Posts Tagged ‘Democratic Bumbling’

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President takes on the Democratic Party “Moderates”

February 4th, 2010

It was good to see the President point out the idiocy of Blanche Lincoln’s logic on where the Democratic agenda should be. This is the more feisty president I wanted, but probably shouldn’t have expected.

But there is a broader story there about how politics has been redefined by the Conservative movement and its media and religious allies.  Even good solid progressives in a city like San Francisco by into the idea of needing to play on the field that the Republicans have built.  This despite (still) huge advantages in majority positions in both houses of Congress.  The Democrats seem to not realize that part of the political process needs to be rebuilding that field.

This is something that is fascinating me more and more lately.  I’ve been having quick back forth conversations about it with Dave Caploe about this and have been reading his lectures and articles in the New York Times recently.  I’m going to continue down this road where it leads me intellectually, and politically share that experience here on this blog.  Hint: the radical left is for all intent a myth created by the right.  As I asked the other day, name me that last major progressive legislation passed through into law in this country.  Anything since Johnson?

So along with exploring my middle aged need to ascribe understanding to my own life experiences, I will also write more about why we have a nation have ended up where we are and why.  I’m just a simple fundraiser and executive, but we can all learn.  Heck, I didn’t learn to speak Spanish until I was nearly 50 years old.

And Mr. President, more of this please.

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Posted in American Extremism, Democratic Party Stupidity, Democrats, politics

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Pre-SOTU thoughts

January 27th, 2010

I have been an enthusiastic supporter of the President while he was campaigning. My problem with him since then is that he doesn’t appear to be the same person. We as progressives deal in a media environment in which the assumption is that we are a conservative country. This despite much evidence to the contrary. And there is some evidence that the GOP is misreading the public in this way again. Mike Lillis via Andrew Sullivan:

But while Republicans are hoping Brown’s victory foreshadows a GOP landslide, a number of political experts are warning that the country’s restless anxiety — as evidenced not only in Massachusetts, but in Virginia, New Jersey, and now Florida as well — is less a backlash against Democrats in particular than a rebuke of the business-as-usual politics of Capitol Hill in general. Even as unemployment soared and housing markets tanked, voters have watched lawmakers bicker endlessly over a stimulus bill that proved too small and a health reform proposal that remains unfinished. Meanwhile, the banks have bounced back on the wings of a taxpayer bailout, paying out billions of dollars in employee bonuses this month while the jobs crisis outside Wall Street only worsens. In such an environment, some experts caution, incumbents on both sides of the aisle could find themselves surprisingly vulnerable in November.

I have no doubt that he will give a stemwinder of a speech.  I’m just not sure what he really stands for anymore.  I want to see him fight.  He will bring up again a call to end DADT, but we’ve heard this before.  He will announce some spending freezes.  He is beginning to play more and more on the conservative side of the field.  I hope we see a change in this.  Not just from the speech, but from his actions.

I’m still bewildered by the Democratic Party’s inability to pass anything progressive or within a fairly centrist Democratic Party agenda.  We shouldn’t go Bill Clinton’s way.  No small ball.  The country needs more.

As an aside, can anyone tell me the last major piece of progressive/liberal legislation that has been passed in the country.

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Posted in Corporate Hijinks, Democratic Party Stupidity, Democrats, Health Policy, Hope, LGBT Rights, Republicans, politics, special events

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Perspective

January 19th, 2010

Swinging around the web tonight, you’d think we had just overrode the US Constitution. We do need a little perspective. Martha Coakley was a terrible candidate. We should have won. Mr. Cosmo was incoherent on policy issues and yet he won. So be it. It’s not as if we really got a lot out of having 60 votes. Especially when those votes included Joe from Connecticut, among others.

The important thing is that we can not allow this to be spun as a repudiation of Obama, progressive policies, health care, or the Democratic agenda. We must keep pressure on the party to pass the damned health care bill, job stimulus legislation, and of course LGBT rights issues.  It’s going to be harder now.  Maybe in the end that will be good.  As you may know, I’m not a fan of either party.  My political beliefs don’t have any political party in this country.  But, yikes, we got to keep on fighting.

What we do need is for the Democratic Party to seriously work at passing its agenda. Use reconciliation if you need to. Play every damned trick the Fox/Republican party has used. These are seriously crazy people. We should not be losing to them. We should fight them every step of the way.

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Posted in American Extremism, Democratic Party Stupidity, Democrats, Republicans, Yikes, politics

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The Coakley Blues in the Bay State

January 18th, 2010

I have no idea what is going to happen in tomorrow’s special election to replace the seat once held by Ted Kennedy.  I don’t watch CNN, MSNBC, or Fox any more; I had found my general sanity had become more and more at stake.  But if you were to read the blogs and watch the network news, this is a forgone conclusion.  The Democrats are screwed.  It’s impossible to know from those sources what to take.  The cliche of course is that any news, good or bad, is always bad news for the Democrats as far as the media is concerned.  The news loves a story, and this would be a huge story.  It would be spun as a repudiation of Obama and health care and the end of the democratic party agenda.  That assumes it has had a coherent agenda, but you get my point.

The Repubs are energized to vote in Mass. and the Democrats are not.  That will be the tale.  If Coakley loses, a lot of recrimination will come about the time we’ve waisted trying to get bipartisan support for a health bill, and our lack of willingness to fight for anything.  It’s pretty known that I’m a bit down on the first year of the Obama presidency.  But the biggest fear I carry now is that the Blue Dog Dems will read a Bay State loss as vindication for their view that we’ve gone to far to the left.  I can’t for the life of me name one single left wing policy that we’ve passed except for the stimulus package as a Keynesian response to a tragic economic environment.  Our final health care bill is a pretty market friendly conservative bill that has some good things about it.

But here’s to hoping that the media is doing what they often do, build a story that really isn’t there.  Remember the Teabagger dude in upstate New York?  Didn’t win, did he?  In the end, we’ll know what we know tomorrow.  And don’t let anyone tell you the know what’s happening and what it all means.

Post script:  I mentioned yesterday the lovely comment that one of Republican Scott Brown’s supporters used in a rally (“let’s shove a curling iron up her ass”).  I just felt compelled to remind people of a bit of Scott Browns past and perhaps hanging out with people calling for rape isn’t a great idea when you’ve posed for this: (for real, him, years ago)

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Posted in Democrats, Health Policy, Republicans, Yikes, politics

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Feinstein Failure: Dianne just doesn’t get the public option

August 28th, 2009

dianne_feinstein_01Senator Feinstein released a statement on the health care debate, and at times really seems to understand what the key issues are and her stances are all along the lines of something I could support:

What I Support
I basically believe that reform should be incremental and should cover the following:

  • Allow people to keep their current healthcare coverage.  Millions of Americans have insurance that meets their needs.  In all of the proposals that Congress is considering, those happy with their current plan will be able to keep it. 
  • Stop certain practices of insurance companies.  Any bill should end discrimination based on preexisting conditions, stop insurance companies from dropping insurance when people become sick, and prevent the unreasonable denial of treatment.  There must also be limits to out-of-pocket expenses to ensure that Americans are not driven into financial ruin by illness. 
  • Control insurance premiums.  Insurance premiums have doubled over the last 9 years, 3 times faster than wages.  Meanwhile, the profits of the nation’s largest private insurance companies increased 428 percent from 2000 to 2008 (Health Care for America NOW).  This is unacceptable.  Insurance for healthcare is an urgent and universal need, but will not be sustainable and universal if the profit margin remains unconstrained. 

In order to see that premiums are affordable, I believe that all non-direct healthcare costs (advertising, overhead, profits, and other administrative costs) should be limited and not exceed 10 percent.  All premium rate adjustments should be subject to review and approval by a Health Insurance Rate Authority. Bottom line:  your health insurance must remain affordable.  Your premiums cannot be allowed to double again in the next nine years, as they have in the past nine. 

Another way of stabilizing premium affordability is the public option.  Depending how the competition is structured, this “option” could compel insurance companies to lower premiums to remain competitive.  It remains a viable proposal. The public option should be one of a variety of choices for people who want improved coverage, giving them an option between a private insurance plan and a public one.  The public option is simply that—an option.  No one will be required to enroll in the public plan.  Instead, it would offer consumers an additional choice as they select a health insurance policy.  Instead of choosing between policies offered only by private insurance companies, people could choose to buy a public insurance plan.  Those that prefer to buy private insurance could still do so. 

Not bad, but here is where she goes wrong (emphasis mine).

The purpose of creating a public plan is to increase competition so that premium costs can be controlled.  It is very clear that in the current market, private insurance companies do not control the price of premiums.  The public option will not replace anyone’s private insurance coverage, but it could prevent future premium increases as private insurance companies lower their prices to compete with a public option.  I am also open to considering a non-profit co-operative model, as long as it can accomplish the critical goal of controlling premium costs and spurring competition. Because insurance company profit taking has been so high, it will be very difficult to control premium costs without some non-profit option.

There is simply no way that non-profit co-ops can compete effectively or have the bargaining power that the private companies have.  Particularly in states where 80% or more of the private health insurance is provided by one health insurance company.  The only tool that stands a chance to compete is to give Americans the option of buying into a federal plan that can compete.

But there is more that is wrong.

With over 20 percent of Californians uninsured, healthcare reform must expand coverage to those who cannot currently afford it. Any expansion of coverage must be sustainable in the long-term, and be affordable without requiring adding costs to California and its counties, and without becoming another entitlement.  This is difficult to do, and it remains to be seen how it will be accomplished.

Senator, you’re just not being honest.  The best way to control growing costs is a single payer system.  That no one is willing to fight for it may be a truth, but it isn’t difficult to see how cost savings could be accomplished.

And one more:

Health reform should not address end of life care.  I feel strongly that anything relating to end of life care does not belong in the bill.  These are private family matters that do not require legislation.

Again, an untrue statement.  The bills making their way through Congress don’t mandate end of life issues.  They are designed to help pay for those expenses (counseling and consultation fees) for when the families make those decisions to talk to a professional about them.

Why can’t democrats stand up for the truth?  Sadly, it doesn’t seem that the California Senator will be a leader for a state that has higher than average uninsured numbers at all income levels.  This all seems pretty CYA to me.

____

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Posted in Democratic Party Stupidity, Democrats, Health Policy, Yikes

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Obama, Racism, and Gay White Leadership

August 24th, 2009

obama_lgbt_logoAs some of you have been reading my posts over the last few months know, I’ve been pretty harsh with some of the decisions and strategy of the President, particularly on the issues of health care reform and LGBT rights.  It hasn’t just been the president that I’ve been critical of, it’s also been the Democratic Party in general.  

I had a brief, but very interesting conversation with someone tonight about how the White House has taken on some of these issues.  This guy is a smart guy, works at Harvard, and is politically astute.  He suggested that things would turn out fine, that the politics of the moment meant that a very strategic president needed to reach these goals differently and with patience.  

Pretty standard argument.  These are hard things to do, the right will eat him up, one step at a time.  Not an argument that I am prone to buy into anymore.  But one thing he said did really strike me.

It’s no secret that the LGBT movement and its fight for rights does not do as well politically among people of color as it should be doing.  Though I don’t buy into the Prop 8 myth that blacks caused us to lose, I do believe that we have not built the bridges that we need to build.  So his point was basically this:

How does it look when white gay leaders and activists are among the most vocal critics of the first African-American president in US history? 

Doesn’t it feed into an already difficult relationship?  And does it mean that we can not criticize Mr. Obama?  

I think it would be very difficult for anyone to deny that many of the right-wing attacks against the president and his place of birth and socialism and all the rest, does not have, in some form, a racist tone.  There is a strong cord of racism in this country and in particular going back to the Palin rallies, racist attacks against President Obama.

So, I want to be more aware of how I frame my critique of the White House.  I don’t want to ignore what I think are problems.  But let me be more clear about what I think the genesis of many of those strategy errors are.  The Democrats, including the White House, are allowing the right wing to frame every debate.  

Our policy prescriptions are good ones, but we start out by being defensive about how the Republican Party will attack them.  We don’t fight for our own beliefs.  We have bought into the notion that progressive ideas are radical ideas.  Where in reality, they are popular and workable ideas.  

So, where my focus will be is in trying to get the Democrats to fight from a position of strength, to be willing to lose with your best ideas, and not water everything down out of fear of what a minority, regional party may say.

The truth is, they are willing to say anything.  We should be willing to say the truth and fight for our own ideals.

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Posted in Bigotry, Democrats, Gay Marriage, LGBT Leadership, LGBT Rights, Republicans, politics, strained relationships

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Losing faith in the President

August 22nd, 2009
sam

Fighting for a Progressive America

I have long ago become accustomed to being called a radical lefty or a fringe democrat.  It’s odd really, because I would say that here in San Francisco, I would be something of a moderate.  In reality, I have become a social democratic if you were to pin me down.  Something that doesn’t exist in the US.  

I have concerns about the president’s lack of fire, willingness to fight, and blind allegiance to a mythical bipartisanship that the Republicans just don’t have any interest in.  Watching the pundits, one would think that my view on this is such a minority and fringe view that it can easily be dismissed.  

Yet, it is now becoming more and more widely discussed.  Columnists Paul Krugman and Frank Rich are joined today by Bob Herbert in the New York Times.

It’s still early, but people are starting to lose faith in the president. I hear almost daily from men and women who voted enthusiastically for Mr. Obama but are feeling disappointed. They feel that the banks made out like bandits in the bailouts, and that the health care initiative could become a boondoggle. Their biggest worry is that Mr. Obama is soft, that he is unwilling or incapable of fighting hard enough to counter the forces responsible for the sorry state the country is in.

More and more the president is being seen by his own supporters as someone who would like to please everybody, who is naïve about the prospects for bipartisanship, who believes that his strongest supporters will stay with him because they have nowhere else to go, and who will retreat whenever the Republicans and the corporate crowd come after him.

People want more from Mr. Obama. They want him to be their champion. But they don’t feel that he is speaking to them in a language that they understand. He is seen as more comfortable speaking the Wall Street lingo. People don’t feel that the voices of anxiety are being heard.

Obama is one of the best political salesmen of our time.  That he has failed to do the job on his core issue of health care is distressing.  Is he naive?  The Republicans never apologize for their views, especially the absolutely bizarre, beyond crazy views.  I’d like to see a president fight for what he campaigned for.  What’s the point of elected progressives if they are too worried that the conservatives might not like those views.  

Mr. President, fight for me.  I’ll fight for you.

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Posted in Democrats, Health Policy, Republicans

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Rant: We Are Such a Burden

July 1st, 2009
Secretary Robert Gates

Secretary Robert Gates

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is trying to figure out how to make DADT more humane until the democratic leadership in Congress gets around to changing the law.  But here is what really frustrated me in the story:

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff and others have cautioned that repeal of the law must be done carefully so as not to disrupt military cohesion in wartime or to place an additional burden on an already overstretched uniformed force.

Gee.  We wouldn´t want to burden you by dying for our country or anything.  Perhaps what really burdened the military was the illegal invasion of another country on false grounds (later proved to be active lies) and all the subsequent cycle into a country of torture, occupation, and war crimes.  All of that, we are told, is also to burdensome for us to investigate and dwell in the past.

Why did we elect these leaders?

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Posted in Democratic Party Stupidity, LGBT Rights, Torture and other lies, Yikes

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Thoughts on Obama

July 1st, 2009

same_sex_flagSo, while I was traveling, President Obama held a party for the gays.

I really, really, really want to believe.  But we have danced down this yellow brick road many times before.  Do any of you remember once candidate Obama saying that by the end of his term we would be happy?  Or did he run on change?  Do you recall hearing that DADT needed to wait until more of the military leadership was ready for the change?  Did you hear about the audacity of hope or call for the patience of Job?

It was disappointing to see so many of our LGBT leaders hanging on every word the president had to say.  He has progressed beyond the actions of Bill Clinton only in symbolism and yet we still seem to believe it is 1993, excited to hear the acknowledgement of our mere existence.

Atlantic Magazine writer Ta-Nehisi Coates gets to the key problem we should be having with how the entire Democratic Party is responding to the the LGBT community:

It’s very interesting to see a man who opposes gays should not have the right to wed, claim credit for talking to “African American church members” about homophobia. It’s even more interesting to see a man who lives in a majority black city, poised to go further than he, himself, ever would, claim that credit. I’ve heard it said, many times, on this board that Obama is actually pro-gay marriage, but that he can’t come out all the way. If that’s the case, then we must conclude that he is lying about his stance. Moreover, he’s invoking his relationship with religion, and his God, in that lie. Perhaps worse, he isn’t being fully honest with the very audiences he wants credit for addressing–the very audiences, that by his logic, would most benefit from that honesty.

We desperately need to be unsatisfied with this sort of stance.  The wink and nudge of democratic party support is not sufficient.  I am happy to have patience.  I can wait and I can be pragmatic.  But I don´t see that as what is happening here at all.  This is old school politics.  “The Congress has to do it, the President has to do it”

I remember during the campaign, then Senator Obama would not have his picture taken with Mayor Gavin Newsom.  I was concerned about the message that sent then, and he continues to send the same message.  He is saying he will back the LGBT community as look as it is not painful for him, politically or personally.

No more words Mr. President.  I will be patient after I have seen one significant piece of evidence that you will fight for me.  Otherwise, I will not back the democrats nor the President in the future.  I will have been too painful, politically and personally.



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Posted in Bigotry, Democratic Party Stupidity, Democrats, Gay Marriage, LGBT Cowards, LGBT Rights, Queer Entertainment, Talented People, friends and allies, politics

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Just Yikes

June 18th, 2009

 

Zzzzz

Zzzzz

I was out for most of the day running errands and getting ready for my trip to San Francisco tomorrow and enjoying another (really hot) day in Madrid.  It was wonderful.  I signed the lease for my new apartment, which is located a stone’s throw from the Royal Palace (the biggest in Europe – the Palace, not my apartment) and came home to walk the dog and clean the house.

I quickly fired up the ol’ Mac and took a swing around the intertubes and I gotta tell ya, sometimes you just need to take a break.  In fifteen minutes I read:

  • Barney Franks doesn’t think the DOJ DOMA brief was so bad
  • Bush’s NSA spied (accidently) on Bill Clinton
  • Holder will not prosecute domestic spying violations
  • Bush spoke out against Obama on Gitmo
  • There now appears that a pro-choice nominee for a sub-cabinet position was successfully filibustered (not really, just threatened – nowadays you just need to say there might be a filibuster) by the Republicans because she is pro-choice
  • There is now a permanent 60 vote supermajority needed for EVERYTHING in the US Senate/snark
  • The public health care option is hanging by a thread because it doesn’t have 60 votes
  • The Republicans are going to carry out their own Iran policy
  • North Korea is planning on firing a missile towards Hawaii
  • Convicts have no right to DNA tests
  • and PETA is very upset that the president killed a fly.

Had enough?  I’m going for a walk and taking a break.  Sometimes you just have to disconnect.

See you from SF.

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Posted in American Extremism, Corporate Hijinks, Democratic Party Stupidity, Democrats, Gay Marriage, Health Policy, LGBT Rights, Obama in the World, Relaxing!, Republicans, Talented People, Torture and other lies, Violence, Yikes, friends and allies, politics, strained relationships, travel, world news

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