With all of the terrible news about the economy, the horrible foreclosure crisis and the deaths of thousands due to a lack of adequate health care you would expect to see more suffering going on than is generally covered by either the media or by the political elites. Things are really bad for a large swath of the country and they dont appear to be getting better any time soon and yet our discourse seems to float by as if this were not the case.
I think it is clear that many people in this country are in serious trouble. Given this premise some things that our elected political leaders do is absolutely inexcusable. Dday provides an excellent example
In a conference call with reporters today, three Democratic Senators charged Republicans with obstructionism in all aspects of public policy, particularly stopping the Senate from passing a bill that would extend unemployment to millions of Americans, at a time when 7,000 Americans a day are losing their benefits.
Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) vowed to move forward with a motion to proceed on the unemployment bill, tied up with non-germane amendments (about things like ACORN funding and E-Verify which have already been voted on in the Senate in other forms) from Republicans that "amount to a political agenda" in Stabenow’s words, as soon as tomorrow. "The votes are there to pass this bill," said Shaheen. Stabenow said that the bill could have passed a few weeks ago.
or their is always this one
An amendment that would prevent the government from working with contractors who denied victims of assault the right to bring their case to court is in danger of being watered down or stripped entirely from a larger defense appropriations bill.
Multiple sources have told the Huffington Post that Sen. Dan Inouye, a longtime Democrat from Hawaii, is considering removing or altering the provision, which was offered by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and passed by the Senate several weeks ago.
Inouye's office, sources say, has been lobbied by defense contractors adamant that the language of the Franken amendment would leave them overly exposed to lawsuits and at constant risk of having contracts dry up. The Senate is considering taking out a provision known as the Title VII claim, which (if removed) would allow victims of assault or rape to bring suit against the individual perpetrator but not the contractor who employed him or her.
These issues are more than abstract ideological battles. They are real, they are emotional, they have faces. These issues are easy ones because the obstructors, when faced with real people suffering cannot look them in the eye and tell them to suck it up. There is no excuse for allowing these types of clear cut issues to be obstructed. Make the republicans and recalcitrant dems face the real people that their decisions harm.
When you learn about making arguments and the art of persuasion they teach about pathos logos and ethos. Appeals to logic emotion and with the charisma of the speaker. On these issues that have such clear and heart rending consequences dems have relied on the logos. this bill reduces cost, this bill is deficit neutral, it covers 90% instead of 60% or it creates the proper incentive structure. What are missing is the clear cut emotional and moral approach. The best arguments contain appeals to all three aspects.
The most recent example of pathos comes from alan grayson. he brings stark and real emotional and moral appeals into the arena. Its hard to stand against him because he isnt pulling punches and letting death by spreadsheet stay in the abstract. people live and die based on the decisions of congress and they must acknowledge that. When confronted with it the republicans will not stand. Ask erik cantor, who when faced with a lady with cancer told her to go find n existing government program or to seek charity. He was blasted for this. people understand that this wont work for the lady.
the democrats need to put human faces on the suffering the recession causes. everyone knows someone affected. we need to fix problems and we need to help people and yet we arent seeing the suffering on the news or exposed by the leaders who are arguing to fix it. dont leave the human element out.