When President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, Republican leaders in Congress - such as O'Connell and Boehner and Cantor - and elsewhere vowed that their main goal for the next four years was to ensure Obama's defeat in 2012. They would, they said, do everything in their power to achieve that goal!
To this end, they instructed Republican members of Congress to vote as a bloc in opposition to Mr. Obama's agenda. They voted "No!" on almost everything. They obstructed programs suggested and people nominated by Mr. Obama. Hundreds of judges and other officials, remain waiting in the wings yet to be confirmed.
For four long years, the needs of our country have been held hostage by the petulance of a political party which today seems increasingly irrelevant. Or, as Brian Williams, put it when speaking about the unspeakable Donald Trump, he and they "have passed the last exit toward relevance."
Even though many members of the media, and I'll mention Chuck Todd as an example, have tried to paint a picture of shared guilt for the gridlock that has stifled any possibility of progress in this nation such a picture is out of focus. Todd was wrong as were other pundits who said the Democrats were just as recalcitrant to compromise and just as partisan as the Republicans. That's a false equivalence. It is not true.
What is amazing is that the President, in spite of fully-funded hatred of his very being, was able to accomplish a huge number of things in his first term as we have reported here previously! The list goes on and on. Click here.
We must ask ourselves what kind of people have such a need for power they ignore the needs of the country for political gain? Many of the Republican leaders claim to be devout, "born-again" Christians. But their religion is a sham! How could anyone, elected by the people to represent them in Congress, leave their constituents in the lurch to fend for themselves because of a political vendetta?
We're speaking of matters of morality, of ethics, of justice, of an understanding of what "commonwealth" means. These Republican leaders fall short in every category! Their morality, ethics and sense of justice must be disavowed. They have failed those who put them in office, their peers in Congress, their president, and their country.
The fallout from the election reflects discontent with Republican rule. The election shows the Senate retaining a Democratic majority, albeit a slim one. And we know there are several DINOs (Democrats in Name Only) who would probably be happier in the Republican Party. They can be useful at times, however, if they can be pressured to vote for the people and not against the people.
Unfortunately, the House of Representatives remains under the control of the extremist Republicans. It is hard to believe that Michele Bachmann retained her seat. The people residing in her Minnesota district must have serious unresolved ethical and moral issues, for this woman is a freak of nature and does not belong in any legislative body!
But there's much more to consider. John Amato, in his article, "America Elects A Liberal Agenda," published today at Crooks and Liars, says this about the election:
"America repudiated conservatism completely after the smoke began to clear. ... [P]resident Obama withstood terrible odds of reelection after the rise of the Tea Party and their rout in the 2010 midterms. Conservatives were licking their chops in anticipation of 2012 and [...] they left with their tails between their legs. Most of the right and some in the media said that Obama didn't put out an agenda for reelection, but he did propose a program built on liberal ideology...
"Obama ran on regulations for Wall Street.
"Obama ran on defending Social Security and Medicare.
"Obama ran on immigration reform and the Dream Act.
"Obama ran on raising taxes on the wealthy.
"Obama ran on letting the Bush tax cuts expire.
"Obama ran on income equality for the working class.
"Equal rights for the LGBT community."
[...]
"President Obama won a mandate with this victory and don't let anyone say otherwise. ...
So we begin another cycle. Two important questions are: 1) Will the president carry out the liberal agenda, standing strong, even in the face of hostility and opposition? 2) Will the Republican Party realize that Americans have decisively rejected their partisan politics and their disdain for compromise and change their ways?
Perhaps Mr. Obama has given us a signal, a sign, a light with which to view the direction he will lead the country. In his acceptance speech, he said "The best is yet to come."
The best is yet to come. The best is yet to come. The best is yet to come!
Is it possible that, at long last, our dream for this country - a dream where all people count, where people come before profits or politics, where war becomes a last resort and not a means of securing oil fields or banana plantations for American corporations, where people are free to love whom they wish, to believe what they wish or to believe nothing at all, where the government is not seen as a problem but as a means of working together to accomplish goals which benefit all the people and not mainly the rich?
The best is yet to come! YES!