What 19s not responsible is the supposed failure of Obama and the Democrats to govern as 1Cmoderates. 1D
Pause to consider where we would be if a Democrat had won January 19s Massachusetts Senate race.
Apparently this guy never paused to think that maybe the reason a Democrat didn't win January's Massachusetts Senate race could be because Obama and the Democrats failed to govern as "moderates".
The moderates got their way because the stimulus needed 60 votes, an absurd standard now that we have an ideologically polarized, parliamentary-style party system. We can waste time mourning that development, or we can recognize it and act accordingly.
Is this guy actually suggesting that since the Democrats can't drum up enough support for their legislation to reach the bar put in place by the Constitution, they should move the bar? That's completely unjustified for anyone to do. We have those higher majority requirements for a reason.
Nobody wants to admit that on health care the moderates won all the big fights. Single-payer was out at the start. The public option died. A Medicare buy-in died. The number of Americans who would be covered shrank. The insurance companies held on to their antitrust exemption. If a bill eventually becomes law 14as it must if the Democrats are not to look like a feckless, useless lot 14the final proposal will be much closer to the moderate Senate version than to the more progressive bill passed by the House.
And if the Republicans refuse to cooperate, this will not mean that the bill isn 19t moderate. It will mean only that Republicans refuse to vote for a moderate bill.
Wait, what? He spends an entire paragraph deriding the moderate concessions made to try to get the bill passed, and then he's upset because the Republicans wouldn't vote for the "bad" concessions?
Simplistic and misleading? Absolutely. But if liberals and Obama are so smart, how did they 14or, if you prefer, 1Cwe 1D 14allow conservatives to make this argument so effectively? Why do the mainstream media give it so much credence?
Perhaps because all of the debate was performed behind closed doors, and they never bothered to actually produce anything that could refute the Republicans claims.
I think his problem is that a lot of time and effort was invested into making the Bill palatable to moderates, then the moderates refused to vote for it.
Bush got votes by pandering to his base. Obama appears to be pandering to Bush's base too, or at least a part of it. No wonder things aren't working out well for him.
Of course Bush's allies set out to destroy the career of anyone who got in their way. Just ask former Amb Joe Wilson, who called shenanigans on the phony yellowcake story. He was right about the story, but the Bushies made sure he paid a very heavy price for telling it. Obama does no such career destruction of those who oppose him, so the opposition is free to call him an illegal alien, a Marxist, and a fascist, sometimes in the same sentence.
So, call Bush out on an obvious lie and get your career and your wife's career destroyed. Call Obama whatever you want and nothing happens. No wonder the Dirty Tricks party is winning this game.
I think his problem is that a lot of time and effort was invested into making the Bill palatable to moderates, then the moderates refused to vote for it.
Well, he was berating all the Republicans for it (and I'm sure you are the last person I need to tell that the Republicans are hardly moderate).
Bush got votes by pandering to his base. Obama appears to be pandering to Bush's base too, or at least a part of it. No wonder things aren't working out well for him.
He's pandering now, but when Obama's party had the majority, he couldn't have cared less about the Republicans. Bush did the same thing when the Republicans had control (although if memory serves Bush never had the majority Obama had).
As far as the career destruction claim, I beg to differ. Perhaps you should ask the former CEO of GM what happened to his company when Obama didn't like the way he ran it. As someone considering starting his own company, that act is hideously frightening. I also point out that Obama interfered in the internal operation of a private company. That is way outside Obama's powers as President of the United States. Quite frankly, both of those Presidents have overstepped their bounds, but you only seem to want to hold one of them responsible.
I think the too many of the progressive dems are losing to main stream America, independents and moderate dems .. this administration is on a record spending spree the likes of America has never seen before. They don't listen to their constituents and are out of touch with reality. Obama campaigns for peace yet escalates the war, says he's going to work both sides of the aisle but panders only to the left and call the right names. That crap and trade bill that was pushed thr to save the world sure isn't going to make jobs in America .. what do th dems care .. it's a greener worls .. I've heard them say .. look at the green shots ..is that what they mean by green?
One thing for sure .. Wall Street is winning and certain banks are too .. good deal if you work for one of them. Wall Street has given more to the dems these past few years than the repubs .. not too sure how one can overlook that.
Those were nice deals the dems have made .. concessions whatever you call them to get the bill through the senate and the House, the unions had more say than the repubs elected officials .. what a bunch of crap coming from DC. Good ol boy, back room politics. Now they are talking about Rahming the health care bill down Americas throat. Sounds like the dems are do not really care about much except passing a watered down bill which will mean more health care control for DC .. Lord knows they have done such a good job with medicare and medicaid .. they want to start afresh and you know that DC always gets things done right.
Gramps ... I think you've gone to the well to many times on the Marxists, illegal alien spile .. it's getting old, I think you should break out the mantra about WMD again just for old times sake.
The title should be .. how progressives are losing out to main steam America .. but that wouldn't sound as good as the evil Conservative word to some people. Neocons are out .. now it's conservatives are the root of all evil. The evil boogey conservatives. You have to have an enemy .. otherwise people might wake up to the fact what you're doing and then you might be in trouble.
I think there is a good reason the dems are setting up to self destruct.
People voted for a government that respected the people and worked FOR them.
What they got were lazy ideologues intent of doing the minimum to keep the economy form imploding, and spending 100% of their effort pushing something that was not for the people, but about cementing their dominance in political arena for the next 20 years.
There's only one problem, the people are not only sick of being screwed, they are sick of being ignored.
Right now the Dems are that assholes not listening, so the Republicans are going to get support. When the republicans are the ones not listening, the dems will get support.
Seeing any of it as a wholesale buy in by the middle to either ideology is just fundamental attribution error writ large.
The real problem is that a large portion of the electorate is extremely susceptible to propaganda from the media (fox news, et al) and special interests (e.g. the tea party originally being bankrolled by lobbyists of the health insurance industry). This is due to a lot of factors, but the main one is a lack of education. That is a systemic problem in American politics and it goes far beyond Obama and the Democrats; and it's an amazing triumph of corporate interests the way they are able to rally people of meager means into going to tea parties to argue against their own self-interest. It's amazing to just watch it all happen. After this bill dies, after the republicans win back one of the houses, and after the tea parties end, the tea partiers will go back home and still not be able to afford adequate health care- and they'll see this as a win for themselves.
People from other countries wonder how this is possible.
People are the same around the world.
"Elections are a good deal like marriages. There's no accounting for anyone's taste. Every time we see a bridegroom we wonder why she ever picked him, and it's the same with public officials." - Will Rogers
RP
This guy should just go out behind the barn and shoot hisself.