It's just politics, they tell me.

It's just politics, they tell me.
madfloridian
Sun Oct-28-07


When our Democrats ignored our calls about Iraq, ignored the marches, ignored the emails and voted to give Bush unprecedented powers....we were told it was just politics.

We were told we had to appear strong on keeping our country safe. It was simply a political move so we could win.

When we begged them not to pass that bankruptcy bill in 2005, the one in which people who are caregivers and people who have medical debt could lose their homes to bankruptcy...we were told it was just politics.

When the Democrats somehow managed to give Bush his agenda in the courts by refusing to really fight on Alito and Roberts...it was just politics we were told. We heard from some that maybe a Democrat would want their judges passed also, so we needed to go along.

Women's choice matters were already off the agenda by the time the judges were appointed, because it was good politics to appease the "abortion greys"...you know, the ones who were undecided. As it turns out we passed a plan to cut abortions by 98%. A Supreme Court ruling made sure that doctors can now spend up to two years in jail for using a certain procedure late term to save the life of a woman.

It was just good politics.

The Democrats are either being mum or being hawkish on Iran. I have at one time or the other this year heard most major Democrats say how dangerous that country is to our safety.

For the sake of good politics, appearing strong on National Security...we will probably not attempt to stop Bush from bombing that country.

I got through last week to the state party here. I had talked to some at county level earlier about the way our state was actiing toward other states and toward the authority of the national party.

I did not get a good answer, I really just got asked to go along and get along to win. I have always done that in the past. I guess they expect and assume it will happen in the future.

It is just the way politics works, I have been told by state leaders and often here at DU. I have been told it is just the way things happen.

I hear from a friend who attended the convention that he saw several buttons with the name of the chairman and a screw sticking through the name. I saw a picture in the paper and posted it here at DU.

I was told it was just politics, all in good fun, and just a form of free speech. Only a few recognized it was harmful to the party.

I have noticed a lot of doublespeak about plans for Social Security. I wondered why the think tanks which form Democratic policy are working with Republicans and with groups like the Heritage Foundation. Their history on Social Security is nothing to brag about.

Turns out it is all just bipartisan politics. It turns out none of us who were upset really understood anything at all about Social Security or much of anything else.

It is now more about "anything goes" politics and winning than it is about decency, being right, and having a moral center. And people who like me think first about the rightness and wrongness of an issue, and not so much its use poltically...are left out in the cold with nowhere to turn.


Posted in full with author's permission.

Originally posted at democraticunderground.com: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1610