The International Writers Magazine: Politics Now & Readers Letters

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A Challenge to the 110th Congress • James Campion "What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that the people preserve the spirit of resistance?" Thomas Jefferson

After a dozen years, the Democrats own congress. Nancy Pelosi is the first woman Speaker of the House in the 215-year history of the United States Congress. She is also the first Italian-American to hold the post. It is a cultural phenomenon, a political revolution of sorts. And none of it happens without the will of the people. Well, the will of the people, a shitload of corruption, a lousy president, and one whiz-bang of a bungled post-war effort.
    Now what?
    The celebration is over. The thud you hear is the high of November victory plummeting into January reality; a rough trip, even for hardened street fighters like Pelosi and her gang. They struggled long and hard for this, pitched a lot of dubious promises, and now say the right things about the first 100 days of power, and Social Security, and Minimum Wage, and National Health Care, and blah blah blah.
    Great. Fine. Have a ball.
    Know this: The American people, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, casual observers, catatonics at Bellevue Hospital in New York, are extremely unhappy about the goings on in Iraq. Peeved, you might say. Fed up is more to the point. This is the main reason why they lined-up at the polls in record numbers for a Mid-Term Election. Don't be fooled by America all of a sudden getting the Liberal Bug or queasy on God and hyped about Gays or jazzed about tax hikes. And most of these angered hoards couldn't be bothered to raise an eyebrow about bi-partisan warm and fuzzies either.

Here's what the American people said on November 7, 2006:
We want answers. Concrete action. What's going to be done about this military mess? What is the plan? Where are the answers? Timetable? Movement? Change? Accountability? Functionality?
Period.

    And the American people will get their answers one way or the other. Because now their president is standing tough with talk of increasing troops, giving it one last shot to make good on this high-stakes gamble of his: One last ride on the rodeo for the Faux Texan and his wounded hawks. Defiant. Purposeful. The question remains: What does the Congress do as the new Voice of the American People, the only true and binding dissent to this seemingly bottomless abyss?
    Soon, we will see.
    The talking is over. The debate and speeches and rip-roaring fury are but a memory. Now it's time to take the blabber and prognostication and get into the action.

    Will we see the president ask this new Congress, this new Democrat-controlled Congress, for increased funds for this last ditch surge? 21,000 strong. Fuel for the fire. You betcha, sonny. Will it have the collective balls to deny the troops? Will it have the fortitude, the "political capital", to steal a goofy phrase, that it takes to say NO. Not "first voting for before voting against" nonsense -- but NO. Will this one-third body of our blessed Checks and Balance system do some checking and balancing, or will it carry the water for the 2008 Presidential Campaign their Mother Hen, Hillary Rodham is currently running.
    Politics as usual? Power play over enacting history? Words over truth?
    Or action.

    Ah, to be the outsider throwing stones now holding the locks to the glass doors.
    Cindy Sheehan is not going away. Thank the Lord. Any time someone is painted as a nut by those in charge or as a mere curiosity by the mainstream media there is a good chance that there's some serious embers there. Not the kind of smoke you usually get from groaning celebrities or vapid pundits, but the kind of protest that sticks. Pissed. Moaning. Motivated. Real. As real as a mother of a dead son gets. And that's plenty real, mista.
    Now the Democrats are in the firing line. More so than the president. Everyone knows the president is not backing down, nor should he. He's president, after all. Commander-in-Chief. Head Honcho. Congress gave him the latitude to run amok, and amok he has run. His fingerprints are all over this bloodbath. And while things continue to spiral into further chaos he is not going to let it go, not unless he gets the outcome he bargained for. The only barricade to this madness is Congress now. The Congress the American People put in there -- the Democrat-led Congress.

    If these elected officials, our employees, our representatives, fail to stand tall against this president, or a segment of them fail to do it, and not with talk but votes, I will print their names here, and I would urge my readers who agree with the concept of their government speaking for its majority to write and call and harass the culprits.

    If Congress does enact the people's will (its basic purpose and design) then it will force George W. Bush to an impasse equal to Lyndon B. Johnson in Viet Nam. Finally, after years of trumped-up comparisons, Bush's Iraq will truly enter the realm of Johnson's greatest folly and forever cement this president's legacy as an unrepentant warmonger.

    It's over. There is nothing to be gained by escalating the fighting. The time to properly conduct this campaign was three years ago. We failed to finish the job. The only reason to send the young to die now is to save the face of a fractured presidency and the marred reputation of a nation. Not good enough, bub. Not now. Not ever.
    So now it's time for the loyal opposition to spread its wings and take flight. Either that or become another useless gaggle of windbags warming seats until the next steaming pile of feces tap-dances its way into our hearts.
    What's it gonna be, folks? What's it gonna be, Nancy?
    We'll see.
© James Campion Jan 15th 2007
realitycheck@jamescampion.com

READERS RESPONSES Jan 22 2007
James,
Let's put this trouncing in perspective, shall we? (DEMS SWEEP, GOP WEEPS -- Issue: 11/15/06) The Dem's win wasn't a seismic shift to the Left so much as it was a receding from the Right, like my hair did some years ago. To put it another way, me, Tommy Lee, and Pam Anderson are the last people alive on earth. Tommy has a slow, painful heart attack and dies. Pam fucks me. See what happened?
    I'd LOVE to see the Dems take control of the House. I'd LOVE to see them impeach W on less evidence than the Reps had in their failed Clinton attempt, and that fucker was caught in an obvious lie. I'd LOVE to see what the Dems would do in control as far as Iraq and terrorism go. I'd LOVE to see all these things because I'm sick and fucking tired of their and the sycophantic media's Monday-morning quarterbacking every zit and fart that goes on in this administration. They're like fucking tree-hugging environmentalists - yeah we get the message, and it may even be a true message at that, but its impact is dulled and even ignored cause of all the fucking ranting and raving. Catching a lot of flies with that brand of honey, are you?
Ken Eustace

James,
Hal-Lay-Freakin'-Looyah, methinks perhaps there is a God after all...
    Just when you are ready to dump all and move to Canada with a brown paper grocery bag over your head, the American people, beyond any hope, rendering even the likes of Randy Rhodes speechless and dumbstruck, redeem the folly of '04 and get it right...
    My wife brought a bottle of Korbel home with her on Wednesday night, and we drank the whole thing watching John Stewart with big shit-eating grins on our faces, absolutely stunned with joy.
    Life is good again. For now...
Tim Roache

Jim,
Now what?
    I am reminded of a great South Park episode where one of the characters had to vote for a new school mascot. The choices were a giant douche or a turd sandwich.
    A lot of Republican voters voted for Jr. out of a sense of disgust brought about by the previous Democratic administration. The idea of a one party majority in two branches (three?) of the government appealed to us as a means of accomplishing something. I have no idea why we voted for him again, maybe the alternative chilled us to the bone. In hindsight, the failure of the war has been a shameful reminder of the potential dangers of putting all of our eggs into one basket, but with the shift of momentum in Congress, clear heads have to ask the definitive question....
    Now what???
Peter Saveskie

Now, honestly James,
Regarding your line:
    "Around 10:30 on Election Night, the groaning visage of a beaten and ravaged Ken Mehlman, Chairman of Republican National Committee, became the symbol of the evening's humiliation. He could barely cobble together a sensible reaction to the whole thing. His party coming apart at the seams, he appeared on television like a man standing helplessly by as a gang of street thugs raped his pet and keyed his Beemer."
    I was mugged countless times in high school for my wallet, and I own a BMW, which has indeed been keyed; I have never seen, nor heard of, a gang of toughs having their way with someone's wire-haired terrier out on a Sunday stroll.
   It's just not like you to carelessly toss about the hyperbowl like that.
pgsbii

Campion
Here's the deal: The Republicans blew this. Twelve years ago they came roaring in with this Contract For America and talking about cutting down the federal government and cleaning out the corruption and blah blah blah. It turned out to be a bunch of hooey and we all found out in this generation what every generation finds out eventually since the dawn of civilization -- Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely. They got fat on their own lofty pursuits and once the GOP got their hands on the White House it was party time!
    This is the most bloated government EVER!! This president NEVER vetoes a single thing! Spend! Spend! Spend! Every problem has money thrown at it! Homeland Security! Military Build-Up! Appropriations up the ying-yang! Entitlements galore!
    It's a sad commentary on a party that was rebuilt by Ronald Reagan as fiscally conservative. And as a conservative (a real libertarian conservative like Goldwater -- and nice job to you for pointing to the dissimilarities in an earlier column) I am, and have been, appalled at the way this government is run. And run by Republicans??
    And I almost puked when I heard Rush Limbaugh abandoning ship after this humiliating defeat. He said he's "carried the water" for these people who have failed him? Well, then, if he were truly a free and truthful commentator (by commentator, I mean someone who keeps a watchful eye on how his principles are being applied politically and calling those responsible on it) then he would have blown the whistle before the cattle were WAAAAYYY out of the barn. Instead he became a feckless shill.
    Now the Republicans will have to fight like mad to get back control again in MAYBE a decade or so, and with this president, and social liberals like McCain and Giuliani in the wings, probably the White House too.
    Someone should have listened to Pat Buchanan years ago -- the party was hijacked by oil barons, religious zealots, special interest and corporate greed, and now it is history.
Angrily,
J. Reaser

JC
Hooray for sanity! These lunatics, corrupt and sanctimonious all, are booted like yesterday's news. I only hope now the architects of fear and religious fundamentalism will realize that actions and results eventually matter. It takes awhile, it's painful to endure, but they matter. They will always matter. They can talk, talk, talk, talk all they want. Finally, they are judged on merit and results. Their failures were rewarded on Election Day. Ousted. Trash taken out. Justice served cold.
    It is a new dawn...hopefully.

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