Where do we go from here?

I'm pretty depressed by what's happening to my country, and I guess my posts have been reflecting that. I'm particularly depressed by the fact that even Democrats are unwilling to stand up and fight -- witness the two Democratic Senators from my state, Lautenberg and Menendez, who voted for torture and against habeas corpus. I agree with Tristero, see the post below and one of my posts yesterday, that this has become a fascist state and that one reason the Congress has been so submissive to the President is that they know he would ignore them if they stood up to him. Then, it would be clear to all that we no longer live in a democracy.

I even wrote a nasty letter to Menedez just now, saying, "don't expect my support in November."

But, the more I think about this, the more I think we can't let the horrible state we're in now stop us from trying. Glenn Greenwald has written about this along these lines:

But a desire to see the Democrats take over Congress -- even a strong desire for that outcome and willingness to work for it -- does not have to be, and at least for me is not, driven by a belief that Washington Democrats are commendable or praiseworthy and deserve to be put into power. Instead, a Democratic victory is an instrument -- an indispensable weapon -- in battling the growing excesses and profound abuses and indescribably destructive behavior of the Bush administration and their increasingly authoritarian followers. A Democratic victory does not have to be seen as being anything more than that in order to realize how critically important it is.

A desire for a Democratic victory is, at least for me, about the fact that this country simply cannot endure two more years of a Bush administration which is free to operate with even fewer constraints than before, including the fact that George Bush and Dick Cheney will never face even another midterm election ever again. They will be free to run wild for the next two years with a Congress that is so submissive and blindly loyal that it is genuinely creepy to behold. A desire for a Democratic victory is also about the need to have the systematic lawbreaking and outright criminality in which Bush officials have repatedly engaged have actual consequences, something that simply will not happen if Republicans continue their stranglehold on all facets of the Government for the next two years.

If a desire to put Democrats in office doesn't inspire you into action - and, honestly, at this point, how could it? -- a desire to block Republicans from exercising more untrammeled power, and to find ways to hold them accountable, ought to do so. Disgust and even hatred are difficult emotions to avoid when reading things like this:

...In the real world, one has to either choose between two more years of uncontrolled Republican rule, or imposing some balance -- even just logjam -- on our Government with a Democratic victory. Or one can decide that it just doesn't matter either way because one has given up on defending the principles and values of our country. But, for better or worse, those are the only real options available, and wishing there were other options doesn't mean that there are any. And there are only six weeks left to choose the option you think is best and to do what you can to bring it to fruition.

Publius tackled the issue of Menendez head on. In his original post he concluded that if he knew that control of the Senate didn't depend on his vote, he would vote for Tom Kean, not Menendez and thought he might vote for Kean anyway. In an update to the post, he flip-flopped:

I guess I'm flaking on the Kean question. The real question is not who you would support knowing the outcome, but who you would support behind the veil (i.e., if you don't know who will control). That's really tough, but in light of what we saw today (suspension of habeas), maybe you have to hold your nose. I mean, I would rather have habeas corpus and a stinking rotten NJ Democratic Senator than having no habeas corpus but a less-rotten guy representing NJ.

So if I'm forced to pick behind the veil, I guess I'll flip-flop and take a one-time-only ticket on Menendez just to ride out the Bush presidency. But if it turns out that the Dems have either 49 or 51 without Menendez, I'll be glad he lost.