Whom Do You Represent?

It seems the GOP has trouble grasping representative democracy. Even though you win elections, you do have to represent all your constituents. The exit polls for this year's elections clearly indicate the issue was jobs and the economy. Yet, our newly elected Republicans have taken this to mean an outright endorsement of their ideology--and an ideology it is. They claim they are for "limited, constitutional government, cutting taxes (although they will not acknowledge Obama cut them) and the deficit".

While the President extended his hand to reach compromise, both John Boehner and Mitch McConnell said that Obama would have to adopt the Republican agenda or else they will close down the government. Oklahoma Tom Coburn threatened to close down the government unless $300 billion cuts in spending were found immediately. Senator Jim DeMint has demanded the right to read every bill before he would consent to let it come to a vote. A punk Michigan congressman, who just barely won election, demands that Obama do what Republicans say or the government will be closed down.

All of this rhetoric comes around the impending need to raise the debt ceiling of the country. The last time the GOP blocked this under the Clinton Administration we were not in a depression, fighting two wars, and having to assure the international community we can manage the awesome debt accumulated during the Bush-Cheney years. A failure to raise the debt ceiling now would trigger a collapse of the stock market and another severe challenge to the international economic system. Yet, our great media doesn't call these people out on their sheer insanity. They like the sports analogies of politics.

Dick Armey gave an interview with NPR where he outlined what the new Republican House should do. He claims that this is utterly the last chance the Republican Party has or else it will be finished on the national stage. He said that new teabagger members should just vote for limited government and cut all spending. The only spending that they should guarantee is military because that is the only function the federal government must perform. He said that he would suggest introducing a bill immediately to repeal Obamacare and even if it didn't go to the President then they should keep voting on it to fulfill their promises. (Note: repealing Obamacare would increase the federal debt by trillions as we know from the OMB report.) Asked whether Republicans should compromise with the Democrats and President Obama, he said Obama called Republicans "nasty things" during the campaign , unlike the nice epithets the GOP has called the President since Day 1, and that the Republicans can not trust him.

Now listening to Dick Armey talk about "limited government", you get a sense we are a country the size of New Hampshire, have no international obligations, social commitments to our citizens and aren't pivotal to the world financial system. The Exit Polls show that 37% of the Republican voters wanted more spending for job creation, not less, and a majority really didn't care about the national debt--like Republicans never have since Eisenhower. Also, the largest voting bloc for Republicans were the white elderly and the Party can not risk alienating its last base of support by cutting entitlement programs.

Now we have Republicans sitting in Congress saying they will not compromise. It's like they have never participated in the legislative process before.

But what bothers me is whom do they think they represent. We always hear Boehner say "The Voice of the American voter has been heard." but he never said that when President Obama won. When healthcare reform enjoyed a 59% popularity before the disinformation campaign was launched, we didn't hear Boehner accepting this. Only when Fox News and the faux teabaggers started their white riots, did he invoke the popular will. BUT, we once understood that if you were elected to such offices, you represented everyone in your district or your state no matter what their affiliation. Already, new members are turning away calls from constituents who did not support them. They is unprecedented in recent memory.

This is a serious problem. For example, John Kasich barely won by a whisker his battle against Gov. Strickland. During the election campaign he was asked what he would cut and what taxes would he raise etc. Like all GOP candidates this year, he dodged or refused to answer these questions. Yesterday, after the results were announced, he proclaimed that he was cancelling the rapid train plans through Ohio, which had been approved by the Federal Government, stated he would refuse to accept any further stimulus funds for the depressed state, would not enforce the voter-approved tax hike to support the public school system and would totally reorganize State government and eliminate whole departments. He said he would drastically cut education spending. Remember nearly 49% of the state voted against him. The scenario was repeated in Wisconsin with the election of a new Republican Governor. The first day after his victory, he announced he was cancelling the new rail link into the state as developed as part of the rehabilitation of our rail systems.

Like Chrissie in New Jersey cancelling the tunnel to Manhattan, these Republicans try to make a great show of cancelling such projects as if they are saving money. In all three cases, they will have to pay hundreds of millions back to the Federal government. Also, all three rail projects were to be funded by US-backed transportation bonds.

But it's the collossal arrogance and ignorance of these people which is appalling. We should expect this in the next year because you can look it up--none of these people told the voters what they would actually do. But it is clear that they all had a coordinated plan. Cut to Karl Rove. Speaking in western Pennsylvania yesterday to oil drillers, he assured them that there would be no new regulations on oil drilling passed by the House and that anything having to do with Clean Air was dead. How Does He Know? Was this a quid pro quo, all the candidates agreed to for the support of Crossroads America? Is this not bribery?

Out on the West Coast, a tired, old, hoarse Jerry Brown made his victory speech in an Art Deco movie theater built in 1928. Brown had refurbished the building and created two schools there while Mayor of Oakland. Perhaps it's his Jesuit training or Zen practices or simply his memory of his past time as Governor. He opened his speech with his firm commitment to a younger generation and stated his first priority as governor would be to get the resources to support the public education system in the state. Jerry Brown was one of the reasons California could brag about its public education system and its extensive college system. This jewel in the state's crown had been tarnished by draconian budget cuts in recent years.

But Jerry Brown reminded his audience that the political situation in the state and in the nation was highly polarized. He said that over 40% of the voters did not cast their ballot for him but his opponent. But he urged everyone not to compromise on principle but to compromise so that all Californians could seek common ground and a vision for the future. This is not the winner--takes--all principles we are seeing among Republicans. His words may be corny but they remain true in all of political life. Once the campaign ends, governing begins and we have to search for the common good. Maybe it's Jerry Brown's 71 years or maybe it's his experience as a successful governor 35 years ago, but it was clear that he would try and serve all Californians. You do not get that sense from any of the Republicans who have been elected. There is a ruthless nihilism that comes through that should scare everyone. There is no sense of the common good. It is completely lacking.

Another bright spot in the last few miserable days was the YouTube talk by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumpka. I guess you have to have led a long miners strike to have the bounce he did after the election. He addressed his rank-and-file and talked in detail of all their election activities and said how much they had affected the elections in Nevada, Colorado and California. He could have said that they came damn close in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio. But if you are going to speak in defeat, Trumpka had the tone down pat. He said the work begins again today to fight for workers' rights. I find myself more and more impressed by him.

Not to miss a beat, Nancy Pelosi was in California to start the formation of the state's "exchanges" for the implementation of the healthrefom bill and made an extensive speech about how this will help the state rebound from its economic woes and generate new jobs. As for her loss as Speaker, she can claim that she led the most progressive legislation in over a generation. It's really too bad some 400 of these bills never got taken up by the Senate.

Progressives are finally waking up to find that almost all their caucus is left in place. It was the Blue Dog caucus that was slaughtered. Progressive really have to find a way to commuicate their positions. Throughout the last two years, polling on policy reflects that the American people support "progressive" positions if phrased specifically. Almost 60% of the American people backed a public option for healthcare reform. Similar percentages back a larger stimulus and also President Obama's plans for the infrastructure. Given that Teabaggers supported funding for job creation, there might be room for a little subversion in the next Congress.

Republicans are now showing their true attitudes to the teabaggers. Michelle Bachman's attempt to make a move to #3 in the House was rebuffed and Karl Rove has now openly gone after the teabaggers. In the House, they will get their pet rocks like the gratuitous investigations into ACORN but they will not have a say about the corporate agenda of Tan Man Boehner. Boehner had already plotted policy in his meeting with Wall Street in New York last Spring.

So far, the Republicans have overreached in their statements about their mandate. The Rasmussen poll is actually looking quite prescient about the degree of disappointment people will feel with the new Congress. It's going to be interesting to see how the teabaggers react to getting their orders from the leadership. The new Republicans are far more radical and less corporate than their leaders. It would be delightful if the GOP didn't vote in a solid block for the first time in years. It might take the new authoritarians to break up the authoritarian rule.

Forget the Democrats for a minute. The new Republican party has an ideology that is like the mirror image of a Marxist paradise. It is libertarian, free market utopianism. Col.Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff, said that these Republicans' views on economics are so laughable except for the situation we're in as a country. Wilkerson warned that the United States has to have good presidential leadership for the next four terms to get out of our mess and if we don't we will decline rapidly.

What does "constitutional, limited government" mean in the 21st century? We know from the past eight years that endless tax cuts and de-regulation did not create jobs and prosperity or make us stronger abroad. We know that economic development depends on education, investment in research and development and infrastructure, which did not happen until this President took over. And how do you square "limited government" with your imperial dreams? People like Pat Ryan with his "Blueprint for the Future" tries to square all this but only comes up with a country that would de-develop but remains a formidable military power. And he now will be head of the budget committee in the House. Over 15 libertarians won seats in the New Hampshire legislature and maybe that's where such people belong.

The problem we face is that people like the simplistic solutions until the implications are spelled out. If you eliminate social security, will your children take care of you in your old age? Will you and your family be able to afford healthcare? If you severely cut public education, won't we be at the mercy of other countries' who can out-compete us and out-arm us?

It seems to me an indicator of a Great Society is how it takes care of its most vulnerable. This new Republican vision has no room for compassion, empathy or solidarity with others. There is no social compact. There is really no role for government except to protect us from real and imagined foes. Limited government breeds large corporate entities, which Republicans frame as "entrepeneurs", "the producers", and "small business". Only government can violate human rights, not corporations. The rest of society--the old, the infirm, the poor, minorities--are just out of luck. Because that's the price you pay for your freedom.

Many of the new Republican senators and congressmen proclaim that "Atlas Shrugged" is their inspiration. Almost all who said this are dependent on government for their wealth and their families receive unemployment insurance, social security and government pensions. I received an e-mail tonight from a conservative complaining about Obama's mythical plans to raise taxes on the "European model" with a complete chart of all of Europe's tax rates. He said the example was Greece, where until this year you could retire at the age of 48. What is strange is that this person receives a nice miltary pension, benefits from government health insurance at $300 per month, works for defense contractors and also receives a stipend from a news agencies partly owned by the Saudis. He basically gamed the imperial side of our system to have a permanent livelihood. But he has no sense of irony when he advocates these right-wing positions about our welfare state.

Now this call for the repeal of healthcare. The Republicans are promising they will repeal this signature accomplishment of Barack Obama. They might as well try and air-brush him out of history. What they never say--and our media doesn't mention--millions more Americans will go bankrupt because of health costs. We are currently spending 2.5 trillion dollars a year on healthcare in this country, several times the percentage of GNP of any other developed nation. From the healthcare debate, we saw how that cost will continue to escalate unless something like the healthcare bill was passed. The Republicans scared seniors this year--this was Karl Rove's doing--that Obama cut $500 billion from Medicare. What he did was eliminate that much in fraud, waste and over-charging by insurance companies. Any repeal of healthcare would out the country again at the mercy of rapacious health insurance companies. But even they don't want it repealed as some of their spokesmen made clear today. They need the individual mandates--the precise element the Republicans oppose--in order to survive as a viable business.

Somehow the bipartisan agreement that we have a dysfunctional healthcare system seems to have vanished once Barack Obama triumphed. The alternative offered by House Republicans last time would only increase coverage of 3 million Americans, not 40 million and would only save $58 billion in a one time move. We would be stuck with the monstrous system as it is and all go bankrupt.

To answer Senator Coburn, President Obama should repeat his desire to kill the new fighter jet, which is running billions over budget and would cost $300 billion to complete. That would be the instant budget cut Coburn was looking for. But the problem is that the House doesn't want to cut this needless weapons system that was geared for the Cold War.

There are some cynics who believe we should just let Republicans have their way and then the American people would become aware of their treachery. But we know from this mid-term that the American people have already forgotten how we got to the present place. And they would buy into tax cuts for corporations as job creation. Even though we found out the contrary during the George Bush years. A key element in this mid-term elections was the almost relentless 20 month propaganda campaign by the right against President Obama so that none of his significant achievements were acknowledged and almost all the bad moves at the end of the Bush years were blamed on him such as the TARP program, which he turned into a profit.

George W. Bush's memoirs are out. Don't buy them. But one gets a sense how dumbed down we have become as a country when there is no outrage that he proudly asserts he approved the torture program and specifically ordered KSM to be waterboarded. P.S. Contrary to his assertions there was nothing learned from the torture other than disinformation that linked Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda. Also, W says that even though he had been told about the impending economic collapse two years in advance, he was more interested in things like the rate of inflation and not these larger issues. So he didn't do anything. The most distressing moment of his presidency was not 9-11 or blowing Iraq, but being called a racist by Kanye West.

George W. claims that he really didn't pay attention to the destruction going on in Iraq for two years and then he was forced to act. Compare what the Right says about President Obama and his achievements in 20 months. Can you imagine the reaction if Obama postpone a decision for two years? Look what happened when he deliberated on the strategy in Afghanistan.

That's why one can not believe the American people will learn the disasterous effect Bush's policy had on the U.S. and the world at large. What you see after the mid-terms is the revenge of George W. Bush and his henchmen. It really doesn't mean anything to have a reality-based politics. I believe it's essential but clearly the majority of Americans do not.