Silliness Abounds

If I were to write a compendium of stupid comments I have read it would weigh several hundred pounds. Hell, such a compendium rendered on microfilm would probably weigh several hundred pounds. Some of the comments would probably be mine, made when somebody pissed me off, but most of them would be from people who think they are smart and that they are giving highly intelligent opinion or advice.

Case in point; “So, the Resistance are doing something effective, and important: They are showing up to town halls and holding their congress members feet to the fire. This is what the Tea Party did, and it works.”

He is referring to crowds coming to “town hall” meetings and screaming continuously so that no one can speak, which is not political activism, but is a bunch of children throwing a collective tantrum. That seems to be about as close as today’s voting public can come to political awareness, but it is not “what the Tea Party did” and it most certainly is not going to solve anything.

What the Tea Party did was have the courage of their convictions, something that "progressives" (who used to have the courage to call themselves "liberals") seem to lack these days. I don’t particularly admire the convictions, to be sure, but I do admire the manner in which the held on to them with great courage and stamina.

If a Republican office holder did not live up to the standards of the party they "primaried" him and threw him out of office. If they had to lose an election in order to do that, then they were willing to do that in order to get the message to remaining Republicans. "Live up to the principles of the party or we will throw you out." Because of them there is a unified, powerful Republican party which blocked a Democratic-controlled government and now controls both houses of Congress and occupies the White House.

Progressives (who used to be "liberals" but no longer have the courage to call themselves that) are so afraid of losing an election that they will not challenge an incumbent in the primary, no matter how often or flagrantly that incumbent votes in violation of Democratic party principles. We will not take a chance of running a challenger in the general because if we do a Republican might beat us out.

We might go to town hall meetings, screaming and yelling like out of control two-year-olds, but we will not vote our legislators out of office. We know what we are against, but none of us know what we are for.

How’s that working out for us? Republicans control both houses of Congress and occupy the White House because half of our Democrats vote against party principles and repeatedly get reelected. Unlike Tea Party Republicans, "progressives" (who used to have the courage to call themselves "liberals") do not require our elected representatives to actually represent us.