by RJ Schinner
Every time a major battle shapes up in the halls of power,
whether it be over how far police state measures have gone, or the latest
fascist pick for the federal judiciary, we hear the same justification for
capitulation from the Democrats: “we’re waiting for next time” to challenge any
of this.
Just look at what they’re doing around the Alito nomination: “voting
a symbolic no” while refusing to filibuster. Symbolic gestures are
worse than meaningless when confronted with a Supreme Court becoming
dominated
by fascists and theocrats bent on outlawing abortion and handing over a
blank
check for the Bush regime to do whatever it wants. What’s worse is that
this
same capitulation has been repeated over and over ( just a few months
ago
Roberts was appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice with no real
opposition in
Congress. And this past summer, the Democrats accepted a compromise in
which
they allowed four extreme right federal judges to pass in exchange for
maintaining the right to filibuster ( just so long as they never
actually use
it.
Or look at what every major Democrat is saying (or not
saying) about impeachment while everyone else is clamoring for it. For example,
on PBS’ Jim Lehrer, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said, “I think
it’s way, way too early for that.” Lies to justify war on Iraq,
lies about torture, and lies about NSA spying, and a recent Zogby poll finding
52% of Americans supporting impeachment, yet still no impeachment.
Two things need to be said about the logic of “waiting for
next time”:
1) As
we’ve seen repeatedly, next time will be no different than this time. As the
Democrats continue to “seek common ground with fascists and religious
fanatics”, the cycle only repeats itself, seemingly no matter how fascist the
Bush regime gets.
2) “Next
time” is too late. The Bush regime has already gone a long way in cementing its
fascist norms into place, and its reign of torture, spying, war crimes, lies,
and more is already too much to tolerate. Just looking at the judiciary, Bush
has already gone a long way in stacking the courts with far right theocrats,
and now the Supreme Court stands to be dominated by those who will take away
women’s right to choose, and allow the Bush regime unchecked executive power to
cement its program in place.
Whether it’s waiting for the next Supreme Court pick, the
next election, or the next opportunity to impeach, allowing this regime to
continue its disastrous course is unacceptable. Instead, people need to reject
this logic, and seize the opportunity now. When Bush gives his State of the
Union address, DEMONSTRATE ( Jan. 31st in cities all across the
country, and Feb. 4 ( demand BUSH STEP DOWN and take your program with you.