I wish none of this were true. I wish we had a genuine, vibrant opposition party. It would be indescribably beneficial if the rare, isolated and usually marginalized voices within the Democratic Party (and the even rarer and more marginalized voices in the GOP) were predominant. But they just aren't. That's just a fact that can't be ignored. The Democratic Party in Congress is largely controlled and led by those who have enabled and affirmatively supported the worst aspects of the Bush foreign policy and the most severe abuses of our country's political values.
December 9, 2007
The other part of that story
Tony noted the WaPo story in the comments that clearly defines waterboarding as torture. But the other part of the story--unfortunately, as Glenn Greenwald notes, is the Democratic leadership's knowledge and aquiesence to such lawbreaking by our President.
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4 comments:
I have to admit my jaw hit the floor when I read this earlier. All that talk with FP below, all that back and forth trying to set up a logical refutation of torture and waterboarding and what's a real American to do and blah blah blah. All of that kind of washes down the drain if, as Greenwald says, your opposition party won't oppose even the most obvious, egregious lapses.
Digby says "I'll be happy to canvas and call and do whatever it takes to ensure that my neighbors are represented by someone who doesn't believe that waterboarding is acceptable practice for a civilized nation." She's talking about campaigning against Jane Harman, a Democrat, and one of the ones who supposedly knew all the way back in 2002.
It's awful, but what do you do? Change the party from within, or chuck the whole thing out and start over.
Yeah, I was rooting for the Democrats. A little backbone from either party in this discussion would be refreshing.
In this regard, I wish the US were more like most European countries. Many have well more than 2 political parties. While this can cause some gridlock, I also believe it allows a wide number of views to be represented. In our system, there is no incentive to rock the boat or take a stand. The Democrats don't have to strongly oppose torture because they know that their supporters aren't going to get mad and vote for a Republican. On that same token, Bush can say he will sign the Assault Weapons Ban because he knew that Republicans wouldn't vote for Kerry.
I wonder if instant run-off elections, which I understand to be sort of Heisman Trophy-style voting, would make third party candidates a more viable political force.
We could vote our fear with the number one choice, as in, I am afraid so and so will win so I will vote for the person I think is mostly likely to beat that person. I think many do that already.
With our other votes, we can vote our hopes and dreams. Like Mike Gravel or Ron Paul? Here's a way to support them that might even get them elected.
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