Where Was Their Outrage Four and a Half Years Ago?

U.S. Democrats are only now beginning to mount effective opposition to the Bush Administration, but is it too late?

Two nights ago President George W. Bush sat in the oval office and delivered a speech to his nation. Much like he had five years before the President toned all of the familiar spin we’ve come to expect from him; his cowboy diplomacy peeking through his calm exterior if only slightly. But in the five years since 9/11 the President and prominent members of his administration have waged non stop psychological war on the American people, in so far successful attempts to scare them in to re-electing Republicans at every turn. This has culminated in their now total control over every branch of government. Democrats, though principled, have failed to call them on it until now, a full five years since the day of days of our generation.

Plenty of Opportunities

The Bush administration has used the attacks on America to their own ends since the day it occurred, and it has been the constant frustration of those in the center and on the left that the Democrats haven’t called them on it. What’s worse is the blatant and seemingly ubiquitous hypocrisy that comes from an administration that uses the attacks for political gain and then criticizes those who do the same. For example, the 2004 Republican National Convention was scheduled right around the time of 9/11 and took place in New York City. And one of the more blatant examples of this phenomenon is that of conservative commentator Ann Coulter, in her recently released book Godless: The Church of Liberalism. At one point Coulter refers to the now famous Jersey Girls, a group of 9/11 widows who fought for the creation of the 9/11 Commission and endorsed John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. Presidential election:

“These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. These self-obsessed women seemed genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them. ... I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much ... the Democrat ratpack gals endorsed John Kerry for president ... cutting campaign commercials... how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy.”

Apparently, according to Ann Coulter, her President invoking 9/11 for political gain at almost every turn is acceptable, and even commendable; but widows of those who died on that day demanding answers from a resistant government, and then choosing to endorse a candidate more likely to provide them isn’t. Coulter has been challenged on live TV several times about her despicable writings and is totally unapologetic, and even repeated those sentiments when confronted. Yet Democrats have time and again received political gold mines such as these and have dropped the ball every time.

Too Little, too Late?

Now, finally, Democrats are starting to emerge from their hibernation and mount effective criticism and opposition to the Bush administration. This, coupled with the failing fortunes of the Iraq war, have resulted in a long shot chance at them retaking one of the Houses of Congress, and an even longer shot chance at taking both. Given their loss of four and a half years of effective campaigning, one of the missions of the Democratic Party should now be to work at calming the American public of the fear the Republicans have used so effectively to keep themselves in power. Even now however, when they’re just starting to wake up from their long slumber they find themselves fighting an uphill battle that may not be winnable. Congressional politics are notoriously localized in the United States. Incumbents, even Republican ones, hold huge advantages in name recognition, fundraising power, and the feelings of those who don’t view their local candidate as being in the same wing of the Republican Party as their President. It is for this reason and this reason alone that this election is even a close contest at all. When all is said and done, when all their bumbling and lost opportunities are taken in to account, the Democrats will find that this failure of the public to equate one branch of Republican to the next is their greatest enemy. They may discover on November 7th that such systemic change of voting patterns takes far more time than that they currently have allotted to come to reality, their motto from now until that day should be reminiscent of Gertrude Stein: “A Republican is a Republican is a Republican.”