There has always (apparently) been a section of the Republican Party who has been convinced that the "left" is trying to steal America from them and .... what... turn their children into Commies? There was the McCarthy era, the John Birch Society, even the KKK. Now we can add to that group the Dominists, who themselves actually trying to take over America in the name of God.
Last night I watched Ana Marie Cox stand in for Rachel Maddow. She made a point that the Democrats are doing a very good job of kiling health care reform and quoted Lee Atwater who was quoting Napolean when he said "never interfere with a party when it is in the process of destroying itself". Robert Reich then came on and pointed out that the republicans may have done well at screaming matches but that was before that was taken over by the blue dogs.
He was right about the blue dogs siding with the republicans for no reason that I can see except cash. I can tell you for sure that if the President had his way he would have dropped the word "bipartisan" a few months ago. But I thought Reich had some nerve as he has not exactly been the intellectual voice we so desperately need. The President could be it-- if he wasn't being screamed down by every single group in America. I see racist overtones in every action of the blue dogs and someone needs to call them out about it.
While I understand how people feel, that it is time we stood up for ourselves, it is time we do what republicans will not. In the past the nut wing side of the Republican party (when it was a big R) always had people who set the agenda, the tone for the party. Even we Democrats could agree with some of what they said. They were often referred to as "humanist" Republicans. One of these was William F. Buckley, Jr. There is a video on You Tube of Buckley http://www.youtube.com/...
that is pure delight to watch. He spoke of countries suffering because of circumstances beyond their control and said that we clearly had a duty to give aid and comfort to and then he discussed the difference between getting involved in a nation to open Coca Cola plants vs other types of involvement that used Christianity to cover a more evil intent. If you compare this conversation to what you hear from even the most intellectual republican today it feels like we are in an alternate universe. Actually intellectual republican seems like an oxymoron.
So, we must realize that the intellectual republican is gone. The problem is that unless people pay a great deal of attention to politics they do not realize that the republican party is gone. These people are the ones, I fear, who became Independents during the last election because they were not going to elect Sarah Palin to anything. These people are my neighbors. They remember a time when they were taxed at a 70% rate and they are unwilling to go back to that time. So they hear two things when they get their sound bite news today. First they hear that the Democrats want to spend all the money they can, make government so big that it cannot be upheld unless they are again taxed at 70% and then they hear republicans say that they will cut taxes and freeze spending.
These "new Inde's" are completely unaware that Bobby Jindal would, if he could, dumb down an entire generation of children, and more generations if possible. They find it absurd that the Christian right plans to take over by building, from the bottom up, a nation of children who do not know anything outside of creationism. They do not know that there is not a single republican leader who would be for stem cell research.
These are not bad people. You do not hear them using phrases like "lazy freeloaders on welfare" and if they heard someone say something racist that person would be shunned as ignorant and crude. I live in a condo with two former CEO's of America's largest banks and a man whose grandfather founded the largest soft drink company in America. How I ended up here is a long story but suffice it to say, it was not wealth. I am the poor kid on the block. But again, these are decent people and I am included as they would never hurt anyone's feelings. When I say "they" I mean Republicans who switched parties either to vote for President Obama or to Independent as they were not quite sure what the significance of Sarah Palin was, but they knew it was not good.
But they are going to vote republican next time. They see the democrats infighting, they saw the town halls with the screamers, concluded that they were not people to be taken seriously and turned them off. The interesting thing is that they all (but one) voted for President Obama. Now when they get their New York Times they see that Paul Krugman thinks that Obama can't do anything right. They watch Meet the Press and the moderator treats the Demorcats like they are idiots.
This country is desperate for an intellectual voice. It is desperate for someone with the bravery to stand up and say that the republicans have been infiltrated with nothing but Sarah Palins and Michelle Bachmanns. I wish that someone on the left had decided to rise above the fray and be the intellectual voice. I wish that every single person who writes about the President didn't take the low road. Why have we let Glenn Beck set the bar? It is disgusting and we are in the mud with them. We can pull together and change the national direction by 2010 or we can lose and we will see a lot more creationism taught in schools, and gay people and people of color will be set back
100 years.
The polls show that about 47% of the people now agree with the republican platform of lower taxes and spending freezes. It is unthinkable to me that we have let this happen. Our alternative is better. We do not plan to drive taxes through the roof. But people are convinced that we lack direction and purpose. In fact it has been every single republican administration that has driven up deficits and every Democratic administration that brought them down. The biggest increase in government came from George W. Bush. These Independents and Republicans that we are losing know that. They have not forgotten, in eight months, what Bush did to their retirement plans. In fact there are now very nervous people in this building.
But in the absence of a combined voice, a combined message they will follow the party that at least seems to have that. As Anna Marie Cox observed all the republicans have to do is stand back and watch us tear each other apart. We should be calling the Senate office of every blue dog Senator right now and tell him to get on board with the President by Monday night, or we will see that he loses that seat no matter where he lives. We can start with Evan Bayh who went on Fox News to announce the creation of Blue Dogs in the Senate. They are directly standing in the way of the Public Option. They have said NO to the President, he does NOT have the votes in the Senate and the House will only accept a public option. There is no victory there. We have to move one or the other. I do not recall one single person telling what it costs us now to cover the uninsured at emergency rooms and through medicaid. Although it should be made clear that medicaid is the childrens program and must be left alone until we have an alternative.
You know what President Obama did... the impossible. He brought this country back from the brink of destruction. Even an idiot knows the last thing to recover is jobs and shame on Krugman if he uses jobs to say bad things about President Obama. We have the biggest victory in history. THE BIGGEST VICTORY IN HISTORY. And do we shove it in Glenn Becks face. We do not mention it every time we get on TV, we complain. And I have news... Bush left hundreds of evangelicals in places of power who can make a decision to send a Black Water Xe back in but do we blame that on Bush? No. What is it about Democrats that we cannot celebrate our victories? Do you know that by 2010 we could have a public option and DADT would be gone. It would give the military time to deal with the evangelicals who are taught that it is "of God" to hate homosexuals.
Now you have a choice. You can be the intellectual voice. Go listen to the tape of William F. Buckley, Jr. He founded the National Review. His son Christopher wrote an article for the review about why he liked Obama and they accepted his resignation rather than print it. It was an earthquake in the republican party. It was the death of intellectualism and it went unnoticed. Did anyone invite him over to our side? If he is not writing on Daily Kos that is the greatest shame of all.