Anyone who is not reading TPM should jump over there today. Josh has some of the best reporting anywhere on the collapse of the democratic Congressional wing, especially the memo that said after last nights loss
It is mathematically impossible for Democrats to pass legislation on our own
In fact, with 59 (or 58) Senators, the dems have the biggest majority they have had since Watergate - that is in 35 years. But what we don't have are congressional democrats who have not internalized defeat. That is the only explanation for the above quote.
When the Jews left Egypt, they wandered for 40 years in the Wilderness before they reached the "promised land." I was always taught at Passover that the reason was that the Jews were Slaves in Egypt, and that it took more than a generation for the habits and thoughts of slavery to disappear to the point where a free people could begin anew.
I learned the same thing in my radical days in the 1960's. Remember Jerry Rubin saying 'don't trust anyone over 30.' Funny, but with a truth - our elders had been too shaped by the sacrifices of World War II and the corporatism of the 1950's to actually grasp the changes we were demanding - sexual, political, gender and work.
Now I look at our democratic Congress, and see the same problem. These democrats will never reach the promised land; they will never outgrow their fear and timidity and internalized right wing gnome, always whispering to them they can't, they can't, they can't.
We want to smash the financial sector that has sucked our economy dry and go back to a system of smaller community banks, and a wall between investing and banking. They say we can't.
We want to make a simple health care bargain: health care for all at an affordable price. If private insurance can't compete with limits on costs, requirements to cover everyone, and no discrimination based on illness or pre existing conditions, fine - they don't need to exist, because a public option can work. But democrats say we can't.
If we want to avoid the fate of California, where great universities are being dismantled, populations are fleeing, and parks and public services are collapsing, Dems are saying we can't.
They won't prosecute the energy companies that raped california and caused the backlash that led to a recall vote.
In short - we have democrats who have so internalized defeat that they can no longer believe in progressive government, where the good of the whole society is put above the lobbying demands of the richest few hundred companies. They are ruled by Fox and Murdoch. They cringe before buffoons like Beck and Limbaugh. They are slaves in Egypt, unable to act and think like free people.
So maybe a housecleaning is in order. I know I won't contribute to any congressional race where the person isn't a fighter - or is part of the acceptance of defeat. Why would I work to re-elect them.
We need new leaders to reach the promised land.