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Blowing It: Democrats, Unable to Be a Party of the People, are Sinking Themselves


By dlindorff - Posted on 16 July 2011

By Dave Lindorff

The smoking ruin that is the the Obama White House, and the rotting corpse that is the Democratic Party, have, incredibly, together been boxed into a corner by, of all things, the certifiably insane Republican Party.

This amazing situation has resulted not through any brilliant strategy on the part of the Republicans, but by the self-inflicted wounds of the Democrats.

Faced with a collapsing economy that is at serious risk of performing a reprise of the Great Depression, Congressional Democrats and President Obama were in a perfect position to grab the flag and run home with it by declaring war on unemployment and on the party that has unequivocally declared itself openly to be the standard bearer of the wealthy and powerful.

All the president and Congressional Democrats had to do was announce that Social Security, Medicare, education and programs to protect the poor were all off limits in any discussion of the federal budget, and to declare an immediate 25% cut in military spending, as called for earlier by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee.

How hard would that have been to do? The polls show it’s what the public wants. Any elected official who did this, particularly someone elected and re-elected as a Democrat, would have been hailed by voters for such a bold action.

  According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in late May and released June 11, 60% of Americans correctly attribute the nation’s enormous deficit primarily to military spending, which eats up 52% of every tax dollar (Social Security and Medicare are entirely funded by separate payroll taxes, and not only have not contributed a single dollar to the federal deficit, but have been routinely borrowed from by the government to finance the deficit in the government’s operating budget caused by military spending).  Only 24% blame the deficit on domestic spending other than military (and probably every one of those is a Republican or right-wing independent who likely believes that the earth was created 6000 years ago, and is flat, and who will never vote Democratic no matter what).

That same poll showed that the vast majority of Americans (73%) object to proposals to cut the budget by reducing federal funding for social programs, or federal funding to the states for education, or by reducing Social Security benefits (59%), for example by raising the retirement age...

For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent online alternative newspaper just beginning its second year of daily publication, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/702

Watching these two parties is like watching two Titanics rushing to be the first one to hit the Iceberge.  On one side we have the lunatics and on the other we have the:"Let's make a deal" bunch who represent only themselves.  The Republican Party is dead and the Democratic Party is dying, we need real primary challengers to step up; but they refuse.

Many think we have gone off the cliff and there is no going back, I want to hold out against this, but the evevidence keeps coming in that says, this empire is over, it just has not been announced yet.  We must start to prepare to have a new type of government because this one is just about over, finished, kaput!  I am not sure I will see the downfall, if you asked me a few years ago I would have said no, the fall will take a generation to happen, but now I am not so sure.  I know my children and grandchildren deserve better, but it seems I cannot stop this ship from hitting the iceberge first or second.  The two parties do not seem to realized that both ships will sink and what will remain are the sharks.  Stay tuned we are just going down on the second hill and there are lots of hills to try to climb out of---and go down again.    

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