Dave Lindorff: Democrats are their own worst enemy

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http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24921

Democrats are their own worst enemy
Submitted by dlindorff on Fri, 2007-07-20 19:24. Impeachment

By Dave Lindorff

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If the Democrats want to escape this trap of their own making, they are going to have to do something that has eluded Democrats for a generation—really back to the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. They are going to have to stand up and be leaders. (Okay, Johnson was a war criminal and should have been impeached for the Gulf of Tonkin fraud, but he did stand up and lead on Civil Rights legislation, Medicare and the so-called War on Poverty.)

What Democrats have to do is heed the advice of retired Gen. William Odom, and declare that “supporting the troops” means bringing them safely home, and no longer stranding them in a hopeless and pointless war in Iraq. It means declaring that Bush and Cheney lied the country into this war and that he has no right to be trusted on anything he says about it today. They need to say that they are through funding this disaster and that come October 1, there will be no more money appropriated for war in Iraq—only for removing the U.S. from that country. Completely.

Democrats, to succeed, need to speak forthrightly to the American people and say that while they may have been suckered and intimidated into supporting the war effort for more than five years, they recognize now that it has to stop, and they are going to do it—for the sake of the troops, for the sake of America, and for the sake of the long-suffering Iraqi people. They also need to declare that the so-called War on Terror, beyond being the failure that it has been called by the latest National Intelligence Estimate, is also a fraud—one that has been shamelessly and intentionally used to frighten Americans (and their elected representatives) into surrendering freedoms and powers to the executive branch.

If they do all this, they will find their support rising again from its current dismal 23 percent support level.

If they really want to be popular, they will follow this up with an aggressive campaign to impeach both the president and vice president for a string of abuses of power, lies, obstruction and violations of law.

Some people have claimed that impeachment would be divisive. What a joke! With the president’s popular support today at 27-29 percent (depending upon the poll), and with Cheney’s support down in single or low double digits, it should be clear to even the dumbest member of Congress that impeachment, if presented properly as a defense of Constitutional government and democratic freedom, would be greeted with cheers across the nation and on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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