I believe it would be easier to stomach science fiction.

Some­thing I haven’t done late­ly, at least not since about 2003, is talk pol­i­tics here, or at least talk pol­i­tics very seri­ous­ly. Or at all. I can bare­ly remem­ber being the enthu­si­as­tic adjunct who was rac­ing around intern­ing at a labor think tank while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly tend­ing to duties as a research assis­tant. Those were heady, dot calm times, fraught with all the anx­i­eties of liv­ing in NYC on about $150/week and what­ev­er was left from my stu­dent loan disbursement.

That dis­qui­et how­ev­er was fer­tile ground for activism. Then again, so was NYC. Since mov­ing back to Philadel­phia, I’ve had few occa­sions to express my polit­i­cal beliefs any­where oth­er than the Roy­al Tav­ern on elec­tion night. In 2004. Con­sec­u­tive betray­als by a Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty that alleged­ly “had our back” [thank John K. for that gem] were real­ly unbear­able and what they’ve done for me in the inter­im is only more embarrassing.

Flash for­ward to the Scoot­er Lib­by affair. Talk­ing about obstruc­tion of jus­tice with an admin­is­tra­tion that sanc­tions tor­ture and secret pris­ons seems quaint at this point. Why don’t you just invite the Pres­i­dent to a tea par­ty to dis­cuss lib­er­a­tion the­ol­o­gy? Draft­ing arti­cles of impeach­ment? Pfft. This Con­gress can’t pass a stem cell research bill. I’m just look­ing for an anti-war can­di­date [who’s name does­n’t rhyme with Kucinich — hey I vot­ed for the guy in the ’04 pri­ma­ry] to step forward.
Dis­cussing the minu­ti­ae of this case is akin to under­stand­ing sabr­met­rics in base­ball. Remem­ber, it was moral issues, not legal ones, that moti­vat­ed the Clin­ton impeach­ment. If it had been on strict­ly legal grounds, Gin­grich would­n’t have resigned and Clin­ton would’ve been impeached. Once Amer­i­ca looked at itself and real­ized that adul­tery, how­ev­er detestable, was com­mon­place, the coun­try had a change of heart and the Clin­ton admin­is­tra­tion con­tin­ued to rub­ber stamp any con­ser­v­a­tive pol­i­cy that crossed its desk.

The ongo­ing right­ward shift of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty has done lit­tle more than ensure a con­ser­v­a­tive major­i­ty, how­ev­er ten­u­ous. What fur­ther evi­dence is required to prove that? At the 2006 mid-terms we applaud­ed the elec­tion of…Bob Casey Jr.? Not only do we face a deter­mined Repub­li­can Par­ty swept up in a rebrand­ing exer­cise, but we also must con­front the DNC viral mar­ket­ing blogs like Dai­ly Kos, who brought us such mar­ketable terms as the Fight­ing Dems, which has been an oxy­moron in my life­time. Let’s be seri­ous when we vent our wild imag­in­ings pub­licly, at least until a lep­rechaun rid­ing a uni­corn deliv­ers unto us the democ­ra­cy that is our birthright.