Bush Lite
by: Dave Belden on July 30th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I find myself going to Open Left for a dose of reality. Today: polling shows that Republicans have almost caught up with Democrats in people’s voting plans for the next election, with a strong analysis of why that is so. Ian Welsh, sounding very like Michael Lerner, argues it is because the Republicans pursue conflict with vigor while the Democrats, lacking the courage of their supposed convictions, are doing Bush lite:
Continuation of ineffective Bush policies. Not to put too fine a point on it, but in too many cases Obama and the new Congress are pursuing Bush lite policies.
- Escalate in Afghanistan
- Spend more money on the military
- Get out of Iraq around about the time Bush wanted to anyway
- Continue the Bush/Paulson financial policies
- A stimulus bill which was 40% tax cuts (granted, not tax cuts for the rich, but still tax cuts)
Americans voted for Democrats because they were sick of Bush and Bush era policies. And here Congress is repeatedly voting for Bush era policies.
I think the real problem is that Democrats have long given up being reliable defenders of the middle and working classes. In the absence of any serious effort by Democrats, and despite a Republican party without a functioning intellectual leadership, the old autonomic reflexes from the more primitive Republican lobe of the American brain sends the “low taxes,” “law and order,” “fiscal responsibility” signals, which are now kicking in like twitches in a corpse.
Why are Americans so dumb? Because, for the small percentage that vote, they expect political questions to be answered by dogma and demagoguery, wishful thinking and denial — not a political party that actually represents them.