From Marc Cooper. To see the cartoon and links go to the original page at the bottom of this post.

The headline of this Boston Globe column says it all (Democratic Majority Meaningless Once Again). mukaseycartoon.gif

Indeed. By the time you read this Tuesday, it's a near certainty that the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee will have sent the nomination of AG-designate Michael Mukasey to the full Senate floor.

When Mukasey is finally formally confirmed it will mean that the U.S. Congress approves of a chief law enforcement officer unwilling to denounce torture for what it is.

Under these sort of circumstances, it is common to call the Democrats "spineless." Even I plead guilty to the occasional, albeit, infrequent use of this modifier in describing Democrats. But I too am flawed and often mistaken.

To call Democrats "spineless" is to imply they have lost their nerve, that they have somehow betrayed us -- or themselves.

I find that thought rather naive, if not downright foolish. It's certainly delusional as it clearly implies that Democrats are, in fact, something other than what they appear to be. Or that they are somehow changed from what they once were.

But when was that? I can't recall that lost, nostalgic golden time for Democrats -- at least not during my considerable lifetime (which began shortly after Give'em Hell Harry initiated the construction of the National Security state, amped up the Cold War and enmeshed us in Korea).

Oh, for sure, one can argue that Dems shined brilliantly during the New Deal (putting aside Jim Crow and the Dixiecrats). But the New Deal was as long ago as the WPA was from the Civil War. And during the Civil War, if I recall my history, the Republicans were the good guys.

So I'm not quite sure why we would call the Democrats of 2007 spineless. They seem to be pretty much consistent with their core politics of the last 25 years or more. They are exactly who they are. Far from spineless, they seem rather confident, sometimes brash, even arrogant in their disregard and scorn for the collective interests of those they purport to represent. The Democrats are but one of two American political parties that, together, attract a little less than half the voting age citizenry and who, together, don't give much of a flip about the other half.

Nora Ephron writes on The Huffington Post tonight how hard it is to be a Democrat: "It's hard to be a Democrat, don't you think? There's no alternative, of course, but it's hard."

I beg to differ. For all of the above, I find it quite easy to NOT be a Democrat. Though, on one point, Ephron has it right. There is no alternative.

At least not until enough people stop investing hope in a fairy tale and simply walk away from a party that has never bothered to walk with them. Until then, embrace DiFi and Schumer as having the courage to be authentic.

Marc Cooper Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:49:20 +0000
Source: http://marccooper.com/meaningless-not-spineless/