Whining, Griping And Groaning Should Continue

I was thrilled upon seeing the outcome of the 2008 election.   A president was elected who promised radical change from the terrible policies the Republicans had instituted.   In addition, the voters gave that president significant majorities in both Houses of Congress so the changes could be made and the promises kept.

Since that time, these significant Democratic majorities have done little except let themselves be bullied and pushed around by the minority party Republicans.   We were promised that our badly broken health care system would be fixed, but the Republicans screamed "socialism" and the Democrats ran for cover, slapping a couple of band-aids on the broken system and leaving the insurance companies in charge of American health care.

Then they told us that they were going to re-regulate the financial giants of Wall Street so they couldn't destroy the American economy by triggering an economic collapse set up by the vastly unequal distribution of wealth and income.   Again the minority Republicans screamed "socialism" and again the Democrats ran for cover.   They did nothing about the unequal redistribution of wealth and income and only made minor changes in regulations for Wall Street.   Virtually nothing was fixed.

Then the Democrats made noises about stimulating the economy for job creation -- a good idea.   Sadly, what they passed was far too little to accomplish the job creation needed.   This time the Republicans screamed "deficit", and all plans for any further stimulation to the economy was dropped as the Democrats again ran in fear for cover.

This week saw the Democrats again pushed around by the Republicans.   The Republicans were afraid that President Obama might show some guts and use the congressional recess to make some recess appointments (put in office his appointments that Congress has refused to approve so far).   The Republicans threatened to reject any appointees that were not approved by recess appointment and make the president start the process all over with those appointments.

Now the Democrats could have called their bluff and the president could have made a whole lot of recess appointments (hell, why not do all of them), but that would have called for a spine -- something the Democrats don't have.   So what did they do?   They knuckled under to the Republicans again and ran for cover!   The Senate Democrats, under the leadership of that famous political coward Harry Reid, agreed to "pro-forma sessions of the Senate" every week during the Congressional recess -- a parliamentary maneuver that will prevent the president from making any recess appointments.

And just when I didn't think the Democrats could get any more gutless, we get both the president and the vice-president blaming us progressives for their own failure to energize the Democratic base.   Vice-President Biden accuses progressives of "whining", while President Obama says we are "griping and groaning".   Both think we should just shut up and vote Democratic, because the Republicans are worse.

I will most likely vote for nearly every Democrat on the ballot because the Republicans really are worse, but I'm probably going to have to hold my nose to do it.   That's because the stench of too many gutless and spineless Democrats is starting to overwhelm me.   And I'm not about to stop whining, griping and groaning -- I'm just getting started.

I'll make a deal with the vice-president and the president.   When you and the rest of the Democrats show me you've grown a spine and actually give us some of the change we voted for, I'll gladly stop whining, griping and groaning.   Until then you'll just have to suck it up and listen to it -- and I suspect a lot of other progressives and leftists agree with me.