World War III and the Moment of Truth for Democrats

[babylonsister]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/10609

World War III and the Moment of Truth for Democrats
by Brent Budowsky | Oct 23 2007


As the president speaks of World War III and potential war with Iran with fevered rhetoric in a near-hysterical atmosphere, the world stands at a moment of great danger.

For Democrats as a leadership party and the Congress as a co-equal branch of government, it is a moment of truth, and recent history does not augur well.

World War III?

For the president to speak in terms of World War III is extreme, irrational and distempered, and for a Democratic Senate to pass an Iran resolution in this atmosphere of fear and frenzy makes 2007 and Iran look ominously similar to 2002 and Iraq.

snip//

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate should wave the banner that our country does not need another unwise war, and that talk of World War III is irrational, distempered and and extremist.

This is a fight Democrats will win, if waged, but the kind of fight that has not been waged at any time during the dark years of the Bush wars.

We should win the one war that matters, and focus all our efforts on killing Osama bin Laden, and challenge aggressively the failures of our president and vice president to defeat and kill the perpetrators of Sept. 11, 2001.

We should oppose with every breath this march towards endless war, this talk of World War III, this push for a new war with Iran, and the hysteria being pushed by the voices of unreason that have brought enough chaos and carnage for a lifetime.

This time, Democrats must have the spine to make a stand.

[SteveM]

1. Democratic Party can't/won't lead. Only citizenry can do that, now.

The Democratic Party is committed to nothing but being non-committal. While the Democrats can point to their weak majority status in Congress, they don't bring up the weakness of the Party's leadership because that means closer scrutiny of their culture of survival. (The Party usually takes ambiguous, easily-abandoned stands, or aligns itself with positions suitable to the GOP. Reference Demo front-runners who have conformed to the GOP's hard-right stance on troops in Iraq for many more years.)

Any reliance on the Democratic Party must take this into account: The Dems are afraid of the GOP; afraid to go up against them intellectually; afraid of their "attack machine" (an acknowledgment of the GOP's superior talent in matters of gaining and holding power; afraid of striking out on new courses. This kind of fear will continue even if they cling to power after 2008.

This country has only one political party (GOP).

[katty]

2. The Democrats are dedicated to REGULAR PAYCHECKS

that's it.

[Faygo Kid]

3. We can count on Dem leadership to apologize boldly, without hesitation.

Not sure for what this time, but they will find something.

"Oppose with every breath this march towards endless war. . .?"

If only.