No Time For Democratic Timidity

"A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or reward that quality in its chosen leaders today".

John F. Kennedy
from the book
Profiles In Courage (1956)

"What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage"

Bert Lahr
from the movie
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
***********************
Here's what I've been fearing since the election: after being out of power for twelve long, depressing years, the Democrats decide that they don't want to blow a good thing by showing - Heaven forbid, dear reader - political courage. Now that the mid-term elections of 7 November are safely a thing of the past, the Dems are staring to display weak knees by hinting that the impeachment of the most criminal president since the invention of dirt is not only not on the table, it's not even an option. Can they be serious? Have they lost their minds? Or is this simply a tactical ploy for political purposes. Time will tell. But the soon-to-be majority party had better know this: if ever there was a time for courage on the part of our elected representatives this is the time. As FDR said during his first inaugural, "The American people want action and action NOW"! We elected the Democratic party - not Republican-lite! This is not a time to be worrying about one's political future but the future of the USA. For inspiration, I highly recommend the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Profiles In Courage, written in 1956 by one of their party's icons, John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts. Not a bad read.

Consider our good fortune as a nation: for the first two-hundred and twelve years of the American presidency - but for sheer luck (or God's grace) - every time this country faced a major calamity, we've had a man of exceptional character and insight living in the executive mansion. Think about it!

1: The Civil War: Abraham Lincoln
2: The assault on American workers by the robber barons: Theodore Roosevelt
3: World War I: Woodrow Wilson
4: The Great Depression and World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt
5: Post war re-construction of Europe: Harry S Truman
6: The Cuban Missile Crisis: John F. Kennedy (My! His name is just popping up everywhere today, isn't it?)

Well guess what? Our luck ran out on September 11, 2001. On that day, thanks to a stolen election, George W. Bush was the president of the United States; a man not elected by the people, but selected by the Supreme Court; a man who is already labeled by people a lot smarter than I (Helen Thomas, for instance) as the worst president in history; a man who has driven our once-great nation to the precipice of international shame and ruin. That the invasion of Iraq was merely a way for politically connected companies to make a literal financial killing off of this obscene war is now obvious to every thinking person. Iraq already had a viable (if somewhat tarnished) infrastructure prior to March of 2003. The Iraqi people should have been the ones put to work rebuilding their country. Instead most of the work went to American companies like Titan, Bechtel and Kellogg, Brown and Root. For more on that subject, please see Robert Greenwald's excellent new documentary, Iraq For Sale. That the people of that country lashed out in violent retribution at the plunder inflicted by the US should have come as a surprise to no one. It certainly didn't to me.

By year's end the number of American victims of Bush's war will be at or near three-thousand. These are kids who innocently joined the military to get an education or in a fit of patriotic fervor after September 11, 2001. It's a fairly safe bet that it was never their intention to get involved in an invasion of a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and that was never a serious threat to American security. And while we're on the nasty subject of victims, do I even have to mention the half a million or so Iraqi men, women and little children who have died as a result of this obscenity? I didn't think so.

Historical hindsight is really a neat thing. It's almost hard to believe that, just a little over half a century ago, the late Joe McCarthy was not only taken seriously by many Americans, he was actually beloved by some! Today we look back at grainy black and white news reel footage of the Senator from Wisconsin and we cringe in disgust. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, does the First Fool have any idea how jaw-droppingly stupid he looks when, today, only three and a half years after the fact, we look at the videotapes and photos of him prancing around the deck of that aircraft carrier in that grotesque GI Joe flight suit with that disgusting smirk on his face and that ridiculous banner flying overhead?

Mission accomplished, indeed.

For the first time in over a decade, the Democrats have the power of the subpoena and, if they know what's good for them, they'd damn well better use it. Billions of dollars have been squandered and stolen in what is, without any doubt, the worst military blunder since Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union almost sixty-five years ago. Future presidents who probably haven't even been born yet will still be dealing with the damage that this dim-witted little jackass did to his country and the planet so many years before. Investigating, removing and punishing this administration for their crimes against humanity will not only be an option of the 110th Congress, it is their duty. A precedent must be established: that no leader shall, without threat of imprisonment, cynically violate the will of the framers of the Constitution and the trust of the people - That's Weeda Peeple, kiddies! This is our country! This is our Constitution! Bush and Cheney need to be held accountable for the damage they've done to it.

Eight years ago, Bill Clinton was almost forcibly removed from office for lying about having an extra-marital affair. When are we going to stand up and admit that Clinton's relatively minor transgressions are but a cup of water when compared to the Bush Mob's moral and ethical tsunami?

I left the Democratic Party seven years ago and have not once regretted it. Will this new batch of Dems only reinforce my decision to leave? Or will they finally show some guts? We cannot afford to wait until January 20, 2009 for this nightmare of an administration to end - it must be ended as soon as possible. Don't be fooled into thinking that this contemptible thug couldn't possibly do any more damage than he's already done to your country. During the next two years and two months he can and will do a lot more damage - trust me on this one, folks - he's got to be impeached. Period

The future of the republic depends entirely on the conduct of the 110th Congress in 2007 and 2008. Everything is riding on their courage and tenacity. Generations yet unborn will be affected by their actions and the outcome of those actions. While I'm optimistic, I'm only cautiously so. Pray they don't blow it again. Oh yeah, and while you're at it....

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net