And they will continue to clown until WE put an end to it.
I just hope that, a year from now, we’re not sitting here thinking, why didn’t I do/demand more while staring at 2 million more job losses, 3 million more home foreclosures, and who knows what other economic devastations? I just hope, a year from now, as we sift through the wreckage of what’s left of the economy, we’re not having to ask ourselves, why did we let the GOP run roughshod over Obama and the dems, when we KNEW they did not mean well? Didn’t we just have two elections, in 2006 and in 2008, where the voters’ clear message was that they are tired of this mess from these people? We had six years of GOP rule, and the country is in the worst shape it’s been in our lifetimes, and beyond. We don’t need any more proof that their policies have produced nothing but abject failure. That’s why we have a democratic House, Senate and White House today. The GOP has been reduced to a regional party and down to its extremist essence. A bigot, Rush Limbaugh, is its de facto leader. And this in a year when voters just elected the first African American president. Yet we treat them as if they had won the election; that their ideas are fresh and new and the democrats are the reason we’re in this situation. I don’t understand it.
I have no doubt about Obama and his unassailably honorable intentions. He is still the right man at the right time. Maybe what he’s destined for is even bigger than the economic problems we face. Who knows at this point? Still, the economy looms large, and while I understand and appreciate the goal of bipartisanship, and the benefits that would derive from that if it were truly achieved, it is a two-way street, and so far Obama’s being hamstrung by a GOP that clearly has no intentions towards bipartisanship. Time and again, to his outstretched hand, they extend a fist, a knife and a gun. They treat him as if he’s a sucker for expecting the GOP to actually work with the democrats. They take his good will and sincerity, and repay it by doing everything they can to undermine him and ensure his failure. Their leader was clear in saying as much. To them, “bipartisanship” means giving them everything they want, and more, while they lie and blame democrats and Obama for everything that could go wrong. Precious time is wasting and nothing has been done that has made any appreciable difference. For all the talk about “change” democrats are doing little more than what they have done in the past, which is sit back and react out of fear of republicans.
Bipartisanship? How about this: yesterday John McCain went on the TV and shamelessly told the bold-faced lie that there has been little if any effort at achieving bipartisanship from Obama and the democrats. They have bent over backwards to accommodate the GOP, and what did they get in return? McCain’s public betrayal of Obama, and not one GOP House vote for the stimulus, even after Obama opened up the process and allowed the changing of the bill to include some of the things they said they wanted. And they still voted against it.
At some point we have to wonder what the big picture strategy is, but the shape of what that is has yet to come into focus. Obama appoints yet another republican to his cabinet, Sen. Judd Gregg as Commerce Secretary. Gregg would vacate his senate seat to take the job, and in the process; the governor of his home state appoints his replacement. In this case, the governor of NH, Gregg’s home state, is a democrat. The GOP would not allow Gregg to take the seat, unless the democratic governor of the state agreed to appoint another republican. Obama and the dems, inexplicably, went along with the deal. What is the shape of things to come?
I have to pause here to remind myself that, Obama has only been president for 16 days, even though it seems much longer given all that’s gone on. He’s made huge strides in repairing the perception of the US in the world community, given his moves on shutting down Guantanamo. But the question begs: how far is he willing to let the GOP go in this direction before laying down the hammer? If we give up too much now, in the interest of trying to achieve “bipartisanship,” we run the risk of watering down the impact of the stimulus to the point that, a year from now…
We do not have the luxury of time. We cannot afford to do too much more in reaching out to people who only want to undermine. Seems like almost every day now a canary sings in the economic coal mine. Last week, it was the disturbing news that 62,500 jobs were lost in one day, and now we are losing jobs at a pace that averages approximately 20,000 jobs a day. Today it was reported that car sales for Chrysler for January were down 55%, GM 49% and Ford 40%. Toyota, Honda and Mazda are about to lay off some people and slow production lest they end up with too much idle inventory. These are warning signs of what is to come.
Use the bully pulpit to let the people know that, we elected you, you tried to work with them, and they are intent on doing the same thing they’ve been doing for the last six years that led us to this point, and now you are going to work on legislation without their votes. Paint them as the enemies of democracy they are acting like. You have the popularity to do so.
Empower the DNC and other democratic groups to run ads against every one of these obstructionist GOP senators, and let people know these are the people standing in the way of help for you, the average voter, because they are not being allowed to lavish billions more on their billionaire patrons.
We cannot afford to wait too much longer, lest there not be much left to save. What can we do? Call, write and call some more to the offices of our reps in Congress and Senators. Call into the talk shows and make your voice heard. There has to be no mistaking where the public interest lies. Here’s the link:
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
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Wednesday, February 4th 2009 at 11:54AM
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