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TagsIt's time to quit being a Democrat, and start being a democrat!
I’ve always been a registered Democrat. I think it has something to do with my having reached voting age in 1967, when there were actually some serious anti-war candidates challenging the party leadership, and being able to vote in the primaries really mattered, and because in 1972, there was a genuine choice between an honest peace candidate and a truly wretched war-monger, who was working to destroy the Constitution. My party, the Democrats, eventually took a stand against President Richard Nixon, and together with some Republicans who also valued the Constitution above blind party loyalty, they brought him down, and ushered in a rare, albeit brief, roll-back in the national security state.
Now we have another wretched war-monger, George W. Bush, who like Nixon before him is also doing his best to undermine the Constitution, but the party I have always been registered as a member of is letting him get away with it.
Oh sure, they’re having hearings to embarrass him, and they’re playing games to make it look like they’re opposed to his war-mongering, but they are clearly not doing anything concrete to stop him, the way Democrats did in 1974 with Nixon.
In fact, the leadership of my party is doing worse than nothing. They are actively blocking efforts to bring President Bush to ground. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has is known to have threatened key members of Congress, notably Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, and other early backers of impeachment hearings, with punishment—the loss of key committee and subcommittee chairs or postings, problems with any bills they might submit, and the like--in order to keep them from submitting bills of impeachment.
She and other leading Democrats in Washington have also unconscionably interfered with efforts in state legislatures to pass resolutions which would demand that the House of Representatives take up impeachment.
The cynical motive behind these actions is to try and win bigger majorities in Congress in 2008 by doing nothing—the idea being that Bush and his cronies and their Republican backers in Congress have made such a hash of running the country, and of their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that Americans will abandon them and turn to the Democrats.
The problem with this strategy—even if it were to work, which is dubious--is that by 2008 there won’t be much left of the Constitution, or of tri-partite government, thanks to Democratic inaction and cowardice.
Only the impeachment of Bush and the other criminals in the current administration can restore the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the tradition of separation of powers that has provided the underpinning of American democracy for over two centuries.
So after watching this pathetic post-November Kobuki show by the Democrats in Congress, I’ve had it!
The Democrats need to know that they can no longer act in such an irresponsible, cynical manner. They need to know that they can no longer take my vote for granted, counting on me to stick with the party because the Republicans are so much worse.
If Democrats will not impeach this president, if they in fact actively undermine attempts to express the popular will of the party's grassroots membership, I quit.
I’m giving my party notice. Effective immediately, I’m going to my local voter registrar’s office and changing my registration to Green Party, and I won’t be back to vote for Democrats until they take a stand of principle and begin impeachment hearings to remove President George W. Bush from Office. I will be sending word of my resignation to the Democratic National Committee, and to Speaker Pelosi.
I urge every Democrat who cares about the future of the country and the survival of the Constitution to join me. It doesn't matter whether you join the Greens, the Socialists, the Populists, or just go unaffiliated. What matters is that you quit the Democratic Party.
Elections in the U.S. of late are being won and lost by narrow margins. If the Democratic leadership sees that hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions of us, are not going to play their game anymore, maybe they’ll finally start acting like real Democrats again, if only to win back the progressive voters, like me, who I’m suggesting here should abandon them.
If you do decide to quit, and to notify party leaders of your decision, please also send me an email with just “I quit” in the subject line (no messages please!) at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
I’ll be publishing the results here weekly, and if the numbers get large enough, I'll be going to the mainstream press and the DNC with them.
And please spread the word.
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I Quit! A Movement of One, Or Maybe a Million
Saturday, 31 March 2007
Saturday, 31 March 2007
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a guest
said:
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... I could not agree more. This writer has articulated my thoughts and feelings exactly, and I will follow the suggestions today, and pass on this message to as many people as I think might be receptive to its position. Diana C. Cushing, PhD |
a guest
said:
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Congratulations, even though you're a little bit late. Voting Democrat was a lifelong habit for me, right up through 1998. In Y2K I quit voting Democrat and started voting third-party. To me, there are only two things more disgusting than the Al Gore candidacy of that year. One was the Kerry candidacy of '04 and the other is the current attempt to launch another Gore candidacy in '08. Most people NEVER learn. For the most part, your columns reflect the fact that you're one of the few who can. Congratulations on your decision. I hope you're able to persuade a great many more. Jimmy Montague |
a guest
said:
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Priorities and timing I'm mad as hell, but I'm not going to run to the window quite yet, and shout out how I just can't take it anymore. Once I'm truly convinced the beltway Dems indeed do intend to "do nothing" of substance and try to coast to big majorities and gain the White House in 2008 by blaming everything on the GOP, I'll take a walk too. On rare occasion, I've gone third party before. Maybe I can even be the fourth for bridge with Lindorff, Jimmy and Diana, unless my incrementalism is too offensive for polite company. But the first priority (as I see it) is to end the occupation of Iraq completely and quickly as possible. Stop the bleeding and get the troops home. There still will be plenty of time and plenty of high crimes and misdemeanors. But first things first. To end the occupation of Iraq, I believe you have to first exhaust all meaningful bipartisan remedies - such as targeted funding cutoffs and time deadlines, using a genuine threat of impeachment as the ultimate big stick to coerce the President into obeying the rule of law. That initial game of legislative chicken is already underway. Let it run its course. Like a Greek chorus, all the DC pundits foresee Bush vetoing whatever final bill the Democrats pass in the current emergency funding fight. The stakes escalate from there. If Harry Reid and Russ Feingold do jointly sponsor a total funding cut, and a nearer date certain to complete withdrawal in response to a Bush veto, what is the White House's counter move? Personally, I'd like to see the Dems also take a minimalist approach: repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force joint resolution. Period. Make the repeal fully effective thirty (30) days from its enactment, unless the White House and the GOP drafts and Congress in bipartisan spirit passes a new AUMF for the Iraq occupation. That draws the line in the Constitutional sand right where it belongs. So Congress repeals the AUMF, 30 days pass, and Little George shrugs the whole thing off and carrys on waging war in Iraq as usual, but now without any domestic legal authority to do so. More Iraqi civilians die. That's murder. That's a really high crime, a pristine impeachable offense to lay alongside torture and illegal NSA wiretapping and covert ops against Iran and fixed intelligence and all the rest. Frankly, I think it was smart for Pelosi to take impeachment off the table, in order to be able to put it back on the table if Bush brings it on himself - the last resort rather than a partisan first shot across the bow. It's a matter of priorities and timing. If that's not what's afoot, then I'll take a hike from the Democratic Party too and join the big parade. |
a guest
said:
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Nancy Pelosi is a gutless, imbecilic soccer mom who is in WAY over her head. Her presence in the speaker's chair at this moment in history may well be the final nail in the coffin of Uncle Sam's democratic republic. We needed Tip O'Neill. We got a white Topsy. |
a guest
said:
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I regret my insult to Topsy, who is a character in Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was the result of haste. As soon as I posted the remark I remembered Prissy, one of Scarlett O'Hara's servants in GWTW. Prissy, you may recall, boasted that she knew all about midwifery. When the crunch came, however, she broke into tears and confessed that she had lied: She knew nothing about birthing babies. Scarlett responded by slapping Prissy about ten feet sideways. Prissy's role in GWTW anticipates Pelosi's role as Speaker of the House. She said she knew all about the job. Since she got it, she's done nothing but puff herself up while she stumbles around the House. What Pelosi needs is somebody like Scarlett to slap her once in a while and sharpen her persepctive. |
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