The Way Forward

Or are we waiting for the present leadership to offer us something bright and new? From what?

We have been brick walled into a position, whether by our own doing or by the construct of the Republicans, where all our most precious and prized positions are echoing off the damn wall. Oh, I think we have the most human, most civilized and most powerful messages that the world has ever produced, but they are growing dim, not because we haven't been shouting them but because they are overwhelmed by the pretty plastic trinkets the right wing dangle before the ignorant as well as the promises of righteous indignation against evil forces. They are overwhelmed by lies that tout "the ends justify the means."

Voting down the CR with a single voice is the one if not the only weapon we have to fight back with a clear strong counter-message that says NO, dammit, just NO. Anything else is weak and empty.

I disagree with those who think that the Republicans would be able to blame us for everything that comes out of a shutdown. No matter what they say or do, the world already knows what their words are worth. Nothing. They would be standing with a bag over their head. But what are our words worth? By joining hand-in-hand with the Republicans by voting yes, we immediately lose whatever credibility, whatever strong message, whatever leverage we could have had, and the world would not forget it. We would blend deeper into the background and into an abyss of powerless untrustworthy sycophants that … don't have a clear and strong counter-message worth listening to.

D7