Tell Us All Why

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

For far too long, I’ve heard progressives say we have to be polite when we contact the politicians who keep betraying us.  For years, I’ve heard them say we can’t be “rude”, we have to be civil, we have to be respectful. Although they’ve acknowledged that war criminals and their enablers in Congress don’t deserve any respect, they insist that we have to be respectful anyway.  That’s what we’ve been told, that’s what we’re still being told.  

I’ve had my fill of that.  This isn’t complicated.  We can either be progressives, or we can be hypocrites.  From what I’ve seen, being respectful hypocrites hasn’t accomplished a whole lot.  Except for Kos, he has a Newsweek column now, and respectful hypocrite traffic at that Democratic Fan Club of his is at an all time high.  This has been presented as an encouraging development, and who can possibly disagree, for as the graph below clearly demonstrates, there’s a direct correlation between higher Daily Kos traffic and spectacular Democratic triumphs in Washington . . .  

Yet somehow, many Democrats still feel an extremely compelling urge to betray us.  Bush and Cheney went on a crime rampage for 8 years, but Democrats won’t hold them accountable.  They won’t prosecute Wall Street criminals for gutting our economy, they’re rewarding them for it.  Our health care system is a travesty, the corporate media is a propaganda shithole, the Fed is a Machiavellian nightmare, rightwing madness is escalating, the fuse of economic collapse is still burning, and Congress is still a snakepit of corruption.              

Americans gave Democrats the largest House and Senate majorities in decades, they gave Democrats the White House, they gave the Democratic Party an electoral mandate to reform health care, to reform Wall Street, to restore economic justice, civil liberties and the rule of law.  But too many Democrats are too busy kissing the asses of their corporate masters to do any of that.  Too many of them are betraying us again, just like they did in the 110th Congress, and the 109th Congress, and the 108th Congress, and the one before that, and the one before that.

They’re betraying progressives like they always do, but we’re still supposed to be polite. They’re caving to RePugs like they always do, but we’re still supposed to be respectful. They’re ignoring progressives like they always do, they think we have no choice but to support them again in 2010.  

Well I’d like to know why the fuck we should keep supporting Democrats when we’ve seen time and time again that they have no integrity, no moral courage, no principles, no conscience, no leadership, and never enough votes no matter how many of them we elect to Congress.

Democrats control the White House, they have overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate.  But they still won’t shut down the Pentagon war machine, they still won’t defend the Constitution, they still won’t enforce the rule of law.  Reid won’t.  Hoyer won’t.  Baucus won’t.  Obama won’t.    

You want our respect, Democrats?  You want our support?  Well what have you ever fucking done to earn our respect?  What have you ever fucking done to deserve our support?   You gave Bush his war and you’re still funding it, you say you care about the cost, but you don’t, you say you care about the consequences, but you don’t, you aren’t the ones paying the price.  

Iraq War vet with a cardboard sign,

Sitting there by the left turn line,

Flag on his wheelchair flapping in the breeze,

He’s paying the price with PTSD.

No one gives a damn about him,

The V.A. budget’s stretched too thin,

And they’re still coming home from the Mideast War.

We can’t be polite anymore.

Democrats helped Bush give the rich their tax cuts, they helped corporations ship our jobs overseas, they helped Wall Street loot our Treasury and plunder our economy. Democrats don’t care how much suffering it inflicts, they aren’t the ones doing the suffering.

That big old building was a textile mill,

It fed our kids and it paid our bills,

But they turned us out,

And they closed the doors,

We can’t be polite anymore.

Pallets piled up on the loading dock,

They’re just gonna sit there till they rot,

There’s nothing to ship, nothing to pack,

Just busted concrete and rusted tracks,

Empty storefronts around the square,

There’s needles in the gutter,

And glass everywhere.

But in the halls of Congress,

They don’t care.

We can’t be polite anymore.

Democrats did nothing while warmongers lied us into Iraq, they did nothing while the defense industry raked in billions of dollars in profits, they did nothing while the 3,000 richest families in America took over this country and turned into their personal profit machine.  They already own 70 percent of America, but that’s not enough for them, they want to own it all.  

I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams,

All lily white and squeaky clean,

They’ve never known want, they’ll never know need,

Their shit don’t stink and their kids won’t bleed,

Their kids won’t bleed in their next little war,

We can’t be polite anymore.

It’s time to call Reid and McConnell what they are, it’s time to call Cornyn and Baucus and Boehner and Hoyer what they are, it’s time to get angry, it’s time to stay angry, it’s time to bring the heat, it’s time to take politeness off the fucking table and take this to the next level.  If they still won’t listen, then fuck them all.