“If the people have to choose between a Republican and a Republican, they'll take the Republican every time.”
Hasn’t that been the case since Jimmy Carter. To start, there’s the gutless response of Senate Democrats to the playing of the race card by Clarence Thomas during his Senate confirmation hearings. The silent, relentlessly conservative Thomas is an historical antidote to the progressive achievements of Thurgood Marshall. Compounding this is the failure to block the nominations in subsequent confirmation hearings for John Roberts and especially the right-wing justice, Samuel Alito. The Supreme Court is currently ruled by conservative activists, and with progressive members aging and ailing, is likely to continue to move rightward as a Republican Congress and, possibly, a Republican president dominate politics after 2016. Democrats elected Bill Clinton, the “third way” president who “ended welfare as we know it”, and signed the bill from a Republican congress that repealed Glass/Steagall. Turns out, the third way was to talk progressively and act conservatively; Democrat in name only, and begs the question, is Clinton-the-Lesser any different? The accomplishments of a Republican President, George Bush, who led the US into an expensive and needless war in Iraq, a failed economy, and made the US a diplomatic pariah have been largely buried by time and message. Subsequent to Bush, the House has effectively spiked the wheels of government for four years, and yet, and yet, the electorate turns to Republicans. And yet, the Democratic President, who ended two wars, restored the US economy, made the nation healthier through the ACA and environmental initiatives, led the way on energy independence, stood with gays and immigrants in the fight for equality, repaired America’s international reputation, and fought to restore the kind of vibrant middle class so vital to US prosperity, mostly done with a “do-nothing” Congress, is criticized by Republicans, the press, and now, most noxiously, by Democrats campaigning for office.
The nation is at risk because uber-rich citizens and multi-national businesses own the press, lavishly fund their economic (read political) (and cultural) interests and effectively control the jobs of most of those in Congress, including some cowardly, fraudulent Democrats. The electorate, focused on their jobs and families, isn’t paying attention, or has given up, and has become, therefore, captive in its views to the constant stream of right-wing propaganda (Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, et al). Progressives are hamstrung by their desire for compromise and comity, suspect of battle, waiting for the “long game” that may never come, and are unsupported by those they have placed in office to do good. In this they unwittingly wait for the only event that can interrupt the ultra-conservative time-line, a government response to an uprising by the people. Let’s hope that response, if it comes, looks something like that of Franklin Roosevelt and not like that of Herbert Hoover.
Hasn’t that been the case since Jimmy Carter. To start, there’s the gutless response of Senate Democrats to the playing of the race card by Clarence Thomas during his Senate confirmation hearings. The silent, relentlessly conservative Thomas is an historical antidote to the progressive achievements of Thurgood Marshall. Compounding this is the failure to block the nominations in subsequent confirmation hearings for John Roberts and especially the right-wing justice, Samuel Alito. The Supreme Court is currently ruled by conservative activists, and with progressive members aging and ailing, is likely to continue to move rightward as a Republican Congress and, possibly, a Republican president dominate politics after 2016. Democrats elected Bill Clinton, the “third way” president who “ended welfare as we know it”, and signed the bill from a Republican congress that repealed Glass/Steagall. Turns out, the third way was to talk progressively and act conservatively; Democrat in name only, and begs the question, is Clinton-the-Lesser any different? The accomplishments of a Republican President, George Bush, who led the US into an expensive and needless war in Iraq, a failed economy, and made the US a diplomatic pariah have been largely buried by time and message. Subsequent to Bush, the House has effectively spiked the wheels of government for four years, and yet, and yet, the electorate turns to Republicans. And yet, the Democratic President, who ended two wars, restored the US economy, made the nation healthier through the ACA and environmental initiatives, led the way on energy independence, stood with gays and immigrants in the fight for equality, repaired America’s international reputation, and fought to restore the kind of vibrant middle class so vital to US prosperity, mostly done with a “do-nothing” Congress, is criticized by Republicans, the press, and now, most noxiously, by Democrats campaigning for office.
The nation is at risk because uber-rich citizens and multi-national businesses own the press, lavishly fund their economic (read political) (and cultural) interests and effectively control the jobs of most of those in Congress, including some cowardly, fraudulent Democrats. The electorate, focused on their jobs and families, isn’t paying attention, or has given up, and has become, therefore, captive in its views to the constant stream of right-wing propaganda (Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, et al). Progressives are hamstrung by their desire for compromise and comity, suspect of battle, waiting for the “long game” that may never come, and are unsupported by those they have placed in office to do good. In this they unwittingly wait for the only event that can interrupt the ultra-conservative time-line, a government response to an uprising by the people. Let’s hope that response, if it comes, looks something like that of Franklin Roosevelt and not like that of Herbert Hoover.
