Is It True?

Are our collective voices being heard? Has the drumbeat of change being beaten out by those of us on the left, the grassroots, the activists, the liberals who’ve been fighting for a prominent place within the Democratic Party, really about to have our views validated by the Party leadership? Are they finally going to shirk their Republican lite stances and become the Democratic Party we remember from yesteryears, complete with an ideological view of the world based on the common good?

I watched Russ Feingold give a televised speech Monday to the National Press Club (audio here) and it was great. He talked about the lack of courage exhibited by Democrats who voted to authorize the war, even though many of them thought it was a colossal mistake. The palpable fear many Democrats have of standing on principle, and the lack of faith that instills in voters. The fact that, without an identity, an honest opposition and a distinct difference between them and their Republican counterparts the Democrats will continue to lose elections. Feingold has always been ahead of the curve, voting against the war and being the only Senator to vote against the Patriot Act, but I have been holding out little hope that the Party would catch up. I’m happy for even a small sign that I might have been wrong.

Liberalism has not been discredited, but it certainly has been targeted by Corporatists who have a vested interest in making it seem as if it has. They have a much different agenda, one that involves personal wealth for them and a rejection of the common good. When things get bad, when hope is diminished and yelling replaces discourse, America looks to the Democrats to make things better. It’s almost as if Republicans are the drug pushers that show up when things are going well, we’ve got some money in our pocket and are looking for a good time. They give us all the things we want, on credit of course, but once we’re done gorging on the things we want but don’t need, and find ourselves slumped in an alley with a headache the size of Texas, broke, beat up and regretting the night before, that’s when we need the Democrats to come in and impose some order and remind us that the world extends beyond our own nose. We are a hungover nation, but we might finally be ready for our lecture and a plan.

We have made a terrible mistake as a country. We have mistakenly believed that the Presidency doesn’t matter, that it’s okay to have “a regular Joe” in the White House, a guy that doesn’t know much about how government works, let alone how to relate to the rest of the world. Being the President of the United States is not a job just anyone can do. There is a reason that things were on an upswing when Bill Clinton was at the helm. He took control of a sagging economy and created jobs. He turned a record deficit, thanks to twelve years of intellectually (barely) adequate leadership, into a record surplus. Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar for Christ’s sake, he knew what he was doing. It is no coincidence that we have fallen so fast as a nation under George Jr. He is intellectually challenged, simple minded and nowhere near capable of the job we have handed him. We can never let this happen again and with the mess Bush has made of our economy, our reputation and our country, we will need another Rhodes Scholar to get us back on track. Lucky for us, Russ Feingold just happens to be one too!