Jim Hightower: We're Mad as Hell and the Dems Aren't Listening

[babylonsister]

We're Mad as Hell and the Dems Aren't Listening

By Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown. Posted January 14, 2008.

The Democrats' fizzle in the face of the power-grabbing Bush administration is doing serious damage to America's political psyche.


What I am hearing from across the country is a surge of angst and discouragement. In conversations, calls, emails, and letters, people in general (and progressives in particular) are expressing profound dismay at the deterioration of America's democracy, not only because of the BushCheney regime, but also, and especially, because of the fecklessness of the Democratic Congress.

"For crying out loud! Why do we even bother to have elections?" Mark wailed in an email.

I am afraid of what this country has become and that at any minute the people in charge may bomb Iran, and I have lost all hope that there will be any checks and balances," Marshaleigh wrote, adding bluntly, "Congress doesn't work."

Jay bemoaned the dismal performance of Congress in this letter to the editor: "Despite the 2006 congressional elections and the overwhelming antiwar sentiment among our citizens... have become enablers of the White House's misbegotten Iraq venture."

Susan wrote, "What little optimism I had is vanishing. I am much more overwhelmed by the Democratic party's lack of gumption than I was by Bush's wickedness. And the small ideas offered by the presidential candidates make me cringe. I need help."

The damage now being done to America's political psyche by the Democrats' fizzle is way out of the ordinary. These writers are smart, engaged, committed people who are not easily surprised or discouraged by negative political developments. They constitute the grassroots base of progressive activism in our country, and it is truly worrisome that even they are becoming dispirited -- especially as we head into a watershed election year.

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