Politics isn’t a game.
We’ve seen the first full week of national politics arrive early in 2007, courtesy of a Democratic majority who understand this. And as we look back at a week which saw the Democrats in the House rapidly pass a full slate of progressive legislation, only to have their achievements essentially ignored as Bush stole the spotlight by "rolling out" his standard speech on "changing direction" in Iraq, I think it’s important to spend a moment reminding ourselves that the stakes are deadly and real. This shouldn’t be treated as a chance to count coup, score points, or exact a petty vengeance. This is a chance to fix the country, put America back on track, and correct the wrongs which have been done in our name.
One of the pervasive myths of politics, promulgated by a mainstream media obsessed with process instead of policy, is that there’s no difference between Republicans and Democrats; no difference between liberals and conservatives. This myth is corrosive, reducing elections to beauty pageants and posturing. It disengages the common citizen from the political process, which only makes it easier for those with a vested interest in promoting public apathy to push their personal agendas while staying out of the public’s eye.
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