I've seen an onslaught of articles recently which hammer away at President Obama and the Democratic members of Congress. E.g. the cost of the President's vacation, the cost of the minority leader's vacation, the number of times the President has played golf, the number of christmas trees in the White House, the inclusion of the first family's dog in their Xmas card, the mentioning of Kwanzaa by the President, etc., etc.
I suppose it's election season after all and everything is fair game, but each one of these negative stories about the Democrats makes one thing glaringly obvious. Something is missing from the discussion. Namely, anything positive about the Republicans.
Where are all of the articles supporting the achievements made by the Republicans in Congress? Last election they ran on Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, and now it's Crickets, Crickets, Crickets. Why aren't they espousing their tactics used during the debt ceiling standoff? Why aren't they standing firm behind their notion that raising taxes on the working poor isn't one of the "bad" forms of raising taxes? Where is the pride in obstructing the nomination of nearly every federally appointed judge?
This admission that Republican policies are an abject failure can be seen in the candidates themselves - Newt Gingrich hasn't held office for over a decade, Romney hasn't been Governor for 4 years. None of the candidates are current members of the Upper Chamber of Congress, and the one who was, Rick Santorum, left office before the housing and unemployment crunch. Essentially the Republican primary field consists of politicians who are, by design, able to deny responsibility for the behavior of the Republican party. Notably absent are Congressional leaders Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, or Eric Cantor. No prominent luminaries like Bloomberg, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush.
Back in the 70's there was a slogan that went: Say something good about America. It would be nice if we could apply that sentiment to the field of Republican Presidential candidates, but it seems impossible to do. The Republican establishment is unable to find anything positive to say about their party or their candidates and that apathy has spread to the electorate. 4 out of 10 Republican voters are dissatisfied with the current list of candidates, while 8 out of 10 say they could change their minds about whom to support.
So the next time you see something frivolous about the Democrats being examined, ask yourself where are the articles in support of the Republicans.