I know, I know, let's not remain calm in a situation that calls for panic. But now that Scott Brown's win has given the Republicans a 41-59 majority* in the world's greatest deliberative body (and by greatest I mean the shittiest conceivable group of enemies of the people assembled under one roof since Czarist Russia), some sort of plan is in order.
Evan Bayh and Mary Landrieu have already proposed a predictable course of action -- capitulate and scramble to win favor with our corporate overlords. Sweet Jesus those two make me sick. But even stalwarts like Barney Frank and Anthony Wiener seemed to be caught up in a frenzy of indiscipline and overreaction.
So, as that pithy pamphleteer V. I. Lenin asked, what is to be done? It seems to me that current conditions call for a rather different approach by both Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress. Everything for the next nine months needs to be geared to the mid-terms -- lines need to be drawn, enemies made (willingly), and contrasts between the parties heightened. Messages need to be simple and digestible and geared to a simple question -- which side are you on?
Up to now, Obama has been focused largely on a conventional legislative agenda -- the uphill battle to push one bill after another through a maddening mine field of obstruction. He has been cool, patient, and deferential to the legislative process. That's got to end. It's resulted in a year long battle for a health care reform bill that may yet die on the vine and tore apart the progressive community in the process. It allowed the tepid and unprincipled -- Baucus, Grassley, Enzi, Lieberman, Nelson, Landrieu, Lincoln, Snowe -- to hijack the process, delaying it for an endless period of time, while gradually sapping it of much of what would most appeal to the broader electorate. Protracted battles that are filled with dithering, compromise without end, and the indulgence of the diva-like tendencies of various senators are not going to cut it.
I believe that the House must pass the Senate's version of health care reform however flawed it might be. They should do so with the promise that the reconciliation process will be used in the Senate to try to improve the subsidies and to scrap the "Cadillac tax" for an alternative funding mechanism -- bank tax anybody?
And then what? I would argue that some sort of quick jobs bill needs to be pushed and pushed hard, filibuster be damned. I would like to see a substantial infusion of money to the states to preserve public jobs, some sort of acceleration of federal construction to create jobs in that troubled sector, a summer jobs program for young people, and subsidies for green energy. The bigger the better I say. Let the Republicans block it -- dare them to block it. And call them on it over and over again.
Then it's enemies time and I nominate the banksters for that role. I would push several measures aimed at the big banks -- 1) aggressive regulatory reform, including a separate consumer protection agency; 2) mortgage relief through the bankruptcy process; and 3) punitive, nay, confiscatory, taxes on obscene bonuses. These measures have the virtue of being good policy while tapping into the deep anger towards the banks. Best of all, the Republicans will oppose all of them -- no doubt they will filibuster them. And this is good. The bullshit populism of the GOP will be exposed in stark fashion. And there's your election theme -- whose side are you on -- the people or the banks?
Now pukes like Bayh and Landrieu won't like it, but I say fuck 'em. It's time for the gloves to come off.
Lastly, I would bring back the name Bush and invoke it like a mantra. Remind people time and time again what he and his party wrought. Reagan never stopped doing this to Carter and it worked. It should be done this time with the aim of bringing ever lasting discredit to the casino economy ushered in post-Reagan.
This is not Obama's natural turf. But clearly, if he cares about his agenda, he must stem to the extent possible legislative losses. It is time to remind the public of why we are in the mess we're in and that the Republicans will, when push comes to shove, side with forces of corporate malfeasance over the people whenever such a stark choice is laid before them. I am confident that this is the right approach to changing the dynamic out there. Plus, it will be fun.
*All credit to the inestimable Roy Edroso
