The debate over letting the Bush tax cuts expire is all over the news and web this weekend. Several diaries have covered the specifics. The impact of the recession and unemployment on the midterms is almost universally tied to predictions of how many seats and houses the Democrats will lose in November. One of the points that I don't see articulated is not whether the numbers are stagnant or don't get better, it's whether they get worse. Which I think is the most likely.
Conventional wisdom and the polls say we will lose the midterms. How much varies, but loss is inevitable.
In spite of the statistical and specific accomplishments of this administration, there are TWO elephants in the room. The present and the future.
There is no time in history like this one for convincing Americans to vote for the future.
One of the comments I used to make about the Democrats losing so many elections is that, given the RW media support, long term GOP strategy and tactics, it was a miracle we weren't wiped out. Then came 2004, 2006 and 2008. The GOP pulled off the 2004 steal, but exposed themselves doing it. Katrina and GOP corruption sealed the end of that phase of politics. We have to keep moving this phase in a better direction. They didn't accomplish the '94 turnaround in a few election cycles. More like 3 decades from the Goldwater loss. I think we can build the momentum in this election to make the results in both houses unimportant.
They also didn't accomplish it with any simple strategy. It was multifaceted to the nth degree. The piece we know about but can't get any numbers on is the amount of under the radar political work by churches, from small to mega. I ran across it in Alaska in '88 and ended up in a seminar once a week for a month that gave very explicit information on two decades of evangelical efforts to take over American government at every level.
Then came The Family by Jeff Sharlet. Between corporate capture of DC financially, and The Family theocratically, it's no wonder how broken it all is. It makes us wonder if it will take a revolution to fix. Why we can't get people in the streets protesting.
Remember how many people here and world wide protested the Iraq war, in the streets, with candles? Remember how much air time and ink space they got in the USA? The same is true for any other cause. Add the economic issues too many of us are dealing with, the numbers go down even more.
Back to the tax cuts. Here's a short list of todays articles.
WaPo: Five Myths about the Bush tax cuts.
NYT Editorial
NYT Op Ed: The Four Deformations of the Apocalypse
Greenspan on HuffPo
Bob Cesca on the WSJ tax cut graph
And for the beauty of it, a rant by a conservative.
It's getting to be embarrassing to be a conservative
What this reading pushed me into was clicking on one of those ads about helping to keep the Bush tax cuts. One has a picture of W, the other is tough guy 'Sen' Fred Thompson. These are sponsored by the "League of American Voters". (Clearly to be confused with the League of Women Voters.)
It opens with this amazing, not to mention false, statement:
Dear Fellow American:
On Dec. 31, 2010, almost every working American will be hit with a massive, across-the-board tax increase on their income and investments.
This is the first lie (see Cesca's comment on the WSJ graph.) Lie number 2, exposed by the multiple articles, is that the tax cuts for the rich won't hurt the budget. That they help the budget is lie # 3.
There are only a few ways to get the truth out.
- Give anything you can to progressive Dems and PACs.
- SHOW UP. Get involved in the campaigns. There were two excellent diaries on this today.
Dante Atkins
casperr
It's time to stop looking backwards. This is an election that could be at least as unpredictable as the last. Three months is a lot of ground work time. Learn how you can contribute, learn how to listen to voters and respond so they understand the reality.
Focus on the Future