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This piece originally appeared on January 22nd, 2010 on the MikesAndDislikes site here and on the website of local Vancouver paper The Georgia Straight here.
I'm a loser, I'm a loser,
And I'm not what I appear to be
- The Beatles (written by John Lennon), "I'm A Loser"
Is it just me or are the Democrats a pathetic bunch of losers who are too spineless to stand up forcefully for anything they believe in?
Well, I know it's not just me because Jon Stewart did a great piece on them earlier this week in which he pointed out, with much-deserved contempt, that they still have 59 out of 100 seats in the Senate, yet they act as if they'll now be incapable of doing anything at all because they've lost their 60-seat filibuster-proof majority.
To listen to the Democrats (and the media) talk, after the loss this week of Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat in Massachusetts to Republican Scott Brown there's almost nothing they can accomplish now. They've lost all power and control. They've lost their ability to govern. The Republicans are once more back in charge in Washington. And just one year into Obama's mandate too. Oh my, what on earth are they going to do?
Well, they could, as the saying goes, grow a pair.
As Stewart so rightly pointed out, the Republicans haven't had a 59-seat majority in the Senate since the 1920s, yet they have absolutely no problem ramming all sorts of nasty stuff through both houses of Congress whenever they have their man in the White House.
Did Ronald Reagan or George Dubya Bush ever care what the opposition thought as they rammed their agendas through both houses of Congress? Hell no! For the most part, they did just what they pleased. They forced radical right-wing change on the country and launched all sorts of foreign policy escapades throughout the world.
And, amazingly, while Reagan was in power the Republicans never once controlled both houses of Congress, yet he was still able to force through his "Reagan Revolution" with relative ease.
Not Barack Obama, he can't force through a thing, even though his party does, in fact, enjoy big majorities in both houses of Congress. The man seems obsessed with bipartisanship and compromise above all else, even if it means accomplishing nothing.
No matter what he does, no matter how far he moves to the right in an attempt to win them over, the Republicans always vote en bloc against him. But he keeps on dreaming that they'll come around to the whole idea of compromise.
Well, I think everyone, except Obama and his inner circle, can see that the Republicans have no interest in compromise. I mean, everyone can see this, right? Come on Obama! I mean, WTF?
The guy's way too smart to be this stupid!
The Republicans tell him he has to move to the center and after he compromises and moves closer to their position they all vote against him. He's a bit like Charlie Brown and that infamous football. When will he stop being so naive? When will he stop being such a pushover?
Obama's First Year
