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.