General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)After listening to Obama's statement on the midterms, it seems like this is the situation he wanted [View all]
all along.
Even when he had both chambers of Congress at the start of his presidency, he talked and made proposals as if Democrats were in the minority, and was far quicker to criticize the progressive wing of the Democratic Party than Republicans.
If that sounds crazy, consider how Andrew Cuomo is governing in New York. The Working Families Party gave him their endorsement in part by getting him to promise to work to elect a Democratic majority state senate.
Think about that: a third party had to bargain to get a Democratic governor to work for a fully democratic state legislature. Shouldn't that be automatic?
And he didn't even keep that promise that shouldn't have been necessary in the first place.
Instead, Cuomo has worked with Republicans and adopted some of the policies wholesale, like privatization of K-12 public education (Obama has as well).
On ebola, he is literally following the Republican playbook.
That seems to be the DLC way. A lot of what Bill Clinton got done during his administration were neoliberal policies, most of which Republicans could love.
Obama and Mitch McConnell have already had a love fest on trade deals that average Americans across the political spectrum loathe.
The DLCers seem to be embarrassed when their own party controls the legislature because they can't pretend the Republicans are forcing them to enact policies that hurt average Americans.
So they do as little as possible, this time helped by Republican obstruction, until the Republicans regain the majority.
And then they have the perfect illusion of checks and balances, and excuse to "compromise," which is really capitulation to the corporate agenda.
I don't think Obama is going to become "Dr. No," and wield the veto pen, nor do I think Democrats in the Senate will be one-tenth or even one one-hundredth the obstruction Republicans have been.
Instead, a few will put up token opposition, definitely sincere from a very few, but the rest will relax, knowing that the natural order has been restored.
