The Workday Liberal

The nation disagrees with the policies of President Bush as demonstrated by wide margins in every poll. So we elected Democrats to majorities in last years mid term elections to end the unchecked Republican control of government.

The Democratic Congress has proven ineffective at stopping many of the Presidents most controversial policies. Not only have these programs not been stopped, but in many cases the President has actually been able to gain further authorization from Congress despite widespread disapproval of the programs in question. It is especially galling that America now has substantially more troops occupying Iraq than were there prior to the midterm elections.

Congressional Democrats point to the razor thin majority they hold in the Senate and plead that without a fillibuster proof majority they can not force through their agenda. The predictable reaction from the left to this pro Administration impasse usually includes variants of the word spineless.

When we consider the politics of all this, another possibility comes to mind. On a purely political level, maybe Democrats are taking the path which was trailblazed by the Republicans, on the issue of abortion. Raise a hullabaloo about the issue, but don't do anything substantial about it even as they continue to gain politically from raising a stink about the issue.

Democrats are prospering politically because of the disaster which Republicans have led this nation into. While the general public holds the Congress in very low regard right now the internals on those polls demonstrate that Democrats are widely favored compared to Republicans, and that most people blame Republicans for the current poisoned state of affairs in national politics. This leaves Democrats looking at the next election and thinking that if things continue on this course, they will be swept to power in a continuation of the 2006 midterm tsunami.

Part of keeping things static until the next election is not helping out the Republicans by fixing their mistakes. Think of it this way. If you are in business and you see your main competitor making a mistake which sends some of their customers your way, are you going to take a humanitarian approach and set your competitor straight? Even if in the course of erring, the competitor turns a few customers off to whatever product or service you both offer, most businesses would not step in to save their competitor and dry up their own increased profits.

To be sure, this is a particularly cynical take on the outlook of Congressional Democrats. But it is one explanation for their baffling inability to put an end to some of the worst policies forwarded by the worst President in this nations history.