ED CIACCIO
“IF DEMOCRATS TRULY REPRESENTED US...” 

Considering that we the people put them back in power in Congress last November to bring our soldiers home and to hold corrupt politicians accountable for all the law-breaking and scandals revealed since 2000, if Democrats truly represented us... 

…they would stop using as an excuse not having enough votes to override Bush’s vetoes of war-ending bills.  Instead, they would simply refuse to report war funding bills out of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, chaired respectively by Democrats David Obey and Robert Byrd, so these bills could not even come up for votes.  That way, Bush and his war supporters would be unable to continue their war and Bush could never veto a bill that is never voted on. 

(But that would mean Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would have to actually take action to support their rhetoric about opposing this senseless, unnecessary war by instructing Democrats in both houses to support such actions.  They would have most of the American people behind them if they did this, and if Bush and Cheney dared to irresponsibly continue the highly unpopular war into next year with no funding, it would be clear to the American people that it was the war supporters who stubbornly continued their war, and we would justifiably take the blame out on these warmongers in 2008.) 

…they would stop sending letters and subpoenas threatening to hold administration members, current as well as former, in contempt of Congress for refusing to appear before Congressional committees investigating the scandals, law-breaking, and corruption of this administration, and simply charge inherent contempt for the Bush no-shows.  What is “inherent contempt”?  According to the Congressional Research Service's "Congressional Oversight Manual": 

“Under the inherent contempt power, the individual is brought before the House or Senate by the Sergeant-at-Arms, tried at the bar of the body, and can be imprisoned. The purpose of the imprisonment or other sanction may be either punitive or coercive. Thus, the witness can be imprisoned for a specified period of time as punishment, or for an indefinite period (but not, at least in the case of the House, beyond the adjournment of a session of the Congress) until he agrees to comply. The inherent contempt power has been recognized by the Supreme Court as inextricably related to Congress’s constitutionally-based power to investigate.” 

(But that would mean Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would have to actually take action to support their rhetoric about accountability. Most Americans, sick and tired of the Bush/Cheney administration’s cavalier disregard for the law, would cheer these actions as a return to true accountability and the rule of law.)

 …they would condemn Bush, Cheney and the other warmongers for lying us into an unnecessary war of aggression on Iraq ((instead of wasting time condemning newspaper ads or loudmouth talk radio chickenhawks), a true “high crime” because it subverted our Constitution and led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths and injuries, and begin impeachment proceedings immediately. 

(But that would mean Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would have to actually take action to support their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and Speaker Pelosi would have to tell Democrats in the House that impeachment is “on the table” and more than the current 20 of them should feel free to sign as supporters of current House Resolution 333 calling for Dick Cheney’s impeachment.  Most Americans, who know Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and the other warmongers lied to us to get our support for their invasion of Iraq, would support impeachment of these murderous liars.) 

Of course, all these acts of truly carrying out the demands for which they were elected by us, and for which we have been calling them, petitioning them, emailing them, demonstrating, vigiling, and sitting in their offices, would interfere with the endless 2008 election campaign and its endless fundraising, mostly from the immensely wealthy and the corporations, all of whom believe they have nothing to gain from true change and accountability, especially if change results in ending a war which has been so lucrative to war profiteers and no-bid contractors. 

Which brings us to the issue of campaign financing. 

If the Democrats truly believed in democracy, as their party’s name states, they would all work like hell to end the corrupt, anti-democracy, legalized bribery system we have of financing our political campaigns and of allowing lobbyists to pay (usually in advance) for legislative “favors” (votes).  These are unfair, undemocratic ways of “influencing” Congressional votes which common citizens can never compete with.  To say this whole legalized bribery system makes a mockery of our supposed democracy is a gross understatement which most sentient Americans not only understand all too well, but which outrages them as well. 

(But that would take a solid, sincere, long-term commitment to the creation of a true democracy in our country, instead of the auction we currently have. It would mean putting the creation of that democracy and its attendant responsibility to us, its citizens, and our nation’s future, ahead of the lucrative prospects of re-election and eventual post-Congressional employment by the corporations currently lining Congressional pockets.  Most Congress members are increasingly tired of the hamster wheel campaign financing process they must endure every two years.  Most Americans are so disgusted by this corrupt system that more of them see no reason to vote every two years, let alone exercise their rights of free speech and petitioning their representatives.  And this is how democracy dies: with a whimper, not a bang.  Americans would vigorously support any and all sincere attempts to end the current corrupt legislation for money and favors system we have, and vote for any politician who truly works to end it, such as by true public-only financing of campaigns. Public financing of elections has already been successfully implemented in a few states.  In Maine, an overwhelming majority (3/4) of state legislators take the public money. In Arizona, the same is true of a majority of the state house, as well as the current governor.) 

If Democrats truly represented us and sincerely cared about protecting our Constitution and saving what exists of our ravaged democracy in Bush/Cheney’s United States, they would immediately and forcefully implement all of the above suggestions. 

In other words, they would take our demands, frustration, and outrage seriously, and act according to our wishes, not just their chances for election in 2008.  In doing so, of course, they would raise their support among us from its embarrassingly, but justifiably, miniscule level (lower, even, than Bush’s!) and, therefore, actually strengthen their chances for electoral success. 

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Ed Ciaccio, a past contributor to TPJ, is a retired teacher, and has been a conscientious objector since 1970.

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