Restlessness vs. resignation

ETA: Mark makes a similar point in his political comment for today. And I'd just like to say that my "uncalcuable damage" line below was written before I knew that Ms. Clinton had, apparently, said something quite similar.

Mark says:

There certainly are other important Democrats who speak for a large part of the country who are saying that Bush is screwing up big-time: Kerry, Gore, Ted Kennedy, John Edwards, etc. There just don't seem to be very many who are in serious re-election campaigns at the moment saying it, which strikes me as odd. You'd think, with more than half the country saying Bush is doing a bad job, you'd have more than half the Democrats proclaiming that above a whisper.

To coin a phrase: They don't care, Mark.

Original post:

Maha writes:

In the last post I wrote that it’s time to decide if the nation is salvageable or not. Lots of people have decided it isn’t. As I said, these people may be right. But if you think it’s too late to fight, then please step out of the way. Some of us haven’t given up yet.

... It’s not just about defeating Republicans, but about making America safe for liberalism again...Instead of just reacting to the Republican agenda, we should be showing the nation an alternative way to look at issues. We should fight from a position of clarity and purpose rather than defensiveness. We should not, for example, try to counter the Religious Right with our own public displays of religiosity, but instead promise to preserve religious liberty by keeping government out of religion.

For the record, I don't think the nation is salvageable. I just don't know where else to go. And I'll be glad to step out of the way..."Steppin' Out" was always one of the best Joe Jackson songs anyway. Tony Bennett's is wonderful too.

But I think it's ludicruous for any blogger to start telling "Democrats" or liberals what we should do. It doesn't matter what we do. It only matters what those "Democrats" in positions of responsibility and power are going to do.

And that is, as they've shown us with vicious regularity: Nothing. They don't care. A failed President from the opposing party, and Democrats don't care enough to mount a succesful fight against him. They don't care.

Or rather, they care, but not because a failed President is of uncalcuable damage to the people of the nation...but because they wish it was their guy failing. And all they know how to do is appease and bend to the guy who's got the title.

Or maybe, even, one or two of them do care about the damage caused...but not enough to actually risk their jobs over it by emulating Spencer Tracy ("Stand on the balls of your feet and tell the truth!")

They don't care.

Me, I do care, but I also see the writing on the old wall.