Being a member of a political party should mean arguing policy with ideas based on your core beliefs and not merely regurgitating talking points intended to manipulate the emotions of the electorate. Our elected representatives owe us this as well as real debate on important issues like, for instance, the Iraq war.
With that in mind compare and contrast Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn’s floor speech debating the Iraq war resolution with Tennessee Republican John Duncan’s.
Blackburn: “You know, the Democrats have every right to disagree with the president’s plan, but a non-binding resolution is not the way to go. It sends a message of no confidence and no support to our troops in the field, weakening their morale, while encouraging and emboldening the enemy.”
Duncan: With a national debt of almost $9 trillion, we cannot afford it. To me our misadventure in Iraq is both unconstitutional and unaffordable. Some have said it was a mistake to start this war but that now that we are there we have to finish the job, and we cannot cut and run. Well, if you find out you are going the wrong way down the interstate, you do not keep going, you get off at the next exit.
Representative Hackburn, indeed.
UPDATE: The House passes the resolution.
