If Democrats won't oppose the GOP even on the most basic issues, what good are they?

That title is a mouthful and says it all. I have thought about this before, and now this post by Barefoot Bum has me thinking of it again. Also Keith Olbermann has touched on this (and I commented on it, well, really just referenced it).

As I commented on BB's site, I am getting that feeling again - that Democrats are totally worthless because they just cave into the GOP talking points about what they think some mythical red state person is going to vote, and thus allow the entire dialogue to be framed and controlled by the GOP. The media just makes this worse and enables it, as Glenn Greenwald repeatedly has researched and documented.

It is depressing and enough to make one not even care anymore. What good are the Democrats if they just are going to always cave into the GOP? Why even bother putting them in control of Congress? Ok, sure, it is great that they are doing actual oversight and having actual hearings, but they have yet to challenge Bush on the tough issues - getting Rove to testify, for instance. They caved on the war funding. They haven't bothered even to try to impeach Gonzales, something that should be a cakewalk, given how little cred he has even with Republicans.

Of course, voting third party just is like not voting at all. It really accomplishes the same thing. But damnit, if those who would otherwise vote Democratic don't hold them accountable, who will? I'm not really all that thrilled with either party. But the GOP has made me downright scared for the future of this country. But then voting them out doesn't really seem to change anything. The Democrats are too spineless and disorganized to actually use their power. The GOP are much more polished with talking points, with their total domination of the media (just watch how the talking points are distributed from the top on down - pretty quickly in a day ALL MSM news outlets are repeating GOP talking points on all issues being discussed in a day. It is scary just how efficient they are at controlling the message).

But really, what good is having an opposition party if they don't really oppose much? I admit I'm still keeping my hopes up about Obama - there are hints he might be a refreshing change. Then again, we may get more of the same, though at least he's thoughtful and ANYONE is better than Bush (on the Dem side). On the GOP side, well, there's a lot of the same - Rudy is even more of an authoritarian and patronage type than Bush is. Ron Paul is a breath of fresh air, but there's no way the GOP apparatus will let him survive. So I still hold out hope. In any case, I think we need a Dem president to wash the taste of Bush out of my mouth, even if it changes nothing significant. But after that, I really am rather disgusted with the Democrats. Not that I ever was one of them, but they are just pathetic. And having a choice between the evil, brutally efficient politically (but otherwise incompetent at running anything) GOP and the horribly inefficient, pathetic, though somewhat competent at running government Democratic party, it is hard to get up out of bed to go vote.

I guess there are some things that could be immediately improved - putting actual science back into the various federal science agencies, justice back into the department of justice, and so on. Yet I fear that the damage done to all such departments, up and down the government, is so bad that it would take decades to restore them and I doubt the Democrats, even if they do win big in 2008, would ever be politically competent enough to hold onto power that long.

Ok, now I'm just depressing myself.