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Spineless Dems or a Dem-Trifecta Driven Filibuster-Proof Congress and a Media Carrot
By Rob Kall (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Rob Kall - Writer
The Burt Bacharach lyrics advise us to "hold him and love him."
Sorry Barack, sorry House and Senate-- no holding, no loving. I did my
thing in the voting booth and I've been writing and showing up, raising
my voice, and you're coming up short. Lately, that word, "spineless,"
has been creeping back on my tongue.
Spineless BLUE Jellyfish flickr image by I Love Milwaukee
The Dems in Congress were given incredible power by the American people and they've pissed it away.
David
Swanson's brilliant new book, Daybreak, must reading for any
progressive patriot, has a chapter title which describes the 111th Congress Democrats-- Voluntary Impotence. Castratos--
self-induced. When power is given, there is a responsibility to use it
wisely. That takes courage. It is cowardly-- spineless-- to not use it
at all.
Now I wasn't the one who pulled the S word out from the past. Bill Moyers
called the Dems spineless in describing how they're handling health
reform. How else could they be characterized, allowing a loudmouthed
minority of angry losers and a right wing echo-chamber, fueled and
funded by the insurance company and for-profit health care industry
EVERYONE knew would be there to foment fear and insecurity?
You
and I knew that the health care industry would spend billions to
protect their multi-trillion dollar industry. Why were Obama and the Dem
Trifecta team surprised by the toxic teabaggers and their lying messages
of fear? It's just plain bad leadership that is at fault. And part of
the reason for the failure is there are a lot of Dems who actually are
whores bought and paid for by the for-profit health industry-- like Max
Baucus. But he's not alone.
Over and over again we've seen
clear examples of congressional Democrats using right wing talking
points to criticize single payer plans. These legislators are not
ignorant. They've met with many single payer advocates and they know
the truth. They just choose to mouth the right wing talking points.
This is not the representation they were elected to perform.
The
good thing is, the Dems and Obama can regain their spines and start
doing the job we elected them to do. They gave more than lip-service to
the idea we now see was unrealistic-- working at achieving bi-partisan
agreement on the big issues.
The truth is, the American people massively rejected the right wing vision and gave Democrats the trifecta-- the perfect horror storm for Republicans-- control of the House, Senate and White House. And the (expletive deleted) spineless Dems
are throwing it away. More than anyone else, I blame Harry Reid. He has
failed to keep his house, or in this case, his Senate, in order,
allowing Max Baucus to produce a total clusterfuck in the Senate finance committee. It should never have been allowed to go so far. It is Reid's job to whip Baucus and the other Bluedog Dems in the Senate into acceptable compliance.
Bernie Sanders, on Rachel Maddow
last night, said it right. Those Dems need to work with the Dem Party
to block the Republican filibuster. That's all. They don't have to vote
for the bills they don't like. They can abstain or oppose them. But
they do have to help the Dems so they can hold up or down votes that
allow a simple majority to pass basic legislation. This should be a
given. This should be clear from the beginning. If Lieberman or Landrieu or Specter or Baucus don't like the health bill, they don't have to vote for it.
Ten
Democrats can abstain or vote against it and it will still be passed by
the Democratic caucus, with the Vice President breaking the tie. But
those moderate Dems MUST make it clear that they have demolished,
obliterated and wiped out the filibuster in the 111th Congress. Either they work with the Dems or they don't. If Baucus
and his "centrist" Dem cronies won't block the filibuster, what good
are they in the caucus? Tell them to guarantee a filibuster-proof Congress or go join the other side-- and lose his committee seat and
whatever other penalties can be applied to Montana, including a cut in
funding for Montana projects, wherever possible. Votes have
consequences-- for the constituents who send assholes to Washington and
the assholes who constipate progress.
Once we've gotten that
filibuster-proof Senate resolved, and the silly notion of bi-partisan
cooperation on health care out of the way, it's time to re-assess what
American needs. The fact is, for-profit health care is a parasite, a
cancer getting bigger and bigger, dragging down the US economy,
literally laying waste to and killing US industries. Obama's band-aid
approach to cobble together a public option doesn't cut it. We need the
same solution that EVERY other first world civilized nation has come
to. We need single payer health care. Repeated studies have shown that
it will save one to four trillion dollars over ten years, rather than
costing an extra trillion-- with medicare cuts.
That's right. We have to get Baucus and Landrieu and Lieberman and Specter, Bill Nelson and Claire McGaskill and others to not only block the filibuster, but allow 50 democratic senators and Joe Biden to pass the most momentuous,
most courageous, most moral bill America has seen since Lyndon Johnson
ended racism with his Great society and equal rights protections.
We've
given the Dems and Obama incredible power. As they've spinelessly
avoided using it, their numbers have descended lower and lower. Part of
the problem is Obama selected a ragged collection of DLC Dems from the
Clinton administration-- a failed administration that repeatedly sold
out Americans, signing the US up with the American-industry-destroying WTO
and NAFTA, trying to make Democrats look more and more like
Republicans. Obama may have had some rationale for starting with
experienced administration hands, but now, it's time to jettison them,
to replace them, like Moses replaced his leaders with people who'd
never lived under Egyptian slavery, with tough, strong leaders who
truly want change, who are willing to represent the people who gave the
Dems the Trifecta Majority. 
1 | 2
Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), President of Futurehealth, Inc, (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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