Bygone patriots and the end of political courage

[handmade34]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/07/29/courage.politics/index.html?hpt=po_t2

"...it is more than ideology that explains why Democrats and Republicans alike sound as if they were created in a robotics factory. Campaign consultants routinely lecture party caucuses on Capitol Hill about framing arguments, mastering poll-tested language and practicing message discipline. Senators and congressmen often complain that they are forced to spend half their time making fund-raising calls (even in nonelection years). What this means is that they all know first-hand the potential financial cost of deviating from the party line.
The real damper to dissent on Capitol Hill is that almost everyone in Congress feels vulnerable from either the specter of an expensive primary or general election challenge. Respected veteran GOP senators like Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, and perhaps Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, face the serious risk of not being re-nominated next year. In the last few days, Sarah Palin has used Twitter, Facebook and probably carrier pigeons to threaten the vengeance of the tea party movement on any House Republican who votes to raise the debt ceiling...

In 2002, even though he faced a difficult Senate re-election campaign in Minnesota, Democrat Paul Wellstone defied all the play-it-safe dictates of politics by voting against the Iraq War. Had Wellstone not died in a plane crash little more than a week before the election, he probably would have demonstrated that you can follow your conscience in politics and still hold onto your seat.
But after each recent election cycle, there seem to be fewer free thinkers on Capitol Hill -- or thinkers of any kind. It is impossible to come up with a contemporary equivalent of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the Harvard professor who morphed into a four-term New York senator. Why bother to develop intellectual heft when you just need to memorize enough partisan attack lines to carry you through a three-minute interview on cable news? Small wonder that there has not been a single surprising sentence, let alone a full-blown original argument, offered by either side during the debt-ceiling fight...

Sensible figures in both parties privately understand the folly of the current stalemate -- and how it is risking the economy, the dollar and the credibility of American democracy. But, tragically, no one has the guts to step out of line, defy the partisan talking points and try to do what is right rather than merely politically expedient. About the only place to find courage in Washington these days is in the card catalogue of the Library of Congress under John Kennedy's name."

[bhikkhu]

1. Sometimes the most courageous thing is to compromise

when you know your backers will throw you to the wolves, but its the only way to accomplish good governance. The original attendees of the constitutional convention are the best and most successful example.

I think currently Obama is much more courageous and principled than the other side.

[handmade34]

2. despite my extreme frustration

I understand that Pres Obama is between a rock and a hard place...

I agree... President Obama is a finer man than all the Republicans put together... we just all wanted so much more

[bhikkhu]

3. ...and of course it all depends on how it works out in the end

which remains to be seen. I have plenty of confidence in his intentions and intelligence and resolve, so I'm not too stressed out over the debt ceiling negotiations, but we'll see how it has gone soon enough.

[saras]

4. After enough progressives are Wellstoned, it begins to look like a different kind of courage...

[drakonyx]

5. Depressing

It seems the more people who are thinking for themselves, and expressing those thoughts on forums such as this, the fewer people in Congress are using their own brain cells. Instead, they're the puppets of handlers and special interests.