That’s what Tom DeLay said in his interview with the NY Times regarding his relationship to the Democrats. In the world of Washington partisan politics, DeLay was known as the Hammer, the one who rammed through policies he felt should be law. He got Texas redistricted to ensure Republican dominance from one of the most populous states in the country, despite the rules and laws he invariably broke. Down in Sugar Land, where I currently reside (SL is a suburb of Htown), everyone knows this. My gaggle of friends and activists know about Tom DeLay and his rise from roach hunter (yes, he was an actual seeker and killer of roaches, mice, and other pests before his career as a politician).

But I had no idea someone would want to be someone else’s worst nightmare. First off, Democrats are often their own enemies and probably don’t need someone like DeLay to frustrate those actually fighting for justice in this country. Democrats lack conviction and are unable to commit to some political ideology, constructed or otherwise. I’ve said this often and I’ll likely say it again, but I respect the Republicans – they have conviction, commitment to a set of ideas that they follow fairly closely – imperialism, destruction of a social welfare system, devolution, maintaining the estate tax, etc. etc. But one could argue that if the Democrats were in power, their fights would consist of who gets to continue leading this new era of American Imperialism. What color would the bombs be? Perhaps Bechtel would get a contract over Halliburton if Democrats were in power. How would Democrats mold the Bush doctrine as their own? I don’t think it would look too different.

Second, barring the fact that Democrats tend not to do what we want them to do, there is still this idea that politics is user-friendly and can make stuff happen in our world. DeLay is out; the system will inevitably replace him – probably a kinder, gentler him – but the question still remains, what is the nature of this sytem we live in? Progressives everywhere are happy he’s out, but there’s still so much to do.

Its true that ruckus on the hill has sometimes led to changes in our laws. But looking at recent activity around immigration, consistently larger mass mobilizations have yet to yield ‘results’ in the form of good, solid, pro-community, and pro-immigrant legislation. Yet the ‘results’ we should look at are whats happening on the ground, in our communities. Houston was home to some of the larger mobilizations – and when I attended the march and rally on April 10 of this year, I was proud to be part of it. More so than the ridiculously large anti-war mobilizations I participated in the bay area in Cali after 9/11 because I was surrounded by families and people directly affected by the issue. Kids and ice cream carts, women and men who took the day off work because the march was about them and for them. And reports of students who spontaneously walked out of school to protest draconian immigration laws. And what I got overly excited when I even saw some of my brethren, the Pakistani American Council of Texas, unfurl a huge banner in support of the rights of all immigrants.

One pest out, a million more to go. Perhaps we should fumigate the place.

Posted by Vivek on Saturday, June 10th, 2006 at 12:36 am.