Full or Self-Service Pumps, Sir?

This is the last time I harp on this, because I'm more tired of it than you, but Lance Mannion has yet another Barbara O'Brien quote that demonstrates the weakness of the voting first and holding responsible second position (aka "winning" is more important than what's "won"). She thinks she caps her argument by saying:

The house is on fire in other words. Some of us think our first priority is to put the fire out any way we can. We can argue about what wallpaper pattern would look best in the master bedroom some other time.

With all due respect. The question isn't wallpaper patterns. The question is, will the Dems really put out the fire? They only got halfway after Watergate but let Ford and Nixon's pardon off the hook, even controlling Congress and with a Dem in the White House. After Iran-Contra and its pardons, they folded up completely, even controlling Congress and with a Dem in the White House. If they had taken care of business either time, we wouldn't be here now. Winning one or even both houses now makes a difference how?

The assumption that mere election puts out the fire or brings in the firemen (Casey? Webb? The existing crew of Sunday morning Dems?) hasn't been proven by our recent history. It's not irrational or stupid, it's not "wallpaper," to fear that this election will be more of the same, not the transformational change and rededication to the American Legacy that must come before we have gone too far to return. Merely stopping some of the gasoline from being poured isn't enough. As we've noted, strong Dems worth voting for would put forward those themes, require allegiance, and be prepared to act on it from Day One, as the Repubs did with their famous 1994 Contract on America.

The Dems O'Brien wants us to vote for without question or conditions haven't shown us that they want anything more than simply to get power back. They will more likely gladly accept O'Brien's vote and then eventually hand the fire back to the next round of Bushes after voters react to the Dems' problems dealing with the mess they'll be facing, with the Repubs and their Pravda again able to blame everything on them. O'Brien and those who support her thought are caught in a Catch-22 they refuse to acknowledge, much less deal with, dependent on the good faith, wisdom, and courage of people who have demonstrated little of them in the last 30 years. Maybe that strength and leadership will come from a Lamont or Tester (assuming they don't fail between now and November). Maybe the Dems' current leaders will see that their only sure path to consistent majorities is to place winning "what" over "winning." But there is little there to indicate any of that at this point. Until she and her colleagues get that, her vote just slows how fast the gas gets poured.