Party of Change?

Watching the debate Monday night put the last nail in the coffin of the idea that electing Democrats to office was going to change anything about the way this country is governed. Watching these adolescent self-centered, self-aggrandizing, power hungry, egomaniacs squabbling, arguing, name calling and talking over each other like unrestrained high schoolers was beyond disgusting.

Keith Olbermann asked how far they can go with this behavior without destroying the party itself. For me, the answer is that they have already crossed that line.

Certainly it is true that placing the Democratic Party in charge of both houses of Congress has changed nothing. Not only has nothing changed in the results of governing, but nothing has changed in the way it is done either. The process is still about the best advantage of the legislators and their corporate sponsors and no real effort is even made to hide the graft and corruption. Investigation after investigation has proven to be nothing more than political posturing.

As Glenn Greenwald points out today, in a column regarding a Congressional announcement that a full vote on criminal contempt citations against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers will be postponed indefinitely,

Consider the entire panoply of Bush abuses over the last seven years -- from illegal domestic spying to torture and rendition and black CIA sites and the FBI's illegal use of National Security Letters (remember those?) -- and there have been virtually no investigation of anything. And the few times Congress has purported to do so, they have made matters worse, not better, by making clear that they will do nothing if their subpoenas are ignored, thereby affirmatively creating the incentive for any rational executive official with something to hide to ignore them.

Our government has sunk into a morass of self interest, greed and corruption and the Pollyanna concept that electing Democrats is going to change anything is rapidly being dispelled by the Democrats themselves. Monday night’s debate was just another step in that direction.

I might vote for Senator Obama if he drops this dirty crap now and cleans up his act. I will never vote for Hillary Clinton and her husband. And, make no mistake, you will not be voting merely for her.

The party leadership and the party faithful choose Clinton and her husband because of electability. Not because the Clintons offer policies that are best for the country. They might or might not, that is not the point, the point is perceived electability. Win at all costs.

Only one candidate (and her husband) use the terrorist fear card in the campaign, “Al Queda is watching our elections very carefully.” No one in the party leaderships chides her and her husband for this blatantly Republican campaign fear tactic, and in the primary following that statement she won the most votes from the party faithful.

One campaigner and her husband are using the Republican method of campaigning by slashing and hacking at your opponent with half truths and innuendo, often using surrogates to do so and surprisedly claiming innocence. No one in the party leaderships chides her and her husband for these blatantly Republican campaign tactics, and after those tactics she polls the highest among the party faithful.

The Clintons will not change their campaign because this is who they are, this is what they do. Rather than elevate themselves, they are determined to drag Obama down to their level; not to show the country how good they are, but to win the nomination by illustrating that he is just as dirty and slimy as they are.

Which, unfortunately, I’m beginning to believe he actually may be.