Kill the Party to Save It

Those wacky Democrats are at it again. No, I don't mean cow-tipping or leaving flaming poo-bags in front of Dennis Hastert's office. The Democrats are on the damn high road again--just like they were in the last two elections when they refused to challenge what were clearly fraudulent election results in Florida, Ohio, and anywhere else with electronic voting machines, Republican Secretaries of State (who were also Bush campaign managers), and large gullible populations of voters.

Yep, the party of professors and pussies has decided not to pursue impeachment against Bush (nor even, it appears, censure). That's the conclusion I have arrived at, anyway. The rationale is consistent with the Democrats' whole sorry record for the last five years.

Quite simply, they don't want to be seen as bad people.

That's the whole riddle of the Democrats. There was a post on Democratic Underground last month that alleged that the hallmark of a Democrat is that he's a good neighbor. This is exactly the problem. We aren't good neighbors, or at least we ought not to be, to fucking assholes like...well, name a Republican. Until we act like BAD neighbors, in fact, by making this a very dangerous country in which to live if you're a fucking pig, we will continue to lose.

To stretch the neighbor thing a little more, there are two kinds of neighbors (excluding for a moment the kind that are drug addicts or porn producers and as such want nothing to do with you): the kind that waves at you when you see them outside, keeps mainly to themself, but also shows up at your door at 3am when you're having Armageddon 2006 Bass Party at your house and tells you to shut the fuck up. This person also makes no bones about his disapproval of your SUV purchase and thinks you ought not let your kids play in the road. This person isn't afraid to be the bad guy when you're out of line.

The other kind of neighbor waves at you when you see them outside, keeps mainly to himself, and otherwise leaves you alone no matter what, except to tell you that he's here to help you if you ever need anything.

Which one is the better neighbor? Which one do you think a Democrat would pick? Which one would Nancy Pelosi pick?

Impeachment, if we can leave bad metaphor land, is not an option for the Democratic Party. This is a decision that will dramatically weaken it in the long- and short-term. But I can't shake the feeling that those spineless shits actually do think that, in 50 years when people look back on this era, coming as it did right after an impeachment proceeding in the 1990's that hurt the nation immensely, that those future observers will recognize that another impeachment would have irreparably damaged the United States. The obvious objection to this is that Bush already has and continues to irreparably damage the United States, but I think the Democratic Party just doesn't want to be the one that gets the blame for dynamiting American politics. Naturally, they wouldn't even think of NOT taking the blame.

Of course, this is all tea leaf-reading. It means nothing. But do YOU have a better explanation?