Congrats, Democrats! It takes tremendous skill to singlehandedly imperil a Congressional majority

[villager]

...and return bargaining power to a political party that has been spending the last five years circling the drain.


Congratulations, Senate Dems!!!
by Steve Singiser


Tue Dec 15, 2009

Before we begin what I suspect will be a furious attempt to rebrand the reported "compromise" (read: capitulation) on health care as the most meaningful piece of progressive legislation since ever, I think Senate Democrats deserve recognition for doing something that most thought would have been impossible--crafting health care legislation that will, ultimately, please no one.

The Democratic base is going to voice strong objections, because instead of taking bold steps in the face of a health care crisis, you allowed a guy that spent 2008 campaigning for a Republican presidential nominee to have unilateral veto power over the legislation (the optics of that aspect of this story could not possibly be worse).

Good luck getting that base to the polls in 2010. Their motivation to keep or expand a Democratic majority looks like it was rendered meaningless.

Worse yet, the months of dithering on the bill accomplished the worst possible scenario: the whiplash effect of raising, and then subsequently lowering, expectations. The neverending litany of mixed messages coming from both the Senate and the White House left the left-of-center Democratic base with false hopes that emanated from the false starts of those entities, who vacillated between bold and contemptibly timid.

The GOP, for what it is worth, was always through with you, despite your numerous attempts to find ways to please them and appeal to them. This will still get scant, if any, Republican votes, no matter how much the bill was neutered in response to their criticism. And they will still, after all this, find ways to call you dangerous socialists about 23,000 times between now and November of 2010.

The "independent voter", meanwhile, has seen the spectacle of the past several months. They have seen Senate Democrats, "led" by their Majority Leader, adopt six different bargaining positions a day, where reports of negotiation (and/or capitulation) were met with an immediate forceful denial from some spokesperson, only to be confirmed within hours.

They have concluded that Democrats cannot govern worth a damn. They may well be right.

<snip>

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/14/814214/-Congratulations,-Senate-Dems!!!

[joeybee12]

1. Dems don't always lose because they're too conservative or too liberal...

...they're too spineless, and no one wants to vote for something who doesn't stand for something, FOR ANYTHING!

[Zodiak]

3. And unfortunately that includes me

Cowardice turns my stomach....it turns ALL Americans' stomachs, or at least it should.

[winyanstaz]

5. sorry but I believe you are very much mistaken...

They are standing for something. For their pocketbooks and for their Corporate Masters..and they are good at it too.

[rudy23]

2. I think the Dems were freaked out that for '09 and '10 they'd have to deliver to the people

How do you tell all those people that it's not really their job, now that they don't have a Repub. majority to blame anymore?

AWK-WARD!

[FormerDittoHead]

4. Should we cut out the middle men & vote Republican if they're going to be calling the shots anyway?

"Democrats cannot govern worth a damn"

That is the point.

WHY would moderates and Independents vote Democrat when the Dems will be just doing what the Republicans want anyway?

At least with Republicans you know what you'll be getting. The Democrats tell you a different thing every day, then just do what the Republicans want or even worse.

Maybe they'll think, Democrats are better in being in the minority to check the excesses of Republicans, but ultimately, if we're to get something done in Washington, the Democrats aren't up for the job.

I'm saddened to think that they don't see this...

[democracy1st]

6. K & R

[knixphan]

7. or we start really supporting

...progressive primary challengers in our districts.

I can't vote republican, that's nuts. But I can work to boot out my blue dog. (Which I have volunteered to do).

[wuvuj]

8. We the people...many without jobs...

...might have to get out our wallets and support campaigns AGAINST the worst offenders...like Lieberman?

Take the trash out...one by one.

A new party won't likely get anywhere before the world ends...by war or by famine?

[natrat]

9. if the electorate were made up of politically aware people things might work out

but with the millions spent on a bought off media there is very little chance that a stupid population can hit the right buttons in the voting booth. And to add another layer of impossibility the dems have tellingly done nothing to fix e voting.