(11 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
From today's meeting between President Obama and Senate Democrats today comes this gem . . . .
"If the price of certainty is essentially for us to adopt the exact same proposals that were in place for eight years leading up to the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression -- we don't tinker with health care, let the insurance companies do what they want, we don't put in place any insurance reforms, we don't mess with the banks, let them keep on doing what they're doing now because we don't want to stir up Wall Street -- the result is going to be the same," he said. "I don't know why we would expect a different outcome pursuing the exact same policy that got us into this fix in the first place."
Middle class Americans, Obama said, "are more and more vulnerable, and they have been for the last decade, treading water. And if our response ends up being, you know, because we don't want to -- we don't want to stir things up here, we're just going to do the same thing that was being done before, then I don't know what differentiates us from the other guys. And I don't know why people would say, boy, we really want to make sure that those Democrats are in Washington fighting for us."
huffingtonpost.com
Bold text added by the diarist
The question that inspired this response from our President and more below the fold. |
That response was directed at Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas who had asked this ridiculous question of the President. Apparently, Blanche missed out on the "Great Republican Retreat" and didn't get the memo that this President will make you look stupid if you ask a stupid question.
She asked: "Are we willing, as Democrats, not only to reach out to Republicans, but to push back in our own party for people who want extremes, and look for the common ground that's going to get us the success that we need not only for our constituents, but for our country, in this global community, in this global economy?"
huffingtonpost.com
In essence, what Senator Lincoln is saying is that Democrats should abandon their platform and be more like Republicans. The same Republicans who created almost all of the problems we face as a nation today. The same Republicans who the voters rejected overwhelmingly in the last 2 election cycles. If I were writing a book titled "How to lose your base and alienate voters" I would ask Blanche Lincoln to right the foreword.
I think Obama is starting to get it. Electorally, Democrats can NOT win without the support of their liberal and progressive base. That base will NOT support Democrats come election time if Democrats and their efforts are never more liberal than the most Conservative Democrat in the Senate allows it to be. If liberals and progressives such as myself don't know what differentiates the Democratic party from the other guys why should we even bother to show up and vote? Of course, I know the answer to that one and you probably do as well, but millions and millions of Democratic voters do not. They will say "Screw it, what's the difference?" and they will stay home, and Democrats will get their asses kicked in 2010 because they decided to move to the right and kick hippies instead of kicking Conservative ass. We voted for change we can believe in, not change that we watered down until it looked just like the Conservatives were in charge.
When every policy coming out of Washington must receive Conservative approval while liberals and progressives are always forced to accept the "It's better than nothing" compromise, after a while the activist base of the left that delivered for Democrats in 2006 and 2008 will eventually start to think that the Democratic party just isn't that into us. The gap in voter enthusiasm between the left and right is not based on a rejection of liberalism by the voters, it is based on the disgust liberals are feeling at watching liberalism being rejected by the Democrats in power.
If you want your left wing base to be fired up and ready to go come election time we have to start seeing some of that change we can believe in. Obama can inspire us. Legislation that represents real change we can believe in inspires us. Centrist sell outs like Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln and Joe frigging Lieberman inspires NO BODY. They suck. They suck big time, and if Democrats really want to keep the majorities we gave them in 2006 and 2008 they have to stop pretending that every Dem voter is Ben Nelson or Blanche Lincoln.
Of course, words are nice, but what I and progressives like me really want to see is ACTION. It's one thing for Obama to say something that rejects centrist Dem Senators calls for capitulation, it's another thing to DO SOMETHING that shows that Dems are ready to beat Conservatives and not just the hippies and other "left of the lefters" who worked their asses off to get them elected.
After months of watching Joe Lieberman control the debate in the Democratically controlled Senate, watching Bush Blue Dogs fight for Conservative policies and watching the Howard Dean's of the world get pushed away while the Bart Stupak's of the world get a pass I am glad to see the "Let's be more like the Republicans" wing of the Democratic party get a rhetorical shoe thrown at them by President Obama. Sure it ain't much, but it's better than nothing, and that is a good start.
I hope to see MORE and BETTER in the near future, and not just words, but ACTION.
Also crossposted at ProgressiveElectorate.com |
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