If you're wondering why the Democrats in Congress act like such nervous nellies, you need to take a look in the mirror. If you had such skittish supporters, you'd be nervous, too. The Republicans don't have that problem. Their authoritarian culture, not to mention their alternate reality in which tax cuts = stimulus and torture yields useful information, guarantee a lockstep, zombie army.
The Democrats, on the other hand, have you, which means they can't count on shit.
I'm watching the left blogsphere collectively shit itself today over the stimulus package and I have to wonder if you're ever going to learn. Perhaps the Daschle thing is coloring your perception. Or maybe you thought that Democrats would rule like the Republicans did prior to 2007, even though that was, you know, wrong. Or perhaps we're still gun-shy after over a decade of conservative dominance in politics, a dominance that persists in our corporate media.
But the stimulus package negotiations are taking place in a specific strategic situation. The left blogsphere does not seem to know that.
Some of you seem to think that the Democrats are being pushed around like they always did, forgetting that it's the Democrats who are in the position of having to ask for Republican and Blue Dog support. But acting like you have impervious majorities when you don't only guarantees that you won't get the support you need. It's easy for the Senate Republicans to be brash. They have to bang the table to get anything. The Democrats, on the other hand, have to go hat-in-hand. If this is not emotionally satisfying for you remember: this is not the entertainment industry.
Second, those of you who are spoiling for a filibuster fight don't seem to understand what the White House is after. Stimulus is going to be a long-term process. That's what the CBO says, and that's what Obama says he wants to do. In part, that's why infrastructure spending isn't as big a part as some armchair economists had expected. It's not that Obama has let you down or that Reid is a wimp. You just don't know what you're talking about. We're going to be here, time and again, trying to get all kinds of spending. And if it does come to a filibuster fight, a very public one, then it's best to have looked like the reasonable guy fighting the fanatics. We are in that position and will not lose that advantage. You can thank the Democrats later.
But if we were to follow the urges of those of you who seem to think that this is nothing but a dick-waving contest, we would blow all our political capital on one bill, we would own it and it us, and when the economy doesn't magically improve by next year (it won't), you'd be stuck. When Obama came back for the next round of stimulus, there would be no one willing to cross over and make that possible. This approach is what's known as "stupid." See also "fail."
Both the political and the economic challenges are long-term. Our political and economic thinking must be as well.
Third, why in the wide world of fuck are you people acting like this is the Last. Spending. Bill. Evar? Remember Pelosi's money for contraception? It's going to find another vehicle. Says who? The Speaker of the fothermucking house, that's who. Spending must travel through the most labor-intensive industries possible in order to be effective as stimulus, and America is a target-rich environment.
Finally, I've seen some people publicly washing their hands of the Democrats, the President, the blah blah blah. Perfect. Perfect for the Republicans, anyway.
There are useful applications of the left blogsphere and I'm happy to say that I've been able to detect then here and there. The pushback on calls and email to the Hill. Very good, needs more. The pushback on the corporate media, which promotes a Republican majority on TV that does not exist in the real world. Pour on your scorn. (The only reason Mika still has a platform to push bimbo economics is because that dingy bint was squeezed out of the right cooch. There's no ability under that hair at all.) The pushback on the Republicans' fantasy world, which only shows why they've been rejected by the American people. The taxcuts they're pushing, again, as they try to emancipate the investor class from the country they don't give a damn about. I'm not saying we should resemble the right's zombie army, I'm just telling you that your propensity to bid a cruel world farewell each and every time you don't get instant gratification explains why the Democrats are having to be so careful. Right now, they have to fight the Republicans and you.
Mitch McConnell thanks you for being a useful fuckwit.
We are trying to change the entire political paradigm for the most powerful country on earth right now. We're trying to go from a conventional wisdom that said monetary policy could do everything because investment bankers would put that money in productive places, to a conventional wisdom that recognizes the creative power of our collective investment (which right now is only OK for the military). Reid is not the problem.
There are a lot of things that could be done over and better, but we don't have those options now. I'm not going to tell anyone they have to fall in line, but what I cannot abide are people who whine because they're clueless, or haven't thought it through, or haven't got what they wanted, or who were never on board in the first place, all of whom are helping the wrong people control the debate.
If you think it sucks today, blame yourself.
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