General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How the extreme left gave us Nixon, Bush and now Trump [View all]pat_k
(9,313 posts)... the Democratic leadership's immoral refusal to do their duty and defend the constitution they swore to uphold by standing and fighting for:
1. Impeachment of Reagan
2. Prosecution of Bush Sr. when his role in Iran contra was exposed.
3. An objection to the unlawfully appointed FL electors on Jan 6, 2001, as was their duty under the electoral count act.
4. Impeachment of Bush/Cheney for torture.
Too many of them failed to protect the constitution from the likes of Alito when they refused to join a winning filibuster that would actually have stopped him, and instead cast their useless No votes on the floor. Thinking things like "I opposed Alito, even tho I refused to do the one thing guaranteed to stop him" is the sort of thinking that has earned them their wimpy reputation.
Not to mention their stubborn adherence to preemptive surrender on all the things they claim they care about. (The "Can't Win, So Don't Fight" policy that the leadership has stubbornly adheres to.) They give lip service to universal health care, meaningful progressive tax reform, meaningful change to end mass incarceration, meaningful consumer protections, meaningful protections of our financial system, and on and on, but the leadership of our part NEVER actually takes concrete action. Over, and over, and over again our they have refused to "whip up" support for the good bills that have been introduced.
Until the Democratic leadership "gets it" ("it" being the fact that if you want to get anything done you have actively advocate for it non-stop, regardless of the chances of "winning" our downward spiral will continue.
Fighting, win or lose, is how you make things happen. If not today, then down the line. They could learn something from the right-wingnuts who unceasingly advocate for things long considered DOA. (And look at how they are now achieving those things.) The Democratic leadership has not provided an effective counterpoint to the relentless corporatist agenda for decades.
Preemptive surrender on solutions that would actually change the lives of countless Americans for the better, coupled with their repeated refusals to stand up and fight for the Constitution they swore to uphold, is what paved the road to our current hell.