By now everyone has heard about Pot Reid complaining that Kettle Obama isn't forceful enough. I'm not going to get into which of them is more averse to confrontation, or why, or whether that's a good idea.
I'm going to keep it simple: If Harry Reid thinks the Republicans need to be confronted, let's make him walk the talk.
A couple of weeks ago I finally got frustrated enough that I expended the energy needed to ditch the cheery sig line I adopted shortly before Inauguration Day, and replace it with a sig line calling for action against one of the biggest sources of my frustration.
I'm a radical in the original sense of the word -- I like to get to the root causes of things. Right now, the root cause of the dysfunctionality in our political system is the influence of publicly-owned for-profit corporations on our political process. This cancer manifests itself in three different contexts:
- The mass media's abdication of their most crucial responsibility: safeguarding democracy by shining the light of truth on how -- and toward what ends -- political power is acquired and used in our society.
- The corrosive effect of corporate money and power on our electoral process.
- Diseased political structures that choke off the ability of our government to be responsive to the will of the people.
Each of these dysfunctions, by itself, is more than sufficient to severely distort political outcomes, but they don't work alone. They work synergistically, and the degree of distortion they have introduced is mind-boggling and self-perpetuating. That makes it very, very difficult to fight what is happening.
One of the most powerful tools available to break through this morass is to turn one of the structures referred to in #3 above to our advantage. This tool is in the hands of none other than Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid himself. Alas, he has chosen not to use it. It's time for us to change that.
We've all been grumbling about it since the early months of the health care fiasco. Now Harry, with his remarks about the President, has sounded a clarion call for us to take concerted action, and to keep it going until our demand is met:
MAKE. THEM. FILIBUSTER.
I don't need to tell Kossacks why this is important. I don't need to paint a mental picture for you of how the country would react at the sight (and droning sound) of Chinless Mitch leading his troops into the 4th or 5th or 8th day of brave battle against the evil forces of Unemployment Compensation for out-of-work Americans. We all know this is the right and necessary thing to do, and we all know why.
Now we just need to make sure Harry knows.
And we need to let him know that, given his newfound discovery of the importance of confronting recalcitrant Republicans, we're not going to let him off the hook until he takes action.
Sen. Harry Reid
528 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3542 / Fax: 202-224-7327
(Toll Free for Nevadans: 1-866-SEN-REID (736-7343) - restricted to calls originating from area codes 775 and 702)