The Filibuster Deal: Paving The Way For More Democratic Election Defeats

[Itsthetruth]

CounterPunch
May 25, 2005

Brain Dead Democrats
The Curse of Bi-partisanship
By DAVE LINDORFF

Newspaper editors and pundits love to talk about the need for "bi-partisanship" and cooperation as though such comity were an unambiguous public good. Yet it is precisely such bipartisanship that brought us the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, the North American Free Trade Act, welfare cutbacks, the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the new anti-bankruptcy law, and which threaten to bring us a mortally weakened Social Security "reform," and who knows? Maybe a war on Iran or Syria.

Sure, if the Democrats took a hard-line confrontational approach to the dominant Republicans in House and Senate they'd lose on a lot of things, including the appointment of judges with right-wing agendas. But by standing for principle, Democrats would be paving the way for serious election campaigns on important issues in 2006 and 2008. They'd be rallying the electorate to fight back against the Republican-led campaign to drag the country backwards to the 19th century in economic, environmental and social policy.

Instead, people like Lieberman and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) are paving the way for further electoral defeats for Democrats in the coming election cycles. By lining up with Republicans on compromises that end up selling out principle (the filibuster agreement will result in the approval, with Democratic acquiescence, of several truly dreadful new appellate judges), Democrats confuse and demoralize their potential electoral base.

All the so-called moderate Democrats are showing is political cowardice and lack of principle. As one Republican operative told the New York Times, the only reason the opposition isn't having a field day these days in Congress is because "the Democratic Party is brain dead."

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff05252005.html

[Ysolde]

1. That's a great summary of the way I feel.

If we don't stand on our principles, then we stand for nothing and offer the voters no choice. As I keep railing over and over in this state, if the only choice for the voters is between a Republican and a Republican-lite, they will pick the Republican every time "because he knows what he stands for".

[GOTV]

5. Yeah, what kind of campaign promise is that...

... vote for me and I'll work happily with the Republicans to implement their agenda!

Why not just vote for the Republican if that slogan appeals to you?

[HereSince1628]

2. Well, I am not confused or demoralized

My senator, Mr. Feingold, didn't seem fond of the deal. I think I still have an advocate of my views in the senate.

Perhaps the "moderate" senators who forged the compromise accurately reflect the opinions of the people who elected them. If that is the case, they also have an advocate of their opinions in the senate.

For those whose senators didn't reflect their opinion during this contest, they need to make note and consider that next election.

The next question of interest to me is what those who forged this deal do when Frist breaks it.

[Goblinmonger]

7. Isn't Feingold great

If I had a uterus, I would have his love child. His statement yesterday was right on the money.

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. And thank you for saying WHEN, not IF. nt

[Sapphire Blue]

13. Ignoring Deal, Frist to File for Cloture on Myers

Ignoring Deal, Frist to File for Cloture on Myers

Senate Majority Leader Frist will file for cloture on President Bush’s nomination of William Myers to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later this week, according to sources on and off Capitol Hill, wasting no time in testing the resolve of 14 Republican and Democratic senators who forced at least a temporary halt to the battle over Democratic filibusters of President Bush’s judicial picks.

http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=956

The victim cries, "Please don't hit me again! Please, I'll be good... I won't filibuster!" But the victim gets hit again... and again... and again.

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

The Politics of Victimization

Mel Gilles, domestic violence activist

an excerpt...

How to break free? Again, the answer is quite simple.

First, you must admit you are a victim. Then, you must declare the state of affairs unacceptable. Next, you must promise to protect yourself and everyone around you that is being victimized. You don’t do this by responding to their demands, or becoming more like them, or engaging in logical conversation, or trying to persuade them that you are right. You also don’t do this by going catatonic and resigned, by closing up your ears and eyes and covering your head and submitting to the blows, figuring its over faster and hurts less is you don’t resist and fight back. Instead, you walk away. You find other folks like yourself, 56 million of them, who are hurting, broken, and beating themselves up. You tell them what you’ve learned, and that you aren’t going to take it anymore. You stand tall, with 56 million people at your side and behind you, and you look right into the eyes of the abuser and you tell him to go to hell. Then you walk out the door, taking the kids and gays and minorities with you, and you start a new life. The new life is hard. But it’s better than the abuse.

We have a mandate to be as radical and liberal and steadfast as we need to be. The progressive beliefs and social justice we stand for, our core, must not be altered. We are 56 million strong. We are building from the bottom up. We are meeting, on the net, in church basements, at work, in small groups, and right now, we are crying, because we are trying to break free and we don’t know how.

Any battered woman in America, any oppressed person around the globe who has defied her oppressor will tell you this: There is nothing wrong with you. You are in good company. You are safe. You are not alone. You are strong. You must change only one thing: stop responding to the abuser. Don’t let him dictate the terms or frame the debate (he’ll win, not because he’s right, but because force works). Sure, we can build a better grassroots campaign, cultivate and raise up better leaders, reform the election system to make it failproof, stick to our message, learn from the strategy of the other side. But we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, “loose”, irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.

Even if you do everything right, they’ll hit you anyway. Look at the poor souls who voted for this nonsense. They are working for six dollars an hour if they are working at all, their children are dying overseas and suffering from lack of health care and a depleted environment and a shoddy education. And they don’t even know they are being hit.

http://www.refuseandresist.org/article-print.php?aid=1696

[Itsthetruth]

3. This Also Paves The Way For A "Bi-partisan" Deal On Social Security Cuts

"Moderate" conservative Republicans and "responsible" Democrats will certainly begin discussions on a "compromise" agreement to cut social security benefits.

A bi-partisan social security benefit cuts proposal may not include private accounts, however, it will certainly include some or all of the following:

1. Price indexing benefits.

2. Increasing the retirement age.

3. Increasing the "penalty" for early retirement.

4. Cutting disability benefits.

In order to make these social security cuts easier to sell, a bi-partisan group might also propose a small increase in the cap on taxable income.

[GOTV]

4. I don't want to agree....

... but the compromise feels indeed both like an abrogation of principles and a faustian bargain.

[KeepItReal]

6. Sen. Byrd is not brain dead, yet he signed on - maybe for damage control?

Wonder what the "Compromise" would have looked like without Bryd's input?

[Itsthetruth]

8. We Can See It Right Here

"Democrats confuse and demoralize their potential electoral base."

And we see exactly that happening here on DU discussion boards. Not just with the filibuster deal but also the lopsided votes approving Iraq war funding, Senator Reid's leadership role in getting anti-consumer bills like the class action "tort reform" and bankruptcy laws passed and seeing Democrats vote for every one of Bush's appointments up to now.

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. If you are afraid of losing, you never win. nt

[LightningFlash]

11. I'm about to get a George Galloway moment....

We need someone who's ACTUALLY in opposition..And not afraid to do it.

[Itsthetruth]

12. Check Out This Exclusive Interview With Galloway On U.S. Politics

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3710502

[Tomee450]

14. I agree totally

with the article. I am a lifelong Democrat but I am pretty disgusted with the party right now. Nothing but continuous caving in. Sometimes it's better to fight on principle even if it results in a loss. The Democrats of today seem to lack the courage to really fight for anything. Time after time they have let their constituents down.

[CWebster]

15. Instead there will be this whining about

How we are in such a weak position and have no power and what do you want---as if, as if pretending we won is a substitute and spinning a loss into a win is all we need because "losers never win".

Grover was right--it is a well-behaved, properly lectured in civility from thugs and cowed and neutered opposition, more than willing to accept scraps of illusions of victory than confront the unthinkable reality--that it is better to be safe than scared. Bullied into thinking bipartisan means no resistance and opposition is obstructionism. The first clue was rallying around the Centrists as if they were forging a path out of the wilderness instead of cowering in avoiding the hard work of political confrontation.