Disillusionment with President Bush and the GOP-controlled Congress has helped to give Democrats a strong edge in the fall congressional elections. Astonishingly, many on the left are using this moment to turn on those Democrats in Congress who voted to give Bush authority to invade Iraq. In doing so they are jeopardizing an opportunity to wrest control of one or both houses from the GOP and the possibility of exerting much needed oversight of this authoritarian administration.
In Washington State, Senator Maria Cantwell is facing a challenge for re-election from a Green Party candidate hoping to pick up votes from a disaffected minority on the left so blinded by their feelings regarding the Iraq imbroglio that they are willing to weaken the opposition to Bush in Congress.
By any reasonable standard, Senator Cantwell has been an exemplary representative and leader for her state and the country in the United States Senate. She has worked hard on many issues critical to the well-being of the nation, not least the development of policies that will lead to U.S. energy independence without despoiling our last wilderness; she has led the desperate struggle in Congress against the powerful GOP Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, to block drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. According to the League of Conservation Voters web-site, her current voting scorecard in support of the environment is 90%. Yet she faces a challenge on the left from a party that, putatively, cares most of all about our environment (presumably the “Green” in Green Party is intended to have some meaning). So much so it seems that it’s willing to oppose a staunch defender of our public lands and breathe life into what would otherwise be a long-shot bid from the GOP to pick up her seat. What’s going on?
Well, Senator Cantwell committed the unforgivable sin of voting in support of the president on the Iraq authorization and, evidently, this is sufficient for many on the left to desert her now. Not to put too fine a point on it, this is both foolish and myopic. To ignore the many positive contributions she has made in the furtherance of progressive and sensible national policies because of one misguided vote makes little sense. This is particularly true if it leads to a replacement from the GOP who will not only be far more supportive of the Bush administration across the board, but also strengthen the administration’s hand in the Senate - with all of the consequences that follow, from non-existent oversight to the appointment of right-wing judges for the U.S. appellate courts.
In short, this is not the time for progressives and centrists to divide their vote to the obvious benefit of the Bush administration. Surely we have learned our lesson from the 2000 presidential election when enough progressives voted for the egotistical Ralph Nader to sway the outcome in Florida in Bush’s favour . We heard much nonsense immediately after the election to justify this folly from those who claimed that they either wouldn’t have voted at all or might have voted for Bush if not Nader. This last one is my personal favourite - a Green voter who would have supported a Bush with his ties to the oil and gas industries and lamentable environmental record as Texas governor over a Gore who had already written a book on the dangers of global warming. Yeah, that makes sense.
The point is, how many of those Nader supporters in their heart of hearts have not come to bitterly regret their vote in light of the events of the past 5-6 years? How differently things might have turned out if, instead of demanding ideological purity in their hostility to Big Business, they had settled for good sense and moderation.
I did not and still do not agree with Senator Cantwell’s vote on the Iraq War. I wish she regretted the vote, although she evidently doesn’t; mind, given the fate of John Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid, I can see why those Democrats who did vote for Bush’s authorization might be leery of the “flip-flopping” charge. The fact is that there are many on all sides of the ideological spectrum who sincerely believed that overthrowing Saddam Hussein in Iraq furthered American interests and had the potential to transform the Middle East. Few foresaw the incompetence with which the Bush administration would execute the Iraq mission. And in the final analysis, nobody but Bush himself is responsible for the fact that we blundered into that hapless country and now cannot find our way out.
Tremendous challenges face our country in the years ahead. We simply cannot afford to lose the calibre of leadership of a Maria Cantwell because of some ill-conceived litmus test, nor continue to leave our country’s fate to the feckless Republicans in the White House and the Congress. The stakes are much too high.
0 Responses to “Let’s Not Shoot Ourselves in the Foot - Again.”