Well, well, well, ain’t democracy fun? Thanks to the efforts of bloggers and citizens alike, Peter Welch finally came around and sponsored Rep. Lynn Woolsey’s legislation that – if enacted – would begin a 6-month troop withdrawal in Iraq. Better yet, it will offer the assistance the Iraqi people need to put their country back together after George & Dick’s Big Adventure.
The bloggers who so gleefully drink from the Democratic Party’s Kool-Aid stood up to say “We told you so” when Welch made his anti-war announcement on Monday. But they’re clearly missing the point and, as usual, just carrying water for a party rather than pushing that party to wake up and lead. Yes, lead. You know, kinda like they have majorities in both houses of congress.
But those Dem-party hacks are the reason why the Dems will remain in their political coma. The hacks sit on their hands on the most important issues of the day and actually try to protect their elected friends with admonitions toward the remaining few of us who still believe it’s okay to PRACTICE democracy and speak up, sound off and – gasp! – demand action from our elected officials.
The reason Welch finally acted wasn’t because his donors and starry-eyed admirers sat on their hands and said, “just wait, he’ll do it.” Nope. Welch got off his political ass because he got bombarded with phone calls, heard from constituents in every venue he bothered to pop into (radio, T.V., Internet), and there were enough people who remembered their high school civics lessons and organized a not-so-small mob of democracy lovers to turn up the heat on him.
And, yes, to Welch’s credit, he listened and he acted accordingly. Bravo.
But that doesn’t mean we go away quietly into the night. Hardly. That means Welch took his first legislative baby step and now we’ll see if we can get him to walk without wobbling and – perhaps – maybe even get into a run by the end of his term. And that means keeping the heat on him – every step of the way – no matter what the sleepy “I told you so” crowd says.
