Archive: Do the Democrats themselves believe what they say?
November 25, 2005
John Murtha says that he thinks we should get out of Iraq immediately. Why? He explains it thusly: "The time has come when 80 percent of the Iraqi people are saying that they want us out of there, that 45 percent of the Iraqi people say that the United States -- it's justified to kill Americans. So you have a country that wants us out of there, and we've become the enemy. We are the target."
He further claims that we, the American people, are with him on this. As he puts it, "The American people are way ahead of us." Stay with me, this is an important point: he claims, as many Democrats in the House have recently, that the American people generally want us to get out of Iraq right away, no matter what it does to us or the Iraqis. Now, this may be true, for all I know; I'm not "The American People" - I don't claim to be, and I don't presume to speak for them. For myself, I happen to doubt that it's true, but that's just my opinion. It is also my impression that most Republicans would agree with me. So when they vote unanimously not to cut and run, their vote is in agreement with both their stated principles, as well as their take on what the public wants, which is all very nice for them.
But what is more interesting is, that the side of the aisle that gave us Murtha, and claim that the American people agree with Murtha, voted against that proposition with almost the unanimity of the GOP.
As I said, I stake no claim to knowing what the "American People" want or don't want. But I can't help noticing that an awful lot of Democrats voted AGAINST what they CLAIM to think the American People want. Never mind that voting against this particular proposition was what's best for the nation -- that, too, is my opinion, even if it is shared loudly and proudly by the GOP. The point is that it is NOT shared loudly by all those Democrats that voted with the 403-man majority, but they voted as if it were.
The people in the House of Representatives are politicians, and by and large, politics doesn't tend to attract people who like to lose. These folks have to stand for re-election every 2 years, and every one of them, unless he's retiring, will face the American People™ next year. And as we keep hearing, it's a particularly momentous election, what with the Democrats hoping to actually ADD a few members this time around, for a change. So: is it good politics to do the opposite of what you think the voters that elected you want, just before you go home to start campaigning? Did they vote to stay the course the other day out of a deep (however secret) belief that it was the right thing to do, regardless of the popular will, paying only cynically dishonest lip service to that will? Or is it that they ALSO don't believe that it's actually what the people want, but say that anyway?
Think about this the next time someone tells you that it's Bush who's lying.
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