Losing is More Than a Bummer

I am doing my best to not take it personally. We sent e-mail, made phone calls and did our best to let our Democrats in Congress know that the majority of the American people want to get out of Iraq now.

Yet we see our Democratically controlled Congress fall into the Karl Rove fear trap -- where Democrats lose either way they vote on funding the war. This war has been wrong from the beginning based on a pack of lies, yet it goes on.

Adding more gasoline to the fire, throwing good money after bad seems a horrible waste. How could they do that. How could our good friend Carl Levin forget how we feel about this war? Does he really believe that caving in to the Bush administration is a good strategy? Carl has earned a lot of respect, but I am hearing rumblings that he will have to earn a lot more next year.

"But where are we going to go?" asked another ICDP member. Do we go Green? Nader? Been there. Lost that election.

We are not happy about how things are going right now, and setbacks really hurt. Can we, like Paul Wellstone, shrug it off and redouble our efforts as progressives to make real change in the Democratic Party? We'll see.