Should the Democrats Disappoint ...

Liberal and mainstream USians are becoming glaringly upset with the Democratic Party USA. The Democrats were given control of both houses of Congress in an unprecedented electoral victory (no sitting Democrats were defeated, while many incumbent Repugnicans were) that was intended as a clear message from the American people: "End the war." Upon receiving this power, the Democrats have miserably failed to end the war. Instead, they have cravenly (or cynically) given bush II everything he needs to keep the war going.

Pro-peace Americans are now asking themselves: "Is it cowardice or something worse that is causing the Democrats to ignore and betray us?"

I have to say, that part of me wants the Democrats to end the war immediately, like the American people want. The Iraqi people want them out, who knows what evil mischief the US, its military, and its uncontrolled mercenaries are up to?

I suppose that I'd be more happy to see the Democrats throw off whatever it is that is preventing them from making the right decision about Iraq, than that they conform to my expectations of who they are and do what I expect them to do, which is to put control of strategic resources such as Iraq's petroleum reserves ahead of international law, human rights, and the blessings of peace, and to attempt to preserve the occupation of Iraq permanently, with delusions about their ability to oppress the Iraqi people more sensibly than the uber-moron bush II and his cabal of extortionists, insider-traders, and closet-cases.

But, alas, I was prepared to eat crow had Canada and the NATO powers done the unexpected and actually rebuilt Afghanistan and made a better country than they had found, and, unfortunately, Canada and the NATO powers stayed true to their imperialist agenda and have simply installed a friendly puppet, and have devoted vastly more resources to crushing resistance than to reconstruction. (As a result, even outside of the Pashtun-Taliban stronghold, happiness with the NATO regime is weakening, while corruption, continued poverty, and NATO violence are increasing resistance in the Taliban's region.)

I believe that the Democrats are, and always have been, and for structural reasons, always will be, a party of liberal-capitalist imperialism. As such, they will seek to maintain and preserve US capital's control over the wealth of the world. They will do this to the best of their abilities given the necessary self-delusion and incoherence such a worldview implies.

And here is where the silver-lining might lie. I believe that the continuation of the degenerate political culture of the US, with their content-free attack ads, their mainstream media's celebration of the biggest, crypto-fascist simpletons, their media-stars' clueless arrogance about the rest of the world (including their fellow USians), and their all-capitalism-all-the-time mindset is a bad thing.

If the Democrats, along with the hapless, ridiculous, frightening, super-corrupt, super-stupid, super-hypocritcal Repugnicans, reveal themselves to be so disconnected from the views of the majority in the US, that majority (with the assistance of the admirable, wonderful, US left and progressive movements) will be forced to admit that this political system doesn't work for them, cannot work for them, is, in fact, opposed to their own best interests, and might rise up and reject that political system.

Ah, but then, who knows?