Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory
In
this season of political neglect it is, perhaps, only too easy to
constantly focus on each new outrage in relentless purging of democracy
at the hands of the Republican Party. However, with this post, MeanMesa will "turn the lamp"
just a bit to focus on the concurrent shambles of the Democratic Party,
an admittedly already quit dull blade amid what swords remain to right
the ship.
Very much more about the Republicans would, at this juncture, be essentially irrelevant. The "Grand Oligarch Party" has made itself into a whisp, a gaseous sort of unpleasantness made tolerably palatable only by its continuing decline.
There are no "conservative"
ground swells languishing over the horizon to sweep the miscreants into
office again. The GOP's dismal outcome in the 2012 election left the
wreckage of the Party hanging from a narrowing thread of gerrymandering
assisted only slightly by the lesser "election crimes" the overly arrogant state level zealots have dared to impose on the growing number of their disenfranchised victims.
One
would think that when the field of battle is now so quiet following the
political suicide on one of the opposing armies, those opposing
survivors would rush to make solid their coincidental opportunity. Not
the case.
The Democrats have, rather than exploit their
good fortune, turned their sand dials back to the very same mindless,
passion-less, 1950's irrelevancy, the same pointless fantasy and
retrograde nightmare which has enamored the Republicans so much. Now,
the only combatants left standing, that is, the Democrats, have
hypnotized themselves into a political coma with an unlikely and
unworkable -- and shockingly artificial -- civility.
They have, instead, decided to "fiddle as Rome burns."
The Pretend World of the Invisible Democrats
Probably
as a result of casual neglect, the modern Democratic Party -- along
with its policy interests -- finds itself attempting to conduct politics
without the benefit of media. American voters essentially stare into a
media void when their fickle curiosity occasionally leads them to
inquire about the Democratic Party's agenda.
The six
corporations which control 90% of the domestic commercial media share
very few of the ambitions of the Democratic Party or the vast majority
of the American people. Not even the speeches of the President are
commonly presented in full as "news worthy." Instead, the most
inflammatory -- and often the least factual -- utterances of Republicans
fill the minutes and hours of what was previously considered more
balanced "coverage."
The "directed interest" editorial
policies of corporate networks shouldn't surprise anyone. Between the
inevitable phone calls from oligarchs' think tanks and the constant
influence of the largest commercial advertising purchasers, the behavior
of these corporations -- including the highly engineered subtlety of
their perpetual bias -- is to be expected.
Corporate
media propaganda naturally reflects the interests of those owning the
corporations, and those interests predictable coincide with the wealth
redistribution obsession of the Republican Party.
Dig
out your stop watches. Record the air time minutes of interviews or
speeches delivered by Democrats with the corresponding minutes of
comment or rebuttal by Republicans. The Democrats are effectively
invisible.
Immediately, we move to the next
proposition, that is, that the Democrats, having forfeited any possible
political advantage from a persuasive media exposure have no effective
means to restore their media presence in an unregulated, hostile
corporate industry. The corporate ownership of Congressional minorities
precludes any legislative remedy -- especially when those well funded
minority caucuses are now firmly in control of Congressional agendas in
both the House and the Senate.
Not entirely pure
victims in this disaster, the Democrats have contributed their own part
to the destruction of any sort of balanced "Fourth Estate."
While Republican tea bags have been quite dependable in their role of
inane utterances, generally without fact, as incendiary fodder to their
hill billy base, the Democrats have apparently cast a solemn vow to
remain just as "ignorable" as the tea bags have been flammable.
Why
would we expect that the corporate media would waste time covering
politics in which no media consumers are interested? Congressional
Democratic policy has long ago ceased to provide that interest, any news
captivating enough to tempt the corporate media editors or even any
legislative results notable enough to peek any particular interest among
the mindless hordes being dutifully frightened by the right every
night.
If that kind of "interesting" policy were, in fact, moving quietly around in the "back circles"
of the Washington Democrats, it still wouldn't matter. The Republican
minority remains firmly in command of the Senate with record numbers of
filibusters, and the House hasn't passed any legislation which could,
even conceivably, benefit any American family with a yearly income less
that $200,000.
The American people are under attack
from the oligarchs' puppets in the Congress. That's nothing new. But
now the Democrats are now "sleeping, full steam ahead" to lose the 2014 mid-term elections, permanently cementing "minority rule" into the future political structure of what's left of the country after the Republicans finished looting it the last time.
Although it clearly didn't matter much, MeanMesa campaigned for both of the Democrats currently representing New Mexico in the US Senate. As a result of this, "news"
arrives regularly concerning the legislative work being undertaken by
these two. In the last week Senator Udall has informed New Mexicans
that he has proposed a fiber optic cable network to serve the state and
that he is "concerned" about government surveillance, etc.
In the past -- that is, in better days -- such positions would have been acceptable as the day to day work of a Senator.
These are not "better days."
These
are also NOT the issues being burned into the hides of the majority of
Americans at the moment. We don't care about this stuff -- at least not right now.
We know that Democratic Senators are unable to legislate anything which will benefit their constituencies. We understand that.
What we can't understand is what world do these Senators inhabit?
MeanMesa
has collected just a few typical posts from Face Book, nothing special,
nothing particularly note worthy, but a few things which typify the
daily conversations between average Americans. Have a look.
GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?
 |
| Settle for 2nd worst? (source: UNICEF] |
GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?
 |
| 1956 [source: Republican Party] |
GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?
 |
| Representative Government? Two Party system? |
GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?
 |
| Just another "economic correction?" |
So let’s see, Bush..
- Started 2 wars, which have cost American taxpayers well over $1 trillion
- Cut taxes, which reduced the revenue being brought in by the federal government to pay our bills, creating giant deficits
- Used accounting tricks to push much of the costs for both wars to the end of his presidency so the next President would have to deal with them
- Passed 3 different stimulus bills totalling hundreds of billions of dollars
- Passed Medicare Part D, again totalling hundreds of billions of dollars
- Deregulated Wall Street, leading to rampant corruption—which was the driving force behind our economic collapse
- Bailed out Wall Street by passing the TARP bailout, also totalling hundreds of billions of dollars
- Left office with a national debt nearly double what it was when he took office and destroyed a balanced budget in the process
In other words, Bush created a catastrophe the likes of which the
world has never seen before. This economic crash didn’t just take out
our economy, it put most of the world’s leading economies into a
recession.
GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?
 |
| Democrats just "standing by" for more of THIS? |
GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?
 |
| These people are still willing to even show their faces at an election? |
MeanMesa's Message to Elected Democrats
When the elected Democrats do nothing with this wind fall of political opportunity, alleged people such as RNC Chairman Reinze Preibus can continue -- with a straight face -- talking about winning the entire Congress in 2014 and the Presidency in 2016.
This man and this Party shouldn't be able to file for a parking permit in Washington D.C. after what they've done -- to us!
After what they've done to the entire industrialized world.
Now, you Democratic Senators complain, if the voters knew this, they might stop voting against their own interests by electing these losers. But here on the ground with the other little people, this isn't what's happening. Instead, Democratic Senators are stumbling along as if everything is just fine, as if everything will -- sooner or later -- simply return to "normal."
You Democratic Senators find great comfort in the excuse that your "message just isn't getting out." You're right with the "message is just not getting out" part, but you're dead wrong with the "comfort" part.
The billionaires are slaughtering us. The country is plunging into poverty. The children are hungry. Wages are in the tank. Voters are losing the right to vote. Unions have become illegal in a third of the states of the union. The banksters are careening to new highs of wealth, income and power. The government is controlled by a savage minority Party that didn't win the elections to hold that power.
All while, Senator Udall is working diligently on the fiber optic cable network and is "concerned" about NSA spying. This won't do. It's not just Senator Udall, either -- all the Democrats are invisible.
Haven't any of you been to Face Book lately? Have you been so busy collecting skanky campaign contributions and hiding under your desks that you've missed the picture of what it's like out here?
The Republican Party should be eating three meals a day from a steady, straight diet of George W. Bush's record. The wars. The debt. The torture. The hatred. The poverty. The hunger. The 2008 Depression. The unemployment. The untended infrastructure.
The class war.
Nobodies like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell should be in such a relentless state of political terror as to not have a single night's sleep. They stink, but Democrats say nothing. As their Party rips the ballots from the hands of Americans in their gerrymandered elections, Democrats say nothing. As their unfortunate states attack women with language -- and laws -- which wouldn't have been acceptable dinner table talk three decades ago, Democrats say nothing.
As their heavily soiled, corporate fascist Supreme Court plunges one anti-democracy dagger after another into the belly of our nation, the Democrats say nothing.
Afraid to Listen to Us?
By the way, we are the majority.
What do Democratic voters want from elected Democrats in Congress?
Open your damned mouths. Don't blather any longer about "bi-partisan solutions" or "reaching across the aisle." Every time this happens, we get hit again. There isn't anything for us "across the aisle." Haven't you been paying attention?
Support our President. He's the only one left we can count on now that you have all hidden under your buckets. In the rare "interviews" of elected Democrats it's as if you've never heard of him.
Fix the damned economy. If the billionaires block the way, villify them. They've deserved open combat with the elected government for a long time.
Call out the racists and misogynists. They don't belong in front of a microphone -- or in a governor's mansion beyond Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
Repair the elections. No excuses. We can't do it, so it's going to be up to you.
Take some risks. Quit being frightened mice. The Republicans have really stepped in it this time.
Jump 'em while they're down. Go ahead.
A MeanMesa Conclusion
We may need different Democrats.
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