What do DADT repeal, unemployment extension, and the START Treaty have in common?
They don't threaten even one CEO's bonus this year. These accomplishments were allowed ONLY after extending the ruinous tax cuts imposed by Bush (who could only get them by using the reconciliation process).
Financial reform, you say? Largely a bonanza for the largest banks. They are bigger than ever, gobbling up the smaller, failing banks. They weren't touched. Health care reform? A giant win for big pharma and the medical industrial complex. Their unsustainable system has been propped up by government subsidies for another decade. Another decade of insane profits and bonuses, and still millions will be uninsured, and my rates continue to rise at a pace way above inflation - or my salary.
Entitlement reform is next. There are two ways to fix the looming problem with Social Security and Medicaid: 1. Make the rich pay back the money they took out of it already, or 2. take it from you and me, and kick us in the face while they're at it. Gee, which way do you suppose our DEMOCRATIC president will go?
And that is the key. How will the Dems proceed on the question of SS and Medicaid? If recent history is a guide, we are fucked. Those bastards will sell us out quick. They will tell us to look forward, have adult conversations, and sacrifice. They won't tell the richest 2% that, just the hard-working families of this great republic. And this is why it is so, so, so important to fight the Democrats in 2011.
Wait a minute, you say, fight the Democrats? Aren't they the good guys?
No. Or, maybe...some. But if they continue to favor the interests of the richest 2% to the detriment, and perhaps ruination of the vast majority of us, then we must fight 'em. And fight 'em hard.
But the Republicans are much worse! They obstruct and block all of our legislation, and generally fuck things up in government. Yes, they do. And, from their standpoint, that is what they are supposed to do. They are the opposition party. They are, by and large, opposed to Democratic (or progressive, or liberal) policy. THEIR JOB is to oppose this Democratic majority, and this President. To do otherwise would be a violation of the trust their voters put to them.
We can argue about their tactics, and even their ethics, but "Boner" and McConnell are fighting for those they represent. And, for the last 30 years or so, they represent Christian conservatives, big business and white men and women who fear their loss of status in a demographically changing America. Those folks and others have elected Republicans to carry out an anti-Democratic agenda. Look, these Republicans are horrible, fuck-faced fuckers, but they are doing what they are supposed to do - shilling 100% for multi-national corporations and their CEOs.
But shouldn't we fight the rich? Those evil corporations who have bought our politicians? We can, in terms of choosing where we spend our money, but otherwise...no. And anyway, corporations aren't necessarily evil. Nor are they good. They are amoral entities.
Corporations are charged with making the maximum profits possible for their shareholders. That is not only their fiduciary obligation, it is their legal duty. Corporations, and their ultra-wealthy CEOs do what they can to enrich themselves, because that's what they are supposed to do. It is the GOVERNMENT's job to check their abuses. (Which is, by the way, why it makes so much sense for them to buy our representatives.)
When big banks commit fraud, when big oil pollutes, when coal mines kill, government is supposed to step up on our behalf. Elected representative are supposed to make laws, and regulators and the justice department are supposed to enforce laws and regulations. Don't blame corporations - blame your government. Look, if the fines are less than the profits, the risks much less than the rewards, then it makes perfect sense to plunder and pollute. If there are no consequences, because you own the lawmakers, why not rape and pillage the nation?
So, government is supposed to protect us, and we want pro-middle and working class policies to be enacted by government. We want equality, opportunity and a clean environment. We need representatives who will fight for these policies. If only we had a political party that had a platform that spoke to these issues.
Oh, yeah...we do. The Democratic Party, thank god. That was sarcasm, if you didn't pick up on that.
The Democrats have sold out a good part of the way. The way Max Baucus ran health care from firmly inside the insurance companies' boxers, the way Chris Dodd had his tongue all the way down the back of Wall Street's pants, the way Obama met with Billy Tauzin to let him write an even more egregious pharmaceutical law than he did for Bush; shows that many of the Democratic leaders also represent the top 2%. They are not on our side.
What we need, for our representative democracy to work for us, is some representatives who are on our side. We need representatives who fight for policy that benefits the 98% over the 2%. These representatives are supposed to be in the Democratic party. And that's why we need to fight them. We need to fight the Democrats this year - to go full-blown tea party on them - until they realize that they are done in politics if they don't start fighting for us.
The rich look out for themselves, the Republicans look out for the rich, and that makes sense. What doesn't make sense is for the Democrats to look out for the rich too. Democratic representatives who do not fight for an economy and an environment that is friendly to working families needs to be primaried hard. This absolutely includes President Obama.
Primary elections are made for changing the guard within the party. It makes zero sense to accept all of one party, and at least half of the other pulling both oars for 2% of the population. Let's take the Democrats back by primarying the shit out of them.
The Republicans did it a little bit in 2010. Let's do it massively in 2012, and let it be known in 2011, represent US, or else.
Primary NOW!
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