On Not Taking a Stand
I constantly hear and think that Democrats have no balls. They pussyfoot around issues and go mushy when the going gets tough. Mainly I am speaking to National Security, which seems to be their most obvious weakness. Republicans have put the spotlight on national security for the last what - 4 or 5 years. Nothing else has ever mattered nearly as much as keeping the country safe. This approach is reactionary and if Democrats were smart they would look at some causes for "why they hate us" in a different approach to securing the country. while this may be overly broad, unfair and sweeping I'll say it anyways: Republicans would just assume bomb everyone and everything than work with anyone to fix any problems. For example: after 9/11 what did Bush do? He didn't stop and work with the International community to try and figure out anything. His own party would have called him a Sally. Instead, without thinking, immediately he took our country into what will be known as a dark and unsettling four years of US American history.
In some regards I can understand why Democrats pussyfoot around. If war is being pushed you don't want to look soft or you risk losing confidence. At the same time they are probably thinking geez... isn't there another way to do this without killing thousands of innocent civilians? But Republicans don't have enough time to stop and think about best ways to approach the problem much less stop and talk about the problem. So you have Democrats begrudingly going on with this war even though alot of them probably don't think it was justified. Could they have stood up and said something. yes. Should they have stood up and said something? probably. I think the fact remains that they didn't know what to say. They didn't have a "plan" as Republicans like to point out. The problem that Democrats are faced with is trying to change the mindset of many in the US and also to clean up the foreign policies of more than 100 years worth of US Presidents. That is no easy task and it won't be done using a ten point plan. So the Republicans break out the war plans and the cycle of violence continues. Didn't their Mothers ever tell them two wrongs don't make a right.
Democrats need to really examine the mechanisms driving the violence in this world. That is where they realize they are part of the problem. Wealthy Democratic Senators driving gas guzzling SUVS. They need the war in Iraq and they know it. Before Democrats can take a stand against Republicans they need to decide what they stand for themselves. They need to convince themselves that the US doesn't have to take advantage of every country it does business with in order to maintain the status-quo. I think Democrats are scared of that last idea. They are scared to tell the US people they are living like fucking hogs and they need to think about other people in the world and there needs to be dramatic overhaul of the US system. From the Hummers we drive to the free trade, neo-liberal economic policies we push. While this is "The Land of the Free" it seems some have taken that notion too far and everyone is scared to tell them there have to be stipulations if we want to see this country truly flourish.
In some regards I can understand why Democrats pussyfoot around. If war is being pushed you don't want to look soft or you risk losing confidence. At the same time they are probably thinking geez... isn't there another way to do this without killing thousands of innocent civilians? But Republicans don't have enough time to stop and think about best ways to approach the problem much less stop and talk about the problem. So you have Democrats begrudingly going on with this war even though alot of them probably don't think it was justified. Could they have stood up and said something. yes. Should they have stood up and said something? probably. I think the fact remains that they didn't know what to say. They didn't have a "plan" as Republicans like to point out. The problem that Democrats are faced with is trying to change the mindset of many in the US and also to clean up the foreign policies of more than 100 years worth of US Presidents. That is no easy task and it won't be done using a ten point plan. So the Republicans break out the war plans and the cycle of violence continues. Didn't their Mothers ever tell them two wrongs don't make a right.
Democrats need to really examine the mechanisms driving the violence in this world. That is where they realize they are part of the problem. Wealthy Democratic Senators driving gas guzzling SUVS. They need the war in Iraq and they know it. Before Democrats can take a stand against Republicans they need to decide what they stand for themselves. They need to convince themselves that the US doesn't have to take advantage of every country it does business with in order to maintain the status-quo. I think Democrats are scared of that last idea. They are scared to tell the US people they are living like fucking hogs and they need to think about other people in the world and there needs to be dramatic overhaul of the US system. From the Hummers we drive to the free trade, neo-liberal economic policies we push. While this is "The Land of the Free" it seems some have taken that notion too far and everyone is scared to tell them there have to be stipulations if we want to see this country truly flourish.
posted by John in Montana at 7:31 AM
2 Comments:
I found this blog surfing.
The tone of this post, suggests the Democratic Party, as an alternative to Republicans. If the next president is a Dem, the troops will still be in the Middle East.
Regards.
Remember Chomsky talking about the "democracy deficit"? How so much policy runs counter to the actual values and wishes of the public? To many Dems are totally complicit in subverting the process,they are in charge of to much money and they need to much money to stay in charge.We are soon going to have to decide between Tester and Morrison and Clinton and Kerry but they are all koolaid drinking believers in the redemptive power of capitalism and the American Dream.Carter did some amazingly destructive things, in terms of foreign policy as did Clinton because the interests they were protecting were not those of the worlds working class.Clintons UN sanctions in Iraq killed 500,000 children.He bombed the piss out of Kosovo.
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