With all due respect to Senator Clinton, “the new war” is already underway. In fact, it has been for close to seven years, and truly it has been raging for the past four years.
Whether you, the the Bush Dog Democrats, the lobbyists who you feel represent people like us, other colleagues in the Senate or the House on either side of the aisle, corporatist, neoconservative or stay the course people who are afraid of the scary brown person lurking under your bed realize it or not – this is a new war going on. Sadly, it seems as though if you don’t realize it, you are probably on the wrong side here.
I use the word “war” with a heavy heart. While it is a cheap way to describe a conflict, especially one where the weapons used are not of a violent nature, and there are no bombs (other than a few “f-bombs” here and there) being dropped, it is the term used by people who like to over inflate and over conflate issues into silly bite size (or sound byte size) pieces like “war on drugs”, “war on terror” or “war on Christmas”. So, I use it for context only.
On one side of this“war” is the American public, who overwhelmingly are against a continued military presence in Iraq, or much of the Middle East for that matter, are against the policies of this administration, are against elected officials who are not accountable to anyone or are not holding those accountable who need to be. This side is also against the corporatization of the economy and government, and for some form of affordable basic medical care, less spending, fairer taxes and better education standards. They are in favor of a document called “The United States Constitution” and the rights enumerated within that document. They also like to keep the right of privacy. Both Democrats and republicans are on this side.
On the other side of this “war” are those who think that “if we just did things differently in Iraq, it would have been so much different”. Or that it is ok to let a man who lied under oath to Congress about warrantless wiretapping would be given more powers to wiretap without a warrant. To “stay on the offense”. To not keep our ports, railways, infrastructure safe. Or not rebuild the Gulf Coast. Or try to influence politics in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or any other country in such a blatant manner. Or protecting our environment is no big deal. Both Democrats and republicans are on this side too.
Our side knows that Iraq was never going to be successful with the very foundation of lies and fear tactics it was based on. We know that the lies spouted and double speak will be captured somewhere and come back to bite you in the ass. We hold people accountable. For their actions and their words. Both Democrats and republicans, for that matter.
We have candidates running for Congress who share our values much more than you do. And we have resources. Lots of resources. Our side is growing. More people realize that they don’t like the other side’s actions. We catch the lies and discredit those petty liars. We want change. We want serious action on getting out of Iraq. We want fair and affordable healthcare. We will fight for these things. And we ARE fighting for these things.
Of course, now that I’ve tipped you off, I would expect a complete change in tactics (ok, that was overreacting). But as a number of you have noted (both Democrats and republicans), “elections have consequences”. And people need to live up to the promises made while running for office. We don’t forget.
But if you think that the “new war” is going on out there as opposed to right here, then that is precisely why, to our side, you are not fit to lead our country at this very important time in our history.
You can’t lead if you don’t “get it”.
Sadly, you don’t get it.
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