Risking it all

Whatever your personal feelings concerning the situation in Iraq, there is one undeniable thing we're witnessing on a daily basis in that beleaguered nation - the absolute courage of Iraqi political candidates. As the New York Times reports this morning, a Sunni candidate for parliament was assassinated yesterday, just two days before the election, and an attempt was made to kill a leading Shiite politician in a separate incident.

It occurred to me while reading this story that all of us, political leaders and average citizens alike, should bow our heads in awe at the conviction, the passion, the bravery of individuals so committed to the democratic process that they would risk their very lives to participate. This is a passion long lost in America, a willingness to get involved regardless of the cost, which has, shamefully, disappeared from our entire populace.

Let's face it, kids. Less than half of all voting-age citizens bothered to show up at the polls last November, in what may have been the most important election of the past 50 years. Less than half. Guess that life-threatening risk of missing a few moments of Jeopardy was simply too painful and insurmountable. And how many of us actually exercise our responsibility to simply contact our government representatives on a regular basis with opinions, criticisms, suggestions? We've become a selfish citizenry that avoids even that 10 minute investment of informed involvement in the fate of our nation, despite the fact that we can do it from the comfort of our homes.

Meanwhile, even smart, rational conservatives have allowed themselves to be cowed by the PNAC zealots in this Administration, reluctant to responsibly represent the will of the people for fear of some bad press, a reduction in personal financial perqs, or the loss of corporate campaign funding. Terrified of not receiving an invite to the Crawford ranch, Republicans have kept their doubts to themselves, and ceded control of the U.S. to fanatics bent on a militaristic and feudally class-structured society that has left the nation reviled, weakened, and less secure. Give yourselves a hand, boys and girls - your courage of conviction has been inspiring.

Not.

But the Democrats... Ahhhh, what a meaningless bunch they've proven to be. Living in absolute terror of surveys and poll numbers, the impotent liberal party (with a few notable exceptions) has spent the last five years scared of its own shadow. So desperate to hold onto the seats it still has in Congress, the Democratic party has placed risk-avoidance ahead of defending what's right and true on its list of things to do. Its relative silence and absence of ideas is still being motivated by the fear of one angry letter from Kansas City. I remember a time when prominent liberals were on the front lines of literally dangerous marches through the South, risking more than simply "a 2% drop in voter support from heartland undecideds" in their fight for a just American society.

What a fine bunch of apathetic mice we've become.

All of us should be genuinely inspired by the courage of the Iraqi people, in a horrendous situation of our making that's been violently thrust upon them. I continue to virulently oppose this war, and the Washington politicians who created it with smoke, mirrors, and duplicitous sleight of hand. But that does not lessen my admiration for the citizens and political candidates of Iraq and their amazing level of bravery and commitment to the democratic process, a level that we can only hope to reacquire here at home.

Take note, America. Our collective lack of critical participation is the one true risk faced by us all.

"Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve." --George Bernard Shaw