They expected bold action on the economic crisis, but it didn't happen. The stimulus didn't go far enough. Ditto for health care legislation. The scale and pace of change has been too slow - too many people are out of work, out of affordable health care, and out of their homes.
Meanwhile, their riff goes, bloodletting continues in Afghanistan, corporations are sitting on nearly $2 trillion of idle money, profits are up, inequality is growing, and tax cuts for the wealthy are draining our treasury and driving up the national deficit.
There is truth here, but the question is: is it enough to stay home? I say no for three reasons.
To begin with the most obvious, the elections' impact on people's lives. Even though the size of the stimulus was inadequate and a public option was missing in the new health care law, both bills bring a measure of relief to millions of people. And as a friend of mine keeps reminding me, it may make only an inch of difference, but a lot of people live on that inch.
Which brings me to next month's congressional elections. If the Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives, that inch of difference (things like unemployment insurance extensions, food stamps, relief for local and state governments, modest jobs and infrastructure programs, readjustment of tax policy in favor of working people, funding for education, a real fight over military appropriations for Afghanistan) will probably vanish - along with hope for more far-reaching measures.
Furthermore, "austerity" will become the watchword, the pressures to weaken Social Security and Medicare will grow, and the economic pain for working people is likely to get much worse.
A second reason to vote is a little less obvious, but you don't have to know higher math to understand it: A Republican victory at the polls on Nov. 2 - defined as winning a majority of seats in the House - would be the opening act of a horror show, culminating in the Republican right reclaiming full dominance of Congress and the White House in 2012.
For the far right, electoral success in the current elections and then in 2012 is the eye of the needle through which it must past in order to radically transform the country to the advantage of the most reactionary section of monopoly capital and its allies, motley and dangerous as they are.
No one on their side is going to stay home on Election Day. A "no show" is a "no-no" for them. Everyone is expected to march to the polls and bring others with them.
You won't hear of any of them scaling down the importance of the elections. Their lens is wide-angled enough to see the big picture. The claim that the two parties of capitalism are indistinguishable is a fool's notion in their world. And they see this election and the one two years from now as a crossroads in American politics whose outcome will determine the kind of nation we will become.
Finally, a Republican victory this fall will not simply weaken the president and his party, but likely demoralize and take the wind out of the sails of the loose coalition that emerged in 2008 and after a post-election hiatus is finding its stride again, as evidenced by the Oct. 2 rally in the nation's capital.
To believe otherwise is naïve at best. Millions will feel that the promise of 2008 evaporated in the voting booths in 2010. They may not be entirely right about that, but that is how they will feel, and people act on the basis of their feelings. The mobilization of people in the post-election period will become more difficult.
Of course, some people are so deeply cynical that nothing could persuade them to vote.
Then there are a few others who will sit these elections out for ideological reasons. They argue that participation in the two-party system spreads illusions about the Democratic Party, delaying the formation of an anti-capitalist alternative.
In their view, the elections are simply a contest between two parties with no differences of any importance; thus, it makes little, if any, difference who wins - Bush or Gore, Bush or Kerry, McCain or Obama, candidates of the right or candidates of the center and left of center.
Any even temporary and tactical alliance with the Democratic Party - well, it's worse than the plague, to be avoided at all costs. Support for a Democratic candidate as a "lesser evil" is tantamount to craven political bankruptcy and opportunism.
What is to be done? It's simple, say the advocates of this point of view: make a "strategic break" with the two-party system. But there is an oh-so slight hitch that serious progressive and left-thinking people can't afford to overlook.
A "strategic break" makes sense only if millions of people and their organizations are ready to march out of the Democratic Party into a labor/people-based political party, but guess what? They aren't.
Yes, many people stay home on Election Day, but it is not an expression of political acumen nor is it the majority. The most active layers of working people organize others to vote and vote themselves.
While many of them express dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party, it hasn't risen to the point where they are ready to bolt it in any near term that I can envision."
They convict themselves.
So, Democratic National Committee, Vice President Biden and the Mass Media, who is the bigger ogre? The US Chamber of Commerce? Or the US Communist Party?
Does the US Democratic Party accept this support, or assail it?
This, IMHO, should be the counter to US Chamber of Commerce influence and activity on the Republican side. Each and every time.
These commie wannabes were so close to seeing their dream of a communist Amerika come true. Sorry komrades! There are still too many Americans living in this country. Maybe you could move to North Korea, Havana or your Marxist “perfessor’s” house until more of us die off.
Sometimes I sit back and give thanks to almighty God for who my enemies are.
The Backlash Has Started - in Chicago. Obama's motorcade met up with an angry crowd!
Oh this is great!
When will the Democrats and Communists make it official and merge parties ? It’s not like there’s any difference between the two.
One of them was “The only good Commie is a dead Commie”.
The other was, “First registration, then confiscation”.
Communists believe in the second saying because it would prevent the first saying from ever being implemented.
Despite the fact that the erstwhile Soviet Union and the late People’s Republic have left behind the suicidal doctrines of Marx and embraced capitalism, the communists still seek to bring down the United States with their peculiar combination of nonsense, hate and envy.
And clearly, Obama is their man.
If this post doesn’t keep you awake tonight check out earlier one:
EXCLUSIVE! Democratic Party Coordinates With European Socialists In Bid For “Global New Deal”
Founding Bloggers ^ | October 14, 2010 | Founding Bloggers
Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 7:34:51 PM by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Is it too much to ask that before the Democratic Party sells America out to the European Socialist movement, they at least enlighten the average American citizen as to their actions?
What are we talking about?
Over the past few years, the highest ranking officials from the Democrat party have been working strategically to advance something called a “Global New Deal” based on Progressive-Democratic-Socialism.
The chief organizing entity for launching this new progressive socialist utopia is a group called the PES, or Party of European Socialists. Their organization is made up of the most powerful socialist blocs in Europe, including Socialists International, the parent organization to its American counterpart, the DSA, or Democratic Socialists of America. For those unfamiliar with the DSA, they are the political arm of the American Progressive Movement.
How do we know that top Democrats are coordinating their efforts with the PES? Well they aren’t exactly hiding the fact.
Strap yourselves in folks. We are going to lay this out with as much detail as possible, in the form of pictures, transcripts and video, so that you understand what is happening.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2610097/posts
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Which shows that Although Obama is a muslim he is also a communist or socialist, or why would the communist party be for him? I sure in the heck won,t stay home.