Bob Herbert: Time for Democrats to "Mix it Up!"

I have no more patience with this perennially pathetic patient, this terminally timid Democrat who continues to lie cowering and trembling on the analyst's couch, wondering why the Demolition Derby Republicans control virtually all of the levers of power in the United States.

The Democrats are thinking too much and doing too little. This is a party in need of a moxie transplant. It's time for the patient to climb off the couch, walk outside and mix it up with the gang that has made a complete and utter mess of the country that was entrusted to it.

Yeah, you said it brother Herbert!  Now is the time for FIGHTING Dems, not "another round of thumb-sucking...more mind-numbing nonsense about narratives and framing...more abstract talk about how to define the party."  In other words, stop staring at your navels and start fighting!  Against what, you might ask?  How about a Republican Party that is destroying everything this country stands for, trashes our budget, jeopardizes our long-term economic health, illegally spies on all of us, tries to turn America into a Theocracy, and tarnishes our moral image around the world? 

Frankly, if Democrats can't get up enough Harry "Give Em Hell" Truman spirit to fight this scourge, then they don't even deserve to BE a political party.  Just shut it down.  Why bother?

There's a better course of action, I'm happy to say.  As Herbert writes:

Why not try something new and liberating, like the truth? Forget the theorizing and strategizing. Tell the truth about what's happening now. Let the electorate know how much the Iraq war is really costing +óGé¼GÇ¥ in human treasure, loss of influence around the world, increases in gasoline prices and cold, hard cash. Tell the truth about the monstrous buildup of state power by the Bush crowd, which has undermined the freedom and privacy of innocent people here at home, and angered many conservatives.

Talk straight about the unconscionable assault on working people in the United States.

And, most of all, FIGHT!  That, by the way, is just ONE reason I am so strongly backing Jim Webb, because he is a courageous man who knows how to fight.  But not just for the sake of fighting, or in a militaristic sense.  No, Jim Webb today is fighting FOR something - FOR our freedom, FOR our constitution, and FOR our country.  That's why we need Jim Webb so badly right now in the U.S. Senate. And we need MORE Jim Webbs - and other Democrats willing to fight the far right wing - to be elected this November and beyond.

To paraphrase the old saying, here's my advice for any Democratic politician: either FIGHT, follow those who WILL FIGHT, or get the hell out of the way!  Today, we have no time to waste with "pusillanimous pussyfooters," "vicars of vacillation," or anything of the sort.  All I want to see is fighters in MY Democratic Party.  Then, as Tom Petty sings, "Don't Back Down!"

Comments