Democrats never lost their voices

Remember when people got fired for wearing anti-Bush t-shirts or having a John Kerry bumper sticker?
In one town a guy was kicked out of a mall for wearing an anti-war shirt.
The climate of fear that Republicans have created is slowing disappearing in this country. I'm not talking about fear of terrorism; I'm talking about fear of being labeled "anti-American," because you're anti-Bush.
The heroes are the people who from the beginning told anyone that would listen that this war was wrong. These people went against their neighbors, co-workers and even some family members. Yet, with courage and perseverance they continued to fight. Now the majority of people in this country believe that this corrupt administration misled this country into war. A huge tip of the hat to my fellow Liberals, sensible Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who knew from the beginning that this war was wrong and we were being lied to.

I'm very disappointed in the Democrats for not stepping forward sooner to speak out against this corrupt administration. The majority of the Democrats sat by in silence and watched things go from bad to worse in Iraq. Meanwhile they approved more money to be poured into Iraq, without questioning why there isn't a good post -war plan... They didn't demand to know how a fake reporter like Jeff Gannon got into the White House weeks before his "news" agency existed. They allowed the GOP slime machine to go after the mother of a slain solider and they didn't put more pressure on Bush to fire Karl Rove.

It seems The Democrats have been watching the polls and they know that Bush's numbers are in the tank, so it's safe now for them to speak out. It takes more courage to speak out against a President with good poll numbers than it does to speak out against a President with bad numbers. Barbara Boxer has shown more courage than Kerry and Edwards have shown all year.

I'm an Independent and I'm disappointed that myself and many like me were left out there to fight alone. We didn't have the media or major politicians on our side. I don't care if Bush told them he had a picture of Saddam making weapons, the Democrats should have questioned this and checked the facts.

I'm sorry, but this we were lied to doesn't wash with me. The American people, our troops and the Iraqis were the victims here. We had no means to gain information; we could only go by our gut feelings and whatever information the media decided to throw our way. After the election people who voted for Kerry wanted him to take a stand about the voting irregularities, but we stood alone. We wanted the Democrats to take a stand against the war, but we stood alone. We wanted the Democrats to take a stand against Bush appointing Gonzales and Negroponte, again we stood alone.

When you stand by yourself for so long, you began to realize that you're stronger than you think and you really don’t need others to fight your battles for you. You must fight them yourself. As an Independent and someone who has nothing but contempt for the corrupt Bush administration. . . I really wanted to believe that the Democrats were blameless. . . But as a person of integrity I know that isn't true. If Democrats search within their hearts they'll see that their party abandoned them when they needed them most.

The elected Democrats put their own political aspirations ahead of the people who voted them into office. They were more concerned about being labeled "anti-troop, anti-American" than they were about standing up for what's right. Some will cheer and say it's about time that the Democrat leadership found their voices, but I say they had them all along; we just didn’t like what they were saying.