Interesting article from Joan Walsh at Salon today, about the balance between wishing for an early victory and wishing that the "Cakewalk Conservatives" get their comeuppance. Of course any comeuppance would actually cost the lives of American Soldiers, so you can't wish for that. But the democrats could start fulfilling their role as the opposition party again.
"Yes, Rep. Dennis Kucinich has called for an end to the bombing, and hundreds of thousands of Americans have demonstrated against the war. But most leading Democrats have muzzled themselves. When Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle noted, accurately, on the eve of the war that the conflict was a result of President Bush having "failed so miserably at diplomacy," Republicans savaged him. Attack dog Tom DeLay told him to shut up in French (labeling war critics "French" is the slur du jour), and Daschle basically did. The day after the first attacks on Baghdad, House Democratic leader and war critic Nancy Pelosi shocked her San Francisco district by voting in favor of a resolution that expressed "unequivocal support and appreciation" for the way Bush handled the war and its buildup."
There is a spirit of triumphalism in conservatism that isn't going to go away by ignoring it. After the war and even now, Conservatives are trying to ensure that America remembers Democratic opposition to the war (largely rhetorical, in fact), and forgets that when it comes to voting, Democrats supported this war. Hence you see David Horowitz writing an article entitled, "The War Has Refuted The Opposition." Mainstream Liberals aren't gaining much by being quiet. Instead they are allowing fringe elements (such as Nicholas De Genova) to define liberalism. I don't expect that they will; it seems pretty clear that they've settled on a tactic of not responding to the war. Which is unfortunate.
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