If You Missed It - 2005 Year In Review

IF YOU MISSED IT:

The story of the year in 2005 was Republican abuse of power and lost Republican credibility. It was the year the Republican Party stopped pretending. They stopped hiding their naked ambition and started celebrating their stunning success. And the Democratic Party keeps pretending it didn't happen. In January they all came to Wahington D.C. for the inauguration (coronation) with their tuxes and their cowboy boots - and hats so big they come with their own wheeled carrying cases. They spent a week going to balls and galas but really they just came to take a look at what they bought in November of 2004.

No incumbent wartime President with an approval rating over fifty percent has ever lost an election. Thanks to the great fiction that was the mushroom cloud Iraqi - Al Qaeda WMD connection, they got a war. Thanks to Arthur Sulzberger and Bill Keller at the New York Times sitting on the domestic spying/Patrtiot Act story (at the President's request), they got the approval rating for a few hours around election day. And thanks to all these factors, the President had the one thing the Republicans really needed to consolidate their power: some coattails.

Thanks to those coattails they got rid of Tom Daschle and took the Senate. Thanks to Jack Abramoff and Tom the Hammer DeLay, they picked up five illegally redistricted seats in Texas and got the House of Representatives. In 2005, they acheived the clean sweep of all three formerly independent branches of our supposed-to-be-checked-and-balanced government, they got not one, but two Supreme Court justices. One you probably can't trust (John Roberts), and one you know you can't trust (Samuel Alito). Because if there was one thing the Republican Party showed us in last year, it was that they are more than willing to abuse their power.

They abused their power in the Executive Branch, preemptively taking us to war and slandering anyone who questioned it. They abused their power in the Legislative Branch, passing laws which superseded the wishes of private citizens and their doctors in the Teri Schiavo case. Not to mention the naked, partisan greed of Duke Cunningham or the disgustingly, embarrassingly blatant corruption of Jack Abramoff - Washington's favorite resauranteur and season ticket holder.

So why shouldn't they be trusted with the Judicial Branch as well? Because the Supreme Court is for life. And both the Republican agenda and the Republican track record are very clear: they want to outlaw abortion and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goals (see: Rove, Karl and Libby, Scooter). The Roberts Court will make far-reaching decisions on everything from reproductive freedom to affirmative action. The opinions of the person who will occupy the seat vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor will affect my life and the lives of My Fellow Americans for the better part of the next century.

Language creates, and the language often used by the Republican Party creates false impressions. When Democrats don't actively correct these deceptions, they tacitly endorse them. For example, when "tax cuts" become "tax relief" they are more difficult to vote against. When "occupation" becomes "liberation", it's somehow less offensive. And when "anti-choice" becomes "pro-life", the issue becomes death and not freedom.

Right now, we are lucky enough to be living in the most medically advanced society in the history of the world. And no matter how anyone feels about it, an abortion is a surgical procedure performed in the course of providing health care. There is no justifiable reason why, in the most medically advanced society in the history of the world, any woman shouldn't have safe, legal access to health care. Any barriers to this care for a free woman who becomes pregnant effectively relegates that woman to, at worst, sexual slavery and, at best, indentured sexual servitude to their fathers or husbands. I think I can speak for My Fellow Americans when I say that we expect our government to protect our mothers', sisters', and daughters' freedom and oppose sexual slavery.

The Democratic Party defines American political will: a made-up term used to describe how members of Congress perceive My Fellow Americans' ability to handle difficult truths and still support them at the ballot box. This doesn't mean the Democratic Party is the answer. Far from it. They are the alternative only by default. They pretend to be the party of the common people, but really they are just another party of wealthy people. Because when they are forced to choose between supporting the common people or protecting their personal wealth, they always defer to their wealth. Always. The fact that they can't seem to get any traction from the mess the Republican's made in 2005 just shows how truly pathetic the Democratic Party has become. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of one man: former DNC Chairman, Terry McAuliffe.

In the coming weeks and months, I will explain why...

SO IF YOU MISSED IT:
2005 was the year that the Republican Party applied Vice President Dick Cheney's attitude toward Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy to the rest of My Fellow Americans. People who wanted nothing more than NOT to drown to death in the flooded streets of a major American city were basically told, "fuck yourself." So they died.