What's going on in the Senate is pure and utter horseshit and if the American people can't see it for what it is at this point, they don't deserve to live in a free and democratic republic. Ladies and germs, when debate is squelched, the prime tenets of our society are being ignored.
This nation was founded on debate. The Continental Congress is known for nothing if not argument and discourse. There were well known arguments over the issues as this nation was founded, John Adams and Stephen Rutlege having some of the best. The Bostonian, Adams, denouncing the institution of slavery with South Carolina's Rutlege fighting back to save the economy of his people and the American South. They would go round for hours, days, parrying, thrusting, each defending his position. Adams lost that fight and we are paying the price to this day, but it was debated.
Today, many are of the opinion that debate is somehow unAmerican. That talking about something, namely stopping the bloodshed being wrought in our name, will somehow hurt the troops, undermine them in some way. Ladies and gentlemen, the right of free debate is the reason they are supposedly 'fighting to preserve our freedoms'. As for undermining our troops, please pardon me but it doesn't matter what the troops think. It's their responsibility to follow their orders, regardless of the debate taking place in Washington. The only thing that undermines the troops is turning our backs on them when they return injured and maimed, and we've done a hell of a lot of that since this disaster began.
When I see guys like McConnell, McCain, and Lieberman stand up there and say debate will ruin the troops' morale, I laugh. Being stuck on your third or fourth tour in the meatgrinder is demoralizing. Seeing your buddies being blown away, wholly or in part, from an IED that you have no defense for is demoralizing. Insurgents impersonating your people and walking onto your base, capturing four of your mates, and walking out again is demoralizing. Listening to the justification for this war change more often than they can get a shower, that's demoralizing. I don't think they can be any more demoralized short of us just giving up on them altogether and leaving them there. Go ask the troops since you're so concerned about what they think, Messrs McConnell, McCain, and Lieberman, and they'll tell you, to a man, what they want most is to go home.
This is America, ladies and gentlemen, and America is tough stuff. It is about preserving the rights of people you strongly disagree with. It is about being able to say what you want and respect the right of your opponent to do the same. Stifling debate is as American as borscht; if you want easy, go live in some dictatorship. They'll tell you what to eat, what to think, and who to fight without requiring any thought on your part. Of course, thinking for yourself could be deadly. That's why America is difficult, because you are allowed to think for yourself, to voice your opinion, and elect people to represent your views.
Ladies and gentlemen, the enemy is emboldened when we don't debate. If we are now fighting the 'War on Terror', Osama bin Laden won the first battle because he has caused us to stray from the principles this mighty nation was founded on. If we stifle debate, usurping more of the 'inalienable rights' we (well, most of us, thank you Mr. Rutlege) have taken for granted for two centuries, he will have won another.
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