Get it together, donkeys

This past month has not been kind to the Republican Party. Indictments are said to be pending for some of the highest aides in Bush’s insular and secretive administration. Republican leaders in both the House and Senate are in serious trouble over ethical lapses that may have involved criminal activity. The war in Iraq lurches onward, with even some conservatives hailing it for what it is: The worst strategic blunder in our nation’s history.

This administration, which stole two elections, bankrupted the American treasury, divided our populace, impoverished millions, gutted hard-fought labor and environmental laws and regressed our national energy policy back almost to the days of coal and whale oil, is finally on the ropes.

It’s been a long time coming.

But our beef this week is not with the Republicans, who, after all, are just being themselves. Our problem is with their ineffectual, uninspiring, weak-kneed, stuck-in-the-past, sitting-on-the-bench excuse of an opposition party.

The Democrats’ strategy seems to be to give the Republicans enough rope to hang themselves, yet it is the American citizen whose neck is broken by the party-in-power’s radical new order.

Judging from the polls, people are tired of Bush and his neo-con cronies running this country into the ground. But in order to change the course or right the listing ship of state, the populace needs an alternative that actually looks like an alternative, one that resonates with their cultural proclivities, one that is relevant to their lives and gives them confidence enough to admit they were hoodwinked and make the switch. The Demos seem to have been knocked so far back on their heels by the Bush machine that they have forgotten for what, and more importantly, for whom, they stand.

Somebody with some guts and vision needs to stand up and take this tired donkey by the reins—and fast—or the people will decide to stay with the devil they know. If that happens, our journey to hell in a handbasket stays the course.