I’ve heard this kind of argument all too often since President Obama and the Democratic Party took over in January 2009. It is self-defeating rhetoric.
NYT today:
“Politically, however, the president is, in effect, daring Republicans to oppose the plan, in that way proving Democrats’ contention that they will block even their own ideas to deny Mr. Obama any victories. And by proposing business tax breaks that, according to nonpartisan analyses, would do more to stimulate the economy than extending the Bush tax rates for the wealthy, Mr. Obama hopes to buttress Democrats’ opposition to extending those rates.”
Over and again the President has cited RepubliCON ideas he has adopted, in the health insurance reform bill, the stimulus package, the small business stimulation package, tax breaks over stimulus spending and on and on. So how can he and Democrats blame the low information voter for concluding that if the Democrats with a majority cannot deliver RepubliCON policies, then the best thing to do is vote RepubliCONS into the majority. Then they will send the President what he apparently wants to do anyway, which is adopt a bunch of RepubliCON policies.
Crediting RepubliCONS with anything is nuts, not for the poor voter, but for Democrats. We cannot blame the voter if THEY think the RepubliCONS have all kinds of good ideas. The PRESIDENT says over and again that they do, they just won’t vote for them while Democrats are in charge.
This practice has to change, and change now. Reid needs to come back and put the Senate in session every day and night until ALL the judgeship positions are filled. If the RepubliCONS believe in law and order, then refuse to put the judges in so that the system will work, then obviously they are a bunch of frauds and liars about wanting to protect the public.
The House needs to say if RepubliCONS are willing to run up a huge unfunded deficit by extending tax cuts to millionaires forever, then extending unemployment insurance and funding educational shortfalls in the states over the next 10 years is just as important, to DEMOCRATS at least. That would get those teachers rehired in states that are afraid next year’s cuts are going to be worse than this year’s. And if RepubliCONS think it’s okay to run up deficits when they are in charge, and okay to run up deficits to pay off their friends and funders, then their concern over Democrats spending money to put people back to work is a fraud and lie.
Democrats need to say charging interest rates at 8 percent or more on student loans is just wrong. It is roughly double the rate of mortgage. But isn’t a good education just as important, or even more important, than a house? The Democrats should propose that school loan rates should be fixed at the same level as mortgage rates. Second, after 10 years of payments the rates should be dropped to zero. Any service in the military or as a teacher or working for government in a frontline first responder service capacity (healthcare, police, fire) should see a one year of service, one year of forgiveness of student loans. That will fire up the young voters to come to the polls. And it will convince them Democrats care about their future, not the damn stock market index.
Democrats need to demonstrate without any question that THEY HAVE THE IDEAS while all the RepubliCONS have is excuses and rehashed Bushonomics ideas that caused the mess in the first place. Democrats have to assert, again and again, that the RepubliCONS are CON ARTISTS who want to CON the American people again out of the American dream and hand it over to Wall Street for securitization. Democrats need to say Bush and Paulson and the RepubliCONS were the ones that handed 800 billion dollars, no questions asked, to the banks and Wall Street. And the House needs to launch investigations now, issue a bunch of subpoenas for bankers to testify about TARP and other subpoenas to testify about all the fraud in Iraq under Bush and every other case of RepubliCON fraud, and make sure the news cycle is all Democrats investigating RepubliCON fraud all the time.
And call them by their name. They are not the Loyal opposition with good ideas. They are CON ARTISTS. Their name is RepubliCON. And we should make that label: RepubliCON just as prominent as their label of the “Democrat Party” instead of the Democratic Party.
If Democrats don’t come out fighting for Democratic ideas, don’t blame the voter. Because as long as Obama and Democrats have this nutty strategy of crediting RepubliCONS with good ideas, then the voters are going to draw their own conclusions about what needs to be done to get us out of the Second RepubliCON Great Depression. It is very unclear to them that Democrats are the ones with the ideas, the intentions, and the backbone to get the job done. And if Democrats don't demonstrate they will fight for what they supposedly believe needs to be done, then Democrats cannot blame the voters for trying to find someone who will. Quit beating ourselves up, and focus on the RepubliCONS who are lying frauds trying to CON the American voter one more time.