Can we get some real Democrats?
Or at least some who know how this game is played?
You see, we are a nation founded on Liberty, but some among us have a pretty screwed up idea of what constitutes Liberty. Unfortunately the poltroons in need of a refresher course are our elected representation.
If they will not hold this administration accountable, they do not represent me.
If they will not make the obstructionist pricks in the GOP actually filibuster a bill, they do not represent me.
If they think they can govern from the center, they do not represent me.
If they will not uphold the Fourth Amendment, they do not represent me.
If they will not uphold the First Amendment, they do not represent me.
If they will not restore Posse Comitatus, they do not represent me.
If they will not restore the Insurrection Acts of 1807, they do not represent me.
If they will not restore Habeas Corpus, they do not represent me.
If they will not revoke torture as official policy of this administration, they do not represent me.
If they will not vote for common-sense troop protections like the Webb Amendment, they do not represent me.
If they compromise on any part of the Constitution, they do not represent me.
If they do not stand up to the Deserter in Chief, they do not represent me.
If they do not take concrete steps to end the occupation of Iraq, they do not represent me.
If they get on board with a decades-long occupation of Iraq, they do not represent me.
If they do not represent me, I will support primary challenges.
I was pissed off at the MoveOn ad, too - but not because it offended me. I was pissed off about it because I knew the frothing fuckwits would get worked up into a lather and draw fortification from it, at just a time when the public was getting there on their own.
But once it was out there, it was the job of the Democrats to defend the First Amendment, and ask pointedly "where was the criticism when Kerry was swift-boated and when Cleland was smeared?"
Instead, they lined up to take turns shredding the first amendment. Here is the thing about the First Amendment - it guarantees FREE speech - it does not guarantee that speech will be tasteful, or that no ones feelings will get hurt. It just means that it is FREE.
It means that I can tell Claire McCaskill that she is a disappointment and a disgrace and I am seriously starting to resent all the time that I spent on her campaign.
Fat lot of good it did me, for the way her votes have fallen.
Every single Democrat who has fallen in line needs a primary challenger. The rot in Washington is to the core in both parties. Democrats who won't stand up now need a primary challenge. If you are a Representative who wants to abdicate your responsibility to impeach this criminal administration, you need a primary challenger. If you are a senator who can not defend the Constitution, you need a primary challenger. If you are a Democrat who does not protest the long-term occupation of Iraq, you need a primary challenger.
The answer here is not to fall into an abject funk - it is to get pissed, and stay pissed, all the way from today through the first Tuesday in November 2008.
And I just did something I have never done before. I made a donation to MoveOn. Because they are standing up for free speech and the First Amendment, and besides that, there is the added benefit that it will agitate the fuck out of the squawking chickenhawks on the right. I want feathers to fill the air.
In closing, I want to remind every Democratic politician that elections have consequences - and so do their votes. They need to keep in the front of their mind that a failure to act upon the consequences we hit the Republicans over the head with in 2006 will lead to more consequences. It's called a stiff primary challenger with netroots fundraising support, bitches.
(hat tip to Pale Rider for his help with this post. The closing paragraph is almost all him.)
