Week of 04/13/2009

Politics Before Principle? Where Have I Heard THAT Before?
– by David Matthews 2

I HATE déjà vu.

I really do.

I hate that nagging feeling that I’ve said or written or read something that was said or written before. I hate it because I then have to look back to see precisely WHERE I’ve heard it before, and see if it was something I had said or wrote, or if someone else did. I certainly don’t want to plagiarize someone else’s work, and I don’t like repeating myself.

So here we are not even into the 100-day mark and I’m hearing this strange noise coming from liberals concerning President Barack Obama and his brand-new White House tenure, which still has that new-car smell to it. It’s a noise that sounds vaguely familiar.

The noise is the result of some very disappointing news from the Obama Administration… namely that they would be sustaining and supporting many of the things that the Bush Imperium did, including the ones that then-candidate Obama objected to. The Department of God, the secrecy, supporting unquestionable detainment of those that used to be called “enemy combatants”… all of the dirty little secrets that used to infuriate the liberals… Obama’s people are now supporting and defending them.

Obviously that sort of realization is raising some hackles from the people that expected that Obama and company would actually do something OTHER than support it. They EXPECT changes, and they’re starting to wonder if maybe they were betrayed… AGAIN. After all, they WERE let down in 2007 by the Congressional Democrats that promised to reign in the abuses of the Bush Imperium and then did nothing of the sort.

And that’s when this little buzzing noise started appearing from amongst the liberals. This little buzzing noise that is telling the liberals that are starting to feel betrayed that they have to swallow their feelings and stand tall in support of the Obama Administration, even if they are doing the very things that they had previously opposed.

I HATE déjà vu.

I really do.

Wait… didn’t I just say that earlier?

Now where DID I hear that little argument before? It sounds oh-so familiar…

OH YEAH! That’s right… it was the SAME argument that the neo-conservatives were telling the conservatives they had to do concerning the Bush Imperium’s actions!

You remember those days, right? They used to complain about things like those FEMA responses and the oil screwjob of 2005 and the problems with the Iraq War. They wouldn’t say them too loudly, of course. They would just be grumblings.

And the moment those grumblings could be heard, the neo-cons would pull those cons aside and tell them in no uncertain language to shut the hell up. They can’t complain about these things! They can’t complain about the actions of their President and his people! We’re in a WAR, don’t you know? You have to set aside your concerns and back your president 100%, no matter what!

Those were the days, huh? Back when the neo-cons were dictating policy, driving the national debt higher and higher, spending like there was no tomorrow, coming up with this program and that program… in other words, acting like a bunch of Democrats! And then… then… when their partners in crime would complain, they would pull them aside and tell them to shut up and put political loyalty over their principles.

And they did just that! That was the best part of it all! They actually cowered! These guys kept on screaming about character and principles and values, but when push came to shove, they started singing the same old tune of those scandal-filled Clinton days. You know which tune that was, right? “Dance with the one that brought you…”

That probably explained the eventual bitterness of conservatives like Sean Hannity when it was all over with. How they would complain that they had “their concerns” but they somehow decided that it was more important to shut up and back the President instead of standing up for principles. And now they’re kicking themselves because they’re out of power and they’re screaming even louder because they did the very things that they accused Democrats of doing.

And now of course the Democrats are once again in charge, and already there is dissent. Already there are people questioning the decisions made by the Obama Administration. They’re already asking why the Obama people supporting and sustaining many of the things that the old Bush Imperium did. And they are already being told to sit down and shut up, just like the neo-cons told their conservative brethren to do just a few months previously.

So I’ll be blunt about this… to all you Obama supporters that are telling their friends to put politics over principle…

YOU shut up!

Yes, YOU, the ass-kissing toadies posting your diatribes in HuffPo and Daily Kos and the rest of the liberal-dominated forums telling your fellow liberals to keep their yaps shut and singing “Dance with the one that brought you”. It is YOU that need to SHUT THE HELL UP!

Let’s get brutally honest here… you Obama supporters NEED that dissent from your own rank and file! You NEED to be reminded of WHY you’re there and what needs to be done! Obama and his people need to be kept HONEST and that can only happen through reasoned dissent when they stray off-message.

Look at what’s happened so far? It’s not even 100 days in and already the Obama Administration is not only defending the Bush Imperium, but they’re supporting those programs and want even MORE of them!

Whatever happened to ending “politics as usual”? Whatever happened to all the talk about transparency and accountability? What happened to “putting away those childish things”?

WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE A BUNCH OF NEO-CONS???

Here’s a little hint for you Obama cultists: telling your fellow liberals to shut up and chanting “Dance with the one that brought you” IS POLITICS AS USUAL!!!

Do you need to have it droned into your heads? Do you need to have it tattooed on the inside of your eyelids in bright neon colors so you’ll see it when you sleep?

Maybe if the feminists spoke up earlier about Bill Clinton’s dalliances, then they would have kept him honest, and Kathleen Willey wouldn’t have been propositioned in the Oval Office while begging for a job on the same day her husband committed suicide. Maybe the whole mess with Monica Lewinsky would have been dealt with quickly and without giving the Republicans cause to seek articles of impeachment if the feminists spoke up earlier and told Big Bubba Spin to keep “it” in his pants. Instead, they cowered and catered to the political tricks of the status quo.

Certainly the conservatives have no moral ground to retreat to on this. If anything, they’re damned even worse because they claim to put principle above everything else! Maybe if the conservatives spoke up sooner and bitch-slapped their neo-con silencers, the Iraq War could have been handled better. Maybe they could have forced Defense Secretary Donald “Zen Master-General” Rumsfeld to change strategies earlier… or forced him out earlier… and thus cut down on the THOUSANDS of American lives lost during that time. Maybe the situation with FEMA and Hurricane Katrina could have been better handled instead of letting it sit and become the fuster-cluck that it was in 2005. Maybe they could have prevented the Justice Department from being politicized, which is supposed to be specifically against federal law. All they had to do was speak up and remind the Bush Impeirum about why they were there. Instead, they cowered and catered to the wrath of the neo-cons.

It was Edward R. Murrow - speaking out against the abuses of the McCarthy era - that aptly said that “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.” If the people behind the Obama Administration steer off course, then it is the urgent responsibility of the people that supported the President and helped to put him in office to CALL him on these decisions and to get the Administration BACK on track. THEY need to keep the Obama people honest, and NOT wait until the next election, where they will be told that they have to “Dance with the one that brought you…”

I HATE déjà vu.

I really do.

Wait… didn’t I just…?