What Good Are They?
I'm a hardcore Democratic partisan. Voting for a candidate without a (D) next to his or her name is almost unthinkable for me. I'll be voting for Democratic candidates in on November 2, but not for lack of trying on the part of current Democratic officeholders who seem hellbent on keeping me home.
Why am I so disillusioned? The spectacle yesterday with Speaker Pelosi making a motion to adjourn the session so that her members could go back to their districts to campaign. The fact that the House Democratic supermajority was unable to unite around canceling the Bush tax cuts for the rich was pitiful enough, but the fact that 39 members of Pelosi's caucus voted against her motion to adjourn--on the grounds that they should stick around to PASS rather than deny tax cuts to millionaires before the election--was arguably the most disgusting move by the "Blue Dogs" since they took over Congress. And given their proclivity for unimaginable cowardice, that's a pretty low bar for them to slither under.
The whole thing reeked of a stunt, with exactly the number of House Democrats voting against adjournment in order to force Pelosi to break the tie. Exactly 39 of them. If they could have gotten just one more, the motion to adjourn would have failed, but lo and behold they couldn't get that 40th vote. You don't suppose Pelosi was giving these assholes cover to say they "stood up to House leadership in favor of tax relief for Americans" during the final stretch of their campaigns, do you?
Whatever the case, this sad sack of lawmakers gives us precious little reason to justify sending them back to Washington less than five weeks before the election. The level of cowardice and lack of organization is worse than I ever imagined, and I'm questioning my previous position of the utility of these Blue Dogs. What good is a numerical majority if dozens in your ranks will ALWAYS betray you and snuggle up with the other side on EVERY major vote?
And the issue here is tax cuts for the rich at a time where American business is already flush with money that it's sitting on waiting for consumer demand to pick up....not to mention a time when we're looking at ruinous budget deficits in the not-so-distant future. Every Congressional Republican favors borrowing a trillion dollars from the Chinese to give the already-affluent $100,000 tax cuts. That's to be expected from the pachyderms. But dozens of Democrats agree with this position?!? And not only do they agree with it, they agree with it so strongly that they're insisting the House not adjourn until these tax cuts for the rich on borrowed money go through?!? Well fuck them. Fuck them in the eye.
Given that no matter how Democrats we have in Congress, we'll always have a de facto Republican majority. With that in mind, officially losing the House to the other side is the best-case scenario for the future of the Democratic Party. In 2012, Obama and his party will not have sole ownership of the mess we'll still be festering in if the Republicans have a majority. In the unlikely event that the Democrats hang onto a Congressional majority in five weeks, they'll go into 2012 looking at an even bloodier election night. After this week's spectacle, the Democrats deserve to lose the House...and it's hard for me to hope they don't given the long-range dynamic.
Why am I so disillusioned? The spectacle yesterday with Speaker Pelosi making a motion to adjourn the session so that her members could go back to their districts to campaign. The fact that the House Democratic supermajority was unable to unite around canceling the Bush tax cuts for the rich was pitiful enough, but the fact that 39 members of Pelosi's caucus voted against her motion to adjourn--on the grounds that they should stick around to PASS rather than deny tax cuts to millionaires before the election--was arguably the most disgusting move by the "Blue Dogs" since they took over Congress. And given their proclivity for unimaginable cowardice, that's a pretty low bar for them to slither under.
The whole thing reeked of a stunt, with exactly the number of House Democrats voting against adjournment in order to force Pelosi to break the tie. Exactly 39 of them. If they could have gotten just one more, the motion to adjourn would have failed, but lo and behold they couldn't get that 40th vote. You don't suppose Pelosi was giving these assholes cover to say they "stood up to House leadership in favor of tax relief for Americans" during the final stretch of their campaigns, do you?
Whatever the case, this sad sack of lawmakers gives us precious little reason to justify sending them back to Washington less than five weeks before the election. The level of cowardice and lack of organization is worse than I ever imagined, and I'm questioning my previous position of the utility of these Blue Dogs. What good is a numerical majority if dozens in your ranks will ALWAYS betray you and snuggle up with the other side on EVERY major vote?
And the issue here is tax cuts for the rich at a time where American business is already flush with money that it's sitting on waiting for consumer demand to pick up....not to mention a time when we're looking at ruinous budget deficits in the not-so-distant future. Every Congressional Republican favors borrowing a trillion dollars from the Chinese to give the already-affluent $100,000 tax cuts. That's to be expected from the pachyderms. But dozens of Democrats agree with this position?!? And not only do they agree with it, they agree with it so strongly that they're insisting the House not adjourn until these tax cuts for the rich on borrowed money go through?!? Well fuck them. Fuck them in the eye.
Given that no matter how Democrats we have in Congress, we'll always have a de facto Republican majority. With that in mind, officially losing the House to the other side is the best-case scenario for the future of the Democratic Party. In 2012, Obama and his party will not have sole ownership of the mess we'll still be festering in if the Republicans have a majority. In the unlikely event that the Democrats hang onto a Congressional majority in five weeks, they'll go into 2012 looking at an even bloodier election night. After this week's spectacle, the Democrats deserve to lose the House...and it's hard for me to hope they don't given the long-range dynamic.
posted by Mark at 6:49 PM
1 Comments:
If Democrats lose the majority, its going to be far worse than anything that ever happened under Bush.
They will try to repeal the healthcare bill Democrats worked so hard to pass and will probably try to privitize Social Security again.
Obama isnt going to protect us from them. He'll cave like a cheap tent.
We were better off when we held Congress and Republicans held the White House. That way we made sure these things didnt happen. But no, Democrats had to get greedy and wanted the White House too.
Well, where did that get us?
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