot Act saying that some of its provisions are broadsides against basic civil liberties. Why didn't they saying these things during the deliberations on the Patriot Act in the first place?! Did they even read what they were voting for? Oh wait, they were hardly any deliberations on the Patriot Act. In that case, they should've insisted on such debate. But they didn't because they were afraid to be seen as "unpatriotic."

This is why the federal Democrats are irrelevant. It's bad enough we have Congressmen who are attacking civil liberties; the last thing we need in that situation if for other Congressmen to cower in fear instead of standing up for what's right. Several people have noted a variation of the quote, "All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing."

Next year, Democrats will tell you not to vote for Ralph Nader or whomever the Green candidate will be. They will say the Green will "steal" votes from the Democrats thus re-electing Bush (and company). They won't tell you what they'll do if they get elected because it will make them sound eerily similiar to the moderate Republicans (unless hell freezes over and an almost progressive like Howard Dean gets the nomination). But when they try to sell you this line, don't buy it.

Ask them what they did in opposition for the last four years. Ask them if they stood up to Bush/Cheney's and Ashcroft's excesses when they had the chance. Ask them if Democratic elected officials upheld their constitutional duties and their oath of offices or if they were too afraid to be called "unpatriotic." We don't need cowards in Congress or in the White House. We need people who are interested in being leaders, not if their primary goal in life is to be considered "electable."

Those elected officials in power have a record they can be judged on. Those in opposition do as well.


[Incidentally, if Bush wins the 2004 popular vote by a double digit margin and Ralph Nader (or whoever the Greens run) only gets 4 or 5 percent, I wonder who the Democrats will scapegoat then. Certainly anything to avoid having to look in the mirror.]