The Second Governmental Shut-down

In late 1995 Newt Gingrich shut down government as part of some protest against what Clinton was doing. Everybody blamed the Republicans for it, too. Now government has ground to a halt again. Since the President's State of the Union address two weeks ago, nothing has gotten done. About all congress has done is to hold a few press conferences. You can't blame the snow storm for all of this. They tell me that congress plans to be in recess all week regardless of what the weather does. This is only a prelude to next week when congress will do its usual thing of extending a single holiday into a whole week off. President Obama says he wants to meet with Republicans in some televised summit on February 25th. But the Republicans want a pre condition of promacing that the nuclear option will not be used, and also that the President will abandon any hope of either the Senate or House health bills getting passed. The President has fallen badly in all the polls lately from a year ago. They say democratic ideas used to lead republican ideas by 35 points and now it's reduced to five points, and tied in some polls. One can blame the media and I blame the American people for being stupid. They're like sheep, being so easily led by anything the corporate owned media says they should believe. Tell me what has changed from a year ago since the people felt so fondly of their President. Nothing has changed. Except a year ago you didn't have these tea baggers. Their convention in Nashville had six hundred people in attendance and the media regarded it as a major convocation. Yet when hundreds of thousands used to routinely show up at left wing protests during the Bush administration protesting this or that policy, it got maybe a paragraph reference on page 28 or something. And the Democrats are buying into all this negativity too. You know on this soap opera I watch a couple of days ago a woman was worried about whether she would be physically able to give her future husband a child. She said something "But then again, the Christian faith is all about belief in miracles, isn't it? To my astonishment the priest said bluntly, "No, it is not what Christianity is all about". Well in today's episode she is pregnent. My point, and I could have cited many examples I have witnessed, is that Christians love to posture in church or from the pulpit about the things they say they believe in, but in their ordenary lives they don't base their OWN decisions on these beliefs. Were I Clowie, the woman, I would have shot back, "Christians don't believe in miracles? Are you telling me the resurrection of Jesus isn't a meracle? If people don't believe in a small miracle, how can they believe in a big one? (Selah)

So what do we do about all this negativity? Well if I were to write the President a letter it would go something like, "When you meet with the Republicans- - first have your mind made up exactly where you want to lead us as a nation. People shy away from a doubtful leader. If you really don't think the health care bill can be passed, state so plainly to the American people. And at the same time say what course you DO plan to pursue. The American people need to be assured their president is not a flake, and Mr. Obama, lately you have been acting like a flake". It was a conservative reacently I heard voice the oppinion that the President was a shallow man lacking in real convictions, and that his words just wern't believable. I continue to be amazed why the President has been and is turning his back on the very people who voted for him. OK he doesn't have 68 senators in his own party like I heard Johnson had in 1965. This tells me that our work as democrats is not done untill we do get a veto proof congress. This is a goal to shoot for and it is doable if we believe. Faint heart never won an election. When you read about political leaders in the past and see films on their lives in school, one thing you notice is that they wern' cowards. In World War II there was talk of what to do if the Japanese invaded Austrailia. But it was decided we would not let them get that far, and so picked a battle with them while they were still in New Guinea. We took the conflict to them. We have to put the Republicans on the defencive. We need a war strategy to hone our campaign points. What the democrats should be doing this week and next is take the time - not to go off to see their mistress in Argentina - - but to spend this time in planning and strategy ready to hit the ground running when Congress next meets. This means find a way to "get it done" and then DO IT. Be proactive. I wish Carley Manning had been packing heat the last time she met up with Vivian Alamaine. How satisfying it would be to blow her brains out right there in the Kiriacus mansion in front of Victor. The democrats need to get the health bill through with "reconciliation" or whatever you call it, with a vote of only better than 51%. If need be adopt rules that limit the proposal of amendments, lest Republicans get any ideas. They have the power to make the rules do use it. Clearly label the Republicans as the obstructionist party. Identify the Republicans as the source of all of the problems we are having in government these days. Do NOT worry about public opinion. They'll whine if the bill passes but will whine just as loudly if the democrats don't do anything. Whining is all the Republicans know how to do. Haven't you figured that out? As it is said, "Victory has a hundred fathers; defeat is an orphan". Nobody never needed to provide an explanation for winning. If the democrats act like winners, they just might turn into winners.