E.J. Dionne: Why the Democrats Are Losing

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



Why the Democrats Are Losing

Posted on Feb 17, 2010
By E.J. Dionne


If you want to be honest, face these facts: At this moment, President Barack Obama is losing, Democrats are losing and liberals are losing.

Who’s winning? Republicans, conservatives, the practitioners of obstruction and the tea party.

The two immediate causes for this state of affairs are a single election result in Massachusetts, and the way the United States Senate operates. What’s not responsible is the supposed failure of Obama and the Democrats to govern as “moderates.”

Pause to consider where we would be if a Democrat had won January’s Massachusetts Senate race. In all likelihood, health reform would be law, Democrats could have moved on to economic matters, and Obama would be seen as shrewd and successful.

But that’s not what happened, and Republican Scott Brown’s victory revealed real weaknesses on the progressive side: an Obama political apparatus asleep at the switch, huge Republican enthusiasm unmatched by Democratic determination, and a focused conservative campaign to discredit Obama’s ideas, notably his economic stimulus plan and the health care bill. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_the_democrats_are_losing_20100217/?ln

[depakid]

1. Count 'em: how many times can this tool repeat the so called "moderate" meme

in one short article?

[OKNancy]

2. I didn't get that at all

I didn't feel he was repeating the moderate meme at all, to the contrary.

[troubledamerican]

7. I totally agree. E.J.'s always been a tool.

[yurbud]

8. he SLAMMED the ''moderates'' as the problem:

The dreadful Senate is a major culprit here, and that’s why Sen. Evan Bayh’s complaints in explaining his retirement rang partly true, but also partly false. What’s true is that the Senate isn’t working. What’s false is that there is no room for moderation. The fact is that the legislative outcomes on both the stimulus and health care were driven by moderates.

Economists agree that the stimulus worked, but Senate moderates made it less effective by shrinking its size and including irrelevancies—notably $70 billion to fix the alternative minimum tax—that did little to create jobs. The moderates got their way because the stimulus needed 60 votes, an absurd standard now that we have an ideologically polarized, parliamentary-style party system. We can waste time mourning that development, or we can recognize it and act accordingly.

On health care, months of delay in a futile quest for Republican support got the Democrats the worst of all worlds. The media gave them no credit for reaching out to the other side but did blame them for an ugly, gridlocked process.

The demands of moderate Democrats for concessions—remember the politically lethal Nebraska payoff for Sen. Ben Nelson?—made the process look even seamier. The bill’s conservative opponents shrewdly focused on such side issues and on made-up issues like the “death panels.”

[Joanne98]

3. Spot on!

[ixion]

4. Why? Clinton-esque "triangulation" and playing to the mythical "center"

'nuff said.

[yurbud]

9. that's what Dionne said

[DisgustedInMN]

5. Nonsense.

When the Democratic members of Congress and the President start working for We the People instead of We the Corporations, they will start "winning." Apparently, they, much like Republicans, are more interested in feathering their own nests than doing the right thing. One Senate loss means jackshit. The Repubs pushed through their agenda with MUCH smaller "majority." But then, they have spines.

[The Wizard]

6. Trying to get an honest debate

with a Republican is like trying to hold smoke or nail Jello to a wall.
The Administration wasted its resources and time playing the triangulation game with known enemies of the American people. Yes they are enemies, and if the Democrats don't start acting on the people's behalf instead of the well heeled lobbyists they deserve a good kick in the nads.
Too may excuses, not enough tangible results.
If you show up to a gun fight wearing boxing gloves you lose. People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan.
The time to brass knuckle the Senate Republicans and so called moderate Democrats is now.
Maybe they'll find their moral compass when the lobbyists stop filling their Swiss bank accounts, which will probably be never now that the felonious five on the Supreme Court handed over the remnants of our democracy to corporate bag men.

[yurbud]

10. Obama is too smart to think the GOP had anything constructive to bring to the table

he had some other agenda, either using them for political cover, trying to make them look bad, or stalling for time.