By Leopoldo Ponce, Jr.

Mixed Blessing

The much expected rebirth of Conservative America really wasn’t that much of a rebirth. It actually seems like one final gasp of air before a slow and painful death. Sure the Republicans now have a majority in the House of Representatives, but the Democrats held the Senate. In what seemed to be the best chance Republicans had at becoming the ruling party again was wasted. Let’s not feel that the Democrats were major losers on November 2nd, the truth is this can bode well for the Presidential Election in 2012. Every single president that has faced the loss of one or both chambers of congress has eventually won re-election. If anything this has been a win for the Democratic Party, because Blue Dog Democrats have been voted out. Now we are only left with true progressive Democrats in congress.

Now the Republicans are faced with a major problem. Their victory was in large part due to the Tea Party. The Tea Party is an extreme faction of the Right that believe Sharia Law is at risk of being passed across the nation, and that Communists secretly want to destroy it. The Tea Party is a group of xenophobes that are cautious of any person that speaks with an accent or in a foreign language. If the Republicans side with them, since they did provide them with the support needed to win the House, they will alienate moderate America, and thus costing them major loses in 2012. However, if they do not side with the Tea Party they will lose their grassroots support that ended up rallying together to help push them to the finish line this time around. Who will the Republicans side with? Will they side with an extreme faction that has now become the backbone of the Republican Party or will they side with the general population of the United States? Either choice will cost them, but only one will ensure their demise.

The Democratic Party should not start celebrating just yet, however. If the Democrats do not take this opportunity to sway themselves away from the Right, and instead decide to run and govern as Pseudo-Conservatives, they will also start alienating their base. What will happen if both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party alienate their bases? The Republican Party has already created the Tea Party, but what if the Democrats accidentally create the “Java Party”? This may cause us to have a four party election in 2012. The Extreme Right versus The Extreme Left versus The Republican Party versus The Democratic Party, and this will mean that any one party can actually elect a President with less than forty percent of the electorate supporting it! If this occurs there will be a major divide in the United States, and it will no longer be Red versus Blue divide, but a Red, Blue, Violet, and Green divide. This scenario may seem unlikely at the moment, but so did the Tea Party actually getting some of their candidates elected. Is this really the United States of America that we need? Do we really need a more divided nation?

Is This The Rebirth of Conservative America?

On November 7, 2006 Democrats won enough seats to take control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Even though they would not actually take control until January, the damage had been done. Republicans were emasculated and were turned into lame ducks. President George W. Bush was even forced to get away from his extremist corporate background and decided to not pursue the privatization of social security.

Now, however, the Democrats are the ones that are on the receiving end of major loses. Republican and Conservative Pundits are on a tirade suggesting that this only proves that the American Public is Center-Right. I do not believe that for a second. The reason why Democrats lost is because they refused to run on their accomplishments, and instead decided to run a defensive campaign. As anybody that watches sports knows, one can never win a game if no offense is played! The Democrats ran on the, “Let’s minimize loses” motto! I, honestly, do not believe Americans would willingly vote Republican if they were informed of what they actually stand for and of their past crimes. The Republicans have committed crimes and nobody should believe that they have not for a second. For example, yesterday, November 1st, Tom Delay declared himself innocent for Campaign Contribution Fraud. There is enough evidence to convict him, and do not think for a second that he will not be convicted because he is. There was enough proof that he had to leave the House of Representatives. What was he guilty of? He illegally accepted contributions from major corporations and used a political action committee he created to fund Republican campaigns. The people he helped get elected through illegal means, eventually redistricted the State of Texas in such a way that Democratic districts were now turned into Republican districts! He drew lines in such a way that districts that were once a single community were now divided into three different districts that stretched hundreds of miles! This redistricting led to the Democrats losing five seats in the House of Representatives which created a ten vote deficit by itself. All of this was done for the benefit of not only the Republican Party but also for corporations.

This is nothing compared to the war-crimes that were conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan by allowing mercenaries to hold immunity from meaningless murders of civilians. Of course I am speaking of Blackwater. Not to mention that multi-billion dollar contracts were given to Halliburton to rebuild Iraq. Who is Halliburton you ask? Well former Vice-President Dick Cheney was once the CEO of Halliburton. I am of course only repeating what many others have already stated, but if so many people know about this type of corruption why do people still vote Republican? If people actually knew what the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act is made-up of, then why vote for a political party that wants to give the government the power to search your house without a warrant and keep track of the websites you visit and books you read?

Why will Rick Perry win tonight if he’s using ten thousand dollars a month of our taxes to rent out a mansion? Rick Perry has led our education system on a downward spiral! Texas has one of the highest drop-out rates in the nation, and the only thing that he has done recently is cut the Texan education budget by ten percent. Not to mention that if the Federal Government had not risen funding for the Children Health Insurance Provider program, many children would be without adequate health-care here in Texas, because Rick Perry made drastic cuts to the program in order to make budget deficit appear smaller. All of these budget cuts were irresponsible and have only set Texas back a decade when compared to other cities in education, health-care, and overall well-being.

Later on tonight I will probably post an entry that will send a chill down your spine. If the Republicans win, I will post my apocalyptic view of the near future. Hopefully, I do not have to post that and the Democrats can at least hold on to the Senate and Bill White wins the governorship. I will not be holding my breath, though, and sadly that is going to be a somber post.

Election Day!

After two years of a very productive Democratic-rule it looks like Democrats will lose the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. Now, many people may not know what the Democrats accomplished but here are some things since Democrats aren’t willing to share their accomplishments…I WILL!
• Democrats passed Credit Card reform which has set a cap on how much interest can be raised.
• A Deficit neutral Health Care Bill was passed that will disallow Health Insurance companies to deny coverage to individuals if they have a pre-existing medical condition.
• The Health Care Bill will also allow the offspring of insured adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until the age of 26.
• Over 30 billion dollars were approved for the Children Health Insurance Provider (CHIP), that will insure over 7 million children nationwide!
• Unemployment was kept under 10% even though analysts predicted up to a 13% rate!
• The Obama Presidency forced British Petroleum (BP) to pay 20 billion dollars for the Gulf-Oil Spill.
• An exit date was set for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Had the Republicans accomplished HALF of that in 18 months we would be hearing about it! Sadly, though, Democrats seem to have thrown-in the towel, and thus possibly ending one of the most productive eras of the past 40 years.

How democrats and progressives squandered a great opportunity

By James Thompson

As election results roll in and the Republican party notches up a great victory for reaction, many people will probably ask, “How did this happen here?” How could an electorate fired up for progressive change just two years ago fall flat on its face? What did the Democratic Party do to lose the overwhelming support it received in the last election cycle?

Many will say that it is because fantastic amounts of money were unleashed to support the hysterical theatrics of the ultra-right as embodied in the Tea Party movement. This is, of course, correct. The recent “Citizens United” decision of the U.S. Supreme court will change the way elections are held until this anti-working class ruling is overturned. The ruling makes it possible for corporations to pour vast amounts of money into the campaigns of candidates who support their interests and the source of these contributions do not have to be disclosed to the public. Corporations can easily outspend working class individuals and organizations with ease. We saw this in this election with hateful right wing ads attacking anything that dared stand in the way of the interests of the ultra wealthy. Without a doubt, the mainstream media coverage of the elections focused on the nuttiest of the right-wing fringe. Certainly, money is always a problem where democracy is concerned.

However, there were some other factors that made it easier for the right wing to do their dirty work. Since Obama took office, the working class has been extremely polarized. Racism has raised its ugly head fueled by money from the ultra-right. Progressives for the most part have failed to meet the challenge of fighting racism in the last two years. Anti-communism has been unleashed once again through the voice of hysterical pundits and this has served to confuse the working people of this country. Anyone who falls to the left of Karl Rove on the political spectrum has been branded a “socialist” and many people fall for this since they don’t have a clue about what socialism really means. Socialists have failed to meet this challenge and have made little effort to clarify what socialism actually means.

Class-collaborationism has also returned. Some progressive organizations and political parties have failed to sharply criticize the Democratic party and its politicians on their policies which favor the wealthy class. Indeed, some have insisted on marching in lockstep with Obama and some of the reactionary Democrats in the name of unity of the working class. When the Obama administration and former President Clinton worked against the labor backed candidate in Arkansas, you didn’t hear a peep from the left. When Rahm Emanuel declared “F— the UAW!”, the left was no where to be seen or heard. These anti-labor stances were confusing to organized labor and working people in general.

In Texas, which is one of the most reactionary states in the nation, the elections can only be characterized as being chaotic and confusing. A friend of mine, an African American woman, told me that she was faced with an awful dilemma. She lives in Tom Delay’s old district where Anglo male Republican Ted Olson faced an African American Democrat female Kesha Rogers. Rogers advocates the impeachment of President Obama. My friend was forced to vote for the Republican candidate because he was more moderate than the Democrat. In my district, a right wing Republican only faced a minor challenge by a Libertarian candidate. No Democrat opposed him. In Dallas, Eddie Bernice Johnson, a progressive Democrat, is fighting for her seat. She is opposed by a right wing Republican African American male Baptist minister who is calling for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government if the Republicans don’t win control of Congress. All of these shenanigans are very confusing to voters being bombarded by attack ads every night on TV.

A friend of mine recently reminded me that when there is no tension between opposing forces, there can be no progress. Frederick Douglass said, “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” This is what is missing today in the class struggle. Working class unity is needed to overcome the powerful influence of the corporations, but this does not mean following the Democratic party program to the letter. Progressives should support Democrats who fight for the interests of the working class and should support policies which favor working class interests. However, we should oppose with all our might any politician and/or policy which favors the interests of the wealthy. If we do this, we can answer the question “Which side are you on?” with a great deal of pride.

PHill1917@comcast.net