Dems may lose more than '06 by timidity. [View All]

[chieftain]

During the Vietnam War, establishment Democrats and Republicans supported the effort. A substantial part of an entire generation saw clearly the waste, stupidity and immorality of a bankrupt policy. When the political system failed to provide an effective way to change direction, countless young people lost faith in our ability to affect change peacefully. The reaction of some was to take to the streets , for others it was to take to drugs. For a huge portion of the population who did neither, politics and government became irrelevant. This loss of faith only served to undermine our constitutional form of authority.
We are now engaged in another wasteful, stupid and clearly immoral adventure.Not unlike the days of the Nixon regime, we have a leader who believes he is above the law. He relishes actions which, if not checked, will further destroy the fabric of our constitution.
The Republicans, with the possible exception of Chuck Hagel, are deeply complicit in both this atrocious war and the illegal usurpation of power. The Democrats, then, are the only hope for the emergence of a strong voice standing witness to the destruction of lives and principles that goes unabated. I am sure that the conventional wisdom operating for most of my party is that all of these things will blow up in the Republicans' faces and that the prudent course is to criticize the operation of the war, not its morality, to fret about Bush's power grab, but flee from a measure of censure.
If leaders will not lead, if our representatives do not have enough faith in the American people to speak the unvarnished truth about the evil that grips Washington,D.C., how can we expect our institutions to command the respect from a free people that is necessary for our democracy to survive.
Democrats need to stop testing the political winds and start speaking from their heart and soul about how we have been hijacked from our core beliefs. The polls say that 70% of Americans know that we are on the wrong track as a nation.Democrats need to speak clearly, act bravely and trust the voters.It is mot being melodramatic to say that our system of government and beliefs hang in the balance.