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Stay The Course Of What?
excerpts from a column by Joshua Frank. August 23, 2005
As the new invigorated opposition to the Iraq war comes to a head with media-savvy Cindy Sheehan at the helm, one would assume the Democratic Party would find its voice. What do they have to lose? Certainly not elections. And certainly not their own popularity. They have none.
Antiwar Howard Dean, the restless chair of the DNC, says it is the responsibility of the Bush administration to come up with an exit strategy, not the Democrats'. Talk about the inability to offer an alternative. What makes Dean believe Bush could ever provide any reasonable ... anything? Let alone an exit policy? Dean's tangled jargon is just another case of the Democrats' inability to be a legitimate oppositional party.
Sens. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, two prominent Democrats in the race for the White House in 2008, aren't having any of this 'exit strategy' either. Stay the course, they say. Whatever the hell that means. Stay the course of what? Have they forgotten that there is no goal? No plan? No course? What we do know however, is that thousands more troops and civilians are sure to die as the US continues to occupy Iraq.
Fortunately the grassroots of the Democratic Party does not agree with Kerry and Clinton. They want the troops out of Iraq. Many claim that this rift between the party grassroots and the DC Democrats is a fundamental identity crisis. They see the party as having no legitimate direction. No heart. No soul. They are right.
If Democratic politicians had a soul they'd be standing shoulder to shoulder with Sheehan's supporters at candle-light vigils across the country. But that won't be happening anytime soon. The Democrats in DC aren't even sure Sheehan's actions are justified. They aren't even sure that her son died for an unjust cause.
The futility of the Democrats in Washington grows graver by the day.
You have been reading excerpts from "The Democrats and Cindy Sheehan" by Joshua Frank. You can read the entire piece here: tinyurl.com/cslkp. Thanks to counterpunch.org.
excerpts from a column by Joshua Frank. August 23, 2005
As the new invigorated opposition to the Iraq war comes to a head with media-savvy Cindy Sheehan at the helm, one would assume the Democratic Party would find its voice. What do they have to lose? Certainly not elections. And certainly not their own popularity. They have none.
Antiwar Howard Dean, the restless chair of the DNC, says it is the responsibility of the Bush administration to come up with an exit strategy, not the Democrats'. Talk about the inability to offer an alternative. What makes Dean believe Bush could ever provide any reasonable ... anything? Let alone an exit policy? Dean's tangled jargon is just another case of the Democrats' inability to be a legitimate oppositional party.
Sens. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, two prominent Democrats in the race for the White House in 2008, aren't having any of this 'exit strategy' either. Stay the course, they say. Whatever the hell that means. Stay the course of what? Have they forgotten that there is no goal? No plan? No course? What we do know however, is that thousands more troops and civilians are sure to die as the US continues to occupy Iraq.
Fortunately the grassroots of the Democratic Party does not agree with Kerry and Clinton. They want the troops out of Iraq. Many claim that this rift between the party grassroots and the DC Democrats is a fundamental identity crisis. They see the party as having no legitimate direction. No heart. No soul. They are right.
If Democratic politicians had a soul they'd be standing shoulder to shoulder with Sheehan's supporters at candle-light vigils across the country. But that won't be happening anytime soon. The Democrats in DC aren't even sure Sheehan's actions are justified. They aren't even sure that her son died for an unjust cause.
The futility of the Democrats in Washington grows graver by the day.
You have been reading excerpts from "The Democrats and Cindy Sheehan" by Joshua Frank. You can read the entire piece here: tinyurl.com/cslkp. Thanks to counterpunch.org.
