Friggin Democrats

The performance of the US Democrat over the past year has been utterly abysmal. Judging from their performance, no one could have guessed that they won the 2008 election with 53% of the vote and majorities in both houses. They have allowed the Republicans (who have never been more extreme/insane and fragmented then at the current time) to obstruct their entire legislative agenda and have not laid a figure on them in retaliation. Sure, a large part of the problem is systemic; the fact that a “super” majority of 60 is required to pass anything in the Senate and the loss of the Massachusetts senate seat in January gave the Republicans what is effectively a 41-59 majority.

It is worth remembering though, that Bush jnr. when in power did not have anything like a 59-41 majority in the senate, yet he was able to pass more or less whatever he wanted. Bush scraped through in the highly controversial 2000 election and embarked on a highly partisan legislative agenda. The Democrats felt obliged to pass his legislation as Bush after all was the President, and it was the wisdom at the time that it would be political suicide to deliberately obstruct the President on partisan grounds. Fast forward eight years after the most unpopular Presidency of modern times with the economy tanking and Republican disapproval at an all time high, the Republicans make the political decision to obstruct all of President Obama’s legislative agenda for the base reason of denying him a political victory.

This obstructionism has exposed the Republicans to the charge of putting their partisan interests before those of the country, perhaps most cogently when they voted against funding for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq in December… if only the Democrats had the brains to actually capitalize on it. If Democrats had opposed troop funding during George Bush’s presidency you can be assured that the Republicans would be running attack ads lambasting the Democrats for putting their partisan self-interest ahead of the well-being of the troops. So why are the Democrats incapable of returning the favor?

This example perfectly illustrates the political ineptness that has resulted in the Democrats failing to pass a single piece of major legislation (save for the stimulus package), and consequently pissing off their support base, scaring away independent voters and galvanizing the Republican base.

Having gone three months without a post, I will now unleash several short(ish) rambling tirades in a short space of time.
Coming up: (1) Why the Healthcare bill has failed to attract popular support – and the strategy that could have (probably would’ve) worked. (2) The politics of authenticity – how a politician tries to demonstrate to an audience that they’re not actually a politican but they’re actually one of us. (3) Why the mainstream press/public are voyeuristic creeps and Tiger Woods deserves better.