Open Left

Not time for cautious (4.00 / 9)

Yes, Reagan jimmied the stats in 1986 so people think thinhs are better than they really are. But the facts are pretty obvious.  This is the worst economic downturn in 80 years (since the Crash of 1929) and already one of the four worst economies in US Hisory (Panic of 1837, Panic of 1893, the Great Depression).  

What those three incidents teach us is crystal clear.  The public throws out the incumbent party and keeps throwing them out until something is done. The greatest one election purge came not in 1994 but in 1894 when the ruling Democrats under Grover Cleveland (a very conservative Democrat who used federal troops to put down a strike) lost 125 seats (out of 357 IIRC) in the House.  In 1930 the Republicans lost 50 seats in the House.  Not solving anything, they lost another 97 in 1932.  The Panic of 1837 led to the election of the first Whig President in 1840.

Conservative Democrats represent the most precarious seats and are the most likely to be thrown out if they continue their obstructionist ways.  And they deserve it.

The Supreme Court may give more free speech rights to money than to actual protesters but the corporations only rule until the next election.  Then it is our turn to vote.  I'd like to sack the bums in the primaries but if not they may fall en masse in the general.

The Republicans are already attacking Ben Bernanke, a Republican appointed by W.  We should be attacking him; not the Republicans.  We should be going after the bankers and cleaning up the mess instead of propping up the incompetent plutocrats.  We want an FDR or even a domestic policy LBJ and we get "practical" half measures.  Half measures are not practical in these times.

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by: David Kowalski @ Fri Jun 26, 2009 at 09:15:11 AM CDT