Being United ~ Eric Smith

There are two words that will forever haunt me from this latest political crisis in Washington and those two words are what if? What if we Democrats had been this united when we went up against Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972? What if we Democrats had been this united when we went up against Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush in 1980, 1984, and 1988? 

What if we Democrats had been this united in the Congressional midterms in 1994 and 2010? What if we Democrats had been this united when we went up against George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, and what if we Democrats had been this united in the January 2010 Massachusetts senatorial race? What if? What if? What if?

If the lessons of these past two weeks have taught us nothing else, it is that we Democrats have not lost as we have for the past forty five years due to a dearth of good ideas. We have lost due to our lack of a backbone. We have lost because we lacked the courage to stand up and fight for our convictions. We have lost because we have allowed ourselves to be bullied, and we have lost because we showed the fear of cowardice in the face of zealotry. 

In short we have lost because we have not been united, because we have not recognized our strength, and the power we have to make this a more just nation and mold a better world. We have lost because we have not been true to ourselves. 

So let that be our lesson; that united we stand, divided we fall, and that whenever we fall, whenever we falter, so too does America.