The Democratic Turncoats
by Keith Koffler on November 4, 2014, 1:43 pm
The most disgraceful thing about this campaign, aside from the race baiting, has been the sight of Democratic candidates ditching any sense of principle and abandoning President Obama.
Can any of these candidates explain what Obama did that they did not ask of him? He’s unpopular not because he’s Barack Obama. Not because he’s black. Not because Republicans are mean to him. And not because he golfs too much, though he does.
He’s unpopular because his policies, and the policies of the Democrats holding their noses as he passes, are a failure. And they’d much rather sacrifice the man who led them partway to The Promised Land than themselves. Because The Promised Land turns out to look very unpromising to many American voters.
The one thing Obama was totally honest about, at least in the 2012 election and even to a large extent in the 2008 election, were his intentions for this country. Obama lies at the tactical level – “You can keep you doctor,” and so forth – but at the strategic level, everyone knew what he was all about.
He is a left-wing ideologue with a vision for redistributing wealth and using government to advance various social and economic goals. About this there was never any question.
Obama gave Democrats everything they wanted:
* Universal health coverage that will eventually become Socialized medicine;
* A federal-enviro industrial complex supporting all kinds of expensive, unworkable green energy;
* Tax hikes for the rich;
* An increased share of federal spending as a percentage of the economy;
* The abolition of work requirements for welfare;
* The proliferation of food stamps and growth of dependency.
* No Medicare reform and no Social Security reform;
* An end to “Bush’s wars” and an end to U.S. leadership in the world so we can focus on social engineering at home.
What, if you are a Democrat, is not to love?
Nothing. The imperiled Democrats running for reelection all supported this program.
What’s not to love is that these policies resulted in an economy that stagnated for five years and still faces an uncertain recovery; zero wage growth for the middle class; the lowest labor force participation rate in 30 years; a metastasis of part-time jobs; an explosion of federal debt; the prospect of substandard, rationed, and expensive medical care for those who have insurance; and a world in utter chaos.
Voters don’t like that sort of thing, so Obama is offered up for sacrifice in the hope it will atone for the sins of Democrats.
It's my Party and I'll cry if I want to.
It's my Party and I'll cry if I want to.
“The Democratic Party is no longer the Party of Obama,” said NBC Meet the Press host and political analyst Chuck Todd on the Today show this morning. Todd, who noted that Bill Clinton has campaigned in far more states than Obama, concluded: “One thing we do know, after tonight, the Democratic Party is the Party of Clintons again. Democrats all over the country were begging for Bill Clinton to campaign for them.”
This is a misreading of what’s going on. It’s the Party of Obama. Just without Obama. And it’s hardly the Party of Bill Clinton, who ran the country as center-left politician who was able work with Republicans.
The center remains anathema to Democrats, even as the perennially charming Bill Clinton remains popular. Expiating their sins by flogging Obama, Democrats continue to believe, and they are ready to embrace the next left-wing savior, be it Elizabeth Warren or someone else.
Hillary may get the nomination, but it will be because she is famous, she has money, and she might win the general election. Not because it’s her Party.
It’s still Obama’s Party.
But the Golden Calf praised in 2008 by people looking for something to worship amid recession and war has now become the a sacrificial lamb. Democrats should be ashamed of their perfidy.
