Clinton got a second shot in 1996, ran as a moderate Republican, and got impeached for his troubles anyway. It was about petty revenge and putting them in their place, them being anyone who wasn't drinking the Limbaugh Kool-Aid. That got us Dubya and things got even worse from there.
Sully has this comment from a reader:
I'm with you in thinking that Obama is the best thing the Democrats have going for them right now. But I also think that in having the supermajority, they actually undercut him. They don't have to compromise and so they don't try to. Instead, what passes as legislation is a horrid mismash of corporate interests and traditional, not progressive, balms of the Democratic Party. I know this country can do much, much better. And I think Obama needs a less powerful Democratic party to make it happen, like Clinton did.Now, I used to be this guy. In 1994 I would have agreed with him, and in 1996 I would have used the same logic to keep Clinton in the White House (and did.) But 2000 turned into a nightmare, and 2004 I voted for Kerry because the GOP was broken. 2008 cemented me into the Democrats in this stage of my life...not because I think they are good, but because allowing the Republicans control of the country right now will destroy us.
This guy is basically blaming the Democrats for not passing health care, when the reality is health care reform took a year because the Republicans had no reasons to vote no other than the purely political, to convince people like Sully's reader here to vote for the Republicans to keep the country on a centrist course.
I can see why the reader thinks like he does: over the last 30 years we've been told centrism is the only true course, and if you're not a centrist, well, you must be a Dirty F'ckin' Liberal Hippie. He doesn't want to vote for the Teabaggers, but voting for the Dems right now is no longer centrist, no longer a correctional vote. It's taking a side. And millions of Americans in the middle don't want to do that.
I'm here to tell you this time, you have to. If you don't, the alternative is razor-blade dangerous hardcore insanity rather than inept corruption. And the "centrism" in this country will become GOP nihilism.
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2 comments:
The emailer is a classic concern troll. He/she claims the Democrats have not tried to compromise. That is utter BS. The HCR legislation is nothing but compromise. It is a start but it is by no means a progressive bill. The problem isn't that the Dems haven't compromised with Republicans, its that the R's have not offered anything of substance to compromise with. The D's are the ones who came up with the idea of cutting out some of the redundant costs in Medicare (something the Republicans tried to do for years!) and the R's turned around to use that as an argument AGAINST the bill. Had the R's been serious they could have easily had tort reform in this bill. But they are not a serious opposition party and this "centrist" is a phony. You don't get rid of corporate centrists by electing a Republicans.
What can I say that you or your commenter haven't already covered? Only when you start paying attention to the fact that Republican outrage never results in the victory they promise. Instead we get requests for more, are asked to overlook more, and are told ever more lies about the other side being the REAL scary people.
I think people who haven't had to question the reality of what they were casting their votes for are now seeing what you describe. A successful legislation (jobs bill, HCR, financial regulation) period for 2010 will seal the Dems in 2 branches for the next generation of voters. Maybe the GOP will gut themselves in the process and let some reason re-enter their ranks.
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