Wednesday, January 20, 2010

A Letter To My Congressional Representative by Anthony McCarthy

Dear Congresswoman Pingree,

The 60th Senate vote is gone, not to return, and there is this year and two more of the Obama administration to get through. It’s been a pretty bad first year with him, with him having a solid majority in the House and a larger majority in the Senate than, I believe, any President has had within my lifetime. That those majorities contain a fair sample of Democrats of convenience and not of fact, has been used by the Obama administration for an excuse to break promise, after promise to their base. That base, those of use who worked tirelessly and gave more than we could afford to elect Barack Obama and Democrats, are betrayed. In one of the more stupendously stupid moves in recent political history, the Obama team has burned its base, its grass roots and its allies in the pursuit of an unavailable bipartisanship and the magical 60th vote in the Senate. I could point out the political cowardice and treason that comes with making nice to your opponents by betraying those you asked to support you, but it is amazing that anyone would have to.

Ted Kennedy’s seat was lost on Barack Obama’s watch in one of the most Democratic states in the country, a state he carried comfortably a little over a year ago. The idea that the Obama team systematically throwing away Ted Kennedy’s legacy this past year has nothing to do with that, that they have been too close to his stands on issues to win in a state that kept him in that seat for more than four decades is a clear and obvious lie in service to continuing sell outs. No surprise that on this conservative Democrats and the corporate media are in agreement. What is surprising is to hear noises from the Obama administration to that effect.

But this isn’t a letter to the White House, which seems to be oddly deaf to those guilty of having supported the president. This is a letter to you, a progressive Democrat in the House of Representatives. As the Obama team have been busily selling out and burning their base, they’re also burning your base. That was the real lesson of the disaster in Massachusetts for Democratic office holders, the policies of this president are destroying the party.

I’m only a voter, a Democrat, one of many hundreds of thousands who have given up an enormous amount or toil, money and honor to put you and the president in office. You both owe us, you are up for election this year. You have weeks at most to turn this around and you’re going to have to take bold action in opposition to Barack Obama’s team to do it. Without that, you will be complicit in handing this country back into the hands of the Republicans.

I’m beyond caring if Rahm Emanuel or some other member of the administration calls up and yells at a Democratic member of Congress. I’m tired of seeing the progressive caucus in ineffective compliance with policies your constituents oppose.

The progressives in the House and Senate have to take a lesson from other political minorities that have gotten their way. You have to hold your nose to study them but the Dixicrats and their successors, today, Republicans and Blue dogs, achieve their ends through united obstruction. The success of the strategy is clear as can be by their success over the past year. Pleasing them is the easy road the Obama administration has taken and it is what will put it out of office baring a miraculous turn around. Frankly, I see little sign of that without House progressives mounting an obstinate resistance. Given the present realities in Washington, the destruction of the foundations of the Democratic Party, it is the role forced on you.

I have no Senator, the so called “moderates” from our state who the Obama administration have shamelessly pursued as they snubbed us don’t even listen to us. I’ve got you. You are my last hope at saving this party, this country, and so much at stake around the world. If something hasn’t changed by Spring, I won’t be expecting it to.

Yours truly,