Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Democrats Must Push Back
The negative trends in the Nation's Capital are mostly due to extreme GOP ideologues in Congress. But they've been enabled by too many Democrats who keep giving ground while Republican leaders refuse to give an inch.
Many a political truth can be spoken in jest, and that was the case with a mock news item that appeared in The Onion last week.
"A day after signing legislation that raised the government debt ceiling and authorized steep budget cuts," the satirical magazine reported, "President Obama thanked Democrats as well as Democrats for their willingness to make tough, but necessary, concessions during negotiations."
The Onion went on: "Obama added that while it may look ugly at times, politics is about Democrats giving up what they want, as well as Democrats giving up what they want, until an agreement can ultimately be reached."
Compromise is one thing, but capitulation is another — especially when core principles of decency and fairness are at stake.
We must stand our ground on behalf of seniors, children, the disabled and other vulnerable Americans. All the rhetoric about "shared sacrifice" rings hollow when the vast majority of us are being sacrificed to the financial benefit of big banks and large corporations.
There are plenty of sensible and effective ways to reduce the deficit — including a transaction tax on Wall Street, closure of tax loopholes for big companies, an end to the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy and a major reduction in the military budget.
Instead, the bipartisan dealmakers in Washington are slashing the safety net that's essential for vast numbers of Americans.
One of the most dangerous aspects of the recent budget deal is that it explicitly sets the stage for future actions to undermine Medicare. This scenario strikes at the heart of precious values. I'm committed to defending Social Security and Medicare on the campaign trail and as a member of Congress.
I fully agree with Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey's explanation for why she voted against the new budget deal.
Woolsey pointed out that the deal "puts virtually the entire burden on working families and the middle class while asking nothing from billionaires, millionaires and companies that send jobs overseas."
In Washington, job one should be creating jobs. And that won't happen by continuing to give tax cuts to the wealthy while imposing benefit cuts on the rest of us.
Corporations are sitting on huge quantities of cash. But rather than expanding the workforce, they're hoarding the money — and stretching workers in the name of "productivity" — while often posting record profits.
Three years ago, on this page, I wrote a column opposing the Wall Street bank bailout then being debated in Congress. Unfortunately, my concerns were borne out by later events.
Banks took the bailout money and largely used it to buy other banks — instead of making loans to small businesses and helping homeowners keep their homes.
With the new budget deal, Congress again acted in the financial interests of the rich instead of the vast majority of us.
With chronic unemployment at historic highs and personal savings in the tank, fewer and fewer Americans have the buying power that can pull the economy out of its deep ravine.
Call me old-fashioned, but I believe in the vital lessons of the New Deal. Many millions of good jobs must be created — and that will require well-funded federal jobs programs on a large scale.
Trickle-down economics, relying on the tender mercies of powerful corporations, won't get it done.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
15 Comments so far
Show AllZ-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
he has lost what little credibility he had. Bye-bye Norman.
Push back, my foot. There is no need to push when everyone is working for the same special interests. "Major reduction in the military budget" comes at the end of Norman's list. It should be number one, in all caps, and it should be framed in less sanitized vocabulary. How about "major reduction in mass murder." I used to admire Norman during the Bush regime. No more. He's just another two-party pusher.
dave i concur
but let's show some largesse and give the writer a mulligan for supporting von obummer in '08
the real question is why in hell he is still trying to ride that old horse these days
as the demon clinton used to say: that old dog aint gonna hunt
how dumb is this guy to imagine that the dems are any different than the reps - they are two flavors of bland bologna - with no cheese or ketchup
von obummer has turned out to be feckless and ineffective to say the least
right now all he is thinking about is using his billion dollars from wall street to get his sorry as re-elected and finish the job of destroying america - which seems to be his goal in life
he sure has made everyone forget about bush baby hasn't he
sooner or later the riots and demonstrations that are breaking out all over the world will come to this country and then von obummer will be happy to sic the military on us
then send the few that remain to the fema prisons
http://www.freedomfiles.org/war/fema.htm
the other thing i worry about is another false flag event like 9/11 in order to declare martial law
Norm knows, that as bad as it is, the democratic party will live to see another day in 2014/16. He knows who butters his bread. Believe you me, although they will be summarily dismissed from the White House next year, they'll be back.
The premise is all wrong.
It is we who should push back -- against the Democrats.
Every time they ask for money, push back. Not a dime until they stand firmly for the principals they used to hold dear.
Every time they ask for your vote, push back. No votes until they find a spine.
Every time they capitulate without a fight, push back. Write to them, email them, call them. Tell them what it will take to earn back your support.
Every time you are tempted to think of the Democrats as the less objectionable alternative, push back. Push back against your own faulty thinking and remind yourself that the only way these Democrats will get the message is for all of us to stop supporting them.
Push back! Stop enabling them!
Hey, Norm - which Democrats would that be? The same ones who just " Join(ed) the Cult of Economics Deniers", according to Dean Baker's article just 2 headlines away?
Back to the real world, Norm. Not happening. Why should they "push back?" That might interfere with the flow of money from the tycoons.
If you can outbid Gold Sacks and friends for the soul of the Democratic Party, please do. Otherwise, get to work on a genuine alternative. Begging only brings you to your knees.
Norm's sad in-the-box thinking....... this is exactly how we got where we are. Actually the democrats are pushin' back - against all of those who support peace and economic justice. It is time for us to push back!
Without a challenge to Obama from a progressive candidate in 2012, there is simply nobody to vote for. I will not vote for Obama in 2012. As far as I can tell, there will be two far right republican candidates in 2012, Obama and whatever batshit crazy the republican party throws at us. If we are to go to hell regardless, let's do it so that the crazy is right out front for all to see, instead of the calculating, lying deceit that is Obama. At least then, perhaps, voters will know who to blame for the demise of our beloved social safety net (80 percent, across the board, do not want the "government to get their hands on our Medicare"). Perhaps we will then see candidates who will support strengthening these programs in an intelligent way.
Therefore, I plan to write-in Bernie Sanders for president in 2012. I am truly sick and tired of voting against the greater of two evils (and in Obama's case, I am pretty much convinced that he has accomplished more deviltry than McCain could ever have dreamed of achieving).
Sanders for president in 2012!
Here on CD we will be inundated by "What the Dems need to do..." and "Obama should really..." etc articles from now 'til Nov 2012.
The fact that they haven't done any of the things they are "supposed " to do for years is apparently lost on Solomon/Nichols/KvdH et al.
The Dems may talk the talk for a while, there's an election coming up after all, but they're still the same pawns of Wall Street.
Push Back????? WTF?????
Former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson just, in effect, resigned from the Democratic Party calling it "...a gutless, unpricipled party, bought and paid for by the same interests that buy and pay for the Republican Party." Bingo!
He also said the time is now for a new political party that will "...advocate for and promote the interests of the public rather than the narrow interestrs of the wealthy who bought and paid for not only Congress but the White House."
Are you listening Norman?
"But they've been enabled by too many Democrats who keep giving ground while Republican leaders refuse to give an inch."
He STILL doesn't get it. That Obama, and the current leadership of the Democratic Party aren't merely "giving ground". After all of the evidence, that the Obama Administration is pursuing an agenda that is in many aspects, far to the right of Ronald Reagan, inside the beltway Democratic Party servicing journalists like Norman, pretends not to get it. He doesn't want to inevitably lose his access to the current DC movers and shakers.
And this is the same author, who not too long ago, completely trashed "truthers".
I wonder what his motives for doing that were? I mean, he is so willing to really go after the truth you see.
In the old Soviet Union there was only one party and I think this would be a good idea for the American theocracy as well.
It's easy enough to check, but even without doing so I know it's been ages since Solomon's byline graced the starting lineup on CD.
I wondered if Norm was still clinging to his fatuous lesser-evil advocacy of more and better aggressive, militant progressive Democrats as the best-- indeed, only-- path to political salvation.
I expected this, and I wasn't disappointed. The argument is only implicit, or subliminal, in this short piece-- but it jumps out from between the lines.
I also wondered if the comments would excoriate this failed and bankrupt philosophy, or at least put Soloman in his place.
Again: I expected it, and I'm not disappointed.
The reappearance of Solomon, unfortunately, may be the equivalent of the bedraggled lesser-evil moderate progressive swallows returning to CD in anticipation of the 2012 campaign.
If so, we can expect a resurgence of hortatory, cheerleading articles from "The Nation" and the rest of the Usual Suspects, and a concomitant seasonal surge of commenters scolding or generally deploring we Debbie Downers, Negative Nellies, or Patty Purists who insist on rejecting psuedo-constructive, pseudo-pragmatic approaches like Solomon's.