The Democratic base has convinced itself that the problem is that Obama has not succeeded in passing health care legislation and other items on his agenda. The possibility that their agenda is being rejected by voters never enters their minds.
Here’s a pretty good analysis of where the Democratic Party stands, by Sam Stein at HuffPo:
Senator Evan Bayh’s abrupt announcement on Monday that he will retire at the end of his term has further united disparate voices within the Democratic Party behind the idea that legislative action is the only remedy to avoid future political calamity.
In the wake of the Indiana Democrat’s announcement, a host of figures — from the progressive wing of the party to devout centrists — have chimed in to warn that failure in jobs and health care legislation have sapped the party’s momentum and fortunes.
The ever reliable Steve Benen reflects the call in the Democratic base for a full steam ahead approach:
And what of Republican obstructionism and the Senate’s inability to hold up-or-down votes? Health care can and should be completed through reconciliation, so the GOP’s intransigence is irrelevant. Indeed, reconciliation has to be considered as much as humanly possible…. 2010 can, in other words, be a strong year. It just might take a little audacity.
Yeah, do reconciliation to pass overwhelmingly unpopular Democratic health care proposals. That’s the answer. It sure is easier than admitting that 2008 was not the mandate you thought it was, and that the American people don’t want what you are selling.
These people are so deep down in the ideological hole they’re willing to keep digging with their hands when the shovel breaks.
As I’ve said before, keep it up, we can’t do it without you.
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Related Posts:
Daddy, When You Were A Kid Were There Really Moderate Democrats?
Now Evan Bayh Is “Immoral”
Hey Evan, Turns Out The Base Wasn’t That Into You
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Comments
I think by over focusing on the polyps the left is missing the bigger picture here.
This is simply mind-boggling. What a bunch of complete dullards they all are. But I agree, I hope they keep telling themselves and each other these logic-defying fantasies . . . best thing to happen for conservatives since Carter.
This is of a piece with progressivism, though – if you believe that we're on an inevitable train of forward progress, then the solution to *anything* is to change things, to do things. By definition, to roll back anything or to make anything even remotely resemble the way things were at any point in the past represents, by definition, a regression – and thus anathema.
Further, I think many progressives labor under a sort of psychological projection, that everyone else must, of course, think exactly like them. This then leads to the belief that they must be seen to be *doing* something (since action is progress, ipso facto), and that any dim or ill view of their proposals stems from the fact that they've not done it soon enough or quickly enough.
Of course, the question of whether or how what they want would actually *work*… pfssh, what a mundane, boring, *unenlightened* question! Who wants to talk about that!?
Their audacity has sure helped most American citizens clarify exactly where they stand politically, and it is not with the far left.
"Having lost sight of the objective, we endeavoured to redouble our efforts."
Famous last words.
Of course even Lawrence O'Donnell, a former Finance Cte Chief of Staff, says that reconciliation would be impossible for health care, since reconciliation is used only for tax and budget items and not for ab initio programs. Reconciliation would mean going through the 2000+ pages of the Health Care monstrosity sentence by sentence and if only one Republican would object that the sentence has no tax nor budget relevance, it would be thrown out of the bill. It would take two months and the finished product would look like Swiss cheese with more holes than actual substance. [I believe it is called the "Byrd Rule" after the Dems most ancient Senator.]
Of course, nanowits like Benen and the JournoList cadres toss aside procedural niceties and Senate rules as if they were not important, another indication that these Pied Pipers are leading their brain-deprived base [the so-called "reality-based community"] out of town and up the river.
We should applaud the efforts of Sam Stein and Benen…..
What planet are these people from. I really wish they'd return there and leave us alone. Forever.
Audacity of Dopes.
This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 2/17/2010, at The Unreligious Right