Democratic Cannibals

In the latest Washington D.C. political drama, Republicans obstructed and blocked the Democrats from extending the Bush Tax Cuts for those making $250K and below which accounts for 98% of the US population. Republicans opposed this measure so as to guarantee that the richest 2% of this nation were included in this provision, further adding BILLIONS to the deficit that they claim to care so much about. In light of Republicans refusal to budge on this policy decision, President Obama reluctantly negotiated and struck a deal with the GOP resulting in everyone INCLUDING the richest 2% of Americans keeping their tax cuts originally enacted by "Dubya" back in 2001 which contributed mightily to flipping the Clinton Surplus into the Bush Deficit . And here's where the REAL drama begins.

Republicans blocked Democrats policy objectives so CLEARLY liberal Bloggers, TV Analysts, and Talk Radio hosts would spew the full wrath of their venom on Obstructionist Republicans, right ? WRONG !! They are Democrats !! They instead choose to attack their own !! From sea to shining sea, across all liberal radio, TV, newspaper, and web sources, their very own President Obama was attacked as "spineless", "weak", a "sellout" and various other rants that would have you question whether you are watching MSNBC or Fox, listening to Keith Olbermann or Rush Limbaugh. On the day that the Republicans blocked not only the $250K but also the $1Million and under tax cut, casual passing mention was made by most liberal media sources of the fact that the Republicans ONCE AGAIN played the role of the "Just Say No" party who continue to place politics and party above country. However, on the day that Obama did the dreaded "C" word and "Compromised" with Republicans, the liberal media LITERALLY went left.

Although I agree with the idealist Democratic position on this tax cut issue, one that is also shared by President Obama, ideological idealism unfortunately must meet against the formidable force of political reality. Simply speaking, the ideal Democratic position required 60 votes in the Senate to pass that bill but after all votes were accounted for, Democrats could only muster up 53 votes, NONE of which included a SINGLE Republican. Without the Great Obama Compromise, when the clock struck midnight on New Year's Day 2011 and the ballons dropped and champagne bottles popped , millions of families would have awaken from their hangover to realize that their extended unemployment benefit checks had disappeared and ALL employed people would've realized that their paychecks were a lot smaller due to increased tax rates. A deal with the Republican devil had to be made or the nation as a whole would've suffered greatly in light of the obvious political realities.

Quite frankly, the Democrats anger is misplaced, mistaken, and misdirected. Republicans were the ones willing to flip off the unemployed and raise everyone's taxes, be damned the consequences, in order that the richest 2% maintain their tax cuts. Obama chose to protect the fate of the unemployed and those who could least afford a tax increase rather than engaging in a political street fight on an ideological position and remaining politically popular with the left-wing. Democrats being Democrats, however, chose to instead cannibalize their own and attack the leader of their Party and the nation's President seeming as uncompromising as the far right. In a political climate that features Republicans unwilling to work with Democrats on ANYTHING for the good of the country, the Obama Administration has a monumental task in front of them to help the country rebound from horrific economic conditions. With the far left liberal wing of the Democratic party now ALSO on the attack, the political conditions have just gotten that much worse.