Excuse me, but has anyone seen the Democratic Party?
An outrageous war of lies rages in Iraq, nearly 2,000
American troops have died there, Iraq itself is spiraling down into civil
war and theocracy, a growing majority of Americans now see President George
W. Bush’s policy for the disastrous deceit that it is, and grassroots
America is alive with a burgeoning peace movement. But where are the
congressional Democrats?
AWOL, that’s where — cowering in
indecision and fear. Instead of standing up to the ideological extremism of
the Bush administration and giving the public a rallying point for antiwar
action, the Beltway Democrats are just sitting there, quiet and motionless.
They say they fear that opposition to Bush might make them appear to be
“weak on war.”
Great galloping gutlessness! What about weak on
peace? What about weak on principle, on integrity, on leadership, on
political backbone? The majority of Americans are now against Bush’s
war and believe that it has made America less secure. Whatever happened to
the notion that at least one party in Congress should represent the will of
the people, especially when the other party is so dead wrong?
Luckily, many Democrats are not waiting on their
weak-kneed “leaders.” U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, for
example, is out front for bringing the troops home. U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey
of California has also stepped up — her amendment in May calling for
an exit strategy drew 123 Democratic votes (and five Republicans), and she
is holding unofficial hearings on Capitol Hill this month to debate
withdrawal from Bush’s deadly quagmire. Also, state Democratic
parties are taking action — Arizona recently became the seventh state
party to call both for bringing our troops home and fully funding veterans
benefits.
This article appears in Sep 15-21, 2005.
