Democratic Insider

Richard Shelby of Alabama has demonstrated how a single Republican senator, though a member of the minority party, can prevent the president of the U.S. from doing his job. Shelby used a hold to prevent the confirmation of not 1 but of 70 executive appointees merely to gain some pork for Alabama. An excellent example of the exercise of naked Republican power through obstructionism.

The

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There are 2 major parties in the U.S.: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Democrats, under the leadership of President Obama, are doing their utmost to solve the Depression the financial bums in Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and other financial powerhouses have plunged us into. At every turn, the Republicans are stymying the Democratic efforts. They are fighting FOR the financial bums and against the American people.

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We have a Supreme Court that is supposed to interpret the Constitution and the laws of the land in a way that increases the democratic voice of all our people. What the Court has done in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case is nullify the voice of real people and amplify the voice of ersatz people: corporations. The Supreme Court sold our democracy to the corporations.

In a 5-4 decision, the conservatives on the Court found that there are no limits to campaign funding by corporations. Corporations can spend what they want and at any time before, during or after a campaign.

They call themselves originalists and strict interpreters of the Constitution. Imagine that? Court originalists Scalia and Thomas found a new interpretation for the Constitution. Although the rest of us can't see it, they concluded that the founders believed that a corporation is a person entitled to free speech. Futhermore, the more money you have the more free speech you deserve.

Forget about voting. As a person, you have only one vote. As a corporation you have millions of votes. After all, Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy say that money is free speech. Most of the free speech in the country belongs to the corporations because they have the vast majority of the money.

The U.S. Supreme Court sold our democracy to the corporations. Viva

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The loss of Ted Kennedy’s former seat, a seat solidly Democratic for as long as anyone can remember, is the only chance President Obama may have of showing conviction in his beliefs. While many pundits will promote the notion that the loss of this long standing Democratic bastion signals a shift away from the Democrats, it is too early to jump to conclusions. While health care was a major contributing factor in the loss of the late Kennedy’s seat, I believe it is a sign that the President has been too weak, and people are starting to get fed up.

President Obama talks the good talk, but so far his actions haven’t spoken any louder than his words. His words, it turns out, are empty hot air. There have been several opportunities for the president to show America that he indeed has the courage to stand up for his convictions, but the utter dissection and sell-out of health care reform has exposed him terribly. If he does indeed want true change then he certainly hasn’t shown himself capable of getting it done. Rather, he stood by and allowed our so-called representatives to consult with the insurance industry on what best would suit our corporate masters, not help the American people and make their lives better.

And to be fair, perhaps this is a symptom of the President’s naiveté. He ran for office with an admirable goal of bridging the gap between the party divide, but this has proven to be an impossible challenge to meet. Partisanship is so engrained in the American political psyche that I am fairly certain there is no way back from the dark path it has been leading us down. We are lost. America is a cesspool of ideologues from two opposing sides, and it seems the President really believed the horrendous state of our country would be enough to get these sand-box-bully partisans to set aside their differences and work together. That is his most tragic mistake to date.

There is no way to bring America’s extreme poles closer, ideologically, policy-wise, or even civilly in the same room. It is a vicious dogfight where neither side cares the least for the suffering of those involved. President Obama had a noble goal of trying to rally our government around the pursuit of fixing the country, but he sorely underestimated the vice grip strangling all opportunities for progress.

He has had a full year to acclimate to his office. He still has three years left, three years in which he can make great strides, but only if he has the gumption to enact real change in spite of the forces profiting from the status quo. Until he shows some willingness to throw our problems back in the face of those who created them America will continue to deteriorate, and President Obama will go down as one of the most lily-livered presidents in America history. Sorry Carter…

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