Alternate Current — Can the Democrats regain the center?
Democrats seem to be completely tone-deaf as they stumble along snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by ignoring the legitimate concerns of so many. Instead of validating their anger by acknowledging their concerns, Democrats are taking the stance that ignoring them will be a winning strategy because when middle ground voters actually face the moment of truth in November, having to choose between radical extremists of the far right they will return instead to the Democratic candidate.
Many citizens resent that illegal aliens are able to tap into and abuse our system of social programs. Many are upset about the possibility of aliens, legal or not, being able to vote. This is a perfect opportunity for Democratic leadership to make this issue theirs by calling for a photo ID card identifying the holder as a citizen and to mandate this card to be used when voting in federal elections. Drivers” licenses already require photos and thumb prints; what”s the problem?
Fiscal responsibility is suddenly all the rage after an eight-year orgy of record deficits. It”s true that with the consumer on the sidelines and out of work, 70 percent of the economy is stalled, leaving government the only realistic way to jump-start economic growth. Fortunately there is no shortage of job producing, economy stimulating projects that we desperately need but we must cut other wasteful spending to avoid increasing the deficit while accomplishing this.
Pay as you go, or “pay go” was eliminated during the Bush era. Obama stated he wants to return to that policy, yet we have not seen the wasteful foreign military bases closed on Okinawa or in Germany for instance, costing hundreds of billions each year despite contributing nothing to our security. Peace came to Japan and Germany 65 years ago; our troops there are no longer needed nor serve any purpose. It is argued that Okinawa is important to our presence in Asia but North Korea has been a rogue state since 1950. They”ve gone nuclear and attacked both U.S. and South Korean ships, all while our 50,000 troops served as a hollow threat, totally ignored. Close those bases and put many of those troops on our borders and in our ports instead. Invest the savings to help America rebuild long neglected infrastructure, creating real economic stimulus. Ron Paul is exactly right on this. You would think the Democrats would have the courage to adopt this obvious logic, but there”s no sign of that.
Obama recently authorized $2 billion for green energy initiatives, a meaningless drop in the bucket, hardly even window dressing. We send about $400 billion a year to foreign countries for oil now, much of which is invested toward our destruction by those who hate us, not for our freedom of course, but because we feel free to invade, occupy and reduce their countries to rubble so that we can buy oil from the Middle East “cheap.” It verges on insanity for us to fail to realize how much less safe we are because of our addiction to oil and to be clueless about what we really pay per barrel when military costs are included. Democrats need to take a serious “1942” approach to energy and quit fooling around.
Democrats are like the marathon runner who has crossed the finish line and collapsed after winning, without realizing that was not the finish but just the beginning of the herculean task of saving this country from the destruction visited upon us by the Republicans. They could have simply reinstated the 10-page Glass-Steagall act to repair the damage done by banking deregulation but instead came up with 1,100 pages with loopholes for every occasion. They could have simply made Medicare available to every citizen who pays the cost of coverage but spent a year and all their political capital on a mediocre program that won”t take effect until 2014.
There may still be time to make a real difference and to give citizens a reason to be enthusiastic but so far the Democrats have dropped every ball they”ve picked up. Sadly, subtlety has no place in current politics. Obama”s calm demeanor is not registering with the middle; he needs to fight fire by finding some of his own.
Lowell Grant is a weekly columnist for the Record-Bee. E-mail him at c21vintage@aol.com.
