As is being noted all over the blogosphere, many Senate Democrats buckled to the moneymen, and gave a pass to the absolutely misanthropic bankruptcy bill today. Now it’s going to be a lot harder for folks to climb out of debt, including and especially those who have mounting medical bills. There but for the grace of God go all of us.
We don’t expect any better from the Republicans: they know who pays their bills, and they’ve been smashingly successful lately, hoping (correctly, for the most part) that no one — least of all a tough, adversarial media or united Democratic Party — will call their many many bluffs.
But Democrats are different. We have a heritage of fighting for justice, for the downtrodden, for the little guy. Well, forget it — a substantial contingent of Congressional Democrats sold their birthright for a mess of pottage today. We all know the GOP is the party of commerce — the Democrats are the party of … what exactly? A kinder, gentler brand of oligarchy? No wonder we keep losing. The GOP is much better and less apologetic about it than the Dems.
So why do the Dems have such problems with their brand? Why does a guy like me have to write a post like this? Because so many in our party are so feckless when it comes to protecting ordinary people. Democrats have to earn each election victory — they can’t ignore the folks who should be their base, and then complain when they get their butts kicked.
*No apologies to Bill O’Reilly.
