Popularity Contest

Congress and the administration seem to be running a reverse popularity contest and Congress seems to be “winning,” as their poll numbers are actually lower now than President Bush’s. That disappoints but doesn’t really surprise me. I hoped things would change if the Democratic Party took control of Congress, but I didn’t really expect that the change would be major if it occurred at all.

I’m not really disappointed that the Democrats have not stopped the war in Iraq. Hell, I’m not all that certain that stopping that war is actually the best course at this point. (I’m pretty certain that not starting it would have been the best course.) What annoys me is the methods and the reasons for that failure. The Democrats are not failing in that effort due to uncertainty as to what is best for the country, they are failing because of their dedication to their own political futures and to the causes of the moneyed interests that maintain their campaign coffers.

Witness the other causes that the Democrats have not embraced. They have not even whispered about reversing the Bankruptcy Bill. They have made only the most timid overtures toward reversing the Military Commissions Act, and only some small portions of it. They have made only cosmetic changes in earmarking and pork barrel spending, and the scope of that practice is unabated. They have enacted no real energy legislation, and what little good they have done has been countered by gifts to the coal industry. They have done nothing to slow the privatization of the military. They have made no effort toward anti-trust legislation. They have engaged in endless showy investigation that amounts to nothing more than political posturing and makes no effort to bring anyone to actual account. They made nothing more than a token effort to bring about actual negotiation on drug pricing for Medicare. They are not even discussing health care reform. No effort to close Guantanamo or bring a halt to indefinite detention and torture. They have made no more than a token investigation into war profiteering. They have not rejected a single Bush appointee, and when he has abused the recess appointment process they have not spoken out.

The Democrats speak with a disunited voice and the Republicans speak with one voice, but other than that there is no difference between them. Neither party is concerned with the best interests of the United States of America, they are concerned with reelection and with the best interests of the moneyed interests that will contribute the money that will assure them of reelection.

As Shakespeare said, "A pox on both their houses."