Bob Herbert: The Democrats (and Republicans, of course) still don't get it

[brentspeak]

(In some defense of Obama and the Democrats, everything this week got side-tracked by Brown's election -- caused by the non-progressive Democrats' own stupidity, actually -- and the SCOTUS ruling. Obama and the Democrats appear to be working, as they should, on mitigating the latter atrocity. Nevertheless, progressive Democrats excepted, Herbert's correct.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/opinion/23herbert.html?em

They Still Don’t Get It

By BOB HERBERT
Published: January 22, 2010

How loud do the alarms have to get? There is an economic emergency in the country with millions upon millions of Americans riddled with fear and anxiety as they struggle with long-term joblessness, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcies and dwindling opportunities for themselves and their children.

The door is being slammed on the American dream and the politicians, including the president and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, seem not just helpless to deal with the crisis, but completely out of touch with the hardships that have fallen on so many.

While the nation was suffering through the worst economy since the Depression, the Democrats wasted a year squabbling like unruly toddlers over health insurance legislation. No one in his or her right mind could have believed that a workable, efficient, cost-effective system could come out of the monstrously ugly plan that finally emerged from the Senate after long months of shady alliances, disgraceful back-room deals, outlandish payoffs and abject capitulation to the insurance companies and giant pharmaceutical outfits.

(snip)

With the power elite consumed with its incessant, discordant fiddling over health care, the economic plight of ordinary Americans, from the middle class to the very poor, got pathetically short shrift. And there is no evidence, even now, that leaders of either party fully grasp the depth of the crisis, which began long before the official start of the Great Recession in December 2007.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Neither party does. nt

[dkf]

2. Translation. Forget health care. It's jobs jobs jobs.

[Yurovsky]

5. We could've had both...

and still could, if our "leaders" would grow a spine and stand up the right wingers.

But nooooo, let's just surrender to the minority party, so everyone will admire us for being accomodating. Sounds like a recipe to invite electoral disasters in 2010 and 2012.

[dkf]

6. The healthcare bill is unpopular.

Shoving it down people's throats is stupid.

[timeforpeace]

3. Herbert doesn't even mention Republicans. What's up with that?

[brentspeak]

4. Yes he does

The Republican Party has abandoned any serious approach to the nation’s biggest problems, economic or otherwise. It may be resurgent, but it’s not a serious party. That leaves only the Democrats, a party that once championed working people and the poor, but has long since lost its way.

[amandabeech]

7. Herbert speaks for me. Jobs, jobs, jobs.

Maybe he should have run for President.

[flpoljunkie]

8. The 'discondant fiddling over healthcare' makes it imperative the Dems pass the damn bill!

[ellisonz]

9. I vote we ship the entire Republican Caucus to Haiti to distribute food and water.

So the Democrats will stop getting spooked like a bunch of jackasses.