My conclusions from the meeting with the President.

If there was any doubt in my mind about the significance of Jim Demint’s (Senator, South Carolina) statement that he wants President Obama to fail, I had more than enough proof yesterday. To my knowledge, no Republican has clearly and publicly rejected that statement. It seems that most, if not all, Republicans agree with him. From watching yesterday’s meeting where the President invited the opposition (better said, the minority) to present their ideas about ways to solve the healthcare crisis, I have come to the following conclusions:
• Republican ideology is making the US Senate an obsolete and counterproductive institution, unnecessary in our democratic system. Senators are looking after their personal interests and the interests of those who financially support them, rather than working for the well-being of the Nation, or even their own constituencies.
• Republicans in the Senate, and in the House, do not want to achieve solutions to the problems our society faces, as long as our elected President is in power, or as long as he supports a proposed change.
• The minority party is using its constitutional right to dissent, to stop government from functioning and from doing its job of debating issues, and coming to conclusions in a timely manner. This abuse causes a failure to enact legislation necessary to solve society’s problems. The majority is allowing them to stop progress.
• The Senate was not designed to be a forum to express ideological differences amongst the members without resolution, nor to paralyze all legislative action, but to enact legislation useful and helpful to promote the economic well being of society. In this respect, those senators are not doing their job and should either resign from their elected positions, or be replaced by the voters.
• What we are seeing today is a minority that has no public mandate, is being obstructive and counterproductive, and is ruling a majority government. The majority party is not doing what it was elected to do. Do we really have a majority in congress?
• The threats, name-calling, abusive treatment, and misrepresentations, of the minority opposition can be allowed in our Democracy, as long as they neither paralyze government nor make institutions ineffective as to their intended purpose. When the latter is the case, it is time to respect the voice of the majority, which is 51%.
• The inability of our elected representatives to read (they could not read a 1200 page healthcare bill in one year), to think, to reason, and to make decisions is endangering our Democracy and destroying our sustainability as a prosperous economic system and a world-respected superpower.
The enemy of our Nation is not only outside the country but also within our own system. Let us try to be smart and get rid of it. There is no better place in the world to live than the United States of America. There is no better economic system invented so far, either. Let us be smart, diligent, willing and recognize that Democrats have the mandate.
Let us count the votes and see who the DINOS (Democrats in Name Only) in the Senate are. For one year, they blamed the lack of progress on a few Blue Dogs. They argued that four or five conservative senators were stalling legislative progress. Let us expose the Blue Dogs as the face of the now extinct Republican Party. Let the true Democrats move ahead with necessary Health Care Reform.

February 26, 2010