I haven't posted for a good while and to be honest, I haven't read dk regularly for some time. This budget fiasco has really got me pondering national politics for the first time in a good while.
Maybe I've totally missed it but it doesn't seem like Democrats know what the correct strategic response to this thing is (threaten defense spending?!?!?). Either that, or anybody with any sense is keeping mum until the bill is enrolled. So here it is...
The first thing to point out is that there are 18 more months of this bullshit. Don't take this vote as a sign that there will be anything but batshit insane maneuvers by the teaparty to force the adoption of reactionary policy.
While Democrats have the option of waiting it out and then making a pretty convincing case to voters in 2012 that they're the party of "Not Batshit Insane", this place could sure get messy by then. I'm well aware that it's easier to run on your opponent's record but it never means good things for the nation.
Instead, we could fight fire with fire. The far right has demonstrated that they would rather cast the entire nation into the toilet before they would give up on their wild eyed vision of America. Will the left really refuse to step on a few toes? If the Republicans are willing to put the good faith of the nation on the line, Democrats should be willing to give up their own misguided sense of "fair play".
How many planks on the Democratic platform are unfulfilled? How many awesome liberal ideas could the President unilaterally adopt? How much foot dragging could be waived?
Want an example? Take immigration. Liberals mostly think that it's silly to call someone's existence illegal and that immigration built this country. Conservatives think that all brown people should be sent back to their country of origin unless they are Native Americans, in which case they should be kept on their reservations.
A moderate, reasonable course of action as a nation would be to create a path to citizenship that is arduous and full of fines. A reactionary policy would be to deport all the brown people. A liberal policy would be to grant an amnesty to anybody who can demonstrate good character.
We just got hosed in a budget battle. If we keep fighting budget battles, we're going to keep getting hosed. If we soak those bastards on immigration (or anything else), maybe they'll stop holding congress hostage with their wild-eyed bullshit.
The sooner we punch back, the more it will sting. I'm hoping that today, Barack Obama signs this Debt "Compromise" right along with granting amnesty to all the amazing, decent and even half-decent undocumented Americans living in this country. Taken together, it would end up a pretty moderate day in America.
Peace and Struggle
Jon Koller
Detroit
#AmnestyToday