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Friday, June 03, 2005
Democrats: Accountability and Forward Action on Iraq
Posted by Bob BrighamFrom David Sirota:
Maybe it's just the mountain air out here in Montana...but I just can't get over how insulated D.C. pundits can spout off and claim that a handful of Beltway elites should be viewed with the same significance as the millions of people out in the American heartland who constitute the "grassroots." Beyond even the national party's lack of a position on the war issue, this is a classic symbol for what's wrong with many Washington, D.C. insiders who claim to speak for progressives: they look at ordinary people with disdain, while self-importantly pumping up the significance of the elites that they are surrounded with. It is exactly the opposite of what the Republicans do. It is arrogant, it is pathetic, and it is, well, elitist - and it's one of the big reasons national Democrats keep losing elections.
And from Atrios:
At some point the "hawks" are going to have to admit they fucked up. The only credibility they'll lose is with the kool kids klub, but they need to stop caring what they think anyway.
It really sucks that many of the Democrats in DC are back to their 2002 position of ignoring that Iraq exists. They talk as though it isn't happening, that deaths are not occurring, that treasury is not being depleted. Democrats in DC envision Iraq completely off of the table by '08, and that Clinton, Kerry, Edwards, et. al. will be able to run unencumbered from having to discuss Iraq, or face the unpleasentness of having a solution to the occupation-- that there's no need to face their defacto or clearcut support for the occupation.I don't buy it. Unless the Democrats face the problem with a solution, they have no credibility on the issue. And perhaps worse, for the Democratic Party, the centrists continued denial places liberals and progressives into a position of compromising authenticity to go along with the duplicity. I guess they don't recall Eugene McCarthy or George McGovern anymore. It's because of the Centrist Democrats in the Senate that we are in Iraq. Without their support, we wouldn't be in Iraq right now. They owe it to the Democratic Party to demand of Bush a correction of their error.
The sooner some Democrats admit they fucked up on Iraq, the sooner we can move forward. Bush wasn't the only one to receive bad intelligence, many Democrats fell for faulty political intelligence from certain dipshits in the hawk wing who kept explaining that Democrats would look bad unless they cowardly followed Bush. These assholes are guilty of political malpractice and need to be held accountable.
Atrios is right, they are going to lose some credibility with the Kool Kids Klub, but the rest of the country already knows that they fucked up -- that should worry them more.
Posted at 03:55 PM in Democrats | Technorati