Posted: Monday, 24 August 2009 10:51AM
Democrats Must Heal Themselves
Steve Corbett Reporting
Monday, August 24, 2009
Democrats wanted control. Democrats now have control. Democrats now rule the nation.
President Barack Obama is the chief Democrat whose promise to change the way Washington runs stands as one of the main reasons voters elected him to office.
Democrats control the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey campaigned for Obama, drank beer with Obama and bowled with Obama. Since the Scranton legislator now has the president’s ear, this soft-spoken man of privilege can now help people he claims to care about deeply.
Even U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter is now a Democrat. The veteran Pennsylvania Republican jumped aboard when he saw his own ship sinking and now promises to lend his political authority to the majority.
Democrats control the U.S. House of Representatives, too.
Eleventh Congressional District U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski has been in office for decades and has developed friends in all the right places. Tenth Congressional District Rep. Chris Carney, although still a rookie, is developing clout and confidence and has lost some of the defensive egotism that hurt him in his early days in office.
Both Democrats can add to a powerful public policy that can help their constituents in Northeastern Pennsylvania enjoy a quality of life with which they too often struggle rather than savor.
With Obama, Casey, Specter, Kanjorski and Carney representing our interests in office, the nation is poised to benefit immensely – especially from a complete overhaul in health care reform. Each one of these men can drastically change the system, change our lives and change the stranglehold that insurance companies and drug companies have over our lives.
So why haven’t they done so already? Why is health care reform such a troublesome deal? Why can’t we trust them to lead rather than follow? And why do Democrats and independents allow them such a pass?
These men are products are masters of myth, masters of deception and masters of double-talk. These men promise us everything on the campaign trail and give us little when they ascend to office. These men are dangerous.
No wonder people are angry at town meetings. No wonder people have given up and don’t vote. No wonder people have developed into cynical reactionaries who see the American Dream slipping away.
Obama simply has no health care plan. Instead of hammering out a landmark policy with the best minds in the health care field and then sending that plan to Congress for approval, Obama hides and vacations and become a warmonger by sending more and more troops to Afghanistan.
So much for the anti-war president that naïve, young Obama supporters heralded as a man of real change.
Obama seems to truly believe that he’s immune to criticism. By hiding, though, he’s shown his timidity and insecurity about the job. And if the president is insecure, what does that do for the national confidence level?
We need Casey to challenge Obama.
We need Kanjorski to challenge Obama.
We need Specter and Carney, too, but these guys aren’t really Democrats. They’re closet Republicans who want personal power and wealth as well as the benefits that come with serving in the majority.
If Obama truly wants health care reform, he can have it. All he needs to do is pound out a policy, send the plan to Congress and threaten anybody who stands in his way.
“This is a matter of life and death,” Obama should say, and nobody will stand in the way of my helping America first.”
If Specter and Carney resist, Obama should tell them that it’s been nice knowing them as Democrats. He should tell them that he will support somebody else for re-reelection and that they would be better off in the GOP.
But don’t expect such strong leadership from Obama. He’s afraid. Obama worries that his handlers on Wall Street and the political bosses in Chicago will not approve. He worries that the pharmaceutical companies will pump money into his defeat.
Obama cares more about staying in the White House more than he does about you staying healthy and paying your mortgage and staying in your house.
So do the rest of these political lackeys.
We must do everything in our power to challenge Obama and his enablers.
This crisis truly is a matter of life and death.
This crisis is killing America.
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Corbett
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