Anybody Got A Plan?
With the Republican party divided on issues and racked by scandal, one would think that Democrats would be licking their collective chops at the prospect of the fall elections. Twelve years after Newt congress's "Contract With America," congressional Republicans have shown themselves no better than the Democrats they replaced when it comes to controlling spending, controlling the size of government or even providing moral tone for the country.
With the Abramoff scandal and George Bush's increasingly unpopular and bloody little war dragging on, support for the Republican government continues to fall, and with more and more of Bush's earlier statements turning out to be demonstrable lies, the hole gets deeper and deeper.
So where are the Democrats?
Nowhere to be found, it would seem.
In news reports, we read nothing from the opposition about concrete plans to extricate ourselves from the Iraq quagmire, nothing about how we can re-create the budget surpluses of the '90s, not a single thing about how to keep our representatives hands out of the till. Is the opposition totally out of ideas?
It may play out that the Republican party manages to soil itself out of control in the House of Representatives, but they aren't getting any help in that goal from Democrats. All they are able to do is naysay the Republican program.
I have a few suggestions on issues that Democratic policy wonks could busy themselves on...how about...
....A concrete plan to contain health care costs while expanding coverage to all Americans...
...A concrete plan to make sure the top one percent of the money earners in the country pay a share of taxes commensurate with their degree of political control (after all, if they want to buy the government, they should be willing to pay a fair price)....
...A plan for oversight of government contracts and spending that ensures that nobody lines their pocket while in public office without spending a long time in a crowded, violent prison...
...A plan to restore civil liberties to all people under American governance...
...A plan to close the earnings gap between the richest and poorest Americans...
...A plan to reconsider the things we jail our citizens for, so we can relinquish the dubious honor of being the nation with the highest number of prisoners on the planet...
Please note that all of these ideas are prefaced with the phrase "a plan". Without solid ideas on how to achieve the goals that have been traditionally espoused by the Democrats, we are in for a muddy season of character assassination and obfuscation, and, worse yet, the possibility that the current gang of thieves will retain control of the finances and policies of our nation.
With the Abramoff scandal and George Bush's increasingly unpopular and bloody little war dragging on, support for the Republican government continues to fall, and with more and more of Bush's earlier statements turning out to be demonstrable lies, the hole gets deeper and deeper.
So where are the Democrats?
Nowhere to be found, it would seem.
In news reports, we read nothing from the opposition about concrete plans to extricate ourselves from the Iraq quagmire, nothing about how we can re-create the budget surpluses of the '90s, not a single thing about how to keep our representatives hands out of the till. Is the opposition totally out of ideas?
It may play out that the Republican party manages to soil itself out of control in the House of Representatives, but they aren't getting any help in that goal from Democrats. All they are able to do is naysay the Republican program.
I have a few suggestions on issues that Democratic policy wonks could busy themselves on...how about...
....A concrete plan to contain health care costs while expanding coverage to all Americans...
...A concrete plan to make sure the top one percent of the money earners in the country pay a share of taxes commensurate with their degree of political control (after all, if they want to buy the government, they should be willing to pay a fair price)....
...A plan for oversight of government contracts and spending that ensures that nobody lines their pocket while in public office without spending a long time in a crowded, violent prison...
...A plan to restore civil liberties to all people under American governance...
...A plan to close the earnings gap between the richest and poorest Americans...
...A plan to reconsider the things we jail our citizens for, so we can relinquish the dubious honor of being the nation with the highest number of prisoners on the planet...
Please note that all of these ideas are prefaced with the phrase "a plan". Without solid ideas on how to achieve the goals that have been traditionally espoused by the Democrats, we are in for a muddy season of character assassination and obfuscation, and, worse yet, the possibility that the current gang of thieves will retain control of the finances and policies of our nation.
posted by Drunkenrantz at 7:39 PM
1 Comments:
One of the biggest complaints I have about the Democratic party is their lack of direction. Their platform always seems to be "Vote for me because I'm not the other guy." If the Democratic Candidates do have plans, they won't reveal them until after they are elected, business as usual. As far as minimum wage goes, the Senate was to have voted on a bill last November, a day after the administration at Wal-Mart published a very clever reverse-psychological statement that went something like this: "Since Wal-Mart already pays all our employees at rates above minimum wage, raising the minimum wage will only hurt our competition." Deciding that they didn't want to vote on the bill, the Democratic Party senators opted to have a closed session of Congress, to investigate the 9/11 commission's findings. I agree that the party needs a direction.
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