If the cartoon is wrong and it is not spinelessness, then it must be what duncery, or despite any contrary rhetoric a liking for the venal, mandacious, meritless, and negotiable alternatives to doing right? Steinberg seems inclined to believe things that way.
At his weakly clairvoyant blog, Steinberg notes in a lead-in that he was solicited to contribute to assist reelection of Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island (reputed net worth between $5 and $14 million dollars), and Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Rockefeller for all that implies, (reputed net worth of between $60 and $128 million dollars). And when again solicited by our own Al Franken, he wrote replying:
Jan. 29, 2010
Dear Senator Franken:
When FDR took office in 1933, he said: "Our first priority must be to put people to work." By contrast, President Obama's first priority appeared to be bail out Wall Street, closely followed by cutting a deal with the insurance racketeers to concoct an insurance industry bailout and call it a "health reform bill."
I am sick of Democrats selling out, caving in, rolling over, kow-towing, and betraying the people who elected them. (Al Franken, for example, voting for the so-called Patriot Act.)
Not one dime will I contribute to the Democratic congressional or Senatorial candidates this year--anywhere!!!!
In 2000, George Bush and Dick Cheney LOST the election by half a million votes. But they got into the White House anyway, and immediately began pushing through what they wanted. And they got it, without any "60 vote margin"--in fact, they got it despite a Democratic majority of the Senate.
No excuse can explain how the Democrats, back in the White House, and holding solid majorities in House and Senate, still won't stand up against the economic royalists and bring ordinary Americans the change you promised.
In every political conversation, people ask me, "Why are Democrats such wimps?"
Words are cheap. So don't make promises. Don't make excuses. And don't have the insufferable gall to ask us for money! Don't kid yourself about any "core support"--that core is 100% disenchanted, disillusioned, disappointed, and disgusted.
Sincerely,
Oliver Steinberg, St. Paul, MN
p.s.: Taryl CLark isn't going to beat Bachmann in the 6th district--a district gerrymandered for the ultra-right. In fact, this will be a great year for the Republicans. Not because the Republicans have ANY merit at all, but because Democrats by their craven ineptitude and spinelessness have FORFEITED the trust and support of the people.
Steinberg also gives us a Truman lesson, words from the man who won the 1948 election running against Dixicrats in the South and who in 1949 by executive order desegrated the military, and who also knew in advance of the likes of Joe Lieberman and Max Baucus; Truman on May 17, 1952, saying:
I've seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the Fair Deal, and says he doesn't really believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don't want a phony Democrat. If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign . . .
We are getting a lot of suggestions to the effect that we ought to water down our platform and abandon parts of our program. These, my friends, are Trojan horse suggestions. I have been in politics for over 30 years, and I know what I am talking about, and I believe I know something about the business. One thing I am sure of: never, never throw away a winning program. This is so elementary that I suspect the people handing out this advice are not really well-wishers of the Democratic Party.
Which of your friends to agree with? The cartoon being generous and alleging spinelessness as motive, or whatever (the blog caption and cartoon do not exactly track), or Steinberg, alleging worthlessness and deceit?
I agree with Truman that Pelosi and Reid provide deficient leadership. Obama is no Truman, Biden less so.
As to basic character and motives of the substantial majorities in each House, there I agree with my friends.
Consider this post, source of this image:
And if duncery is at play, it is among the electorate, with this above displayed trickle down truth showing a great drought at the bottom, i.e., beyond the top 15-20 percent proving that if people knew what was good for them they would demand reform of the two-party charade and candidates such as Wellstone and Dennis Kucinich who would stand with the numbers, population wise, and not like most in DC who stand with the numbers, money wise. In Mark Dayton's words, clean the cesspool, and "Tax the rich." Or go back to Huey Long, who said it as, "Spread the wealth," when proposing a tax beyond income, on wealth itself.