Will the Dems Ever Grow a Spine?

Posted by Jill C., Brilliant at Breakfast at 11:28 AM on July 9, 2009.

Can you imagine if the Republicans had the White House, the House of Representatives, and a 60-vote majority in the Senate?

We would have an evangelical theocracy and thermonuclear war with Iran AND North Korea right about now. Wouldn't that be swell?

But instead the Democrats have this kind of power, and they're STILL curled up in a fetal position in the corner, waiting for Newt Gingrich to steal their lunch money:

Senate Democrats spent their first full day holding 60 votes just as they have spent the previous 2 1/2 years without such a supermajority: scrambling to find Republican support for their key initiatives in order to choke off potential filibusters.

 

In short, Tuesday's seating of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) did little to change the balance of power in the chamber.

Democrats have a large enough majority to pass bills without any GOP support, but they are grappling with internal divisions on key issues such as health care, climate change and union organizing. In addition, caucus leaders and President Obama would like at least some Republican backing on key measures so they can say they are enacting a bipartisan agenda, which then-Sen. Obama made a cornerstone of his 2008 campaign.

This is what happens when you listen to David Broder and the rest of the Washington press idiots who are hedging their bets in the current power structure and still sucking up to Republicans "just in case." Republicans are ruthless and brutal, and Democrats are wusses. It's really become that simple. Does anyone recall any effort whatsoever during the Bush years to seek "bipartisanship"? My recollection is eight years of "My way or the highway" and "You're with us or you're with the terrorists."

Bipartisanship is a laudable goal, but it requires intelligent people of goodwill to agree to disagree -- but compromise to get to a goal. The Republicans have shown themselves completely and utterly unwilling to compromise on anything at all. The Republican agenda is to destroy this presidency and regain power in 2012, if not sooner. Yet this agenda, in poll after poll, has been soundly rejected by the American people. So why continue to compromise with people with whom there is no compromise?

Here's what capitulation to Republicans gets you:

President Barack Obama gets a lackluster 49 - 44 percent approval rating in Ohio, considered by many to be the most important swing state in a presidential election, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This is President Obama's lowest approval rating in any national or statewide Quinnipiac University poll since he was inaugurated and is down from 62 - 31 percent in a May 6 survey.

Ohio is a prototypical rust belt state reeling from unemployment. These poll numbers are not because Obama is "too liberal", it's because of his capitulation to the Republican Wall Street money guys, his stacking his economic team with the likes of Tim Geithner and Larry Summers -- guys who have continued the noble Bush tradition of stuffing the pockets of their Wall Street buddies with cash instead of getting money into the pockets of Americans who are seeing their job base not just shrink but disappear.

Here's what capitulation to the Republicans will get us:

President Jeb Bush.

Or even still President Sarah Palin. When people have no jobs, no money, no hope, and no future, they're ripe for the picking by demagogues with agendas that are all about hate and scapegoating. Republican economic doctrine has failed miserably. So why are the Democrats still cringing and waiting to get slapped again?

Tagged as: democrats

Jill Hussein C. blogs at Brilliant at Breakfast.