By Stanley Rogouski, 6/13/06
Do nothing while the Republicans self-destruct.
For the past two years under the leadership of Harry
Reid, the Democrats have moved steadily to the right. They’ve studiously
avoided taking a position on gay marriage, the war, abortion, the Christian
right and the NSA spying scandal all in the hopes of swooping in and picking up
the votes of conservative Middle American voters as the presidency of George W.
Bush implodes under the weight of his own incompetence. Even with Bush’s
approval rating hovering around 30% they ran like scared rabbits away from Russ
Feingold’s censure resolution and put up only a token resistance against one of
the most reactionary supreme court nominees in American history, Samuel Alito.
What were they thinking? Did they expect the
Republicans to remain passive forever, for Bush’s approval rating to stay at
30%?
Left for dead, George Bush and the Republicans have
come roaring back. Brian Bilbray successfully demagogued the immigration issue
in California congressional district 50 to beat out liberal darling Francine
Busby even in the face of what looked to be a perfect storm for the
Republicans. If anybody represented the “culture of corruption” that Howard Dean likes to talk about during interviews, it was Cunningham, who is now serving eight years and four months in prison after taking $2.4 million in bribes. And yet, even in California District 50 against the Republican Party of Duke Cunningham, the Democrats still couldn’t win.
Far from retreating on his commitment to the Christian right, George W.
Bush continues to push his constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage. And
with the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Bush seized the moment and traveled to
Baghdad for a surprise visit to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. The newest
plan is to keep 50,000 American troops in the country permanently as well as
75,000 “Iraq and coalition” troops, who are going to keep the city of Baghdad
in a state of almost complete lockdown.
If it looked bad for the Democrats up until today,
their prospects for winning back Congress have just been dealt an even more
serious blow with the news that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has
decided not to indict Bush’s chief of staff for any crimes involving the outing
of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Rove, the electoral genius behind George Bush’s
rise to the governorship of Texas and the man mainly responsible for
humiliating John Kerry and the Democrats in 2004 will now be free to put his
formidable arsenal of dirty tricks at the disposal of his party for the
election of 2006. With all of the hype around the coming indictment of Karl
Rove, the Jason Leopold fiasco, the constant pumping of Bush’s low poll numbers
on liberal Democratic blogs and publications, the raised expectations that the
Democrats were inevitably going to win back Congress in 2006, it’s quite
possible the Democrats and their supporters will be so demoralized they won’t
be able to pick themselves up off the canvass.
What’s more, it’s clear that the hype around the
Plame leak and the coming indictment of Karl Rove is not coming from the
Republicans, the media, or anybody on the left or inside the anti-war movement.
On the contrary, the constant hyping of Bush’s low poll numbers along with the
running joke on liberal Democratic blogs about how “Fitzmass” (Fitzgerald’s
indictment of Rove) is “just around the corner” is coming from the elite of the
Democratic Party. It has as its objective to create an impression of an
inevitable Democratic victory in 2006, provided that they run to the right and
muzzle their pro-gay, feminist, anti-war and pro-impeachment grass roots.
Indeed, the very term “Fitzmass” indicates the passive stance the Democratic
Party’s grass roots has allowed itself to be maneuvered into. Instead of
protesting the war, expressing outrage over the NSA spying scandal, mobilizing
to defend Roe vs. Wade or preparing for Bush’s impeachment, they are waiting
like children for Santa Claus to come down the chimney in the guise of a
conservative Republican prosecutor to bring them presents.
But there will be no free lunch for the Democratic
Party’s elite. In order to win in 2006, they will have to act like a real
opposition party and it’s more than obvious they won’t. Let’s be blunt. The
Democratic Party is run by people who have no set of core values they’re
willing to fight for, and who are more than willing to sit back and protect
their own jobs while Bush continues to hammer his authoritarian agenda into
law, strips us of our civil liberties, continues to wage his brutal and illegal
war against the Iraqi people and gears up for the invasion of Iran. There’s too
much at stake to depend upon a passive, corrupt Democratic Party leadership.
Whether or not the Republicans maintain control of Congress in 2006, or lose it
to a Democratic Party running on a conservative agenda, the tone will be set by
the Bush Regime and we cannot afford to let it continue. If George Bush is
allowed to stay in the White House until 2008, if he continues to wage his
illegal and immoral war in Iraq, strip the American people of its civil
liberties, pander to Christian fascists, continues to “radically remake society
very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come” it will be almost
impossible to reverse its effects.
Join us on October 5th for a massive day
of resistance to drive out the Bush regime. On Thursday, OCTOBER 5TH 2006: All day and into the night, across the
country, we must decidedly break the paralysis that still grips too much of
American political life. Taking off work, taking off school, shutting down
campuses and coming together in mass gatherings, we must let the country and
the world know that millions of us reject this illegitimate regime that is as
criminal as it is dangerous to humanity and the existence of this planet, that
we refuse to grow accustomed to a political climate that is becoming everyday
more frightening & reactionary.
Forget about “Fitzmass”. We are what we’ve been
waiting for.