I apologize if this breaks the one diary daily maximum, so I waited until after midnight to post it. I thought it was kind of important.
CliffsNotes on reasons AGAINST the censure:
- We have much better things, far more important things to do.
- We are uncertain how the whole thing would play out
2a)(and it might not go our way)
2b)(and there's at least a little historical evidence to indicate it might not go our way)
- It certainly wouldn't win anyone over to the progressive side.
- In the end, it's playing even more into the seemingly endless, terrible cycle of meanness and partisan politics and we don't need to keep adding to that.
- And hey, we're better than that.
More in-depth, case by case addressing of those points below the fold.
Ok, first off: I know it feels important, why on earth should we let him get away with that sort of despicable behavior, but really in the long run he's absolutely nothing. Hell, if we keep donating to Rob Miller at this rate the guy's going to be history by 2011 anyways. In 20 years he'll be a footnote, and the only thing that will have mattered will be that we passed healthcare reform and EVERYONE in the US is covered, and the insurance industry no longer has a hold on the citizens of this country, coldly calculating dollar by dollar whether they are worthy of life. THAT is important, Joe Wilson is not.
Secondly, as vc2 blogged, John Boehner has actually called for Wilson to apologize publicly on the house floor. Lately, increasingly, I've been starting to think that Boehner and his associates aren't as stupid as the arguments they make on TV. I'm starting to think that he has a certain sort of machiavellian (sorry) intelligence. The guy is evil and calculating.
So why would he pressure Wilson to apologize? I absolutely do not believe, and I doubt you do either, that he's having a fit of conscience. He doesn't respect the office and he doesn't respect the President. He somehow thinks that an apology would work out to the benefit of the Republican party, and I'm not inclined to disagree.
See, I think we saw something that might be roughly equivalent a little over ten years ago when a moderately popular Democratic President made a mistake that's usually not characterized as minor. He made a mistake that's been known to end the careers of politicians way lower on the political totem pole than the Leader of the Free World. And so the Republicans, off to a head start, pushed their luck. And they had the system on their side and they got the guy impeached, and the American People HATED it. We can't help it. We like the underdogs.
The Republicans had traditional morality, precedent, and the law on their side and they lost the American public by forcing what was to the general public a very minor issue. Now granted this isn't nearly on that scale, but I can easily see people sided against the people who don't forgive a man who has apologized (and I know it wasn't a real apology, but what with the state of reporting that's not the case for the general public).
And, even if you don't agree with that, can you honestly tell me that any voters (think about South Carolinians [is that what they're called?]) are going to be won over to Rob Miller's side when they see what a great job we did making sure he got CENSURED (sounds an awful lot like CENSORED!) for expressing an opinion (that was utterly wrong)? It doesn't seem to net us anything substantial, and it might lose us some votes. The Democratic Party doesn't need that, especially not now, when there's so much work to be done.
I think I know how you're feeling. I watched that moment when Nancy Pelosi snapped her head to the left and glared like a man slapped her daughter half a dozen times. I'm a college student who doesn't money to be wasting, and the SECOND I saw Rob Miller's donation page I immediately tossed him $20 that I probably should have saved for food. And I'll probably do it again, if I don't get overcome and send some cash to http://my.barackobama.com/... instead (Also, for anyone who hasn't, click that link and AT LEAST send a message to your representatives that you want reform).
I don't want him to get away with it. I mean, again and again I've seen it pointed out (and truthfully so) that we are operating on a double standard here, where, under the Bush administration, anyone even privately disagreeing with the President was practically accused of treason, and now we're just supposed to stand by while that same "THEY'RE UNAMERICAN!!" crowd brands this guy a hero? And the answer is no, that's not what we're doing. We knew at the time those people were accusing us of being terrorists that they were wrong, and we know they're still wrong, and it doesn't make it right for us to act just as small-minded as these people who would kill legislation that will help millions of Americans, really really help them when they need it, just to score a few political points.
All through the summer we've seen GOP talking heads and Fox News casters speak about how wonderfully American and Patriotic it is to see these Town Hall protesters scream obscenities and disrupt intelligent conversation and I'm sure many of us thought, no, no you don't, WE love Free Speech, YOU love seeing your opponents get screamed down. You called us traitors and worse when we did even less. And y'know, I think we haven't come down on these hate-filled protesters the way the Right came down on us because we ACTUALLY DO respect the 1st Amendment the way the other side claims they do; always have, always will. And it's not just an excuse for bad behavior--we truly believe that debate trumps suppression. And somewhere, maybe increasingly deep down, we believe that the simple fact that they are lying and we are not will win out in the long run.
And that's really important. I forget where I saw it, but once, a while ago, I saw someone point out that when the Republicans run a candidate they run their machine, and when Democrats run a candidate, they run on the strength of that candidate. One of the most important reasons we have Barack Obama for our President right now is because, during the election, when the other side was inventing accusations and slinging insults, he rose above it. Time and time again he's shown to the American People that he won't get caught up in what, in a broad view, is nothing minutiae. Not because he's perfect, or he's a better person, but because he recognizes that the work we still have to do is far too important to throw away what we've earned on punishing enemies who'll never see things our way in the first place, and there's way too much at stake to risk alienating our potential allies by insisting on narrow-minded courses of action. Doing the right thing always justifies itself. I think I could take a cue from that, maybe some other people could too. I don't know.
Oh, and as a total anticlimax, I've found it really strange that there's words like "socioeconomic" and "sociopolitical" but there's no word that combines "economic" and "political" (at least to my knowledge) even though on some levels the two ideas are practically indistinguishable. Is there anything to be done about that?