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Veto-proofing Congress Now 5.30.07
How can we veto-proof Congress? This is the big question. Of course, in
2008 we may elect a progressive Democratic president, but the way things are
going, that's too long to wait. We can't even wait until the 2008
congressional elections, because this is the most dangerous, destructive,
and irresponsible administration in US history. We must find a way to make
Congress stand up to the president and stop him on all the issues that
matter to us. But for that outcome, Congress needs a two thirds majority in
both houses--way beyond just getting all Democrats in both houses to vote our
way.
Moving enough Republicans is the answer. If we can do this, it will also
help Democrats too frightened to vote the right way. But if we want to move
these people, we have to study their own positions more closely, and think
harder about how we present ours.
On the issue of Iraq, the most encouraging public education work I've seen
lately is the work of VoteVets.org. Their hard-hitting video ads are about
the ways the Bush administration has sold out the very troops they claim to
support--worthless or missing equipment, broken contracts, abusive
negligence in healthcare, cruel and unusual tours of duty. Then there's
ignoring high level military advice that there is no military solution in
Iraq or in the Middle East. Altogether, that's a mountain of evidence from
highly credible sources. This is the kind of message a Republican or Blue
Dog Democratic constituency can hear.
But even this approach is not enough now. We progressives need to go beyond
just saying the U.S. has failed in Iraq and needs to leave ASAP. We must
unify solidly behind the bipartisan Iraq Study Group Report's
recommendations for a negotiated end to the conflict in Iraq, even if that
report is not perfect in every respect. From this position, we can begin to
address understandable, grass roots type conservative worry that the
conflict there will just get infinitely worse if we leave, that full scale
genocide will break out, and that Iraq will then become an even more
dangerous failed state. (It is very important not to confuse the
administration's 'victory' arguments for why we should stay in Iraq with
grass roots conservative misgivings about leaving.)
In fact, experts at the Friends Committee on National Legislation say that
new 'bipartisan legislation to require the U.S. to engage in diplomatic
talks to end the war and set a date for withdrawal of U.S. forces will be
introduced and could be voted on in June' in the Senate. (To find out more,
go to the FCNL web site at http://www.fcnl.org to read the Iraq item on the
home page itself and then click on the 'more' link at the bottom of the Iraq
item.)
So let's get out our copies of the Iraq Study Group Report and study it
again. 'Iraq Study Group Report' may be the magic word, in the end.
Veto-proofing Congress Now 5.30.07
How can we veto-proof Congress? This is the big question. Of course, in
2008 we may elect a progressive Democratic president, but the way things are
going, that's too long to wait. We can't even wait until the 2008
congressional elections, because this is the most dangerous, destructive,
and irresponsible administration in US history. We must find a way to make
Congress stand up to the president and stop him on all the issues that
matter to us. But for that outcome, Congress needs a two thirds majority in
both houses--way beyond just getting all Democrats in both houses to vote our
way.
Moving enough Republicans is the answer. If we can do this, it will also
help Democrats too frightened to vote the right way. But if we want to move
these people, we have to study their own positions more closely, and think
harder about how we present ours.
On the issue of Iraq, the most encouraging public education work I've seen
lately is the work of VoteVets.org. Their hard-hitting video ads are about
the ways the Bush administration has sold out the very troops they claim to
support--worthless or missing equipment, broken contracts, abusive
negligence in healthcare, cruel and unusual tours of duty. Then there's
ignoring high level military advice that there is no military solution in
Iraq or in the Middle East. Altogether, that's a mountain of evidence from
highly credible sources. This is the kind of message a Republican or Blue
Dog Democratic constituency can hear.
But even this approach is not enough now. We progressives need to go beyond
just saying the U.S. has failed in Iraq and needs to leave ASAP. We must
unify solidly behind the bipartisan Iraq Study Group Report's
recommendations for a negotiated end to the conflict in Iraq, even if that
report is not perfect in every respect. From this position, we can begin to
address understandable, grass roots type conservative worry that the
conflict there will just get infinitely worse if we leave, that full scale
genocide will break out, and that Iraq will then become an even more
dangerous failed state. (It is very important not to confuse the
administration's 'victory' arguments for why we should stay in Iraq with
grass roots conservative misgivings about leaving.)
In fact, experts at the Friends Committee on National Legislation say that
new 'bipartisan legislation to require the U.S. to engage in diplomatic
talks to end the war and set a date for withdrawal of U.S. forces will be
introduced and could be voted on in June' in the Senate. (To find out more,
go to the FCNL web site at http://www.fcnl.org to read the Iraq item on the
home page itself and then click on the 'more' link at the bottom of the Iraq
item.)
So let's get out our copies of the Iraq Study Group Report and study it
again. 'Iraq Study Group Report' may be the magic word, in the end.