There are variations on the theme,⁽¹⁾ but the crux of the establishment's message to Democrats is this: "Americans will turn against you if you don't play nice" (read "you're doomed if you impeach").

The DC Dems are buying this pig in a poke.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing
over and over and expecting different results."
-- Benjamin Franklin

When simple truths and moral principles demand action, our Democratic leaders do the same thing over and over: they slam on the breaks and look for an escape route.

As they plot their escape, they invoke the same rationalizations over and over again, with "the backlash beast will get us" and the self-defeating prophesy "can't win so don't fight" vying for the top of the list.

Like the "I'll quit tomorrow" addict, they assuage guilt and shame by telling themselves "we'll do the right thing, later." Tragically for the nation, "later" never comes because, like the addicts they are, the "strategerists" among them always identify reasons that "now" is bad time to bite the bullet.

Over and over, their failure to act leads to consequences far more dire than the worst they feared would result if they had acted.

It is the definition of insanity.

This repetition compulsion is driven by an addiction to tactical analysis that focuses almost exclusively on the "certain" negative consequences of action. For example, in the current crisis, "opinion makers" and party insiders alternate between assurances that the nation wants Democrats to work with Bush and his toadies in Congress and warnings that the public will blast them if they impeach. The benefits of impeachment, the enormous risks of failing to impeach, and the recent polls (e.g., Newsweek's) that find a majority of Americans want impeachment to be a priority in the new Congress are conspicuously absent (i.e., willfully ignored).

An addiction to such one-sided "analysis" becomes devastating when it is coupled with blind acceptance of the assumptions that pervade the insular beltway world -- assumptions that are often the opposite of reality.

Almost without fail, when Democratic leaders are on the verge of taking a principled or bold stand, the climate of opinion warns them that something Very Bad will happen if they act. In contrast, when Republican leaders (whether Reagan-Republican, Rovian, or some other brand) "boldly" seek to impose the will of the reactionary right on the rest of us, they are hailed for displaying political savvy.

Although we can point to individual acts of courage within the Democratic Party, the Party as a whole is branded by their collective drive to escape bold action. There are so many heartbreaking and destructive examples, but just to name a few:

• Taking the impeachment of Reagan "off the table" because they assumed conciliation would pave the way to victory in 1988;


• Sending Alito to the Supreme Court by voting to close debate because they feared being called "obstructionists," and then having the nerve to claim "opposition" by voting against him on the floor;


• Submitting to the treasonous Bush v. Gore edict, instead of denouncing it and putting the decision to throw out the unlawful Florida electors in the hand of Congress, where it belonged. ("Gosh, they could have done that?" . . . Yes, they SHOULD have. ... "But, it would have never worked out." ... See? You're at it again.)

Admittedly, it can be very difficult to "stay clean" when our only sources of information are the "pushers" in the MSM. But that is the nature of propaganda and the nature of addiction.

It's long past time for an intervention.

____________________________________________________________________________

(1) The drumbeat:

The voters, tired of Washington's divisive ways,
want to see the two parties cooperate.
-- Eleanor Clift

don't turn things upside down... the American people do want
you to work with the other side...
-- Douglas MacKinnon (Dole press secretary turned columnist)

a push for impeachment could cause the kind of bitter warfare
that has so disgusted the electorate these last ten years...
-- Will Pitt

A great article on how we're being spun to surrender:

Media Advisory
Morning-After Pundits Take Winners to Task
Victorious Dems lectured by media establishment

. . .

"The voters, tired of Washington's divisive ways, want to see the two parties cooperate," wrote Newsweek's Clift. Oddly, though, those voters had recently told Newsweek (Newsweek.com, 10/21/06) that 51 percent of them wanted impeachment to be a priority (either high or low) of a new Democratic majority. It's likely that these people, who wouldn't mind seeing Bush tried for high crimes and misdemeanors, aren't particularly eager to see the representatives they sent to Washington working with him to advance his agenda.

More. . .