by Ethan Johnson
May 28, 2007
The down side of being as relatively prolific as I am is that I'm closer to the moment where everything I could possibly write here is derivative of an earlier article. Therefore, I will kick things off with a little something I wrote on November 6, 2006:
Finally, it's not just the act of voting that sends a message as to what you stand for and believe in. In every decision you make every day, you make a choice. You decide how much closer we're going to get to energy independence. You decide which companies engage in the best practices. You decide what sorts of behaviors and attitudes that will be viewed as acceptable, and which ones will not. I don't cotton to the claim that one vote is meaningless, or somehow wasted. And I will not be told that any given candidate has no "right" to campaign for public office. If anyone refuses to vote their conscience, or refuses to support the values, ideas, and ideals that they either find lacking or wish to reinforce, that is the real waste. Waiting around for politicians in suits to improve the world, if not our own backyards is another.
Six months later, the political left in these United States was shocked, shocked to learn that the Democrats backed away from requiring some sort of firm benchmarks or a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq as conditional to the latest war funding bill. The linked article at Common Dreams is fairly representative of this shock and outrage. So too is a comment by someone using the name "noamnesiac" (scroll down to the 5th comment) who opines in part:
What the cynical Dems believe (including many progressives who just don’t want to believe the truth — that this has always been a bi-partisan war and the Dems as a party will continue to support it while trying to appear as if they don’t) is that in the end, let the anti-war wing scream, yell and whine because elections are a choice between 2 people in the two-party system, and none of us is going to vote Republican at election time. As the Dems have no integrity, decency, honesty or patriotism, they’re perfectly willing to vote funding that causes the children of primarily working class and poor Americans to be killed and maimed so that they win in 2008 (even though they won’t) and call it supporting the troops.
I largely agree with the sentiments expressed in the cited text. However, the commentor doesn't quite hit the nail on the head.
Iraq is indeed a bipartisan war. And despite any rhetoric to the contrary, unless some amazing spine and resolve are put on display - ostensibly by someone willing to commit political suicide - the US isn't going to leave Iraq for (what could be) a long time. Here's why: You don't walk away from money on the table.
Do you think I'm nuts? How about our trade policy with China? There are several reasons to cut them off (and billions or so reasons why we can't), but one big one why we continue to play ball: Are you going to be the one who shuts out a market of over a billion people? Not many businesses have the stomach to do that (expecially the publicly traded ones), and therefore neither do many politicians. Never mind what the logical, ethical, reasonable, or moral imperatives might be for cutting off favored-nation trade status to China or withdrawing our troops from Iraq. There's too much potential money at stake, and politicians are beholden to Big Money. The ones that aren't are a minority. (If not outright non-existent.)
Perhaps trade, businesses, or capitalism itself must be outlawed to see our way clear to walk away from large oil reserves or a marketplace that represents 1/6 of the world's population. Fat chance. As present conditions stand, US politicians at the national level are not going to do something as drastic as withdraw from Iraq. And if that's what you want US politicians to accomplish, it's going to take a third way.
Unfortunately, the sort of organization and infrastructure required to bring it about is going to take years to implement, far beyond 2008.
So to everyone who is fuming and pledging to "throw the bums out" (again), I ask: Would you, please? Because if there's one thing worse than a mealy-mouthed, non-committal politician, it's a mealy-mouthed, non-committal voter. Hold the politicians accountable. Demand results. Stay informed and involved. But don't hold your breath expecting billions of dollars of untapped oil reserves to freely escape our grasp. Not that we've been rolling in cheap gas prices since 2003.
And to those of you who are so disgusted with party politics as to lose interest altogether, I suggest that this disappointment be channeled into the development of a third way. It doesn't even have to be party politics under another name. But idle disgust and apathy don't lead to progress. Lead where leadership is left wanting. Inject ideas where ideas are lacking. Act where there is complacency and hopelessness.
Do not let the third way be the absence of progress. We have that already. <EM>
