Billion Dollar Babies
Wed Jan 09, 2008 at 10:35:23 AM PDT
I was watching the PBS Newshour the other night and they had former Senator David Boren on to talk about the Billion Dollar Baby Club's plans for the 2008 elections.
Waaaahhh! David Boren says we have polarized politics and partisan gridlock.
The problem with partisan politicians in Washington is not that they cannot agree, the problem is that they are unwilling to listen to their constituents.
Waaaahhh! Boren's contention is that we are suffering from polarization and partisan gridlock when, in fact, what we are suffering from is bipartisan gridlock caused by politicians who do not reflect the will of the people on the most important issues of the day.
Voters sent the Bush administration and the two parties a clear message in 2006. It was a message that neither the President nor either party's leadership wanted to hear. The President and the partisans of both parties have studiously ignored that message and have blocked meaningful action in a bipartisan manner.
Waaahhh! David Boren complained in the interview that partisan gridlock is to blame for the fact that it currently takes more than a simple majority in the Senate, 60 votes, to get any legislation passed.
This is not an example of polarization and partisan gridlock; it is a glaring example of cooperation. The 60 vote threshold exists in the Senate because it is desired by the leadership of both parties. Either party's leadership could end the condition immediately. The minority leader could stop being perversely obstructionist, or, the majority leader could force the minority to physically enact their filibusters - which would surely lead to an end of that tactic through negative media attention or simple exhaustion.
A cursory examination of polling data shows that considerably more than a simple majority of Americans oppose the war in Iraq, think that it was a bad idea to engage, and want to disengage.
There is a bipartisan group in the House and the Senate that are blocking any significant action to bring about a disengagement from Iraq.
An overwhelming majority of Americans disapprove of President Bush's assault on civil liberties through warrantless wiretapping and the proposed laws to enable it.
"Large majorities across almost every demographic subgroup of American voters," wrote pollsters The Mellman Group in a memo to the American Civil Liberties Union, "oppose warrantless wiretaps, oppose blanket warrants, and oppose amnesty for telecommunication companies that may have broken the law."
"Strikingly," says The Mellman Group’s analysis, "majorities across partisan and ideological lines oppose blanket warrants." Seventy-two percent of Democrats, 59 percent of independents and 52 percent of Republicans opposed them; as did 71 percent of liberals, 57 percent of moderates and 58 percent of conservatives.
Fifty-nine percent of voters also reject amnesty for phone companies that may have violated the law by selling customers’ private information to the government, preferring to let aggrieved citizens go to the courts and let judges decide.
A bipartisan group in the Senate, which appears to include the majority leadership, is attempting to force inclusion of provisions supported by the President and big telecommunication corporations that the people don't want.
A majority of voters are in favor of impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney for abusing his office.
A new American Research Group national survey of 1,100 adults (conducted 7/3 through 7/5) finds 54% favor "US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney.
In fact, polling shows overwhelming numbers of voters believe that the President and Vice President have abused their offices.
A total of 70% of American voters say that Vice President Dick Cheney has abused his powers as vice president. A total of 64% of American voters say that President George W. Bush has abused his powers as president.
Four members of the House Judiciary Committee have in the last couple of weeks called for impeachment hearings to commence. Despite the fact that the major media will not report on this, Rep. Wexler placed a petition on the internet that has in two weeks with virtually no media notice garnered more than 183,000 signatures.
A bipartisan group in Congress, which includes the leadership of both parties, is blocking any serious investigation or action on impeachment.
Waaaahhh! David Boren says that the nation is in trouble, there's a loss of approval of America around the world and we have serious economic problems causing us to sell off our assets.
All of these troubles are caused by the bipartisan blockage of the wishes of the American public. The primary cause of the loss of national approval is George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq and his bellicose and hostile foreign policy. The American public does not support Mr. Bush's illegal war, but the bipartisan gridlockers in Congress have supported it from the beginning and have blocked any serious attempt to stop it or stop funding it.
The primary cause of America's economic woe is the combination of outrageous expenditures for an illegal war and a simultaneous reduction in tax revenues. Both of these policies are supported by the bipartisan gridlockers at the behest of the President and large corporate and financial interests.
The two party system has failed to provide true representation to the people. The problem is not that the people are polarized, but that the two parties are unwilling or unable to reflect the desires of the people. We do not need more agreement between the two parties because in effect we have it. On the biggest issues of the day, the war, fiscal policy, monetary policy, civil liberties and holding the administration to account for its actions there is a bipartisan agreement, in effect, and that agreement reflects the desires of the President, the leadership of both parties, lobbyists and corporate interests - not the people.
Here is some free politcal advice for the Billion Dollar Baby Club; if you want to run a winning campaign rather than a vanity campaign, you should run against the Washington politicians and the leadership of both parties. Rather than demanding bipartisanship, you should be calling on the parties to respond to the electorate.
The big issues facing our country are not issues of right and left, but of right and wrong:
* Unprovoked wars of aggression are illegal and wrong
* Torture is illegal and wrong
* Suspending habeas corpus in the absence of insurrection is illegal and wrong
* Spying on Americans without a warrant is illegal and wrong
* Obstructing Congress' investigative authority by failure to produce documents and witnesses is illegal and wrong
* Failure to uphold the rule of law and prosecute administration crimes is wrong
* Bankrupting America by promoting tax cuts for political popularity while increasing expenditures is wrong
What is needed is not bipartisanship. What is needed is a government that engages the people, listens to them and responds to their desires.
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