No one seems to understand why Democrats won control of Congress, and if they refuse to learn, they will only have themselves to blame if they end up back in the minority.
First of all why did Independents (media speak for people that decide at the last minute who to vote for) decide to rid us of a Republican Congress?
Those that say “Corruption” and “Iraq” are sort of on the right track. However these were symptoms of the disease – and Independents voted for a cure, not a pill to make the symptoms feel better.
Read the list and perhaps you will also draw what seems to me to be a rather obvious conclusion as to what tipped the balance (and remember that in many places that tipping consisted of less than 1% of voters).
1/Iraq is a quagmire, dissolving into civil war. Republican’s answer to this – call anyone who suggests we do something different a coward, then make some inane comment about Iraqi insurgents having the ability to wage intercontinental war on America (fighting them over there instead of here). Blame the media for being liberally biased because they told on us, then pass a new bankruptcy law written for the exclusive benefit of credit card corporates.
2/Katrina. Republican’s answer to this – pretend we didn’t know it would happen, pretend we didn’t know it is happening, then pretend Brownie is doing a heck of a job. Blame the media for being liberally biased because they told on us, then pass a bill that gives Pharmaceutical corporates billions of dollars.
3/Corruption, Lobbyist Scandals, Special Interests, all of that. Republican’s answer – say we’re going to clean up our act, make lots of impressive sound bites on cable news networks – then do nothing (are you seeing a pattern yet?), oh and blame the news for being liberally biased because they told on us, then attempt to pass a bill that fouls the constitution with discrimination.
4/Healthcare. Republican’s answer – say socialized medicine is not for us, importing drugs from Canada and the Far East is dangerous (they’re mostly made in those countries anyway, but only the pharmaceutical corporates know how to safely post drugs to the US from overseas). Blame the media for being liberally biased because they told on us, then attempt to pass a bill that makes it illegal to burn flags.
5/Gas and Heating prices skyrocket. Republican’s answer – we should really stop being dependent on foreign oil and we can fix this by spending the next ten years fucking over Alaska. Blame the media for being liberally biased because they told on us, then pass a bill that gives multi-billion dollar tax credits to the oil corporates.
6/Education down the toilet. Republican’s answer – teachers and schools are to blame. Blame the media for being liberally biased for telling on us, then pass a bill that forces financially crippled States to fund meaningless tests, whilst at the same time suggesting its okay to foul our children’s’ education by injecting religion into science classes.
7/Torture. Republican’s answer – Yes we know everyone we’ve tortured so far happens to be innocent, but gosh darn it, supposing they were trying to set off a nuclear bomb in New York, you’d be for it then wouldn’t you. Pass a law that allows spineless, unprincipled cowards an attempt to appease terrorists by abandoning support for human rights and ripping up the Constitution. Blame Bill Clinton for 9/11, then suggest anyone not for torture is for nuking DC.
8/Abandoning the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.. Republican’s answer – suggest true freedom is protecting Americans by letting the NSA monitor their email and phone calls by the millions without a warrant. Blame the media for being liberally biased because they told on us, then try to force all the lawsuits filed against them to be thrown out of court on the grounds of it being in the interests of National Security.
This list is endless, I could go on and on. But the overriding issue that comes back every time is that Congress’ response to these problems was to make often moronic, partisan sound bites, blame the media for being liberal, then pass laws that benefit special interest donors to their party. Nothing passed by this outgoing Congress was of any benefit to the voting public whatsoever. Anything that could have been was poisoned with special interest additions, then watered down into toothless bullshit.
Independents saw this.
Donald Rumsfeld on Iraq.
“As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know.”
Dick Cheney on Wiretapping Americans.
“The biggest problem we've got right now, frankly...is all the public discussion about it. I think we have in fact probably done serious damage to our long-term capabilities in this area because it was printed first in the New York Times, and subsequently because there have been succeeding stories about it.”
These are the sort of statements that got Republicans fired.
New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel
“There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft, and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way.”
Brilliant – apparently you don’t understand your own species. Bush doesn’t give a shit who dies in Iraq, and presenting him with a larger army to invade additional countries is hardly the answer to stopping him from starting wars to benefit special interest corporate donors. So good one Rangel, at least you’re attempting to give us a good laugh before you get voted out of office.
Michigan Democrat Sen. Carl Levin
"You want to make the point to the Iraqis that, folks, you've got to take responsibility for your own country," said Levin, a Michigan Democrat. "We cannot do it for you."
You might have a point, if it wasn’t for the fact we blew the shit out of their country, invited thousands of crazy whack jobs to take the place of one crazy whack job (Hussein), then instead of re-building their country, spent three and a half years pouring billions of dollars into Halliburton and Bechtel - whose privatized security ran around shooting and abusing anyone looking too Arabish; effectively putting our real soldiers lives in jeopardy and being rewarded for it with wages that make those same soldiers’ pay look like minimum wage.
IF, and only IF, Pelosi lives up to her promise of trying to pass bills that actually benefit those that gave Democrats control of Congress, they might cling to power. However if they run around making stupid statements like those above, then do nothing to at least TRY to help those that voted for them, they shouldn’t be surprised to find themselves back in the minority next time around.