The clearly stolen election in Mexico has had a devestating effect on me--I'm through with presidential elections! I'm tired of being played! And I encourage every thinking person in America to feel the same. It doesn't matter if its Hillary, Al or Russ--there will be no free and fair election in America in 2008. The only possibly valid election results would be an absolutely crushing, Johnson/Goldwater-like defeat of the Republicans.
It is time to face the new reality. Which means that the Democratic wing of the Democratic party should be thinking about how to take power, and no means should be ruled out. Can America afford to sit and do nothing while the deflated rudderless Bush administration clings to its tattered raft of lies?
Democrats must envision their own next administration clearly, and actually start building it, now. To those who might ask, "Is this idea outside the tradition of American democracy?" I could reply, "Where in hell do you think the current administration is?" I am not suggesting the use of force here, outside the political channels; I am saying "Divest yourselves of passive thinking, of waiting for something good to happen, of hoping that the next time they will play fair."
The Democrats must stand on principle as being the party that is against the Iraq war, and that will take immediate action to get the troops out of harms way, diffuse fears of civil war, and go to work solving the real central issue, the Israel-Palestine problem.
Lamont is a shining example of the promise of this position. Lieberman's cop-out "I'll run as an independent" is a stunning concession of weakness and fear. We must boldly go forward and see Lamont through to victory, thereby sending a message to the Bush-lite beltway Democrats, particularly those who are afraid to oppose the Iraq war, that they are on the wrong side of history. They must either get out of the way or be rolled over, but the cautiousness of the Shrums and the calculatingness of the Kerrys must be cast aside.
America is hungering for a new direction and real leadership--it is up to Democrats to prove themselves worthy of that call by ridding themselves of small, defensive thinking, and standing fully and pugnaciously in their long-term vision.