THE WAR AGAINST INCUMBENCY, DAY ONE: VICTORY
I'm sure that somewhere in the range of four millions blogs are leading off this morning with a piece on Lieberman's defeat, so I'm gonna keep this one short. Obviously, based on what I've written the past few weeks, I'm very happy he lost.
Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, & Missouri also saw incumbents fall in primaries for various offices. These defeats crossed party lines, and even ideological affiliations. Which is good, I think. If Lamont's victory was merely a matter of one anti-war candidate beating the pro-war candidate, that wouldn't be enough. As far as I'm concerned, the problem isn't the particular politics of any one Congressman, but the abnegation of Constitutional duties, the willful ceding of legislative power to the Executive, the "patronage" of entrenched PACs, lobbyists, corporate donators, etc. Booting out an incumbent sends the message to Washington that many of us wish to relay:
Sorry Joe, but that's not how it works. We've let the voters elect Senators for almost a century now. You're too young.
To anyone who still believes that any in the rank-and-file of the two major parties is looking out for anyone but himself, please cut & paste Lieberman's concession quotation to your desktop & read it every morning.
And if this professional jack-ass actually decides to run in November, hopefully the same grass-roots movement that helped propel Lamont over Lieberman yesterday will spring into action again to ensure that he loses again.
Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, & Missouri also saw incumbents fall in primaries for various offices. These defeats crossed party lines, and even ideological affiliations. Which is good, I think. If Lamont's victory was merely a matter of one anti-war candidate beating the pro-war candidate, that wouldn't be enough. As far as I'm concerned, the problem isn't the particular politics of any one Congressman, but the abnegation of Constitutional duties, the willful ceding of legislative power to the Executive, the "patronage" of entrenched PACs, lobbyists, corporate donators, etc. Booting out an incumbent sends the message to Washington that many of us wish to relay:
You guys are screwing up. You're cowering in front of the Administration too much. You're not doing your job. You're gone!Of course, Lieberman still insists he'll run in the general election. In fact, his "concession," in which he declared, "for the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand" (emphasis added), may be the most pathetic, self-serving case of sour grapes I've seen in a while. The man cares only about his own political fortunes. He keeps saying, over-and-over again, the same thing: "I don't care what the voters think. I want to stay in office even if my constituents don't want me."
Sorry Joe, but that's not how it works. We've let the voters elect Senators for almost a century now. You're too young.
To anyone who still believes that any in the rank-and-file of the two major parties is looking out for anyone but himself, please cut & paste Lieberman's concession quotation to your desktop & read it every morning.
And if this professional jack-ass actually decides to run in November, hopefully the same grass-roots movement that helped propel Lamont over Lieberman yesterday will spring into action again to ensure that he loses again.
posted by Mike at 7:10 AM
6 Comments:
i have been in a "turn the bastards out" mood for about a year. it's nice to know that there are others out there feeling something close to my level of disgust.
There's really no other way for me to feel at this point.
For all the Administration's power grabs, the losers on both sides of the aisle who've let them get away with it are villains too.
We can't reward them for that.
I really have to try not to constantly criticize the government. It isn't always easy for me because lately there are an abundance of things going on which rightly merit my derision. I persuade myself that it is not necessary to frequently point out the pervasive spirit of fraud and corruption which has permeated the highest governing body in the land because it should be blatantly obvious to anyone who does even the least bit of critical thinking that all is not well in the U.S. of A. However, lately the chorus of deficiencies in our so-called "representative government" have come to such a crescendo of arrogance and greed that I feel obliged to put pen to paper yet again.
Call it a weakness. I have always leaned toward naivete when it comes to matters of grass roots politics. In my opinion we have come to the place with our national government where we can do no worse. The current batch of scoundrels who so presumptuously ply their trade of money for power must be rooted out. It is time to make a clean sweep of the attitude of "to heck with the voters, we can make dupes of them yet again in another condescending, sneering, "throw the voters a bone" election year debacle where this dirty trick or that one vote short prevented us from any meaningful legislation or policy decision, so oh well, we'll try again after the election, maybe we'll get it right after that." Well, I've had enough.
I urge you, the people, to get out and vote this fall. When you are standing in line, waiting your turn at the polling booth, ask yourself a question: "Am I happy with the operation of this current government?" If you can honestly answer that question in the affirmative, then, by all means, vote for the candidate with the "I" next to his/her name on the ballot. If not, please, do what's right for the country, not what is best for you personally, or for your district, or for your state, or party, please, vote for the good of the union. I plan to vote. You're damn right I do. These are treacherous times we live in, leadership is more important than ever. We as a nation can't afford to waste any more time on business as usual. It is time for the true patriots to stand in line and vote. Don't leave it to the other guy. I await your decision.
Hey Mike, did you hear that Senor Joe's website went down yesterday? Attack of the web people. Bwahahaha!!
Hey, don't look at me. My computer skills aren't at that level.
I'm learning HTML as I go. Hacking's a bit out of my league.
By the way, apparently Lieberman's server was some $7/month piece of crap. I don't rememeber where I saw it, but someone linked to Kos this morning, talking about this.
Not a smart way to save money. May have cost him the election (not). Now he must try to get back into the Nexis as an independent. What is this guy's problem?
Post a Comment
<< Home