Criticism/Self-Criticism

There's been much criticism of late aimed at Gov. Janet for signing the Employer Sanctions bill and its recent revision.

Much much-deserved criticism, I might add. We have a right to expect elected leaders of the Democratic Party to, well, lead.

Unfortunately, politics, by definition, is about following, not leading. Politicians generally must reflect the prevailing sentiment or else they'll speedily be unemployed.

It's only in the extra-ordinary times--the "outside the ordinary" moments--that politicians have any possibility of leading, and it happens only if those moments are matched by the extra-ordinary person. Hence Roosevelt's three terms (for which the gods are ever to be blessed) and Bush's impertinent reversal of Constitution democracy following 9-ll (for which the gods are ever to be cursed). How much of global destiny is due to peronal charisma I don't even want to know.

That aside, immigration seems to punch the buttons of the Right but leave the Left somnolent, snoring. We wonder why. It seems to me that there is more strength in hating, in the mere notion that somebody's getting something for free, than there is in the fact that loving ennobles both the lover and the loved one. Why is that?

But I wander. The thing is, if we on the Left had stood up for our own principles and denounced the racist, xenophobic, fascist, lying rhetoric and the resulting laws, round-ups, detentions, and deportations, Napolitano would have had the political cover to veto those measures. Remember Vietnam? Well, maybe not. Unfortunately, we haven't really acted on our principles on the needed scale in 40 years. And that's the point. Fifty percent of why we've gotten to this benighted place is because we let ourselves be distracted, intimidated, or just plain excused from showing up.

With the exception of a tiny handful of Anglo clergy, activists, and bloggers in Tucson and Phoenix, a couple of Democrat legislators, and 95% of the Hispanic community, we Democrats, independents, and ethically grounded Republicans just didn't provide Napolitano the political cover to withstand the haters, did we? I couldn't even get a MeetUp group to agree to meet with me on the subject. There was just no there there among Lefties, and there still isn't. Which reminds me, again, of why liberals are so often called "rotten rock." We talk a great line, but don't expect us to put our bodies in the line of fire. Nhuh-uh!

So before you denounce her, look in the mirror. We on the Left took a powder. We are only just now beginning to wake up to the fact that something very similar to Nazi Germany in means, methods, and morals (if not in scale, thank God) is happening right here in the Fatherl, er Homela, er USA. That's pretty disgusting if you ask me.