The past four years of Democratic rule were a blown opportunity to control the politics of the US for a generation. The only force that stopped Democrats from creating millions of jobs, from ending the wars and bringing the troops home, from putting the banksters on a starvation diet, were elected Democrats themselves. By not fulfilling the mandate Democratic voters gave them in 2006 and 2008, Democratic party elected officials doomed themselves in 2010, and perhaps us too.
Democrats Take A Deliberate Midterm Dive
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
“Fox News didn't stop them. Republicans didn't stop them. Democrats stopped themselves.”
There's no polite way to put it. President Obama and his Democratic party simply threw this election to their Republican foes. The president and his party accomplished this by disappointing and betraying the millions who voted them into office, by not giving Democratic voters any of the changes they voted for. Democrats in power worked long and hard the last four years on losing this election.
Nobody could have stopped House Democrats in 2007 and 2008 from investigating the crimes of the Bush-Cheney regime, from using their subpoena power to compel testimony from government officials, banksters, mortgage companies, military and private prison contractors Nobody but Democrats themselves.
Nobody could have prevented House Democrats from stopping the funding for the murderous and illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nobody but Democrats themselves. Fox News could have complained. House Republicans could have called press conferences. The Bush White House could have fumed and fussed. But nobody stopped Democrats from going on the offensive four years ago but Democrats themselves.
By the time the Democratic mandate was renewed in 2008 joblessness was at an all time high and rising. Millions of families were facing imminent foreclosure, while the rivers of cash continued to flow to banksters and the war machine.
“The last time unemployment was this high, there was a Democrat in the White House, and Democrats controlled the Congress too. Those Democrats created the New Deal.”
Democrats ran the White House and Congress while the government briefly assumed control over GM, one of the greatest collections of industrial productivity the world has ever seen. Rather than use this vast enterprise of engineers and workers to spearhead the “green jobs” programs Democratic voters crave, rather than use this incomparable prize to begin the transition to a post-petroleum economy, Democrats in the White House and Congress transferred the company's contractual obligations for health care to its workers, made its wealthy creditors whole, and sent it back to producing the same things it did before, only more of them in Korea and Mexico.
The last time unemployment was this high, there was a Democrat in the White House, and Democrats controlled the Congress too. Those Democrats created the New Deal. They hired hundreds of thousands of Americans to build state of the art public elementary and high schools, bridges and roads. They built thousands of free parks and pools and recreational facilities. In places like Chicago, they dug brand new subway lines which are still in service 70 years later, vital infrastructure that has paid for itself many times over the decades. When people saw members of their own families and their neighbors go back to work, they knew where their tax money went, and they approved.
Federal job creation programs are not even in the history books, as far as present-day Democratic politicians know. With the nation's resources pledged to prop up Wall Street and the war machine, there is nothing left to pay teachers, or home health care workers. There's nothing left to build new schools and subways and bridges, or low-income rental housing for the millions of Americans who need it.
These are the things that could have won this election for Democrats. Fox News didn't stop them. Republicans didn't stop them. Democrats stopped themselves. Despite the empty talk of holding Democrats accountable, it's clear now that no such thing was ever possible. The opportunity is passed. Now Republican tea-party know-nothings are in charge of the House of Representatives. Our elected Democrats did this to themselves, and we let them. But mostly, they did it to us.
Bruce Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report, and based in Marietta GA. He can be reached at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com.
Isaac Saney is a Cuba and Black studies specialist and historian at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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