Monday, March 21, 2005

We can't win

The Note
    Once again, clearing away the personal part, the Republicans are on the offensive and the Democrats are on the defensive. That's a Noteable fact.
Never mind that not a single Senate Democrat objected to the Schiavo bill and less than a quarter of the Democrats in the House voted no. Never mind that there is pretty much a consensus among historian/constitutional law types that this bill is way out of bounds. Never mind that Tom Delay actually praised(!) Senate Democrats in his closing statement last night on the floor of the House for supporting passage of the bill. Never mind all that, "the Democrats are on the defensive."

As Democrats, we might as well assume that even if we give near unanimous support to some of the most extreme, right-wing, fundamentalist Christians in this country, we will never neutralize their hatred of us nor will we diminish their desire to vote for the Tom Delays and the Rick Santorums and against us. Quite simply, we have nothing to gain from supporting the Republicans in this effort and what we have done, or failed to do, in supporting the Schiavo bill is dangerously similar to what we did in the run up to war in Iraq by supporting the Iraq War Resolution. Far from disarming our critics, the bipartisan support for the IWR simply cemented the GOPs dominance on the national security front and later helped bring down our nominee for President.

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