Overnight Ponderings

by shamanic

Bottom line: if Americans want their government to enact legislation that Americans support, we need to elect more Democratic senators.

Today the GOP successfully filibustered the restoration of habeas corpus and Jim Webb's bill to lengthen delays between troop deployments.

Ridiculously, I saw Lindsay Graham (R-SC) on the News Hour this evening demanding that Democrats quit interfering with operations on the ground and just cut off funds for the war. (Can't find a link to his statements in the debate, so I'm paraphrasing.) Because I guess if the Senate was debating actually ending the war, suddenly there would be a dozen Republicans supporting the legislation. Right.

If there's one thing that days like today (and there are too many days like today) demonstrate, it's that the priorities of the Republican caucus in congress and the priorities of Americans are radically at odds. There is a very simple solution to the problem, but it can't be enacted until November of 2008.

Democrats are not the answer to everything. They are often spineless, sometimes aimless, and unless prodded, usually as feckless as any Republican, but that's kind of the point: Unlike their Republican counterparts, they can be prodded. They are, in the end, more or less responsive to the concerns of Americans. This is the major difference between the two parties in America today. One simply doesn't care what people think, while the other would prefer not to but is ultimately relatively accountable.

That's the landscape. Now pick your team.