Hew to the line...

The Democrats need a good dose of John Belushi, the John Belushi who was Bluto in Animal House who excoriated his suddenly morose fraternity brothers because they were all being kicked out of school. All the polls and pundits act like the midterm election's over and nobody, including the President, has been willing to get out there and tell the people what's really at stake. Boy, do we need a Harry Truman to cut through the Fox fraudsters and all the other mouthpieces for the wealthiest 2% who are fighting to the death to make sure their taxes stay rock-bottom.

Yes, it's piling on, but I do fault Obama for praising Ronald Reagan: the advocate of trickle-down economics that doesn't do squat for anyone but the rich--where all the trickling stops. Reagan was the smooth-talking con man who convinced many of the gullible public that government was the enemy. I haven't seen the private sector doing anything for the mass of unemployed and hard up folks lately.

Instead, just like FDR, Obama helped save capitalism from itself. He went ahead and for better or worse, saved the auto companies. Wall Street must believe that it deserves always to be bailed out, like the banks, because now it acts like Obama, the guy who bailed them out (and Bush II did start TARP with Democratic cooperation) is the devil incarnate. I guess it's ok to bail out Wall Street but not ordinary people.

FDR couldn't solve the Depression all by himself but his administration did do something for people--first, it started putting them to work and then it tried to protect them from the ravages that capitalism had wrought: there was a moratorium on farm foreclosures, for example. Too radical today where balanced budgets are recommended only for the middle and working classes. Securities regulation was limited to disclosure--another great policy mistake that we have paid for over and over with every Wall Street crook.

H. L. Mencken was often offputting in his show of contempt for so much of America, but he may have been right with regard to how easily ordinary people can be conned by bigots and religioso fakers. And even as Obama has been studiously bipartisan (to a fault) and very middle of the road, all these tea party phoneys are at times letting their lightly-hidden racism emerge: who ever thought that a huge part of the public really would accept a black President?

We all have to open our mouths and shout out the crying need to vote for and elect any Democrat who's on our ballot. I just wonder about all those people out there who seem to be struck dumb by all that has befallen them--their jobs outsourced, their security net wiped out. It's the fault of we Democrats for not standing up for what we believe in and making everyone else aware of who got us into this mess.