Letters 2 America for May 16, 2014

Dear America,

If it weren't for the past, I would feel confident that the Republicans and conservatives in general have no chance of coming anywhere near control of congress in November.  If only it weren't for the past.  After all, an increase in the minimum wage continues to be anathema to the Republicans despite the fact that such an increase in earnings would help many millions of people...most of whom vote.  And there is immigration reform, which even Republican operatives say is crucial to the success of the party at the polls, but which, in spite of what would seem self-interest, they continue not just to oppose, but to actively thwart.  There is the obvious political theater represented by the incessant investigations of issues from Benghazi to Lois Lerner of the IRS--investigations that are nothing but reprises of already failed investigations of the same things that were inspired by naked political strategy.  That enthusiasm for the Republicans continual calls for, and pursuit with junk-yard-dog enthusiasm of, such "inquiries" is shared only by their own die-hard partisans, while there is nothing but opprobrium coming from the general public, who see nothing getting done in the Republican House of Representatives and only threats of filibuster coming from the hard right Republicans of the Senate minority...both of which have brought the country to a standstill on many fronts.  Now, there is the continuing saga of the failure of the House to pass an extension of unemployment benefits passed in The Senate in April.  Speaker Boehner won't even allow a vote on the bill, and a Republican from Nevada, Republican Dean Heller, who sponsored the April bill is introducing a new version in response to Boehner's refusal in lieu of a "jobs creation" bill.  Heller has added to the unemployment extension in his first bill an $85 billion corporate tax cut, presumably to mollify Boehner on the "job creation" issue.  Whether Democrats in The Senate will vote for such a bill is unknown, but the likelihood that the American people will tolerate such largess directed at the corporate oligarchy seems quite low to me.  You can call a tax cut for those who already have too much money in the bank "job creation," but my guess is that the American people regard more spending power for millions of them as more likely to create jobs than would be any corporate sop obviously directed at eliciting more campaign contributions this summer would accomplish.

But it's not just regular people who have good reason not to vote Republican.  Today, there is a congregation of posse comitatus groups in Washington, D.C.  They make the Tea Party look like main-stream liberals, and they have advised their constituents on the contact policies...what they have denominated the rules of engagement, or ROE...for this convention they are holding out of doors in the nation's capital. The members of the various posses are to leave their guns and ammunition in the closest neighboring states where they are permitted to carry them, and they are not to confront or assail law enforcement in D.C...or elsewhere for that matter.  That includes speeding in their cars, running red lights and resisting arrest if they get on the wrong side of the law.  According to the organizers, they expect between one and thirty million participants...that's thirty, not three.  And their mission, for those who choose to accept it, is to expel the "communists," which include among them not just President Obama but John Boehner as well, from our governing bodies, replacing them with what they didn't say.  So, that's up to 30 million no votes for Republican candidates in November's elections.  Add them to the no votes precipitated by those commies on the issues of the minimum wage, immigration and tax breaks for corporations...the poor corporations that are sitting on about $2-3 trillion as we speak...and you have probably fifty million votes, minimum, that are going to go somewhere other than to Republican candidates.  That's a big hole to climb out of in electoral politics, and while the posse comitatus groups are going to be unarmed when they arrive in Washington, the Republican Party never goes anywhere without its foot-shooting pistol, which they have now fired so often that they are going to have to reload with some more bizarre ideas to try to sell to the American electorate.  With all these inimical factors working against Republican prospects for taking over control of the two houses of congress, all of us liberals should be resting easy, but somehow, I can't.

We have been in these straits before, and it hasn't always gone well for the progressives among us.  For some reason, these Republican contra tempts seem unreliable as auguries of Republican defeat.  In 2010 for example, not just Republicans, but Tea Party Republicans, managed to arrogate control of The House from the majority, which was Democratic before the election, and from the Republicans who became the majority in The House of Representatives on that occasion.  The Tea Party, once they had procured the capitulation of the new House Speaker, John Boehner of course, managed to run roughshod over the entire legislative process, and acting in concert with the disloyal minority of forty Republican Senators, they continued their reign of terror even through the election of 2012, which was a defeat for the Republicans, but not a large enough one to bring them down from their cat bird seat.  Thus, the Democrats have been blamed for every debacle in Washington by the obdurate Republicans, and for some reason, the public doesn't repudiate the puling of the Republicans on the casuistic obfuscation of the truth that has become their political strategy on all occasions.  Their crocodile tears seem convincing.  Once again, all we can do is wait for November, but perhaps President Obama could help us.  Maybe he can stop giving little speeches in the middle of the day that result in ten second sound bites on the news--always followed by the same kind of attention to McBoehnell, who persist in bending the truth until it breaks--and have a few prime time news conferences instead in which he can lay out his points for all to hear, not just the unemployed, those who stay home by design and children too young to vote who are staying home because they are faking illness.  It takes guts to hold a news conference, but maybe some guts in our president is our last hope.

Your friend,

Mike