"We need to fight a battle we can win. The Republicans have the vote, so why waste our time and effort?" Sound familiar? It should. I've been guilty of saying it. It's what you hear the smart democratic political junkies say. The smart and experienced stay on the sidelines, while the young, dumb and reckless fight tooth and nail. Only activists are naive enough to fight for lost causes.
Follow me over...
The illusion of a foregone conclusion in the Alito nomination is little more than psychological intimidation. The young and dumb fight for what we all know is right, and the rest of us are too smart to waste our time. We can't see that we are letting our time slip away.
We are seeing our last chance to avoid an assertion of an American-style Divine Right. No longer is this `right' taken from God, but from that also-mythical rhetorical device labeled `the Will of the People'. (My apologies to the religious among us. I'm sure you understand my point.) Ask any American what makes them proud. Ninety percent of the time, the answer is `our freedoms'. With Bush-style presidencies claiming an unpopular election as supreme mandate to capture, hold captive, torture, spy, or whatever else their will requires, we will have lost the one thing that makes honest Americans proud of their country. The `Will of the People', so fundamentally tied in with freedom, has been and will be perverted to abolish and violate that freedom. Sam Alito sees no problem with that. The Unitary Executive's power has no end, because the `war' we are fighting has no end. The `war' we are fighting has no end, because only the Unitary Executive can declare victory or defeat. Is that a problem for anyone else?
Samuel Alito does not believe in our Constitutional freedoms, if the president deems them inapplicable. An ultra-conservative Supreme Court will turn back the clock not only on the progress we have made in this country in the last half-century or so, he actually believes in an executive more powerful than any that has ever existed. Alito's lifetime tenure may well fundamentally alter the balance of power that has existed since our forefathers conceived this stunningly, amazingly, free nation. This is our last chance to keep the court from becoming a truly activist court. I am sure that most have you have seen the statistics on the `activism' of the Supreme Court Justices. Guess who are the most likely to reverse set precedent? It's not the lone liberal, nor is it the moderates.
If that isn't enough, why should we fight Alito? BECAUSE WE ARE FIGHTING WHAT BUSH IS DOING TO AMERICA. Let's face it, rhetoric like that quoted above means nothing. Eggs that haven't been laid can't be counted. President Bush is unpopular. The reaction to Samuel Alito has been lukewarm at best. A victory in the Alito nomination fight would be the tipping point for new Bush lows. Full exposure of the nominee's views, truthfully aired, would lead to a crisis of confidence in our President.
The unaccountable Executive is weaseling his way out of another jam, and we're providing the grease. If you want Senate Democrats to act like they represent us, it's time to give them something to represent. So here's to being young, and dumb, and reckless. Only those who take the risk can reap the reward. Because I believe if we don't take this risk, our seat on the sideline might just be the place we deserve.