While this article by itself should be enough to ensure not only that Democrats would hold both houses but gain seats, Democrats have been inept at continuously getting their talking points aired on all media outlets. Moreover, when on the Fox News Network, they are never ready with precise factual bullet points that would make even a Fox News viewer have pause. I am starting to believe this is deliberate. Both parties serve the same business interest and while Democrats are organically supportive of the working class, their need of not completely alienating the political contributing class work against their values and thus reflected in the intensity of their “fight”.
The Republicans have a set of dirty little (actually not so little) secrets they don’t what you to know — and certainly don’t want you to think about when you go to the polls in November. And the fact is that some of those secrets could provide Democrats with silver bullets this fall. But first let’s recall the context.
Over the course of eight short years — between 2000 and 2008 — the Republicans methodically executed their plan to transform American society. They systematically transferred wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest two percent of Americans — slashing taxes for the wealthy. They eviscerated the rules that held Wall Street, Big Oil and private insurance companies accountable to the public. They allowed and encouraged the recklessness of the big Wall Street banks that ultimately collapsed the economy and cost eight million Americans their jobs. They ignored exploding health care costs, tried to privatize Social Security, gave the drug companies open season to gouge American consumers and presided over a decline in real incomes averaging $2,000 per family. They entangled America in an enormously costly, unnecessary war in Iraq, pursued a directionless policy that left Afghanistan to fester, and sullied America’s good name throughout the world.
Their economic policy of cutting taxes for the wealthy and deregulating big Corporations failed to create jobs. In fact, over his eight year term, George Bush’s administration created exactly zero net private sector jobs. They inherited a Federal budget with surpluses as far as the eye could see and rolled up more debt than all of the previous Presidents in the over 200 years of American history. And in the end they left the economy in collapse.
This was not a disaster that could be remedied overnight. By taking bold action at the beginning of his administration, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress prevented the financial crisis from morphing into a Great Depression — but the Republicans, some Democrats, and the powerful special interests have done everything they can to throw sand into the gears of change. Most importantly, they have stood in the way of providing enough economic stimulus to launch a robust, widespread economic recovery.
But notwithstanding Republican opposition, Obama, the Democrats and their progressive allies have — after a century of trying — finally passed health care reform allowing America to end its status as the only industrialized nation that did not provide health care as a right. They are on the brink of reining in the recklessness of the big Wall Street banks. And they have set the stage for massive long-term investments in economic growth and clean energy.
But it has been hard to pull the car out of the deep economic ditch and Americans are angry at the slow pace of economic recovery — and also at the special interests that profited from their economic pain.
Robert Creamer: Dirty Little Secrets the Republicans Don’t Want You to Know