4 Responses to “Let’s See if Dems Can Make it Stick”

1. 
   Rottenchester
   June 29th, 2006 | 1:00 pm

   Just because it is your side’s B.S. issue doesn’t make it a worthwhile B.S. issue. Grandstanding on B.S. issues is bad, no matter who’s doing it, and Congressional pay raises is the grandaddy of all B.S. issues.

   The “vast middle” of American politics isn’t engaged with either party in part because they spend time on this kind of kindergarten stuff. Granted, at this time in the election cycle, the Republicans are doing more of it. That doesn’t justify the Dem’s doing “just a little”. It is poison in doses large or small.

   The issue of this election is the war. Note that Reid’s response specifically sidesteps it by mentioning the price of gas and college tuition as the important issues. That’s because the Dems don’t have a coherent, compelling position on the war.

2. 
   DragonFlyEye
   June 29th, 2006 | 2:23 pm

   I don’t know that I would call a minimum wage that is at it’s lowest proportional state in fifty years a “B. S. Issue,” or “kindergarden stuff.” Yes, the war is the major issue of the day, but I would also argue that it has been a convenient distraction for the Republicans to use as well. “Don’t pay attention to your own lives, watch the war!” The reason Americans are loosing faith in the war is because they have been starting to notice this fact ever since the Social Security attack. Don’t think for a second that the privatization scheme isn’t the key to everything else that’s happened to Bush’s poll numbers, because it is. You can track it like a shot deer through the woods (sorry to my non-hunting friends. . ).

   So, while it might seem like grandstanding to you ~ and perhaps it is ~ the Dems are going to need at least some of the spotlight on them if they’re going to make any real difference at all. In doing so, trying to pass some crappy resolution on a war that (let’s face it) the majority of the country is starting to feel squishy about would crush them. All the better that they should return our attention to the things that need fixing here at home, where Americans’ minds are already turning.

3. 
   Rottenchester
   June 30th, 2006 | 7:50 am

   Minimum wage is an important issue, and I didn’t say it wasn’t. My point was that Reid is choosing an unimportant issue - Congressional pay raises - as a proxy for minimum wage. That’s the kindergarten aspect of it. Look at Reid’s quote. It starts with “They can play games all they want.” It ends with the one game he’s going to play: holding congressional pay raises hostage. My point is that the game playing itself is odious. Reid is like a child holding his breath until he gets his way.

   I agree that the Republican strategy is a perpetual state of emergency. However, that doesn’t mean that the war isn’t the uppermost issue in most people’s minds. Dems need to have a coherent, positive strategy for the war. Trying to focus solely or primarily on a domestic agenda ignores the elephant in the room.

   BTW, I don’t agree with your view on the cause/effect of Bush’s Social Security defeat: I think you have the tail wagging the dog. Privatization failed because it was a dumb solution to a politically radioactive issue. Contributing to that defeat was public lack of trust in Bush’s ability to execute any complex policy, since his administration has been completely incompetent in its execution of the war.

4. 
   DragonFlyEye
   June 30th, 2006 | 11:21 am

   Actually, at the risk of sounding cynical, I really doubt that the war really is at the forefront of the American psyche at the moment. If it was, the approval ratings for the war would almost certainly translate into a more vocal objection to the war, and they have not. There are no protests, there seems to be no real outrage, but ask an illegal alien to register and you get millions in the streets. Perhaps that just proves that natural-born Americans are just lazy, but it definitely does not prove that Americans are eating and sleeping the war, either.

   I agree that the Dems need to come up with a cohesive plan for Iraq, but the funny thing is, the situation is sufficiently complex to make any plan which is utterable as a sound bite entirely unworthy of consideration. A cohesive plan is going to be complicated enough that Republicans will shoot it down as the over-intellectual left, even if it makes a lot of sense.

   Really, we’re probably discussing two entirely different levels of the problem: the political and the policy problem. Politically, they need to get the spotlight on them and swing the conversation. In terms of policy, getting the House or the Senate back will do no good without all or most of the Democrats trying to move the country in the same direction. Even then the fact that it is the Administrative Branch that fights wars, there is still very little they can do now that the Iraq ship has sailed. Oh, they could yank the purse strings, but that hasn’t had the effect they were looking for in the past.

   And even if they could, what would be your plan after that? I mean, seriously. Let’s say its a perfect world and you or I could do whatever we pleased to end the quagmire in Iraq. . . what would that be? How do fix this problem the Bushies created for us? Honestly, I can’t really come up with much that sounds like anything other than fantasy or else ends in anything less than civil war. Actually, truth be told, I personally think the Bushies have been intentionally infantilizing the Iraqis in the American press and that just flat-out leaving might just force them to ante up.

   That would be my best strategy; call it the Murtha Plan. But since no one wants to be accused of “cutting and running,” it’s not getting much play these days. Again, the cycle always comes back to the political, unfortunately.

   As for the SS cause and effect thing, I rather think that this is an interesting enough concept that I might just elevate that to it’s own thread here in a bit.

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