As the barbaric abuse of Native American water protectors by state police in North Dakota rages on, one wonders where the Democratic leaders are and how they can allow such an atrocity to continue.

This is, after all, the major political party whose message for the fall was “Stronger Together.” If, indeed, standing up for the rights of all Americans against the interests of corporate greed, this should be a no-brainer for President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and especially for progressives like Senator Warren.

It makes their silence and inactivity that much more shameful.

In a statement posted to Hillary For America’s website The Briefing, the campaign reported that Secretary Clinton “believes the United States should fulfill its treaty obligations and trust responsibility to Tribal Nations.”

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 (Article II) concedes that the land that is the centerpiece of the Dakota Access Pipeline “shall be and the same is, set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians herin named,” and under the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, “all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land.”

The decision of the Clinton campaign to remain largely silent on the issue, even as protesters and protectors who had traveled to New York specifically to gain her support sat in the lobby of her building in peaceful protest, is then in direct conflict with her official position on Native American rights. Whether putting the water supplies of millions of Native Americans at risk and unconstitutionally violating the supreme law of the land, all for the sake of a private oil company.

Then, finally, Secretary Clinton broke the silence.

And it was a whole lot of nothing.

In a statement released on October 28, the Clinton campaign expressed that “Secretary Clinton has been clear that she thinks all voices should be heard and all views considered in federal infrastructure projects. Now, all the parties involved – including the federal government, the pipeline company and contractors, the state of North Dakota, and the tribes – need to find a path forward that serves the broadest public interest.”

What is the “broadest public interest?”

To many, it would seem that Native American rights, clean water, and living up to the promise of fighting climate change would take precedence over the interests of a private oil company.

President Obama was the next major Democratic player to speak up about the issue, and…

It was a whole lot of nothing.

“We’re going to let it play out for several more weeks,” President Obama said in a November 1 interview with NowThis. “And determine whether or not this can be resolved in a way that is properly attentive to the traditions of the First Americans.”

It has now been twenty-two days – several weeks, you might say – since the President’s remarks on Standing Rock, and so far, it has played out in some of the most shameful ways imaginable.

Protectors have been fire hosed with chemicals, shot with rubber bullets, locked in dog kennels, and have been subject to a horrifyingly familiar display of horrific police brutality, not under the presidency of Donald Trump, but under the populist President Obama.

In the wake of the election of a vile alleged child rapist and his white supremacist and Wall Street cronies, it might have been safe to assume the Democratic Party understood they needed to be a party that stood up for the rights of working class people who were being wronged by corporate greed.

And yet, the silence continued, not only from President Obama, but from powerful Democratic lawmakers such as Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, and more.

Whether this has anything to do with the Democratic Party’s continued resistance to opposing the disastrous practice of fracking, wealthy campaign contributors, or just good old political cowardice, the Party’s leaders, including President Obama, must speak out against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Or they could continue their silence and continue with their dangerous shift towards the center?