My Senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, do not represent my values, my beliefs, or my politics. They are diametrically opposed to those values, in fundamental and deeply troubling ways.
On Daily Kos, I'm considered a moderate, a centrist, an "Obama enabler". In Tennessee, I'm seen as a radical, a liberal, an extremist.
The Republicans in the Senate are a minority - currently 42 out of 100. And yet, they run roughshod over the majority by repeatedly and systematically obstructing all attempts to bring progressive legislation to the floor.
President Obama stands for people like me - people who don't see politics as a bloodsport, who believe that what unites us is stronger than what divides us, and that we must not allow our divisions to stifle progress.
I am hearing from Tennessee Democrats all over the state, who are complaining that Obama sold us out, that this is a bridge too far, that we must fight. A typical message comes from East Tennessee:
Here's one sell-out too many don't you think - the Obama cave-in to the Repugs on tax cuts??
Krugman link
This was not what I voted for -- I did not vote for far out progressivism, just someone who would effectively oppose the repugs -- I'm still waiting.
I am feeling the same way. I feel sold-out, ignored, neglected, insulted, defeated, cornered, attacked, oppressed, suppressed, depressed.
Our moderate Democrats lost big in Tennessee, despite efforts to run away from Nancy Pelosi and what Republicans call "the Obama-Pelosi agenda" (though I have no idea what it is about the agenda that Republicans find so repugnant or odious). Lincoln Davis, John Tanner, and Bart Gordon are leaving the House. Mike McWherter, who effectively ran as Republican-lite, found out that Harry Truman was right when he said, "Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time." He didn't even garner a third of the votes in the 2010 election, where Republican multimillionaire gas station mogul Bill Haslam destroyed McWherter and outspent (and outraised) him 10 to 1.
And, predictably, Democrats in Tennessee are looking for scapegoats. State Party Chairman Chip Forrester has taken a lion's share of criticism. Gov. Bredesen, who has been far too moderate and far too openly critical of President Obama (on healthcare and economic issues particularly), has also ruffled feathers though he remains very popular in the state and has high job approval ratings from independents, Democrats, and Republicans. And, of course, many Democrats are still stung by the usurpation of Hillary Clinton's inevitable nomination by the inexperienced upstart, Barack Hussein Obama.
I am so sick and tired of scapegoating.
President Obama is President of the United States, but he cannot change the minds of Republicans and he cannot change the rules of the United States Senate. It is Republicans, not Obama, who have held middle class tax cuts hostage in the name of wasteful, inefficient, EXTRA tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The wealthy threw a money party at taxpayer expense. But no one is willing to give them the bill.
Sluggish economic growth makes ending the Bush tax cuts a politically risky decision, especially post-Citizens United when outside anonymous attack groups can spend billions of dollars creating fabricated truisms about spending, taxes, and "the Obama-Pelosi agenda".
I don't want to defend President Obama anymore. I'm tired of fighting people who never believed in Obama to begin with and are looking for a scapegoat. I'm tired of watching progressives self-immolate and attack a compassionate friend in the White House. I'm tired of a do-nothing Congress. I'm tired of elected officials who give in to the demands of oligarchs, racists, and plutocrats. I'm tired of the 24/7 noise machine. I'm tired of fact-checking.
Sens. Corker and Alexander are not representing me. They do not speak for me. Their press releases are lies and distortions and platitudes.
But Alexander won re-election handily in 2008 and will be in office until 2014. Corker narrowly won over Harold Ford in 2006 but will likely win re-election in a cakewalk in 2012, unless the ground shifts and progressives succeed in making him a target.
I respect the rights of minorities, including Republicans in the Senate. But I demand that Republicans extend the same courtesy and respect to me, as a minority progressive Democrat in a state that has cast its lot with the Tea Party and extreme Republicans who are out to destroy the Federal Government.