Hopeless Causes and other Windmills of Conviction

We stand at a crossroads. A pivotal moment in history where we will either see the true beginnings of an strong and committed opposition party - or continued aquiencense to the Boy King George.

Both the State of the Union and the critical vote either confirming or filibustering Judge Sam Alito to the Supreme Court will take place in two days. It's clear that Bush will continue to play the "Fear the Osama" card and argue that he is "protecting Americans" from losing their life and liberties, by taking away their liberties. What is less clear is whether he will attempt to put forward yet another bold far-reaching policy objective like say -- Reforming Social Security, or possibly confronting those "Evildoers" in Iran who continue to persue Nuclear (power) ambitions.

Many moderate Democrats and pundits have argued that a filibuster of Alito is "Pointless and doomed to fail". But maybe the point is that worthy battles need to be fought, simply because the battle itself is worthy.

Today on Meet the Press (Video from Crooks and Liars), in the midst of stammering and dodging his way through questions about Iraq, his support of the Domestic Spying Program despite it's clear illegality, his flat-out-wrong arm-chair diagnosis of Terry Schiavo, and allegations of insider stock trading Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist claimed that Democrats "don't have very much in the way of Principles and Ideas - they want to raise your taxes".

Well, no actually - they want to reverse the Bush tax cuts for the top %1 of earners. That change alone would pay for the War, properly armor and protect our troops, as well as properly fund the rebuilding of Katrini and restore $28 billion that's been cut to Student Aid - but it wouldn't would raise your taxes, or my taxes, it would raise Bill Frist's (and his family which happens to own one of the largest chains of for-profit Hospitals in the nations) taxes.

Democrats certainly do have principles, convictions and ideas.

• We don't think it's right let the man who killed 3,000 Americans get away so that you can start a second war using false pretenses, out a CIA agent in order to cover your ass, then fail to provide proper troop levels, fail to provide them adequate protection and then completely botch the reconstruction process of the nation we've just blown half-way to hell.
  
  
• We don't think it's right to emasculate regulatory and oversight agencies to the point that you have not just one company commiting massive fraud and theft, you have an epidemic of them from Enron to Tyco and AlDelphia.
  


• We don't think ignoring safety regulation enforcement promotes good business strategie, nor does it protect lives for that matter.
  
  
• We don't think it's right for companies to raid their pension funds.
  
  
• We don't think our seniors living on a fixed income should be forced into a drug program that bleeds them dry.
  
  
• We don't think it's right to spy on American Citizens without probable cause or a Warrant.
  
  
• We don't think it's right to indefinately detain American Citizens without a hearing.
  
  
• We don't think it's right to Torture detainees, particularly when over 100 of them have died in custody as a result and the information they've provided has been shaky at best.
  
  
• We don't think it's right to ignore clear warnings of an impending national disaster, then completely foul up the recovery and cleanup.
  
  
• We don't think it's right for U.S. Congressmen, who outwardly pretend to be pious and deeply religious, to use their position to protect the Saipan Sex Trade.
  
  
• We don't think it's right to ask the most vulnerable of us to shoulder the greatest burden, in order to further enrich those who want for practically nothing, while creating a stealth tax increase for everyone else.
  
  
• We don't think it's right to ignore rampant election fraud, twice.
  
  
• We don't think it's right to accept and give bribes to Congressmen.
  
  
• And most importantly, we don't think it's right for the President to sign a law, them immediately claim the law doesn't apply to him.

Apparently the Republicans who control both Congress and the Whitehouse think there's nothing wrong with any of the above. That this is an acceptable way to run a country. We don't.

On Tuesday a majority of Senate Democrats are going to stand up for their principles, ideas and convictions by asking for a filibuster of Sam Alito. At this point in time we don't know whether that filibuster will be succesful or not, we don't know if it will trigger the pulling of the "nuclear trigger" or not -- but we will certainly know what it means to be called...

A Democrat.

Sometimes what you truly believe in becomes clear - what truly defines you - is what you're willing to stand up and oppose. Especially when all the odds are against you, because that is the very definition of "Principle", is it not? I think standing up against this type of malfeasance, incompetent and blatant power-whore facism - is what it mean to be, an American.

You never know, there might still be a few Republican and/or Conservatives who remember what that used to be like...

Vyan