Linkmeister

Cojones needed

Here's the blurb on the NYT's Op/Ed pages attempting to entice you to read Frank Rich's column this week:

Even though their own poll numbers are in a race to the bottom with the president's, don't expect the Democrats to make a peep about the war in Iraq.

I'm afraid he's right. The Democrats, most of whom voted unenthusiastically to authorize Bush's nasty little war, have become afraid of their own shadows. They are reading history and concluding that if they say anything unpleasant about the President and his lies about Iraq they'll just turn into reincarnations of the party which nominated Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern, thus losing all but three Presidential elections between 1968 and 1996. That might indeed be true, but I suspect they should read the polls (Gallup, 8/26/05). They might discover that the public is way out ahead of them on Iraq.

The Gallup organization said the president's disapproval rating was 56%. That rating, and the 40% approval figure, are the most negative ratings of the Bush administration.

They should also not forget that the guy who led in the Democratic primaries in 2004 was a moderate governor who was decidely anti-war, Howard Dean. Had it not been for the results in Iowa and New Hampshire, two small states which are hardly characteristic of Democratic voters as a whole, Dean might well have gone on to win the nomination, and the American public might have had a much different choice than it ultimately had. Who knows what might have happened then?

Rather than meekly continue to follow along this godawful path the country is being led down by the most incompetent President we've had since Warren Harding, the Democrats need to stand up and start shouting. Look what happened in Ohio recently, where a Democratic anti-war candidate nearly won in the most Republican district in that state. It can work, and more than that, you can earn back some self-respect at the same time. Remember your principles, dammit!

Posted by Linkmeister at August 28, 2005 12:01 AM | TrackBack