One of the few U.S. Senators standing up for average Americans is Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Independent from Vermont. He introduced a resolution in the Senate “Expressing the sense of the Senate in opposition to privatizing Social Security, raising the retirement age, or other similar cuts to benefits under title II of the Social Security Act.”
The resolution has 11 co-sponsors. Neither of Colorado’s supposedly “Democratic” Senators have signed onto this resolution. Why haven’t they done this?
I think Colorado’s Senators are mis-characterized as “liberal” – by folks from across the political spectrum. Now, I don’t give a hoot what the psychos in the Republican Tea Party think about Sen. Udall or Sen. Bennet; they’re never going to give them the credit they deserve for pushing policies Cons used to love. I’m a little more concerned what Democrats think about them. I’ve listened to and read too many instances of Democrats cheering on Udall and Bennet because they advocate a “bipartisan” governing approach. I’ve heard far too many instances of, “Well, we <i>have</i> to support Udall and Bennet, because…” and which is followed by any number of variations of the same argument. We can’t let perfect get in the way of good. We can’t let Teabaggers get elected even though our Democratic politicians don’t do all kinds of things we want. They’re the lesser of two evils, blah, blah, blah.
Just like deniers’ inability to answer simple questions regarding global warming, the blind partisans in the Democratic Party are too willing to let their politicians get away with passing crappy policy because they’re unwilling to challenge them. Health insurance companies are making out like bandits (still) because of people like Sens. Udall and Bennet. Wall St. companies are making out like super-bandits (still) because of people like Sens. Udall and Bennet. Global warming legislation got kicked to the gutter because of people like Sens. Udall and Bennet, who continue to show they are more interested in compromise than pushing for critical legislation. All of this lack of progress is somehow a good thing to Democratic partisans, because at least their politicians, and not the other kind, are in power.
And that attitude is fine, I suppose. At some point, however, I think Democrats need to evaluate at which point they will no longer accept the status quo. Health care reform? Nope, not there. Financial industry gambling reform? Nope, not there either. Global warming action? Nope, not there. Immigration reform? Nope, no action there either. Well, how about Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare then? Sens. Udall and Bennet haven’t had much to say about Republican Tea Party attempts to destroy the safety nets that have kept millions of Americans out of deep poverty and healthier than they would have been. If the mis-named Deficit Commission recommends changes to Social Security and other programs, and Sens. Udall and Bennet vote for those changes, how will Democrats react? Will they accept another incrementalist approach that didn’t get Democrats some of what they wanted? Will they applaud the Senators for getting Teabaggers to vote with them to weaken our social programs? Because after all, the Teabaggers won’t be able to do it by themselves. They’re going to need “Democrats” to join them in their crusade to take America back to the 1750s.
