It is now near the end of 2007 the first year the democratic party has controlled both houses of congress since 1993 and a good time to evaluate the past year.
I am not sure how to say this in a more kind and less offensive way so I am just going to come out and say it - we are pretty fucked right about now. It seems the more important the issue is to the electorate, the more likely the democratically-controlled congress is going to capitulate to the Bush administration and with it their constituency of neocons, crooks, and zealots.
The sad thing is that we are not in this predicament because of the failures of the republican party (which there is so many one could write volumes) but the failure of the democratic leadership in passing any substantial legislation for the people of the United States at all.
The democratic party was elected to the majority of both chambers of congress in 2006 because of one main factor: Iraq. Iraq has become the 800-pound gorilla in the room and is arguably one of the biggest blemishes on this nation’s history and standing, and the public saw the democratic party as the only way to end this debacle and reign in Bush.
According to this poll (warning: PDF) back in January, 45% of the people polled wanted the new congress to focus on Iraq compared to the second most common answer, the economy, at only 7%.
And then you have this other poll (warning: PDF) from back in March that found that 59% of ALL Americans wanted legislation calling for a troop pullout from Iraq by August 2008. 59%! That is not some small group of extremists or some fringe group, but the majority of the American public.
So what is the newly-elected democratic leadership to do? A wise person would choose to give the public what they expected and get us the fuck out of Iraq. Well, to their credit they did give it one good shot only to have Mr. 24% approval rating veto it.
But since this high-point in their tenure, it has been all downhill with the majority party acting more like a timid schoolboy afraid to get some bumps or scrapes on the playground than the party that was elected to change the direction of the country.
Should the democrats be surprised when under their leadership that congress has a record-low 11% approval rating when they constantly let people down?
Just last month Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Democrats won’t approve more money for the Iraq war this year unless President Bush agrees to begin bringing troops home. And what does our democratically-controlled congress say today? Here’s another $70 billion George! Yes, that’s right. They capitulated yet AGAIN to not only give the worst president in US history more funding for the most expensive and worst foreign policy disaster in United States history, but they also are going to do so without any conditions.
Capitulation goes beyond Iraq too. Today there was MASSIVE capitulation on an update to the FISA bill, this time giving telecom companies that illegally cooperated with the Bush administration’s domestic spy program (with some assistance coming BEFORE 9/11) retroactive immunity. This is basically a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card for all these multi-billion dollar telecoms who willingly and knowingly were breaking the law.
Where is the oversight? Where is the accountability? Where is the action? Where is the outrage?
If this blatant disregard for the electorate’s wishes had happened 100 years ago there would be a revolution. But in today’s society of iPods, reality TV, MySpace, it seems that apathy is running at an all-time high.
So I guess the question is what do we do now? I have no fucking clue, but moving seems like such a good option at times.
–Jon
UPDATE: Looks like Senator Dodd’s threat of a filibuster against fellow democrats on the FISA bill worked and forced Harry Reid to table the bill until January. Kudos to Senator Dodd for standing up for what’s right.
Also here is a snippet of a zinger from Senator Ted Kennedy which basically sums up why this bill with retroactive immunity for the telecoms is BS:
The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retro-active immunity. No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he’s willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.