Rather than casting themselves as the party in power and highlighting the legislative "accomplishments" they produced, the Democrats strategy in the upcoming elections is to "warn that giving Republicans control of Congress would be akin to reelecting George W. Bush".[1]
Hmm. The last time anyone looked "W" was back in Texas cutting brush (or whatever it is that he actually does) and not a candidate running for anything.
But apparently the Democrat's strategy is to scare their true believers and wayward progressives into believing that the alternative to them in power is better than returning Republicans to run things in Congress. Interesting, is this "less is more" (or more is less) or scare the bejabbers out of the electorate with images of Bush and they'll come flocking back to you like they did in the past two elections?
Lest we forget, the "Dems" got control of Congress in 2006 and in 2008 reached a "filibuster" proof 60 members in the Senate, until Ted Kennedy died and the seat was captured by a Republican.
Also that year Barack Obama won a landslide victory running on "change you can believe in", raising hopes for an FDR type activist presidency, particularly with the worst recession since the 30's great depression going on and the country relieved that Bush/Chaney was finally gone from the scene. Expectations ran off the charts that the bright, articulate man in the White House would be the transformational man to do it. Plus he had significant majorities in Congress to pull it off.
Well, as we soon learned our expectations were unrealistic. Instead of a bold FDR we got Mr. Timidity who naively believed in his own persuasive ability of courting bipartisanship with those who would oppose him at every turn. Meanwhile "blue dogs" in his own party scuttled and watered down final legislation that "real" reform in health care, financial regulation and an economic package geared to rescue the jobless, reduce the foreclosure crisis and keep people in their homes was little "real" reform, even though it was cast as landmark breakthroughs, far reaching and significant. If these reforms were so far reaching and significant then why aren't the Democrats crowing and trumpeting their accomplishments?
That's just it; the accomplishments were all rather paltry while the country is still mired in joblessness. Meanwhile Wall Street whistles a tune Democrats used to call their own, "Happy days are here again".
No, the Democrats (unless there is a complete misreading on the part of this observer) are in for a spanking come November and they will have nobody to blame but themselves.
They've blown it and done it big time.
What's really interesting is the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are hardly part of the discussion, almost completely overlooked with the focus on domestic concerns. Maybe it's hard to say you're withdrawing from Iraq while 50,000 troops remain and the war in Afghanistan has become Obama's war with his troop escalations hardly changing the outcome as we sink deeper into the quagmire and which the majority of Americans no longer support. Plus there's a significant number of House Democrats that are openly opposed to this war and want us to end it. So better not bring focus on "these" issues.
So the Dems. decide to focus on Bush. Call it the Democrat "Shuffle Step" or the slight of hand game of looking for the missing pea under one of these three cups (or whatever "game" you prefer to call it).
For sure, Republicans, if they do return to majority control in one or both chambers in Congress won't bring anything positive to the table. They are ruthless, have no core principles and are interested solely in returning to power. What legislating they do has to do with tax cuts, their "solution" to all that ails this country.
What are really at the heart of our countries ills is that Democrats and Republicans both are sycophants beholden to big moneyed corporate and special interests that bankroll their elections. Until there is citizen funded elections in this country and corporate and special interest money is excised from the existing corrupting process, it doesn't matter which party is in power.
It's just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The people go down with the ship while "guess who" gets rescued in the lifeboats.
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