The perception among the American people is that the Republicans swept this election. That’s true but not completely accurate. Every one of the last four Presidents who served two terms lost members of the House and Senate for their parties in second term elections but there is a much more important reason why the Republicans trampled the Democrats in this one. The Democrats gave it away. They got their brains beat out because they didn’t use those brains and therefore had no reason to keep them intact.
What am I talking about here? I’m talking about almost an entire party that had so much to claim as their platform but whose only attack point was that the other guys stink. It may be true, but it was far from enough. The Republicans had three points to make. We know how to create more jobs, the President is incompetent and the nation has no foreign policy and because of that, we are the only ones who know how to defend the homeland. These are basically incorrect propositions and indefensible in the light of evidence but the Democrats, instead of attacking them with logic and their own issues, sat back and proclaimed: “We’re not them”. Okay, so who the hell are you?
When Obama said that this election was going to be fought on the principles and programs that he stood for, the cowards in his party, like Allison Grimes, disavowed him. Instead of seeing the moral and political worth of his policies, explaining those policies to their constituents and fighting along side of him for them, they copped. And of course they lost anyway.
The Republicans actually stand for issues, destructive issues like less gun control, more religion in our politics, bigger wars to support the military industrial complex, America for Americans, (read “whites”), and lower taxes on the rich. Most of these are indefensible platforms but the Republicans repeated them over and over and defended them to the end, when they finally convinced the old white population that actually voted, that they were the guys for them. That same old white population that turned out to vote Republican doesn’t seem able to understand that the guys they voted into office will try to cut social security, healthcare and any of the social programs that are supporting those old white folks whose pensions have already disappeared because of the actions of a group of congressmen who have already been bought and paid for by the corporate structure.
The Democrats, with a platform of immigration reform, wider health care, higher minimum wage, more jobs through infrastructure improvement, better schools, lower student loan rates, and an improved environment, stood behind nothing except, “They didn’t get anything done in the last six years.” This was true but not close to enough.
Young voters, along with blacks and Hispanics stayed home in droves. Even in places like my election district in NYC. I counted heads while I was voting. One black couple, four people who looked like they might be Hispanic and six people who looked under forty but zero who looked under 21. That’s out of 96 voters who were there while I was. Sure, outside of the black couple these are guesses but that’s a pretty pathetic turnout for what is a staunchly liberal district.
What is even more interesting is that the white voters who made up the vast majority of those I saw are by national standards upper middle class to low rich. That’s just who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. They’re not that well off by NY standards but they certainly are by national standards and that means that they will be the least affected by what happens in Washington. . The ones who will be most affected, blacks looking for more equality, Hispanics looking for improved immigration policies, both looking for a higher minimum wage, young people looking for better opportunity, lower student loan rates and an environment that will allow life on the planet to continue as they mature, all didn’t show up. Why?
Because the Democrats were too cowardly to fight the good fight for these essential programs, that’s why. The Democrats were too lazy, unprepared, and stupid to make it a fight and so they lost by knockout in the first round. Democratic candidates in Red or purple states didn’t want Obama to campaign for them and stayed away from Obama’s programs but those programs are the only thing that gets young and minority voters revved up and so they just stayed home and of the twenty percent of the population that voted, most of them were old white people who had nothing better to do that day then show up at the polls and see which of their old friends were still alive. Most of older people are more conservative and you can see the result.
Once again the issues that dominated the electoral choices from the Right, were gay marriage, abortion, and immigrants flooding across the border, none of which are really significant in most peoples lives but which are all culturally sensitive for those who are against them. Jobs, the stock market and the environment and taxes, issues that define us all, were high as important issues in all polls but not at the ballot box.
Mitch McConnell came out with a conciliatory speech in his first talk as Senate Majority leader. It was a little surprising considering he had just gone six years saying only that he wanted Obama out and spending those six years blocking every bit of legislation that tried to help the American people. As he made that speech the Tea Party’s heads caught on fire. They still want to stop everything, shut down the government and generally cripple the country. What kind of moron votes for these clowns who just want to make their constituents lives miserable?
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There has been a great deal of talk about what will happen with immigration. The president has said that unless congress moves on it before the first of the year he will make some moves through executive order. This has gotten the Republican’s balls in an uproar But unless they are dumber than they look they will understand that all they have to do is pass some legislation and the executive order will go away. So what all the Tea party noise comes down to is a smoke screen. They are being as dishonest and as obstructionist as they have always been. Oh, and by the way, the right wing noise about border security is just that; empty noise. Our southern border is more secure that most borders in the world and we already spend far too much money to keep it that way. That’s money that the Right doesn’t want to collect in taxes because it cuts into their wealthy supporters bottom line. None of these clowns seems to understand that you can’t have it both ways.
The Republicans who met with Obama the other day are whining that his move on immigration will make it harder for them to get anything done. How much harder can it get? Congress hasn’t done anything on immigration in forty years and hasn’t done anything at all in six. Can they possibly do less? Maybe if they showed some initiative, Obama wouldn’t have to threaten action on his own, every time a problem needs solving. Maybe if they were willing to do something, anything to solve any problem they would be worth their salaries.
The Republicans say they will not cooperate with a President who takes things in his own hands. When the hell have they ever cooperated with him? Their whole policy is built on obstruction and doing absolutely nothing. Until that changes nothing will get done regardless what the President does.
I watched Daryl Issa talk about how the President has to cooperate with the GOP to get an immigration law passed. But the President has been cooperating all along. He has never vetoed a single immigration bill. Of course the Right has never presented one to him for veto because they have never passed one. So who’s to blame, pretty obviously the guys who didn’t craft a bill.
So the reality of the current situation is this; the President wants healthcare left alone. He knows that the GOP has tried and failed over fifty times to quash it. They say they are going to try again but he doesn’t sulk and say that if they try it again he will not sign any bills that they get through both houses of congress. On the other hand the President has tried for years to get an immigration bill. Boehner told him two years ago that he could get one through the House and it still hasn’t happened. So Obama says that if they don’t get a bill on his desk by Jan 1, he is going to do what he can to solve some of the problems of immigration. The Republicans, who have failed utterly to get anything passed, say that if he does that they will shut down all cooperation. What cooperation? Who’s being a man here and who’s being an asshole?