The Emperor Has No Clothes; And The Democrats Have No Balls

Looking at my location and profile, it's not hard to figure out where I fall on the political spectrum. Just this past week the U.S Congress extended the provisions under the Patriot Act, and this riles me to no end. The Bush administration has yet to please me - economics, politics, international policy, environment, labor, utilities, R&D, healthcare, Hurricane Katrina and just about any issue. What I wanted to mention here is the lack of Democrat leadership in the Congress.

I know that this administration has displeased many, many people over the years and you only have to look at the ratings GWB has been getting recently. The sad thing is that it's taken more than 4 years after 9/11 to figure out the emperor has no clothes. This is the worst administration ever in the history of this nation - no doubt about that. I really don't know where to even begin with my criticisms of GWB! In all these missteps and fiascos, I've to ask myself, where have the Democrats been? It seems that after 9/11, the Democratic Senators and Congressmen have been complicit in the mistakes of this government having signed away their right to say anything against GWB under the guise of patriotism.

To my mind, there are very few Democrats I would even imagining supporting during the upcoming elections in 2006 or 2008 for that matter. The only people I can remotely consider are Russ Feingold, John Murtha, Al Gore (despite having snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in 2000), Howard Dean (I am one of the Deaniacs), Barack Obama and Dennis Kucinich. Hillary Clinton? Please! She has repeatedly supported this government in this war in Iraq despite ample evidence to the contrary. She and many others are just Republican-lite and I have no intention of helping them.

Both Democrats and Republican politicians feed from the same trough and each just wears a different suit. The political action committees have both parties in their pockets and no amount of hand wringing will distract from this fact. While the Republicans don't seem to have a problem speaking to their base and core demographics, whom do the Democrats represent and whom do they speak to? Why are the Democrats running for office so ineffectual in their campaigns? It's not that they are any less stupid than the Republican counterparts. Is it then a lack of communication, fear of offending a few people, political correctness, dissipated strategy, lack of power, lack of conviction, or any other reason? Maybe they just don't care! Who gives a flying fuck to average people crying out for politican representation, right? As long as me and my family make do (like the rich Republicans), the hoi polloi can go to hell.

I am really, really distressed at the direction this country is heading. I fear for Democratic prospects in 2008. I can foresee nominating someone ostensibly smart as the Democratic nominee only to throw away the goodwill garnered during the runup to the elections due to some silly, trivial reason such as a misplaced scream, smoking and not inhaling, being "weak on crime", not being photogenic enough for television etc. Bleeecch! What then is the solution? I would really like to see publicly financed elections so we can have some substantial debates on what the real issues are -- education, environment, continued prosperity, jobs, healthcare and so on. Until then I have to console myself with reading books, keeping my job and hoping that things will somehow turn out all right. Oh well!