The Exponential Idiocy of 'Moderate' Democrats
Belief:
Why I Want to Turn Religious People Into Atheists
Greta Christina
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
Don't Fear the Deficit Bogeyman
John Miller
DrugReporter:
The War on Weed: Marijuana Is Basically Harmless -- The Monumentally Stupid Drug War Is Not
Jim Hightower
Environment:
White House Garden Won't Make Up for Obama's Nomination of Pesticide Lobbyist for US Chief Agriculture Negotiator
Jill Richardson
Food:
Don't Be Scared of Food: Are We Being Needlessly Hysterical About Food Safety?
David E. Gumpert
Health and Wellness:
47,000 Women Could Die As a Result of the New Mammogram Guidelines
George Lakoff
Immigration:
Hate Group, FAIR, Is Looking for "Ethnically Ambiguous" Actors to Amplify Its Racism
Adam Luna
Media and Technology:
The Memory Scrub About Why Ft. Hood Happened Is Almost Complete ... If It Weren't for Archives
Mark Ames
Movie Mix:
The Yes Men: Pranksters Out to Fix the World
Mark Engler
Politics:
White House's Ties to Health Care Industry Deeper Than Visitor Records Show
Daniela Perdomo
Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Why Can't We Look Away From Sarah Palin?
Vanessa Richmond
Rights and Liberties:
Citing "National Defense Needs," Obama Administration Says it Won't Sign Ban on Land Mines
Amy Goodman
Sex and Relationships:
Hot Mormon Muffins and Models for Jesus: What's With All the Sexy Christians?
Liz Langley
Take Action:
G-20 Meetings: Nothing Much Happened in the Suites, and There Was Too Much Punch in the Streets
Laura Flanders
Water:
Poseidon's Financial Shell Game: Why Is a Private Desalination Plant Asking for Public Money?
Peter Gleick
World:
Is Obama Following in the Footsteps of Bill Clinton?
Jeff Cohen
There is nothing more revolting than the "moderate" Democratic Senators and Reps who do whatever they think is necessary -- i.e. vote against progressive reform -- to keep their stupid jobs on the premise that, if they don't, a Republican might grab the seat and, I dunno, vote exactly the same way or something.
So they vote like Republicans to keep their job, as if it that D behind their names is itself providing some sort of benefit to people. Um, nope. That D doesn't make a goddamn bit of difference if the person whose name it follows doesn't vote like one.
But there's this persistent idea that just having Democrats in Congress is important, an idea that seems positively intractable even when (some of) those Democrats vote like Republicans and avoid reform to stay in office.
Even when they got into office by promising reform.
So actual progress just keeps getting kicked down the road by people who say they can't risk their seats by voting for reform or else real reform will never happen, and who continually count on the fact that no one ever notices the giant snake eating its own tail.
They're masking naked self-interest behind a promise of reform they'll never deliver, because they care more about keeping their jobs than just enacting reform and, yeah, maybe losing their jobs but having actually accomplished something in exchange.
See more stories tagged with: congress, democrats, republicans, gop, health reform, moderate democrats
Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.
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