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Commentary Too - Jan 26, 2010 - Printable Version
- Why I am not a Democrat
by Robin Buckallew
Two years ago, I took a big step, one I never thought I would take. I ended my life-long affiliation with the Democratic Party, and changed my registration to Independent. I thought it would feel strange, sad, and empty after thirty years with the same party, supporting them financially when I could, and by my vocal and ardent support when I was financially unable. I was wrong. There wasn’t a single hint of regret, and I haven’t felt any since. Now, I freely throw away all their exhortations for donations, and channel my donations directly to candidates who have merited my support, regardless of party affiliation. The events of the past year have convinced me that my decision was a sound one. As we embarked upon a difficult and dangerous leg of our journey through history, the voters handed the Democrats the helm of the ship of state, trusting them to skillfully navigate through all the looming icebergs and reefs that threatened us. Instead, they held the ship right on the same perilous course that had been charted by their predecessors, and we have continued running into shoal after shoal. The American citizens, bruised and battered, scared by all the approaching disasters and shaken by those we’ve already hit, have begun planning their mutiny. Instead of hope and promise, the events of the past year have led to fear and disappointment, which has begun to turn into rage. The ever-fluid loyalties of a polarized country have begun swinging back the other direction, and the Democrats are losing ground even before the upcoming mid-term elections. All the right wing talking heads are gloating and boasting that this is America telling them to be less liberal. The Democratic Party is listening, and taking notes. This is a mistake. To assume that the American public is punishing the Democrats for being too liberal is to assume one of two things: either the Democrats are being liberal, or the American public mistakenly thinks the Democrats are being liberal. I would submit that the first is plainly untrue, which I am prepared to demonstrate with examples. As for whether the second is true, well, it’s always difficult to read the collective mind of a diverse group of people, but I would suspect that about half of America thinks the Democrats are being liberal, and about half of America thinks the Democrats are being something other than liberal – perhaps business as usual? I believe that the reason the American voters are rejecting Democratic candidates in favor of Republican ones is that the Democrats are perceived as weak, as impotent. Americans can forgive and overlook a lot, but they cannot stomach weakness.
In November of 2008, the American electorate overwhelmingly rejected the policies of the Bush administration, voting for promised change. In the year that has followed the arrival of the new kids in town, we have seen little in the way of the hope and change that was promised. Guantanamo Bay has not yet been definitively closed, and extraordinary renditions continue. We’ve seen the White House go to court to support the erosions of our civil liberties and our Constitutional rights that had been the mainstay of the previous eight years…to wit, warrantless wire tapping will continue, Washington will continue to monitor the library records and bookstore purchases of law abiding citizens at will, and habeas corpus has not been restored. The new President has decided that many of the foreign citizens that are held outside the bounds of the law will not be tried nor released, because they are too dangerous to release (because we’ve made them mad by holding them so long), and because we don’t have enough evidence to convict them of anything. We continue to pour lives and money into the quagmires in the Middle East, and continue to perpetrate atrocities in the name of “democracy” and “justice”. We continue to use manufactured evidence of questionable accuracy to convince everyone that Iran is the newest greatest threat to our liberties, in spite of the fact that it appears clear that Washington is actually the greatest threat to our liberties.
Other things have continued apace, without much interruption under the new regime. In spite of the fact that a majority of Americans indicated that they wanted health care reform, and were very favorable to a public option, or simply a universal Medicare, the Democrats chose to listen to a very vocal, very obstreperous group of “tea parties”, and stripped all public options out of the health care bill. To most of us, the final bill looks like it’s simply going to tell us we have to buy insurance we can’t afford from companies who are already fantastically profitable because they don’t pay very readily on the claims of the people who already have their insurance. There have been some band-aid measures, designed more for show than substance, that restrict the use of pre-existing illnesses to deny claims, but whether that will survive into the final bill or not, it’s really small comfort in such a monstrous, money-wasting, business friendly bill. The insurance companies will cry all the way to the bank.
Environmentally, the policies pursued over the last year are nearly indistinguishable from the status quo of the preceding decade. The administration upheld the executive order allowing the slaughter of wolves to go forward, in spite of the fact that the scientific evidence didn’t support the removal of wolves from the endangered list. The administration reiterated the position that the endangered status of the polar bear, the first species listed as a result of global warming, could not be used as a reason to fight global warming. The Copenhagen climate summit was a resounding failure, in spite of soaring rhetoric. All the policies to deal with global warming thus far have been just so much hot air (pun intended). If we could solve this problem with fancy words and phrases, we’d be nearly there. If it takes decisive action, we’re sunk.
The economy, a decisive factor in the victory of the Democrats, has been yet another disaster. Sweeping into Washington with a stimulus package designed to bring us out of the slump, the party of change instead supported business as usual. Pouring good money after bad, they continued to prop up the worst, most destructive business practices. Bail out Detroit to “save” American jobs, and then stand by while the “saved” jobs are shipped overseas. Watch impotently while CEOs who drove their companies to bankruptcy take huge bonuses to reward their ability to suck money out of the federal government, taking only small, symbolic measures to take back some of the money. Give tons of money to failing banks without making any regulatory changes to prevent them from continuing the same practices that caused them to fail in the first place. Then, the final insult: copy the rhetoric of your predecessor, and tout the “recovery” loudly and cheerfully, even as jobs continue to disappear, savings continue to shrivel, and Americans continue to try to figure out how long they can survive without work. The jobless recovery, a mainstay of the Bush administration, appears to be making itself at home in the current administration, as well.
So, the current power structure in Washington hasn’t been particularly liberal. So, does the American public perceive it as liberal, and they’re saying “No way, get outta here?” I doubt it. After all, throughout the last election cycle, we were treated to a constant diet of talking heads proclaiming the “fact” (disputed by actual evidence) that Barack Obama was the most liberal member of Congress, and warning the voters about how “liberal” the Democrats were, and that they would bring “liberal” policies to Washington. That appeared fine with the public, since they were prepared to elect not only “the most liberal member of Congress” to the presidency, but also turned Congress over to the Democratic Party, including a “super-majority” in the Senate. In spite of that, we’ve been treated to a steady diet of whining, complaining, and inactivity by the party that has swept into power. We’re told they can’t accomplish anything, because….fill in the blank right here with whichever of the myriad excuses they’ve come up with. For most of us, watching the news every night from our living rooms, it looks for all the world like the Republicans are still in charge.
When Bush came to Washington in 2001, he arrived without a popular mandate, and under a suspicion of having manipulated the election. In spite of that, he arrived in Washington with a swagger, and quickly persuaded an evenly divided Congress to pass a great deal of legislation dear to his heart, including a tax cut on the upper classes. With the defection of Jim Jeffords in the summer of that year, the Senate became 50 D, 49 R, but still Bush was able to ramrod draconian reactionary legislation through the Congress. At no time did the Republicans have a super-majority; in fact, throughout the 1990s, during the Republican resurgence, they also did not have a super-majority. This bears remembering, when the Democrats tell us that they can’t pass any legislation without having 60 Democrats in Congress. The problem with that? It appears from the events of the last year that they can’t pass legislation even when they DO have a supermajority in Congress. The Republicans, on the other hand, have figured out how to get their initiatives passed in the absence of a super-majority, sometimes even in the absence of a majority (or plurality) at all! Something is wrong here, and the voters sense it. They sense a weakness in the Democrats, an unwillingness to rock the boat, even when the election and the subsequent polls indicated quite plainly that the voting citizenry wanted the boat rocked…perhaps wanted it tipped over, and all the bad baggage spilled out.
It’s time for the Democrats to get to work, to flex their muscles. All the hurrahing from the right about the loss of the Senate is just blowing smoke. After all, even the most reality-challenged member of the Republican Party is sure to be savvy enough to understand that 59 is a much larger number than 41, and to understand that there are many ways to skin a cat. When the Republicans were being filibustered, they tried to kill the filibuster off altogether. The Democrats should have let them, but it’s too late for that now. Now, it’s time to point out to the Republicans that the voters overwhelmingly rejected the policies of the past administration, and requested a new direction. It’s time for the Democrats to actually chart that new direction, and begin addressing the issues firmly and assertively, rather than whining and crying every time a Republican airs a negative comment to Bill O’Reilly or Glenn Beck. Don’t use the recent loss of a single Senate seat as an excuse for inaction and impotence. Stand up to the tea party crowd, to the birthers, to the war hawks and torture-advocates. Stand up against those who would strip us of vital liberties in a futile search for a tenuous security. Stand up against those who would sell America to the highest bidder, those who have no problem with millions of uninsured, under- or unemployed citizens, and decimated food banks. Stand up and reclaim the heritage of Franklin Roosevelt that has been smeared, smudged, and otherwise tarnished by the shouting hysteria of the right wing shrieking heads. Quit playing duck-and-cover; we can still see you, even though you can’t see us, and we’re mortified to see you cowering on your knees while the party of the minority swaggers around Washington calling the shots and maintaining the status quo in the favor of the same policies that were so resoundingly rejected by the voters merely a year ago.
The recent set backs to Democratic fortune aren’t the result of people suddenly waking up from hypnosis and realizing they were duped into voting for liberals. The recent setbacks are the result of the disenchantment of the Democratic voters with the same old song and dance routine. When the Democrats are too demoralized to vote, the Republicans will win. That is why I am not a Democrat.
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