Come on, Democratic Party, "Stand With The People" by Ralph Nader

With the Bush regime reeling from its own derelictions and falling in the national polls, the question most frequently put to the leading Democrats is, "What do the Democrats stand for?"

This is the question that Tim Russert asked Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, on Meet the Press recently. Mr. Dean responded that the Democrats do not control the House, the Senate or the White House and that, "right now it's not our job to give out specifics..it's our job to stop this corrupt and incompetent administration from doing more damage to America." He added that the Democrats had "plenty of time to show Americans what our agenda is and we will long before the '06 elections".

This is Mr. Dean strapped to the mast by his superiors in the Congress, where fear of the Republicans supersedes the Democrats' loathing of them. When their most senior member on the House military appropriations committee, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), a double-decorated Vietnam veteran and their most untouchable member by the Republican smear machine, came out last week for "immediate withdrawal" (meaning over six months) of U.S. soldiers from Iraq, the Democratic Party caucus did not come out in support of his position. This is the case even though most Democrats privately agree with Rep. Murtha, as does a growing majority of the American people.

The Republicans continue to taunt the cowardly Democrats by making them vote on a resolution for immediate termination without explaining what it means. The Democrats watch the Republican implode, but by not advancing their own agenda for America they find themselves also low in the polls.