I don't know what's worse, the GOP agenda to move the country toward the right or the Democrats supine compliance. The primary effect of the Democratic senators' questioning in the Alito confirmation hearings this week was to reinforce the public's stereotype of Democrats as formulaic, pompous jackasses. It was depressing. Bob Parry puts it well when he says the Democrats "looked as prepared to confront Samuel Alito as FEMA chief Michael Brown did in responding to Hurricane Katrina." He goes on:
The Democrats must have realized that the mainstream media would focus on the most trivial aspects of the hearings – as well as on the windiness of the senators’ long-prefaced questions. The only hope to change those dynamics would have been to present a strong alternative narrative.
That alternative narrative could have been how the Right has spent three decades steadily building its infrastructure and clout to consolidate ideological control around an Imperial Presidency held tightly in Republican hands and endorsed by a restructured Supreme Court.
The Democrats could have built the drama by spotlighting the stakes involved in Alito’s nomination, that the final check and balance in the U.S. political system – the courts – would be locked down by ideologues who have long boasted of their determination to gain one-party dominance in Washington.
By undergoing rhetorical liposuction, the Democrats also might have trimmed down their flabby speechifying and instead posed pointed question after pointed question to Alito, eventually making his refusal to answer questions the central issue of the hearings, not their own bloviating.
Read more here.
In a post I wrote back in November I predicted that the Alito confirmation would be a bellwether of Democratic strength. We would find out whether the weakened position of the GOP president and Congress would provide an opportunity for an organized, concerted effort by Democrats in the Senate to deny Alito this position on the supreme court. Well it looks like we're finding out that as weak as the GOP has become, the Democrats are even weaker.
It's not over yet. Maybe we'll be surprised by what happens when the proceedings shift to the full Senate. We'll see.
The bottom line here is that the American right is correct in its caricaturing of the Democrats--they are weak and ineffective. They are unable to protect the country from danger. The only thing is that the danger is posed by the American right.
And the right has it all set up so that when a fighter like Howard Dean emerges, he's branded as an over-the-top wacko. The mainstream Democrats, rather than rallying around him or encouraging others to do what he does more effectively, distance themselves from him.
I have my problems with Dean, but at least the guy is standing up. It would be better to support him than to do nothing. The other Dems are afraid they won't be taken seriously. And yet here we are taking seriously ideas like the unitary executive that should have been laughed out of the public discussion years ago.
These formal proceedings in the Senate are rather like warfare in the 18th Century. The French Army lines up in battle formation to shoot at the English army, which is all neatly lined up nearby to take the French bullets. And then the English take their turn to shoot back at the French who politely stand by to take their share of the bullets.
I know it's more complicated than that, but the point is that when you're outnumbered, you can't win. So it seems pointless to just stand there and take it. The Democrats don't seem to have figured out that they need to develop alternative strategies. But that would require imagination and courage.