Attention Democrats: When the House Is on Fire, Don’t Cower, Grab a Hose

Mitchell Bard

Writer and Filmmaker

Voters are angry, and while it is illogical that people seem to be looking to break the gridlock in Washington by voting in Republicans who are no better, the anger is based on real concerns.

I have been known in some circles for my lousy analogies, so I’m going to bust one out now. I have a message for the president and the Democrats in congress: The house is on fire. So the question is: What are you going to do? Here’s a hint: If you stay in the house, you will burn to death.

Let’s take a step back. In November of 2008, Barack Obama won an overwhelming victory over John McCain, carrying previously safe red states like North Carolina, Virginia and Indiana, while the Senate and the House saw their majorities increase to overwhelming advantages. Now, 16 months and a special election victory for a Tea Party-supported senate candidate in Massachusetts later, the Republicans are gunning to take control of both houses of Congress this November (ambitious, considering the Democrats hold a 59-41 advantage in the Senate), and you read stories of potentially precarious Senate elections for the Democrats in traditional rock-solid blue states like California, New York and Delaware.

The house is on fire.

The question isn’t whether this is a fair state of affairs or not.

Clearly, it was unreasonable to think that after eight years of George W. Bush and his allies in Congress systematically destroying every facet of the United States of America, through a botched unnecessary war, the near collapse of the financial system, the amassing of massive amounts of federal debt, and general incompetence and disdain for government, any new administration could set things right in 16 months. The damage Bush did to this country will take generations to undo (his activist, extreme-right-wing judicial appointments will probably still be on the court when the babies born today graduate from high school), if it can be undone at all.

And the Republicans in Congress have not helped to fix our broken country. They have stood united in opposing any and every solution the president offered (even if he proposed policies they had embraced in the past), all in an effort to win political points and protect big corporations (like health insurers) at the expense of average citizens. And they have lied and fear-mongered to accomplish their aims (from inventing death panels to labeling the president a socialist). In the wake of a near-collapse of the financial industry, which nearly brought down the world’s economy, all due to a lack of regulation and oversight, these Republicans haven’t wavered in their support of the banks at the expense of the American people, refusing to agree to the kind of regulations that would prevent the financial industry from imploding again (after all, it’s not like the big banks have seen the errors of their ways and stopped engaging in economy-threatening risky practices).

But having said all of that, Democrats have to look in the mirror, too, and ask themselves if they have shown the courage and strength necessary to lead. They have to decide how they allowed a committed minority of 40 (and then 41) Republican senators to bully them out of coming together to pass legislation to start fixing some of the problems left to the country by eight years of Bush incompetence. Especially after the mandate they were handed in November 2008.

Voters are angry, and while it is illogical that people seem to be looking to break the gridlock in Washington by voting in Republicans who will, first and only, be concerned with perpetuating the gridlock in Washington, the anger is based on real concerns. Unemployment is high, and the government appears to be more concerned with the health of banks and health insurers than with the well-being of struggling average Americans. The American people voted for change in 2008, and you can understand if they feel like they’re not getting it (even if you can’t understand why they aren’t blaming scheming, lying Republicans at least equally to the seemingly feckless Democrats).

In short, the current state of affairs is what it is. The Democrats can’t go back in time, nor can they give a nationwide seminar to educate American citizens about the Jim Bunning-like obstructionism and Orrin Hatch-like lying of the Republican Party (or the racism and ignorance of the Tea Party movement).

No, the Democrats have to decide what to do about it now. Or, to go back to my analogy, to figure out what kind of action to take now that the house is on fire.

It seems to me that the fire has made too many Democrats timid. They are either doing nothing, or they’re pointing fingers at the malfeasance of the Republicans.

continue…. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mitchell-bard/attention-democrats-the-h_b_483868.html