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John Amato explains it as clearly as one can.
As we’ve been witnessing, the democratic process is broken in America and movement conservatism has corrupted our ability to govern. In any party there usually are different factions within that party. Some might be more moderate than others, but when a party wins a mandate in a general election they are usually allowed to govern.
That doesn’t apply when Republicans are out of power. Yes, we have terrible politicians manning the Democratic Congress, but it’s almost unprecedented when one party just votes no, so that even if you have a strong majority in the Senate, one Senator from the other side has the power to stop all legislation. So even if you’re in a huge minority, the filibuster can sink legislation or hold up personal appointments every time.
The media are feckless and ineffective. They love the fight game and are more interested in ratings and clashing personalities than they are in actually reporting the news. So they allow a minority party that was soundly trounced in two elections (2006,2008) to maintain their defiance to the American people. And then they blame it on the party differences within the Democratic Party.
And we can’t forget the conservative media that drives their narratives to millions of people a day. Fox News and AM talk radio do have a huge influence on the American people and the politicians in Congress, and they should never be ignored.
If Democrats in Congress behaved like the Republicans have after being trounced for the last four years, the media and the Village would be screaming bloody murder at them. The Washington Post led by David Broder would be lashing out every day: ‘How dare they be such obstructionists,” Broder would say, and all of his colleagues would follow suit.
It is difficult to imagine any scenario where any of this will change. Republicans have displayed an unprecedented and astounding shamelessness for dirty and hypocritical politics which is getting them exactly what they want – an unhappy and confused electorate tired of Washington politics. This, of course, plays right into their hands. A disenchanted public will take their anger out on the governing party.
Democrats need to just get it done and damn the consequences. They can start by passing health care by any legal means and let Republicans yell out in protest as they did for Medicare legislation half a century ago. Ignore them.
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I’ve made this point before; the dems are like children, and the repubs are like the parents. Any good parent knows that you should give your children 100% of what they need, but only 10% of what they want. That’s the attitude the repubs have to to take with the dems as they try to spend us all into the poorhouse. The problems is, the last time that the repubs where in charge, they acted like children with no adult supervision.
@Tommy; you said “The problems is, the last time that the repubs where in charge, they acted like children with no adult supervision.”
Which belies your theory Tommy about the Dems being like children and the Repubs being like parents.
Even bad parents can wake up Janine.
But Tommy you said the Republicans were acting like children, therefore, they can’t be parents. A lot of them are still acting like children in the terrible two’s saying “no no no no no”
And bad parents Tommy, rarely, if ever, wake up
The frat boys and sorority sisters that make up the GOP are spoiled brats. Bush is a classic example of what happens when a spoiled rich kid is elected: he makes a mess.
The Democrats had to clean house after both Reagan and Bush. The rhetoric of the GOP in the House and Senate is hardly adult.