From The Ramparts

Take Your Blinders Off

Take Your Blinders Off

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - As the anti-war movement arrives in Washington this weekend, many top Democrats are leaving. Nationally known Democratic war critics, including Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and John Kerry of Massachusetts, won't attend what sponsors say will be a big anti-war rally Saturday in Washington. The only Democratic officeholders who plan to address the rally are Reps. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia and John Conyers of Michigan. Today's leading Democrats head a party divided over the war, and many leaders are wary of standing with anti-war activists, who represent much of the party's base. The divide between anti-war activists and Democratic leaders underscores a challenge the party faces in the 2006 congressional elections and beyond. Some activists say that Democrats such as Clinton and Kerry who criticize the war but refuse to demand a timetable for withdrawal are effectively supporting the status quo - and may not merit future support.- Knight Ridder Newspapers 09-22-05

There is lots going on today. Soccer moms and dads attending their children’s games, high school and college football to keep folks distracted, the Congressional Black Caucus (which usually is a colossal waste of time but this year promises to offer a few meaningful sessions) will be winding down; and there are a slew of anti war rallies scheduled around the country. Plus folks are waiting with bated breath to see what happens with Hurricane Rita as it hammers its way towards Texas. Interestingly a national anti-war rally is scheduled for Washington D.C. today at a time when AmeriKKKa’s support for Bu$h’s ill conceived and immoral crusade for oil and US dollar hegemony are at all time low. Yet non of the marque names of the Democratic Party are in attendance or scheduled to speak at today’s rally, not even anti war stalwarts like Dennis Kucinich or Howard Dean. What’ sup with that? I’ve read articles criticizing rally organizers for not being fully inclusive and inviting right wing opponents of the war such as Pat Buchanan. Interestingly it is the fearless Cynthia McKinney and the venerable John Conyers who are going to be on hand and participate in today anti-war rally. I’m not surprised! There was a time in this country when the moral compass and the clarion for righteousness prerogatives of Africans in AmeriKKKa. While there were certainly many abolitionists who fought long and hard against chattel slavery black folks like Frederick Douglas, Henry Highland Garnett and Sojourner Truth were eloquent and fierce advocates of freedom and justice whose voices rang out with conviction and passion. As the shadows of fascism encroach upon the land and militarism and economic and color caste calcify in the early years of the twenty-first century, it seems the voices of dissent of moral suasion and even revolution have all been muffled. Over and over I’ve asked myself where is the modern Martin Luther King Jr.? Why haven’t a new Elijah Muhammad or Malik El Haj El Shabazz materialized to exhort us to rediscover our courage and commitment. Where is the twenty-first century Callie House or Mary McCloud Bethune? When will they manifested themselves in our midst to energize, galvanize and show us the way to do for self? But the most important question is when will we stop looking outside of ourselves, both personally and collectively for someone to come and recuse us? When will we abandon the messiah mentality and realize as my friend Ralph Stevenson always says, we are the ones we have been waiting for??!
It is obvious by their absence from a national anti- war rally that will include much of their former or still lingering constituency within the Democratic Party that the so called leadership of the Democratic Party is just as out of touch with the wants and wishes of common folk as are Bu$h and his NeoConmen cabal. It’s no that the people don’t know the Democratic Party leadership sold them out in 2004; they can’t be that stupid (in a stupor). They know John Kerry was part and parcel of the same upper crust blue blood ruling elite that pulls George W Bu$h’s strings, folks just wanted a change from Bu$h. What goes around comes around. The US and the CIA have rigged and stolen elections around the world since WWII. They, meaning the NeoCon Republican fat cats, stole the US presidential elections in 2000 and 2004 But there is the Law of KARMA to be reckoned with. The consequences of their malevolence are being felt here and now! We saw just how ruthless and sociopathic the Bu$h Cheney cabal really is during Hurricane Katrina. Alas the Democratic Party especially the DLC wing is just as fascist as the Republicans. In fact they used a modified Republican Southern Strategy to win the White House in 1992 and ‘96. It is time for folks to take the blinders off and see things for what they really are. The Democratic Party has betrayed its core constituency of organized labor, civil rights, immigrant and working class interests in favor of multi-national corporate hand outs/bribes. As long as this is the case, and there is money to be made in waging war, don’t look for the Democratic Party’s marquee names to show up at anti-war rallies. And don’t be surprised and shocked when they don’t!

-30-

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 8:08 AM