Unlike the rigged votes at last week’s Republican National Convention, the rigged vote during today’s Democratic National Convention didn’t have its results pre-determined by TelePrompter. Instead, it was left to Los Angeles Mayor and Convention Chairman Antonio Villaraigosa to simply ignore the shouts of “NO!”, in passing an amendment this afternoon to the party platform “by a two-thirds vote in the affirmative”…
The otherwise-unscheduled vote came about after President Obama and the Democrats withered under several hours of GOP and Fox “News” criticism of the fact that the word “God” and recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, did not appear in this year’s party platform. That, despite Obama’s previously stated belief that the Israeli capital should be in an undivided Jerusalem, the existing platform reference to an “unshakable commitment to Israel’s security”, and the lengthy passage on faith and the importance of religion already present in this year’s Democratic platform.
It took three tries, as seen in the video above, before Villaraigosa got up the nerve to pretend that the “Ayes” had it by the two-thirds majority required to adopt the amendment, which included restoring the party’s 2008 platform language that had included the word “God”, without debate. Well, Republicans and Fox “News” will be happy now at least. Right? And, after all, responding to fake Republican scandals, with a pretend vote, about an invisible bearded man floating in the sky, is certainly among the most important things that should happen at a Democratic National Convention.
Sadly, the Democrats missed an opportunity.
They should have left the platform just the way it was and let Faux and the right wing media keep hammering.
Then, after a few weeks they could step forward and ask simply:
“Are you saying the party platform actually MATTERS? That the candidate should be held to answer for what’s in the party platform?”
“OK then…”
And then they could start in on some of the outlandish stuff that was thrown into the Rethuglican party platform in order to quiet down the tea party nutjobs. Little things like the fact that Citizens United didn’t go far enough (70% of Americans would disagree) or that women who have an abortion to save their life should be prosecuted for murder (75% of Americans would disagree) or so many other pathetic idiocies.
Cave in seems to be the Democratic way.
My biggest fear is that after being scared into voting for Obama against the nutjob option, he will sell us out with right-of-center SCOTUS appointments. But, at least at THAT point, it really won’t matter any more.
If only Obama had acted as leader of the Democratic Party when it came to whipping “blue dog” jackasses in the Senate into supporting robust economic stimulus and the public option for health care. Running roughshod over the party base, replacing sensible foreign policy with blatant pandering to a particular religious faction, is disgraceful.
These people are pathetic. They can’t even pretend to pull off the same dirty tricks the Republicans pull so successfully. They look like jackasses — oh wait…
Dennis Kucinich has the Jerusalem thing right. He says essenthat it is not the place of a US political party to pass resolutions on what city should be the capitol of another sovereign nation. He says it would be like the Knesset voting that Cleveland should be the capitol of the USA. Indeed!
He may not have the political clout and savvy of the rest of the Democratic pretenders, but Dennis is the only voice of sanity and clarity that I am hearing. When I heard the above in answer to a question on an NPR show today, a rush of relief washed over me for an adult, rational, thoughtful voice breaking through the scripted baloney. The rest of the insincere dog and pony show I”m not buying.
Yeah I was so proud of Democrats initially for excluding this stuff from their platform and even more disappointed to learn of their utter capitulation. That was clearly NOT 2/3. I have some sympathy for the position mayor villaraigosa found himself in though. This had been a successful and unifying convention up until that point and this was a contentious and politically explosive issue that could prove ruinous. In this case the nayes appeared to suck it up and play along for the greater good but if the stakes in the election outcome not what they are, such farce would have been followed up with more active protest.
It should have been separated and attempted to pass as two different issues, because they are. That might have given keeping references to “God” out of the platform a reasonable chance. Because with Abe Foxman and the ADL ready to pounce there was no way Dem “leadership” would dare jeopardize their current position of unquestioned servility to pro-Israeli extremists that Obama has set the precedent of kowtowing to.
I believe in the general progressive view that Jerusalem shouldn’t be the capital of Israel unless it was also the capital of Palestine. I am as appalled as any decent person by the treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied (and probably in Israel proper) territories. Whatever moral high ground the Israeli community practiced after surviving the horrors of the Nazis, which led to a Western system including democratic government and an independent judiciary, has been squandered in the occupation.
However, any honest readers here must realize, as the Occupy people seem to refuse to do, that we are up against the wall.
Should the Republicans take power, whether through stolen votes or through the complacency of the left, everything in our American lives will change beyond our wildest nightmares. The across the board pervasiveness of our centuries long progress can often not be noticed. For instance, something no one thinks of is the standard thirty year mortgage on housing. Before FDR, home purchasers were treated to 50% down with five year mortgages. There are many things we take for granted which could change fast: Like Child Labor, Product Liability and guaranteed emergency room access. For instance, in the 1890s a child who had to walk across railroad tracks on the way to school could be crushed by a train, and the railroad itself would not be liable for a dime.
But what do we gain with a right-wing regime? Why, a resumption of the Cold War, invasions of both Syria and Iran, a resumption of torture as an interrogation device (or just for fun, Ms. English) and the continued reduction of Habeas corpus.
Okay, what is one of the very best ways to assure the loss of Florida, and the subsequent inauguration of Romney? By turning off all the hardcore elderly Jewish population of Florida’s southeastern “Gold Coastâ€.
On the other hand, saner minds will realize the Democratic Platform has had planks in it which have survived decade after decade. Though intellectually and perhaps morally degrading, the call for Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel is a pretty cheap use of widely ignored semantics (Really, the platform? Nobody ever gives a shit about the platform. Why give Limbaugh ammo?)
And of course, there is God. Jesus, how hard can it be? There are many thousands of fundamentalists who don’t vote like the evangelicals. Why give Robertson or any of the other nut jobs tools?
Ok, so the litany has become long: Siegelman. NDAA 2012, the Pan Pacific treaty (which hands over American law to international constructs owned by the trans-national giants). Manning, Assange, Lindauer. The mad dash away from the unions. The grotesque laxity in the enforcement of fair pay laws. The vague disappearance of overtime. Need I go on?
Ready for the second course? If Obama loses to Romney, the sky is the limit. From disenfranchisement to torture, from rendition to more war, that’s what it will be.
So, if there ever was a time to hold the nose and vote for the Ds, now is the time.
My comment is not about the Jerusalem part of this. In fact, it’s not specifically about the God part of the platform in & of itself, either. My comment is about Brad calling God “an invisible bearded man floating in the sky.” Have you ever read ‘God’s Politics’ by Jim Wallis? I agree with his statement regarding God/religion/spirituality. He said that ‘the right gets it wrong & the left just doesn’t get it.’ Never forget that millions of strong Democrats believe in God. I am one of them. And, no, my personal belief about God does not include God having a beard. But as far as the ‘in the sky’ part of Brad’s reference: it actually makes a lot less sense to think we are the only intelligent life in the universe. In fact, that would be next to impossible.