MY 'NAY'

Well, not that it matters because the non-binding resolution passed today, but one of the two Democratic nays was my Congressman, Gene Taylor. So here's the email I sent him today:

Mr. Taylor, I am very disappointed with your vote against the non-binding resolution concerning President Bush's surge in Iraq. I have always voted for you and have been pleased with your recent efforts to rein in the insurance industry.

But the war in Iraq is both immoral and illegal. We had no business invading that country in the first place, and it is certainly well past time we completely withdrew our troops (including those meant to stay in the giant embassy compound we're building). Like it or not, the war in Iraq was sold to us on a pack of lies--there were no WMD and no connections to al Qaeda or 9/11.

And now the administration is attempting to railroad us into some sort of military confrontation with Iran, which I vehemently oppose. I can only hope that you voted against the non-binding resolution because it didn't go far enough, but I know that's not how you felt about it.

Please reconsider your position on Iraq when any future votes come up about cutting off funds or troop withdrawals or even ending the war altogether. The so-called war on terror is really a war on our freedoms and the Iraq war only gives Bush an excuse to continue breaking laws and bringing this country that much closer to ruin.

I wouldn't vote for the guy at all, but he is a Democrat even if it's in name only. And frankly, there aren't gonna be many--if any--true progressives elected from South Mississippi any time soon. So I look at voting for him as a way to at least get one person closer to a Democratic majority if nothing else.

Now that I think about it

But now that I think about it, why in the hell didn't he just vote in favor of the resolution? It doesn't do anything but draw a line in the sand, and everyone knew it was gonna pass anyway. So for him to vote against a resolution that has only symbolic effect that was assured of passage, he's basically telling the warmongers that he's their boy. And he's telling the antiwar peeps to fuck off--basically, he's saying "I spit on the idea of even symbolically supporting my party or of acknowledging the feelings of the majority of the country."

I mean, this resolution isn't gonna end the war--it's only against escalation of it...and it doesn't even stop the escalation. The resolution is completely meaningless except as a gesture, as an acknowledgment that, hey this Iraq shit is fucked up and let's at least try to sorta say so, y'know...like maybe, I don't know, it's not such a great idea to send more people over there, but oh no, we're not gonna actually stop it from happening...

I--I don't even know how adequately to express my frustration at the...stubbornness of the attitude in this district that the Iraq war is a good thing and that we have to "win" and that Muslims are bad and that Bush is a good man, and on and on. And I'm sure that's the kind of crap that Taylor's hearing from most of his constituents and he may even feel that way himself.

But whatever. I'm glad the resolution passed, even if it is only symbolic. It's something. It's a start.

Hopefully it's the beginning of the end of this nightmare in Iraq...