Wednesday, March 15, 2006
(10:41 AM) | Brad:
Losing
Maybe it's just me, but I'm actually pretty ambivalent about Sen. Feingold's censuring antics of late. Do not misunderstand. I vigorously oppose Bush administration, and enjoy resisting it as much as the next person. But all this seems to go beyond being merely fruitless -- and this is, maybe, why it is potentially both a form of success and failure.If lightening strikes, for example, and the move to censure succeeds, what happens? Some Congressional Republicans are let off their self-created noose come November elections. This has been my fear since Bush was re-elected, that his Messiah complex would truly kick in and he would seek to take on the sins of the Republican party. To its eventual salvation. Rare is it that an entire second term is that of a "lame duck," but it almost seems as though this has been done intentionally this time around. Sacrifically, if you will.
What happens if the measure fails? -- On the one hand, it reiterates Democratic powerlessness. On the other hand, though, this is not necessarily a bad thing. And indeed, with this maybe the Democrats should play to lose, so as to highlight the ethical discongruity between the parties.
It's come to this, I guess, as I am currently at my wit's end with the Democratic party. Every day I hear that if only the Democrats "framed" the issues better, if they were somehow able to change the way the issues are articulated; or, if only more Democrats canvassed our neighborhoods talking about the issues; etc. And yet only lip service is paid to having a compelling party line. Seemingly every time the Democrats have had an opportunity to either create or emphasize theirs, they've dropped the ball. Case in point, their recent sham of a health care reform policy paper. (And don't get me started on the banktrupcy bill -- I will never forgive Joe Biden's duplicity when it came to that immoral scrawl.) Every day, I hear "fucking Ohio voting corruption, it cost us the election," or "fucking Republicans have made 'liberal' a bad word, so what we have to do is say 'progressive' and not 'liberal.'" When, in fact, I have to hold in my response: no, fuck the Democrats. They who play not to lose, even though they're already losing.
All this is to say, in a perhaps scattershot kind of way, that I'm on the verge of being convinced by Discard & Old that removing oneself from the voting rolls might be the way to go. Perhaps we need to play this philosophy of losing thing to the hilt, and all the way through.
