Political Human Sacrifice

Political Human Sacrifice By David Podvin


Highlights:

"The disenfranchised rank and file of the Democratic Party can learn a valuable lesson from right wing radio talk show hosts who were angry with Congressional Republicans for ignoring constituent concerns. During the fall campaign, John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of Clear Channel Communications affiliate KFI/AM 640 in Los Angeles organized a successful effort to intimidate the GOP hierarchy by conducting what they termed a “Political Human Sacrifice”.

Kobylt and Chiampou announced that they would select a Republican member of Congress to be targeted for defeat based on the issue of illegal immigration. After much deliberation involving names ranging from Dana Rohrbacher to Mary Bono, the chosen victim was House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, who according to the hosts had the worst (most sympathetic) immigration voting record of any Republican in Washington. Daily on-air attacks and public rallies against Dreier soon followed, and as a result the congressman – who was running against an unfunded Democrat in a safe Republican district – saw his share of the vote drop from sixty four percent in 2002 to fifty three percent this year."




"Some strategists believe the weakness of the Democrats will disappear as public outrage at increasingly irresponsible GOP policies creates a backlash that returns a revitalized Democratic Party to majority status. This is wishful thinking because the sequence is inverted. The Democratic Party must first be revitalized, or the GOP will retain power no matter how badly it mismanages the country. During George W. Bush’s first term, America was terrorized and lost two million jobs, but in the subsequent election the Republicans won yet again because their Democratic opponents were too gutless to confront them forcefully. In the absence of a new dynamic, the unacceptable status quo remains intact.

Democratic voters have been reluctant to punish their wayward representatives because most party members fear that doing so would further empower malicious conservatives. This was a rational concept in the past, but the GOP now controls everything there is to control, and it will continue to rule until the Democrats in Congress are motivated to fight. Therefore, Democratic partisans must finally discard the argument that demanding resolve from their tremulous leaders merely helps the Republicans."



"The logical target for such vigilance is Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut… a more deserving political human sacrifice you will never find. It is not that Lieberman is the worst human being in the Democratic Party, or that he has the worst record, or even that he is the soul mate of William Bennett. The relevant factor is that with Zell Miller and John Breaux having goose stepped off into the sunset, Lieberman is now the prominent Democrat who most consistently gives aid and comfort to the Republican enemy. That consideration – rather than ideology or personality – is the criterion for being heaved into a volcano as a deterrent to others who possess similar accommodationist tendencies.

Lieberman is the paradigm of a Democrat who always embraces capitulation as the first option. He has long believed in reciprocating deference for contempt. It was Lieberman who appeared on Meet The Press during the Florida recount and eagerly agreed with Tim Russert that illegally cast ballots for Bush should be counted. The masochistic senator did so even as the Bush campaign was accusing him of being an unpatriotic cheater."

P.S. Hope I stayed within the fair use guidelines, but these were the points I wanted to highlight from this article

That would be my rep, Adam Smith, fromt he 9th district of Washington State

He scored lots of money for our highways and rapid transit up here, by bargaining away our civil liberties via voting to keep The (UN)Patriot(IC) Act.

I know I'll face charges of 'eating our own', but if we are to take the Democratic Party back from these apologists of fascism, that would sell us into slavery for a few corporate bucks, then when will it be time?


Like a losing professional football team, we're in what's called a 'rebuilding phase'. We would be foolish not to take the opportunity to do some necessary lancing of the these elements and send the message that we're not going to take this crap any more.

hahaaaaa :toast:

Seriously, we should punish capitulation and reward those who demonstrate spine. Good points in the article.

Julie

I'm actually planning on trying get someone to run against the congressman of my district during the primaries.

At least bleed him a little bit and force him to to answer the questions. I consider myself in the liberal camp and I'm tired of being told to shut up and get to the back of the bus.

I believe in an inner party insurgency

Podvin is dead-on. And Lieberman is absolutely deserving of such a campaign. So are a lot of other people. I can only hope I would shy away from donating to Joe's republican opponent.

But I'm not sure.

The liberal gods demand a sacrifice. And the best part is, Joe is so spineless, he'll thank us with kind words as we kick him to the curb. As some columnist said in a recent article, the meek may someday inherit the earth, but they sure won't take over the US congress anytime soon.