de BlacKGuarD le Mar Jan 31, 2006 1:34 am
Ayant habitude de me promener sur quelques sites traitant de l'actualité américaine, j'ai eu la chance de tomber sur ce message, de la part d'un démocrate (non-élu, évidemment) mais assez influent, assez combattif.
Son surnom: The Plaid Adder.
Je vous retranscris donc son message qui, je crois, donne une assez bonne impression de comment se sentent les plus "radicaux" (de gauche) des démocrates. Je pourrais le traduire mais à quoi bon? Son propos, fluide, ne mérite pas d'être entaché par mes doigts souvent maladroits.
No Regrets, No Tears, No Fucking Quarter.
Well. That's Alito confirmed, then.
I'm not going to try to tell anyone this was a good outcome. It would have been infintely better for the Constitution, the court, the party, and millions of Americans if we had been able to keep Alito off the Supreme Court. It would have been a bitter defeat for Bush, and might have been enough to force at least some change in the media climate that continues to prop him up and beat us down.
The real question before us is not: how much does this suck? (Simple answer: it sucks A LOT.) The question is, what does it tell us about where we go from here?
Here are a few things we know after today:
1) The Senate Democrats know where there base is. There's no way they could not know. If they did not get a hundred thousand calls each about this it's only because they didn't have enough staffers, voicemail space, and fax paper to record them all. I think it is fair to say that as regards contacting the Senate Democrats to make ourselves heard, we did all that could be done.
2) 24 Democrats (plus Jeffords) either understood why Alito was a menace who had to be stopped at all costs, or were willing to be persuaded. These people are actually doing the job they were elected to do, and ought to be encouraged in that. Please take the time to write to their offices and thank them. Also thank their staffers.
3) 24 Senate Democrats cannot constitute an effective opposition party, no matter how passionate they are in their commitment to freedom and to us.
4) Those Democrats who did not support this effort simply do not understand, or do not care, what the real stakes of this battle were. They do not realize that they are on their way to becoming permanently obsolete, and that they are essentially functioning as the fig leaf that hides the ugly truth of the Bush administration's power grab. They may not get it because they are too insulated from the effects of Bush administration policies, because they are insulated from the anger of their base, because they erroneously believe that this is still 'politics as usual,' or because they have been held captive so long to the media/Republican power machine that they all have Stockholm syndrome. The reasons don't really matter too much. The point is that if this has not taught them, nothing short of the literal outlawing of the Democratic Party will get through to them. They must therefore be replaced.
5) We are on our own.
But you know what, I don't feel as bad about this as I would have a week ago.
This is our country now. The elected elites on both sides have abandoned it, so it belongs to us. It is in horrible shape, with an engine that doesn't start, a nasty smell in the glove compartment, and some serious alignment issues. Our esteemed leaders, less about 25, are not interested in fixing it; they are all driving much better stuff rented for them by the lobbyists. Well, fine. Get out of the car, cause we're gonna take it apart and put it back together.
We start at the bottom, in the races nobody cares about. School boards, comptrollers, secretaries of state. We start local. City, county, state. Forget the presidency. We've had two bullshit elections and no reason to believe 2008 will be clean. Start now, focus now, on putting People Who Get It in charge of the basic machinery of the party.
From now on, there is only one litmus test. Candidates fall into two categories: People Who Get It and Part Of The Problem. The ultimate goal is for PWGI to recover the broken machinery of government so that we can set it right. For those of you who are talking about leaving the party, I don't blame you one bit. As my partner was once told regarding her continued quest to take back the Catholic Church: some will leave, and that will be the work of the Holy Spirit; some will stay, and that will also be the work of the Holy Spirit. You think it's lonely and heartbreaking to be a Democrat who gets it right now, well, try being a GBLT Catholic. The point is: if you leave, fine, but all y'all better ORGANIZE. Start or join a party that can put some REAL pressure on the Democratic power elite. Get out, meet each other, and start something. In or outside of the party, I don't care, as long as you tap into the well of disgust and alarm that is seeping across the country as a result of this administration's theft, tyranny, and incompetence.
This administration is already on its way to becoming well-hated, not just by Democrats but by everyone. It will only get worse, because they don't have the smarts or the motivation it would take to fix anything. The longer this gang rules unchallenged, the closer this country gets to Soviet-Union-style stagnation and dry rot. Our elected leaders are famously incapable of capitalizing on the dissent that is already growing in this country. Fine. Time for new leaders. Viz., us.
Yes. It's dark. It's very, very dark outside and getting colder. All the more reason for us to make as much light as we can for each other.
There are no easy solutions; there will be no quick fix. It will get worse before it gets better. I won't say I don't care. But I will say that in terms of what I do, it will not make a damn bit of difference. I am not sorry that I devoted the time and energy I devoted to this battle, and I will not be sorry for the time, money, and energy I devote to turning this country over to People Who Get It, whatever form that winds up taking.
A week ago today, I felt like I was alone in the world. I don't now. I am not alone, you are not alone, Kennedy and Kerry and Boxer and Conyers are not alone. We are the people. Without us, nothing lasts.
My Republican brother is a stock analyst. He and his brother Wall Streeters have a saying, apparently: Trees do not grow to the sky. Nothing travels in a straight line forever. This particular Republican Koan also has an answer: But where does the sky begin? We don't, unfortunately, know where the sky begins. This particular tree is already a monster and it's still growing. But you know what, the thing still has roots. It can be brought down. We just need to find a way to do it.
I have no regrets about this past week. I wish the outcome had been different. But the task before us, once we are done with the howls of rage and despair, is to figure out how to use what we know. Painful as this voyage of discovery is likely to be, I am glad to be making the passage with you.
Thank you all,
The Plaid Adder
The wise fools who sit in the high places of justice fail to see that, in revolutionary times like the present, vital issues are settled, not by statutes, decrees and authorities, but in spite of them.