In his secretly-recorded speech before a conclave of billionaires -- all gathered together under the aegis of the Koch brothers -- Mitch makes Mitt Romney seem like Michael Parenti. Here is what Mitch promises if Republicans control the Senate:
"And I assure you that in the spending bill, we will be pushing back against this bureaucracy by doing what’s called placing riders in the bill. No money can be spent to do this or to do that. We’re going to go after them on healthcare, on financial services, on the Environmental Protection Agency, across the board (inaudible). All across the federal government, we’re going to go after it.”
McConnell’s pledge to “go after” Democrats on financial services—a reference to declawing Dodd-Frank regulation—is a key omission from his Politico interview. He has been a vocal opponent of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in particular, and presumably under his Senate leadership funding for the CFPB would be high on the list of riders for the appropriations chopping block. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Wall Street was the number-one contributor to McConnell’s campaign committee from 2009 to 2014.He's against unemployment extension.
He's against raising the minimum wage.
He's against allowing people to refinance their student loan debts.
He's against campaign finance reform.
And he's willing to shut down the government unless he gets his way.
Yes, Obama has been, by and large, a failure. His neocon-lite foreign policy has been even more infuriating than his coddling of the Wall Street hooligans. But Obama's many sins are almost insignificant when we contemplate what the right has in store for this nation. Liberal disappointment with this president does not justify letting the Koch brothers have even more power on Capitol Hill.
So to all of you who want to sell me on the cynical belief that "both parties are the same," I have a message: Screw you. You probably don't live on minimum wage, and you probably don't have to deal with crushing student loan debts.
Let me tell you something about Obamacare.
Yes, many of us were furious -- and remain furious -- at Obama because he took single payer off the table at a time when the idea was popular. But a couple of years ago, one of my family members had to give up his health insurance because the monthly payments (more than $400 a month) were too onerous. This same person has insurance again, thanks to the ACA. The cost: $160 a month.
You want to sneer at that? You want to minimize its importance? Go to hell.
10 comments:
I notice you don't mention both parties are free trading criminals
at their Elite core.
It's really pathetic to have duopolistic zombies not even willing to try to create a multiparty system, not even try to formulate a minimal list of planks which seperate the wheat from the chaff.
Donating to the "Democrats" will not give you very much bang for your buck.
There are more creative and useful donation strategies. A better idea would be to donate to politically-active non-profits that support issues you care about. Let them worry about how to strategically allocate your cash, holding candidates accountable.
Sorry the lesser of 2 evils doesn't work for me and hasn't for some time. The demodogs and repugs sold out a long time ago to their corp. puppet masters a long time ago.
No money from me or help. I also look at this as a pole?
Bullshit. And very simplistic, predictable bullshit. Why wasn't that party with the Koch brothers a bipartisan affair?
I'll suppose the Koch party wasn't bipartisan because it serves the propaganda interests both of the Kochs and their Democratic sycophants to pretend that bipartisanship and the Kochs are mutually exclusive.
Lawrence Lessig's Mayday project intends to fund reform-minded candidates of whatever party. So far those chosen two Democrats and one Republican.
In my observation, the lesser-of-two-evil paradigm gradually but inexorably pushes the political center towards the greater evil. But I also understand that conceding the government to the crazy people risks setting back previously won gains in ways that could take decades to reestablish. Or, the crazy people reveal to everyone once and for all that their policies are crazy and unworkable.
Political problems in the US have some root in the two-party system, and progressive efforts must continue to try and break this system. The Democrats spent more time and energy in 2004 trying to prevent the Green Party from the ballot than they spent on criticizing the Bush Jr administration. In 2012, there was a chance for common cause between progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans which could have dented the two-party monopoly, but it was scotched by scare-mongering on behalf of Democratic Party shills.
Anon 1:15, both the Republicans and the Democrats engaged in very profitable fear-mongering in 2012 to panic their supporters not only into voting the party line but also making campaign contributions. The Democrats assured us that Milt was a lunatic and life in his administration would destroy all we hold dear, and the Republicans told us that Obama was a Kenyan Muslim Communist homosexual who was bent on destroying the USA. Both parties were rolling in campaign bucks from uncritical supporters who expected them to do nothing more than keep the other party at bay. Which both of them can claim to have donw. "Whew! That was a close one! Well at least we kept them from doing anything!"
I see the ratfuckers are out in force today. What is the going price for ratfucking these days?
As for the "what have they done" and "where has it gotten us" questions: I already answered that. Health care that cost more than $400 a month was unaffordable. Health care that costs $160 bucks a month is affordable. It's a big damned deal -- perhaps a matter of life and death -- to someone I know.
You want to sneer at that? You're an idiot.
Joseph, I agree that the healthcare issue is a big deal. I also agree with others that the Democratic party has moved right (something you've talked about yourself over the past few years) and that our choices of candidates get worse and worse on both the Democrat and Republican side. The two party system IS the problem. Both parties are beholden to corporate cash and Wall Street bankers. The system is rigged against any party but the big two getting a foot in the door. Neither party is going to make any effort whatsoever to make it easier for third parties to get a foot in the door, because they both know that would mean the end for them (Dems would go for a truly liberal party, most Repubs would go for a less fascist leaning party). I'm not going to argue though that, in spite of himself and his backers, Obama managed to do a couple not so bad things. That hardly makes up for the disaster of all the other things he did (or didn't do).
Ah, the third party option. No no no. It'll never happen.
The Tea Party didn't go the third party route. They simply decided to take over one of the two major parties.
THAT is what WORKS.
Go thou and do likewise.
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