As my friend Brett’s giant robotic guardian would say, “I have a little bad news here.”
I was completely demoralized earlier this evening, in the wake of the 72-25 vote in favor of cloture, clearing the way for Alito’s ascension to the high court tomorrow. It wasn’t so much that we lost, as it was knowing that 18 Democrats betrayed us and voted in favor of ending the open debate on Alito. These Democrats, in spite of knowing that Alito was a bad choice for the Supreme Court, backed down from the fight. They had an opportunity to make the case as to why our vision for America is more compelling than the one presented by Bush and Alito, and instead they chose to play along and do what was more politically expedient. It’s a sad day.
In the car, on my way home from work, I was trying to remember where my official Democratic Party membership card was so that I could tear it up. I was going to rip it to shreds, scan it, and put the image up on the site without any words. I thought it would be a nice way to commemorate the actions of our gutless Democratic leaders, like Joe Lieberman, who this afternoon showed us what they were really made of.
In case you’re interested, these are the 18 Senators who voted to cut the debate short this afternoon: Akaka (HI), Baucus (MT), Bingaman (NM), Byrd (WV), Cantwell (WA), Carper (DE), Dorgan (ND), Inouye (HI), Johnson (SD), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Lieberman (CT), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Rockefeller (WV), Salazar (CO).
My second idea for tonight’s post, after getting home and realizing that I didn’t know where my DNC card was, was to post an image of a box, Joe Lieberman’s address, and a passionate plea for people NOT to give into temptation and send him boxes brimming with excrement. (I decided to watch “24” instead.)
A glass or two of wine later, I realized that a better way to get back at Lieberman would probably be to sign on to support Ned Lamont in his gambit to take-on Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primaries… And the same goes for rest of the “Gang of 18.” They may have bought some points with the Republicans in their districts by pushing Alito through, but my guess is that quite a few of them did so to their detriment. I suspect we’re going to see a lot of really heated Democratic primaries, with the Democratic base (or as Howard Dean would say, “the Democratic wing of the Democratic party”) supporting challengers who promise to defend those things we believe in, like the protection of individual liberty.
And, now that I’ve read a few optimistic posts here and there about how I shouldn’t give up in the face of today’s defeat, I feel a little less like pooping in boxes and ripping up any evidence of the fact that I ever called myself a Democrat.
It was perhaps irrational to think that we could ever pull it off, but, in the back of my mind, I had this idea that something truly historic would happen today. I thought that maybe, just maybe, a groundswell would sweep through America and people, confronted by the prospect of a court stacked with the likes of Scalia, Roberts, Thomas and Alito, might begin to push back. I thought that maybe people would begin to snap out of their post-911 comas and see what was going on around them. I know it was na
7 Comments
Ha! Ha! Ha!
Mark, I love posts like this. Please write more. It’s so entertaining to bear witness as you slowly lose faith in the pitiful state of the American ‘republican/democracy’ and increasingly become more bitter and jaded.
It’s like watching Charlie Brown try to kick that football over and over again, except this is more tragic and less boring!
When are you going to learn that the populist utopian dreams in your silly little head about liberty, justice, and freedom have nothing in common with reality? I hope it’s not too soon. I would miss reading these entries where you bemoan the crushing of your spirit by the establishment!
Best wishes and thanks for the entertainment!
P.S. : Did you hear Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and Alaska Congressman Young changed one line in a Coast Guard bill requiring the move of icebreakers from Seattle to Anchorage at a potential cost of $8 million per year and undue hardship on Coast Guard families for virtually no net benefit? I love how American legislators act only in their own and their constituency’s interests at the expense of the entire Union. Hilarious!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002764968_coastguard27m.html?syndication=rss
I don’t understand why the gang of 18 would vote against Alito (17?), but not be willing to filibuster. Either he’s qualified or not. It’s the Supreme Court. If anything were worth fighting for this was it. Right now, many right wingers are willing to give up both houses in November, and the Oval office in 2008, the judiciary is concievably locked up for the whole next generation.
Oh, I wouldn’t give up. Then there’d be nothing to do. I would, though, concede that all is lost now that Alito has joined SCOTUS.
Did you notice that on Yahoo News, the headline Alito Sworn In at Supreme Court was right above Coretta Scott King Dead at 78? The title of my post was “The day civil rights died.”
I’m not seeing much cause for optimism from where I’m sitting, but hey, I’m just an ambulance-chasing, frivolous-lawsuit-filing, greedy trial lawyer.
I think I became totally disenfranchised with federal poilitics in high shcool when George Bush Sr. spoke at my high school.
I was in student government and we got to sit in a special area for the big speech in the gym.
The whole thing played like a Dead Kennedys record.
Fuck, yeah!
I told you! I told you that the trolls would come back! I knew, if we just had faith, that they’d return.
This is gonna’ be GREAT!
I’m glad I’ve never been a Dem, or I would be even more sick at heart, and I’m already dealing with a really heavy dose of fear.
Unfortunately for the planet, I don’t find the actions of those dems that oiled on over at all surprising.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I think I can offer any thing better. I am at a total loss, as I supect many people are, as to how to how to do anything actually effective against the machine anymore.
I started working on a refrigerator box full of shit at the beginning of Reagan’s second term. I thought for sure I could get it filled in four years. It wasn’t even close – and I really tried. I was rushing across town to get back to my box when ever I felt something coming on. When I was on business trips, I’d bring my shit back in plastic bags. If I’d included toilet paper, I could have done it.
So, my advice to you is to plan small. A smallish turd in a ring box, for instance, would make a huge impact.