In November 2000, Bush won, and Democrats refused to accept the fact. They fought it for quite a few weeks, and the bitterness remained. Yet, when the smoke cleared the day after the election and Republicans had taken control of the House by a slim majority of either 7 or 9, I cannot recall the 2 independents. In the Senate it was 50 – 50, 49-50, and 50 – 48. Regardless – very close, but Republicans still had control, and what do you think they did that day in November after winning the election and control of Congress? Slap kick the Democrats down the hallway? Nyet. Boot them out and lock the doors? Nope. They allowed them to keep control of all the committees until the 20th, which is only right, but given the election, the Republicans would have been within their right to prevent legislation that was opposed by Republicans. It was very civil – and Republicans deferred to the Democrats, went quiet, and gave them the last 70 or so days to do as they wished – and the Democrats wished a lot. The comments from Democrats about Bush during that time, the attacks on his person, and the atmosphere Republicans brought to Washington – the attacks were relentless and Republicans did little to nothing to respond. That should have been the hint, but Republicans didn’t catch on.
They attacked Bush from Day 1 until he left office. They attacked his Iraq policy and did everything they could to interfere with his handling of foreign policy. When Republicans rebuffed their bills, the Democrats screeched about being locked out.
Through the Bush administration the behavior of Democrats was always bothersome, sometimes I believe traitorous (Kuchinich standing in the House saying publicly that the US had troops in Iran – I have no idea if we sent special forces into Iran, but he claimed we did). They called Bush every vile and mean name one can imagine, and each negative claim was a reinforcement of more malicious attacks – each piece of hate was evidence of why they should hate him, and not only hate – for they did not call it hate – they identified their animus as legitimate – Bush was the evil-doer.
They attacked him and every action he took – unless they approved, like the Education Bill crafted by Ted Kennedy … until much later when they attacked him on his failure on education. They did not care what the consequences of their political pettiness were around the globe. Today China tells us we have no right to criticize their human rights policies – not after Abu Ghraib and Hurricane Katrina. Neither of which are legitimate complaints.
Yet through all of this, Democrats and Republicans could act and did act, at times, with pettiness and vindictiveness. They could play games with Congressional rules and push bills onto the floor for a vote after only a few hours debate. They could exclude amendments and invoke filibusters (something Biden said would be used against several Bush acts). They have not until now, been willing to bend the Constitution. They have not, until now threatened everything we (they included) have, and want to keep – a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Pushing through bills without a vote, voting on amendments before the bill is even a law, manipulating numbers to convince a few while knowing the numbers put us deeper in the hole, ready to bankrupt America, beyond the point we are at already, ready to fundamentally change America, violate the Constitution, act in direct opposition to the will of the people, and do so for political purposes only – this we haven’t seen before. We have been given glimpses, but never witnessed. I suppose the Alien and Sedition Acts would have been a concern for the Congress when Adams pushed the bills through – providing power to the Executive beyond what most Americans believed legitimate. The Constitutional over-reaching by the Roosevelt Administration was another such concern. We have had few of these moments in our history, yet on Sunday, March 21, 2010, we will be forced to enter into a whole new time, a new world – one Obama has decided we must all enter together.
He knows how he will handle the deficit created by most of what he is forcing upon us, he has yet to make it clear though – if you study Marx, or review any of the European states, you will see where he will cut to get the money. Marx argues for this because his clash is one of economics and equals – all workers being subjugated by the wealthy who control enterprise and who wage war for power and wealth. One way to end all of this is to make war very nearly impossible – cut our budget dramatically.
Of course Republicans would not go along and neither would many Democrats, BUT if you implement a program that creates a gaping hole you cannot close, in order that the health and welfare of the people is realized, you must cut from any and all budgets to find the funds. When confronted with the dire – either cut it or be unable to provide health care to the poor in your district – Democrats will reluctantly agree, as will a few Republicans. Once you cut the budget and redirect those funds, it will become very nearly impossible to ever re-redirect the funds. He doesn’t even need control of Congress to accomplish this. He simply allows the numbers to become public – here $200 billion, there $400 billion – without the money people will die … and then he will make a very good argument for why we need to cut the military.
At that point, it would nearly be irreversible, and that is his plan. It begins on March 21, 2010. He will push the immigration bill forcefully, to get these illegals made legal by 2012, if possible, or at the very least the election after in 2014. I was tempted on my census to discover that 10 more people were living here (and no, I did not provide birthdates or names – if they aren’t happy with what information I did provide, fine. The government is charged with doing a Census, I am not required to answer – if I was, then the idea of uncounted thousands would be thousands of violations of the law).
I am not very happy tonight.
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