President Bush’s approval ratings "have spiked dramatically over the last month while Congressional approval crashed," according to the latest polls.
If Congressional Dems acted like an opposition party, their polls numbers would go up. With the possible exception of Feingold, the Dems are uninspired and incapable of genuine fight-back, no doubt because most of them secretly agree with the war and the neocon agenda. Besides, if they seriously upset things, then goodness, the country club invites would stop and, who knows what this might do to their investment portfolios. And they can’t have that happen, can they? (Sure, there’s a few good ones in Congress, but most Dems there are craven, malleable, and unwilling to oppose the neocons.)
That’s why liberals and progressives will be disappointed in the 2006 elections when control of Congress will probably shift back to the Dems – and then nothing much will change.
The change will come when masses of people in the streets force them to change. That’s what ended the Vietnam War. The people didn’t ask Congress to end the war, they demanded it.
One thing progressives certainly can’t afford to do is wait until November to try to change things. Dems who voted for the war need to be tossed out in the primaries. Let the voters then choose between pro-war Repugs and anti-war Dems. Along with any local porwar congresscritters, the two main targets for primary extraction should be Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman.
Jonathan Tasini (http://www.tasinifornewyork.org/) has already announced that he will oppose Hillary in the Democratic primary on an anti-war platform, and former Republican turned independent Lowell Weicker has said he will run against Holy Joe (I’m not sure for which party). Apparently, no candidate, Republican or Democrat, was planning on taking on the worst Dem in the Senate. Weicker apparently doesn’t want to, but can’t stand the idea of Bush-lite getting re-elected.