The Enabling Act

[longship]

I won't bother with the historic contexts. We have no need of invoking Godwin here. So I will use another metaphor. The United States of America has just crossed the River Styx to a realm this sad world has not seen for decades.

Today, we've seen a legislation enacted which will surely be put into law in the next 48 hours. The consequences of this action are yet unknown, but I think all of us here at DU have an idea of where this is leading, just as many of you already know where I am taking this argument.

This evening I am watching V for Vendetta for probably the dozenth time, if not more. I am pouring myself martinis and sipping them while I toast to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence--individually!! I am not drunk, and given my tendency to moderation, I'll likely stop before that happens. Were I not like that, I'd be in the bag already. Unfortunately, I'll likely stay just sober enough to continue to understand precisely the consequences of what I read earlier when the damned fool senate bill was posted.

I am a very emotional person and am not afraid to show my emotions. However, tonight I have become like steel in my resolve to defeat this evil affliction which is pervading my country. I am too focussed on things to cry, although the tears for my country's loss would certainly be justified. I am angry, but not at my fellow Democrats, nor my Democratic government representatives.

The word enervate means to defeat through sapping of strength. After almost six years we see how little is left of our party, our government, our way of life, our world. The Rovian plan, from the very beginning, has been the enervation of the Democratic Party. Today, we have seen a prominent domino in the plan fall. Today, we've just begun to hear the rhetoric which we all know is just the beginning of a political battle for our very lives.

Our resident Chimp invoked FDR and Truman today to illustrate what the Democratic Party once was and then used them to portray today's Democrats as being somehow weak. Just maybe, for once, the Chimp was correct. There was no reason why S.3930 should have been allowed to pass. But because of the nearly completely enervation of our party in Congress the outcome was inevitable. There was really no hope to defeat this enabling act. We put up a helluva fight--I called over fifty Senators myself this morning.

So, now what to do. Get pissed off at our powerless party leaders? Vote for third party candidates? Not vote at all? Or, heaven forbid, vote for Repukes?

The game is afoot. We can't let them control us any longer. Above all, we have to support our party leaders who are fighting battles under circumstances which can only be described as severe handicap. In the House, Democrats hold absolutely zero power. In the Senate, less so, however today we saw how little power in actuality the party can wield.

I am like steel tonight. Although my representatives are enervated, I am not. We are not.

As I pour my fourth martini I will continue my dedication to those who made this wonderful country possible, as Franklin said, "if we can keep it."

Samuel Adams...
Caesar Rodney...
Robert Morris...
William Whipple...
Stephen Hopkins...
Samuel Chase...

... and on it goes. As must we.

Ideas are bullet-proof.

[smokey nj]

1. I feel particularly ashamed because both senators from New Jersey

voted for tyranny. I know they had their reasons, but right now I'm not comforted by that fact. Will I vote for Tom Kean Jr.? HELL NO!!!! Will I vote for a third party candidate? No thanks, I'm still bruised from kicking myself for my 2000 Nader vote (sorry). I will vote for Robert Menendez to try and keep my state blue. I wasn't able to join you in a cocktail last night, tonight however I will pick up where you left off and toast all the great patriots of this country, past and present.