MoveOn And the Kabuki Congress | The Agonist

MoveOn And the Kabuki Congress | The Agonist

Kabuki Congress: The bottom line is this. About half of Democrats (list at the bottom) just don’t like the netroots or uppity citizens. They really don’t like us. When they just go through the motions we get angry. We ask people to call them (who often don’t say nice things on the phone). They don’t really want to end the war; they don’t really want to restore Habeas Corpus. Oh sure, they’ll go through the motions, but they won’t force the Republicans to actually filibuster. They won’t work with outside groups to really put pressure on vulnerable Republicans, nor will they do anything significant to ratchet up the pressure.

Why? Because they figure they’re going to win in 2008 anyway, and they can do it without the netroots. And if the price is letting another couple hundred thosuand Iraqis die; if the price is another 1,000 or so American deaths – well, that’s an acceptable price to them. It’s certainly not worth having to get unpleasant with the Republican; having to fight hard. So a certain section of the Democratic party has come to hate the netroots for pushing them to fight. They’re going to get everything they really want without fighting, they figure – so why do more than go through the motions? Real filibusters, with the cots and so on, and maybe weeks of it, are really unpleasant. Maybe not as unpleasant as having your legs blown off by an IED, but then, these are important people.

For a while now a lot of activist bloggers have been holding onto the last shreds of the hope ignited in November of last year – that electing a Democratic Congress make a real difference. This act has dispelled most of that. Practically every blogger I know is furious. This puts them, I might add, back in the camp with their readers, most of whom, judging from comments and from the polls, have been disgusted every since the Iraqi authorization bill went through. The honeymoon is over, and the Democrats who did this will reap what they sowed. Both they, and the netroots will be worse for it, but there is no way out – the real betrayal, in the end, was of the base, by these Democrats. And as Digby would say, for us to go crawling back now would be to act to them like they act towards the Republicans – as a battered wife crawling back to her husband despite the abuse.

The job now will be to support those few Dems who deserve it, to work on primaries and recruiting candidates and get ready for 2008. Working with the leadership is off the table – I personally will no longer be asking anyone to call on anything unless I believe the leadership will fight for the bill, rather than just make a token vote and let it go down easily. No fight – no support. I know I am not the only one who feels this way.