Beating The Drum

I watch MSNBC. I do this because they are the only legitimate news organization covering in depth the issues I care about. They are progressives or liberals if you prefer. They are very honest and up front about that. The one problem, of course, is that the situations they are reporting and the issues they are commenting on are not quickly resolved, which means that the coverage is often repetitive. I am afraid this blog is also repetitive for the same reason. That is regrettable. Even more regrettable are all the people who do not watch MSNBC, or read newspapers, or even blogs that present facts and cogent arguments rather than lies and ideological dogma. I do not know that I have much to add to the debate. I state my opinions. I try to base those opinions on whatever facts are available to me, but they are not facts I have gathered from independent research or investigation. I am really just an old man asking questions and trying to come up with answers.

Lawrence O’Donnell has finally asked a question I have been asking for quite some time. “Who the hell keeps electing Michelle Bachman?” He examined the demographics of her district. Oddly enough those demographics are pretty much the same as the demographics of other districts where people elect reasonably sane and competent politicians to Congress. The only thing I can conclude, and I must admit this involves more than a little conjecture on my part, is that her district is in a community that has been under Republican rule for so long that all the mental health clinics have been deprived of funding for decades.

Rachel Maddow is also asking some questions I have been asking for quite some time. “Why are the network news organizations not pointing out that eliminating budget deficits and attacking a woman’s reproductive rights does nothing to create jobs? If it is about jobs why are the Republicans not concentrating on creating jobs rather than enriching the rich at the expense of everyone else and depriving women of the rights guaranteed to them by Roe v. Wade? And why are the network news organizations not reporting that that is what the Republicans are doing?” My answer to those questions does not require any conjecture at all. The networks have to please corporate sponsors who would rather not have people looking at what the Republicans are actually doing or asking such questions about what the Republicans are doing.

This inability or unwillingness of the networks makes it vitally important for President Obama to use the bully pulpit to keep the public informed. What I have been saying for a long time is that he has to start acting like Franklin Roosevelt rather than Casper Milquetoast. He has to stop letting the Republicans define the issues and set the agenda. He has to point out that the right wing Governors recently elected are giving huge tax breaks to corporations who have not and will not create jobs in spite of the outrageous profits they a raking in, and that those governors are doing this at the expense of their budgets and while attacking collective bargaining, wages, benefits and the education of middle class workers and the working poor. President Obama has to point out that it is to a great extent the greed of Wall Street speculators that is driving up the price of gasoline and other commodities. He has to point out that it is unemployment that is creating the government deficits and so much misery, and that the Republicans are not and will not do what is needed to create more jobs.

The declaration of war I want to see him take before Congress is the one that acknowledges the class warfare the Republicans have started with their attacks on everyone in this country who is not a multi-millionaire. It is high time for the Democratic Party to fulfill its traditional role of defending the middle class from such attacks. Doing this will undoubtedly cost him some campaign funds, but it is the right thing to do. There is also a political upside to doing the right thing. The disapproval ratings of those right wing governors have soared, and so have the approval ratings of the Democrats who oppose those governors. What is happening in states such as Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc. is not simply local politics. It is part of the national strategy of the Republican Party. It goes hand in hand with extending outrageous tax cuts for the super wealthy while attacking unemployment insurance and all other government programs that would help relieve some of the hardship caused by this Republican recession. It is not just the people in the states with right wing governors who think this strategy is outrageous. All President Obama has to do is fill in the dots and inform the public of what is happening. His approval ratings and those of Democratic Party will soar, just as Franklin Roosevelt’s approval ratings soared.

There is a hell of lot more of us than multi-millionaires. What we want is a champion who will defend our opportunities and the equitable economic structure our fathers and grandfathers fought so hard to obtain. What we want is a leader who will get us moving in the right direction again. In fact, we demand such a leader!