If President Obama's response to the recent political setbacks for our party is to try to out-Republican the Republicans, we lose.
Yes, cuts must be made, but they need to be intelligent and done in such a way as to afflict the comfortable. That means cutting the profits of suppliers and contractors who routinely give "contributions" and hire lobbyists to prevent just such cuts....not cutting the expenditures that actually provide real benefits to real poor, working and middle class Americans. The latter is no way to stimulate the ecomony.
President Obama must come to understand that the losses in NJ and MA were not due to the Democrats being too "liberal"; but rather because both of our candidates lacked the passion and fire and aggressively progressive integrity for which most Americans now hunger.
Being milquetoast demoralizes the base, bores the party regulars and disgusts the "independents". I don't need to spend millions of dollars on focus groups to know and understand this.
If President Obama and the Democratic party leadership's idea of a response to the current climate is to simply use more effective "focus grouped" rhetoric and cosmetic superficial policy shifts to appease and to triangulate; it won't work, not this time.
The electorate is wising up. Existential conditions are genuinely difficult for millions of people and just about anyone who isn't already filthy rich is suffering from anxiety about their future and that of their loved ones.
I pray that President Obama searches deeply within his own Conscience and comes to the conclusion that the time has come to lead the Democratic Congress and the people of this nation in a genuinely new direction......not just with nicely turned phrases composed by brilliant wordsmiths, but with major shifts in policy...and shifts in the legislative means to be used in implementing that policy.
The Republicans have systematically abused the cloture rules for one full year. They have consistently obstructed virtually every policy initiative and appointment and dragged their heels at every turn. It is clear that this Republican party is willing to see our nation suffer just so that the Democrats fail and so that the "government" which they despise so much is further emaciated and emasculated.
Here's a bit from the words of Grover Norquist........ who states that he wants to shrink government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Norquist also said, "We play for keeps; they play for lunch.". He was telling the truth....and do not doubt that that is the categorical imperative of teh current Republican strategy.
It's high time the Senate Democrats changed to cloture rules and passed the most progressive health care reform they can get with 50 votes plus Joe Biden. Yes, the Republicans will squeal bloody murder but it is they who have unprecedentedly abused the power of the filibuster in a way that was never intended.
Is there anyone that believes that if Republicans seized power in 2012 that they would tolerate the Democrats abusing the cloture rules on virtually every important bill for a full year? I think not. They would have "gone nuclear" after a few weeks when they understood what was being done.
Frankly, I'm not sure if the Democrats have lost their courage, their minds or if they have been so cowed by a kind of "Stockholm Syndrome" that they no longer actually believe in the principles of our party? Or maybe they're just as bought and paid for by the same corporate and monied interests that pull the strings behind the ersatz populism we see from the Republican party establishment?
The people of this country, left and right alike, are so sick and so tired of the legalized corruption that we call "campaign finance".......despite the best PR efforts of the establishments most people really do still want a serious public option and/or single payer......and those numbers would be much much much higher if a free and fair an open debate were ever to be placed "on the table"!!!
And the absolute rage most American feel at the "bailouts" also transcends the conventional left v right divide. People may not be fully informed, but they/we know when we are being conned and manipulated. All anyone has to do is to read the writings of folks like Naomi Prins ( http://motherjones.com/... ) or even simply watch her on this video
to understand that we 've been scammed.
If President Barak Obama uses this State of the Union address as an opportunity to announce a real change of course; the people of this nation will follow him and they will force the Congress to get in line behind an aggressively progressive agenda.
If President Obama and the Democratic leadership come to the conclusion that tacking right and kow towing even further to the opposition is the way to go...the Republicans will indeed win big in 2010....and eventually take it all in 2012.
The lesson to take home from the elections of Senator Brown and Chris Christie is that people are not rational when they are angry...and that they will elect someone they perceive as a change agent over people they perceive as milquetoast phonies.
In my opinion going from Democrats to Republicans to get out of the current mess is like going from the frying pan into the fire.......but that's the perverse direction we are headed in on our current trajectory.
Please, President Obama, come home to your own gut level principles and beliefs. Put aside the consultants and the advisors' "conventional wisdom" and simply do what's right because it is right.......then fight to get ordinary unconnected regular Americans to understand and to motivate them/us to get/keep the congress aboard.
Oh, and we also need legislation introduced post haste to amend the constitution so that corporations no longer are seen as human entities with super human rights and privileges. The recent SCOTUS decision is tantamount to treason. Even if a corporation was adjudicated a single "person" why should it be allowed to "contribute" any more than any other "individual". Allowing corporations to buy off legislatures using unlimited amounts legalized of legalized bribery and then being allowed to include that expense in the overall (passed along) costs of the goods and services they produce is reminiscent of the despicable practice of the Chinese in making the families of those "troublemakers" being shot to pay for the bullets.
It's time for a change; but is has to be a real change, not just slick rhetoric. It's high time we actually used our democratic rights or we shall surely lose them.