Opinion: In a moment demanding moral clarity and constitutional courage, the Democratic Party chose caution. Again.
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to table a resolution that would have launched impeachment proceedings against President Trump over his unauthorised bombing of Iran – a military action taken without congressional approval, in violation of the War Powers Resolution and with no clear strategy or endgame.
It was a moment tailor-made for accountability. Yet 344 members, including the vast majority of House Democrats (188), voted to shut it down.
The resolution, led by Rep. Al Green, wasn’t some radical gesture. It was a sober response to a commander-in-chief who has repeatedly demonstrated contempt for democratic norms, the Constitution, and international law. It was a plea to uphold the most basic function of Congress: to check an out-of-control executive. And still, they folded.
Why? Some say it’s about timing. Others invoke the need to focus on domestic issues. A few whisper about polling, or fear of energising Trump’s base. Some say that Green was acting alone, “without getting authorisation from Congress.” But none of that excuses the abdication of duty on display.
The Democrats ran on restoring the rule of law. They said they’d hold power to account. Now, faced with a president who has already been impeached twice and is acting with growing impunity, they’ve chosen to duck rather than lead.
This isn’t just disappointing – it’s dangerous.
By failing to act, Democrats signal that there are no consequences for illegal war-making. No limits to presidential power. No red lines that can’t be erased in the name of political expediency.
It also hands Trump another victory – one he’ll use to his advantage. He can now claim bipartisan backing for his aggression, further emboldening him to act unilaterally both abroad and at home.
There was a time when the Democratic Party knew how to fight. When it stood up for checks and balances, for international law, for diplomacy over destruction. But those instincts seem lost – replaced by fear, calculation, and the false comfort of the political middle ground.
And voters would be noticing.
The people who put Democrats in office didn’t do so to watch them flinch in the face of authoritarianism. They expected resistance. What they got was retreat.
Until the party remembers what it stands for, and who it stands against, it will continue to lose not just battles – but the faith of those it claims to represent.
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The Democrats are challenged by a RW MSM cartel in the US, ditto similar in Oz, UK, Hungary and Turkey, then the ‘elephant in the room’.
Bulwark’s Tim Miller and Bill Kristol have highlighted ie. too many centrist voters did not vote and too many Americans have become disengaged and passive, by design?
On the latter, Kristol cited Neil Postman’s ’80s ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ where anyone nowadays can choose their media rabbit hole; while many educated Americans have too many gaps in their knowledge to the point of abject ignorance (many Australians are not far behind).
Wiki on Postman ‘The book’s origins are rooted in a talk Postman gave to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1984, in which he was a participant in a panel on George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and the contemporary world. In the introduction to Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman said that the contemporary world was better reflected by Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, whose public was oppressed by their addiction to amusement, rather than by Orwell’s work, where they were oppressed by state violence.’
NO-ONE trifles the US Zio Lobby!!
And look how soft English and Oz Labor are. In the ned, it is only oil and trade routes.
Which reminds me. What a shock, the validation of Antoinette Lattouf today. Things are now dragged on forever through expensive courts, but this time the slap-suit didn’t work.
It’s time the entire world began to take down the power of the Zio lobby. It’s a big ask, considering both sides of the US government (and ours) are Zio supporters. The people must not give up. They must redouble their efforts, as we in Australia must, and all the people around the world. I can hardly believe I’m living in a world controlled by mad, murdering Zionists and currently without hope that that will change.
Trump is a disgrace, a disaster. The worst (elected) leader I can recall.
The problem is that his impeachment results in Vance becoming president.
I think a lot of people (most of the planet) were disappointed that Biden’s attorney general sat on his bum for fours years and blew the chance of holding Trump accountable for all his crimes. But here we are.
AC, yes Vance is worse, but the MAGA crowd voted for Trump, not the GOP. He won’t last long.
Here we are a’chattering, individuals angered and “betrayed”, but not usually organised effectively in any way. Generally “liberal” (hah), thoughtful, concerned, we remain ineffective, and can sink into a political swamp of adolfian, josefian or trumpian filth, crying but surely dying. If the great Democratic Party in office cannot get going, and now appears quite lost and weak, what hope have we? A. Smith mentions Huxley and Orwell, worthwhile, for Huxley amused and teased in fantasy, but Orwell startled and appealed to inner flaw fears. Together, their suggestions and influence remain relevant. Hopes fade and I’ve not seen it worse since…when? The European chief who called Trump “Daddy” is quite the stroker of his poker. Yucko. (Is Vance a bastard son? Puke.)
The Democrats, like our Greens, are their worst enemies. Maybe they both need a giant economy sized political enema.
It is estimated that 22 million registered democrat voters declined to vote at the 2024 presidential election. Some because they did not like female candidate, some because they did not like a black candidate, some because they did not like the Biden/Harris administration’s stance on Gaza and some because they could just not be bothered.
One would need to be a fairly obtuse democrat to not take note of that number and ask why? But it would seem that that is exactly what they have done, much like the liberals in Australia.
The democrats voters basically handed Trump the presidency.
The Democrats are no angels of democracy. Their lies, deceits and warlike tendencies are no different to those of the GOP.
They are both captured by the same ‘captains of industry’ and hegemonic quests. Perhaps the only difference is that the GOP have the labile foghorn T-Rump, whereas the Democrats have opacity and guileful sophistry, both parties aided and abetted by mainstream media, as Bernie Sanders was pummeled by, and eventually give way to.
Whilst all are subject to propaganda, America more consistently, for longer, bringing what is called ‘American exceptionalism’, bloated hubris and xenophobia.
The question remains. Will they be hoist by their own petard or have yet another civil revolution?