Mike Thompson's commentary:
As far as political issues go, it’s a softball pitched belt high, right over the plate. And if anyone could fail to hit it out of the park, it would be the Democrats. I’m talking about the Republican push [to] extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest Americans while simultaneously opposing an extension of unemployment benefits for jobless Americans.
It’s an outrageous stance that conjures up images of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch. Democrats should be all over cable news and in the papers, pointing out the glaring hypocrisy of Republicans who are willing to extend the tax cuts with nary a worry about their impact on the deficit, but insist that any extension of unemployment benefits be “paid for.”
According to the New York Times, Republican Senators are threatening to bring Washington to a screeching halt and filibuster all legislation unless they get their way on their plan to extend the tax cuts for the rich, a move that would add $700 billion to the nation's debt. As Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow said on the Senate floor on Tuesday, “They (Republicans) are willing to risk everything in order to get a bonus round of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.”
The Republicans look so bad it would be comical if the stakes weren’t so high. Congressional Democrats should be able to take a break from practicing walking and chewing gum at the same time and win this debate with their eyes closed. But these are Democrats I’m talking about.
As outgoing Ohio Governor Ted Strickland was quoted as saying on Tuesday, “…if we (Democrats) can't win that argument, we might as well just fold up."
This is the part I don't understand. How can Democrats be this inept? How can they possibly lose with an argument like this?
The only way to lose would be to roll over and play dead, so I'm sure that's what Democrats will do. After all, before the election, they had the opportunity to separate the Bush tax cuts into two parts, voting for tax cuts for 98% of Americans first and then campaigning on ending the Bush giveaway to the rich - a $370,000 average annual tax cut - which will balloon the federal deficit - again! - by nearly a trillion dollars in the next decade alone.
But, believe it or not, they actually passed on that opportunity. They were too timid to fight the Republicans even on a slam-dunk issue like that! They were apparently too spineless to remind voters they even existed. I don't know. Maybe they've become so used to being doormats that it doesn't even occur to them to act any other way.
Of course, not all Democrats are like that, I'm sure. No doubt some would have fought - wanted to fight, even - at least for a popular issue the GOP hands them on a platter. But there are so many cowards among Democratic politicians that they simply can't stand for anything. Heck, they probably can't even stand up, without a spine. And they're just terrified of trying, not without being certain that everyone else will try, too. (I guess that's just flocking behavior - the feeling of safety if you're in the middle of a group.)
And they wonder why the Democratic base won't bother to vote. The Republicans are stomping our butts not because the whole country is behind them, but because they vote. Well, they find it easy to scare old people - old, white people, of course, since they've long stirred up racial fears as a deliberate political tactic - and scared people apparently vote.
It's funny, isn't it, that it's the right-wing which is so filled with cowards? The GOP base is afraid of crime, afraid of racial and religious minorities, afraid of competing with other countries, afraid of facing the real world that science shows us - even afraid of manufactured fears invented by Fox "News." I guess it's just that we Democrats elect our timid people. (Republicans, on the other hand, elect their crazy people.)
But if you're not going to motivate your supporters using manufactured fear - and I don't suggest that Democrats imitate Republicans in that way - you've got to give them some other kind of motivation. Like, for example, showing that you'll fight for what's right? After all, who's going to get excited about a doormat? Who thrills at the thought of voting for the lesser of two evils? Who's proud of a politician hiding under the bed? Honestly, what is wrong with the Democratic Party?
This is not just Barack Obama's fault, since this situation existed long before he became president (like pretty much all of his problems). But this is his fault as leader of the Democratic Party, especially since he seems to be a typical Democrat in this respect. He's got the biggest bully pulpit in the world, but he refuses to use it. Instead, he repeats Republican talking points, and he vows, over and over again, to be an even better doormat in the future. (And the contrast between Obama the candidate and Obama the president is so huge that it really discourages his supporters. Is there Valium in the White House water, or something?)
Tax cuts for the rich are the Republican prescription for everything. They pushed it during the Clinton presidency, because the economy was doing well, and they pushed it during the Bush presidency, because the economy wasn't. And they're pushing it now, after they completely collapsed our economy, because... well, because their primary goal is simply to cut taxes on the rich, no matter what. They're just searching for an excuse for something they want to do anyway.
But this is a giveaway to the Democrats, if only they had sense enough - courage enough - to take it. The GOP has also scared people about our federal deficit, and there's nothing that will increase the deficit as greatly, and for so little reason, as this (unless, perhaps, we decide to invade another innocent country). Well, the majority of Americans want to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," too. And we want to wean ourselves off foreign oil. These aren't unpopular issues requiring a heroic stance.
But Democratic politicians are such cowards that they won't even stand up for popular positions, not if it means a fight. Incredible, isn't it? If Republicans weren't such complete disasters in running our country, I don't see how Democrats could ever get elected at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment