I don’t know about you but I’m fed up with hearing about how “nervous” the Democrats are of late. They’re nervous about ending the war. They’re nervous about opposing Bush’s eavesdropping proposal. They’re nervous about taxing the rich. They’re nervous about losing their majority status in Congress. And, here in Vermont, they’re nervous about supporting same-sex marriage. Enough already. Please, could someone pass them some valium?
Frankly, all this Dem nervousness is just insulting. It’s as if they can’t even fathom the things that are really causing people’s nerves to flare up. You know, little things like dodging bullets in an illegal war, being strapped to Bush’s favorite water board for a little “questioning,” facing institutional discrimination on a daily basis, sweating over how to make the minimum payments on a credit card and/or wondering if you’ve got enough cash to see a doctor. Now that stuff is nerve racking. But voting to de-fund Bush’s programs? Piece of cake.
It’s just weird, but somehow it seems like when Dems gain public office they immediately start with their nervousness. Vermont’s Peter Welch became a nervous wreck from the get go, for example. The tough-talking Welch-as-campaigner let his nervousness get the best of him after he took his oath of office, leading him to nervously vote for several war-funding bills, seek the Bush’s autograph at the State of the Union address like some kind of star-crossed groupie, and, most recently, to vote in favor of the absurd condemnation of MoveOn’s anti-war ad.
The irony in all this nervousness is that it all turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy. They get nervous because they don’t want to take a stand that might offend voters. But by not taking a stand they offend voters. Worse, the voters they are offending by their nerve-inspired backtracking and blandness are the voters they most need for their own political careers. Sorry, but there is absolutely no political – or moral – logic behind Welch’s votes to hand Bush all the money he wants to fight the war that Welch opposes – rhetorically, at least. And the great schism between Welch’s rhetoric and Welch’s action with regards to the war is made to look even more bizarre when seen through the lens of Vermonters – a populace that overwhelming opposes all things Bush, especially the war. There’s a reason, you know, that Vermont is the only state the Prez hasn’t visited while in office.
For the Dems it seems as though you have to wait to get out of office before your nervousness subsides. Don’t believe me? Look at Howard Dean. Once relieved of his gubernatorial duties, Dean morphed from a nervous right-leaning Dem to a screaming (sorry about that) progressive Dem.
And on the national scene, look at the change in Al Gore once he left office. While the second most powerful person in the nation for eight years, Gore was too nervous to fundamentally address global warming. Eight years of power! Poof! Funny, huh, that once his power was gone his passion kicked in and his nervousness was gone. Too late, Al.
You know things are bad with the Dems when people start getting all nostalgic about the Carter administration. Carter, of course, was a ball of nerves as the president but, lucky for him, things have gotten so much worse since he left office that he’s beginning to look like a roaring lion of justice rather than the Georgia mouse he was at the time. Carter is in the news today talking tough like most ex-office-holding Dems do. Carter, in case you haven’t heard, told the BBC that Dick Cheney was “a disaster” and that the Bush regime was doing a lot to undermine the credibility of the nation, especially when it comes to their insistence on using illegal torture – yes, Carter said “illegal” torture.
Unfortunately, the tougher the ex-office-holders talk, the more nervous elected Dems like Peter Welch get. It should, however, create just the opposite reaction. I mean, how much more do the Welch’s of the Dem-world need to have behind them before they get bold?
So please, Dems, get over your nervousness already. Either pop a valium or take a trip to Iraq and pose as an Iraqi and face down a Blackwater thug – that should put things in perspective for you. Because it’s time for some leadership.
Maybe they’re nervous because they’re inept.