HispanicVista Columnists

Too Busy To Fight The Enemy!

By Steven J. Ybarra, JD/HispanicVista.com

   July 25, 2005

   Notas por La Casa Politica

 

One night this week I watched “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” which featured Bernstein and Woodward who are famous for their “deep throat” source (not the movie, but the guy).  The interview was great; Bernstein ran the show and directed the conversation to the point he wanted to make.  According to Bernstein, we are too busy fighting ourselves to fight terrorism.  I sat back and listened to this comment and thought damn this guy is good!

 

In the First World War, the Brits dug in and spent more time fighting mud, gas, disease and despair then they did fighting the Germans.  Then along came the Yanks who immediately got out of the trenches and did an open field run, breaking the German lines so fast that they did not need their gas masks.  The war ended in less than 18 months without the millions of dead that were projected by the Brits.  The Brits, by the way, had lost millions of their own sitting in the trenches from about 1914 to 1917.

 

The other day I was on a plane headed for Virginia to train a bunch of DFA (Democracy for America) folks about how to run a campaign.  I got stuck in Salt Lake City thanks to Delta Airlines and the weather in Texas.  I hate Texas.  My seatmate and I got to talking on the ride to the hotel in Utah where Delta sent us to spend the night.  I looked at his arm and saw the Screaming Eagle tattoo and said “Airborne?”  He made a grunt in the affirmative.  After a bit he asked, “You?”  I replied, “No, anti-war demonstrator, twelve years.”  The silence stood for a while after which he said, “Well here we go again, don’t know why we are there and no way out.”

 

I have been thinking about this conversation for the last week, trying to figure out what it is that we are doing in this country.  Then I saw Bernstein and it got clear.  We are too busy fighting the same old war.  We have let the reactionary Right Wing set the agenda and we are fighting a defensive strategy struggling to figure out where to stand.

 

In California we have a governor who smokes cigars in a tent right outside his office.  You can smell the smoke throughout the State Capitol.  The Republicans have really shown how far they will go in their political ambition by defending the Governor on this one; they are even willing to poison our children who come to visit the Capitol with second hand smoke.  They cannot be allowed to continue this outrageous conduct that places them above the law.  Need another case in point?  In the White House we have a man who placed the lives of agents who are deemed to be secret agents in danger by his flippant disregard of the law.  As my friend Marion J. Woods says, “Rove’s actions may not be against the law, but they don’t pass the ‘smell test.’”

 

It is the smell test that we need to be talking about - Rove and the Gubernator do not pass.

 

Here is the question of the day - What kind of role models do we want for our kids?

 

If we want ones who will flaunt the law with a wink and a nod, then we need to keep Rove and the Gubernator right where they are.  If not, then it is time to get out of the trenches and get ready for a fight that will go so fast that we will not need gas masks because we will be moving too fast.

 

We can no longer afford the lies that Republicans like these represent.  We are spending more time fighting the evil represented by guys like Rove than devoting our time and attention to ending the war in Iraq or stopping the opium crops in Afghanistan.  We are too busy being diverted by the Right - away from the real fight.  America is a great nation and should not tolerate those like Rove that tarnish her reputation and who have the audacity to spit on the legacy of the many who have been maimed and killed defending her.  Enough is enough!

 

Let us set our agenda get the campaign tools, train candidates and operatives from all communities, and get on with it.  I will do my part in the Latino Community. 

©Steven J. Ybarra JD is a retired civil rights attorney who operates a consultant company in California.  He is a member of the Democratic National Committee and a long time political activist.  Contact Steven at: sjybarra@aol.com.  This article is copyright by Steven J. Ybarra JD, originally published in www.Hispanicvista.com but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media if this entire credit paragraph is attached.