by Jaren Love

This past week, Politics Daily editor Melinda Henneberger had a piece titled “Where’s Our Stephen Douglas?” The piece describes how Stephen Douglas, even after losing the Presidential race to Abraham Lincoln, broke ranks with many in his Democratic party’s southern stronghold to rally them to stay in the union to avoid a civil war. In fact, Stephen Douglas even died at the young age of 48 pursuing that cause. Such an act of political courage seems unheard of in the contemporary climate of American politics with a Republican party that finds obstruction to be the most politically expedient means of operating and a moderate faction of the Democratic party that cares more about re-election than doing what is right for the American people. And since the election of Republican Scott Brown to the United States Senate, health care will probably be ignored for another generation after he has vowed to be the 41^st vote against the bill (despite the fact that the legislation is almost identical to a law he voted for in the Massachusetts State Senate just a few years ago).

When John McCain lost his election bid for President in the fall of 2008 to Barack Obama, his concession speech was a speech of unity and emphasized the country coming together to work against the challenges of the times. However, as soon as he found out he had radio host and former congressman J.D. Hayworth as a conservative Republican primary challenger, he has moved sharply to the right and has been completely ineffective in helping bridge the divide in Washington. McCain, once deemed a champion of the environment, has pretty much abandoned his willingness to work with the Democrats and his Republican colleague Lindsey Graham in addressing climate change this year. Basically, when it was politically expedient in 2008 to distance himself from eight years of failed Republican rule, John McCain was a “maverick.” Now that the American people have been terribly impatient with the new rule of the Democratic Party and now that John McCain has a right wing challenger sympathetic to the tea party movement, suddenly his “principles” lie to the far right.

John McCain’s actions are pretty reflective of the legislative branch of the United States as a whole. This entire branch of government has been terribly ineffective in the Obama era. The Republicans have threatened to filibuster any ambitious Democratic legislation and have branded the mostly market based solution as socialism. The more moderate Democrats such as Ben Nelson and Independent Joe Lieberman have casted votes toward health care reform nearly kicking and screaming. The fact still remains that nearly 47 million people lack health insurance in the United States and that the United States is one of the few countries in the developed world to lack universal care. Despite this fact and that there is a reasonable bill being offered that provides a market based approached to solving the problem, many of our legislators lack the political courage to stand up for what is right. The unfortunate truth is the Republicans just want to win this fall and they probably can win on a platform of saying “no.”

The attitude of the Republican Party can be summarized from the President’s State of the Union address where he directly referenced the many tax cuts that have been brought about by his administration. The Republican side of the aisle sat on their hands during this part of the speech despite the fact that they claim to love tax cuts more than a recently dumped college girl loves chocolate ice cream. Obstructionism is now the norm. Unfortunately, the Republicans have viewed the election of Scott Brown as a referendum on their governing (or lack thereof) in Washington and will probably continue to follow suit as we watch another year go by of so many American problems left unfixed. With the Democrats lacking a 60 vote supermajority to defect the Republican abuse of the filibuster, we can expect a year full of ineffective governance.

Some simply write this off as politicians being politicians and try to ignore the process all together. The problem is that we have real problems. The health insurance issue is probably one of the biggest. The blog ThinkProgress recently reported two stories about abuses of health care insurers. One story chronicles a 6 year old girl being denied a hearing implant to help save her from going deaf, and another of a 5 year old boy being denied emergency cancer treatment. Yet the tea baggers keep waving the signs and Fox News keeps blaring its deception scaring the public of big government when really this is all about what is right and wrong. What is so sacred about upholding free enterprise when free enterprise is forcing a 6 year old girl to go deaf and a 5 year old boy to be denied cancer treatment? Where is our courageous respected politician from the opposing party to stand up for what is right? Can something like the actions of Stephen Douglas following his defeat by Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election exist in this era of politicians worrying more about career preservation than the public’s interest?

If the Massachusetts Senate race is any indication of what will happen this fall, the Republicans will probably win big. They will be able to continue their agenda of tax breaks for the wealthy, starting wars, helping big business, and of course not addressing our health care problem. Health care has never been a priority of the party and will probably be ignored with more and more Americans forced to go to the emergency room for poison ivy and head colds. And as Melinda Henneberger pointed out in her piece, we will wait for a Stephen Douglas to come, a well respected politician on the other side of the aisle who can look past a “D” or an “R” and be more interested in what is “right” and “wrong.”

Jaren Love

Science has nearly come come to a consensus on the danger of global climate change. However, even on a topic that has broad scientific consensus, one can always expect the American political debate to always have room for division. The GOP, the political party that should now be known as Grand Old Purity, of Charleston County, South Carolina, has this week “censured” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for his willingness to work with Democrats on climate change or more generally, for “not upholding the Republican platform.”

Lindsey Graham is by no means a left wing liberal. During his time in the Senate, he has had a 90% conservative voting record and is the 15^th most conservative Senator by estimation of the National Journal. But I guess now 90% of the time isn’t enough to be in the new revolutionary “pure” Republican Party that prides itself on irrelevance. The move for Senator Graham to decide to work with Democrats on this very crucial issue was very politically courageous and he even recently went as far as co-writing an op-ed with Senator Kerry which instilled hope to those who want to address climate change and free the United States of the bondage of foreign oil.

With this polarizing political climate that we reside in, how can one expect us to ever achieve any progress in a two party system where it is so taboo with each legislator’s respective party to work with the other? Glenn Beck, of course, came out on the forefront against Senator Graham for breaking on these issues and Beck, along with Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh, seems to rule the Republican agenda with an iron fist of obstructionism. When will reasonable party leaders and legislators stand up to the right wing media that is undermining their own existence?

The spirit of the op-ed with Senator Kerry and Senator Graham instilled great hope that this issue can be addressed. There are mutual political interests to be met. The Republican Party, which prides itself on national security and hawkishness, can embrace the notion of freeing ourselves from foreign oil from countries that do not like us. The Democratic Party has always had an interest in fighting global climate change and protecting our environment. Can’t we just embrace these two notions and work for solutions like the congress did so long ago before it was cool to hate the other side? It is time for the American people to stand up against these right wing obstructionist radio hosts who make millions of dollars to stunt any potential positive change from happening in this country.

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By Jaren Love

As of two weeks ago, the media seemed to have all but completely sworn off the chances of a so-called “public option” in the comprehensive health care package that the United States Congress is trying to pass. The more moderate United States Senate seems to have not nearly enough support for a public option but a stunning development came about this week.

Much of the dissent against the public option has been a claim that it would cost too much. Many conservative Democrats from less liberal states or districts have to worry about alienating constituents with a bill that costs too much. The House Democratic leadership, which more strongly backs a public option, has done something to address this head on. At President Obama’s speech on health care that had the now infamous “you lie!” moment, he said he would not sign any legislation that costs more than $900 billion. The conventional wisdom on the Hill was that any legislation with the public option would be much too costly. The House has taken this for a twist by proposing legislation that costs much less than Obama’s proposed ceiling of $900 billion, clocking in at $871 billion, and still includes the public option.

With 50% of the American people specifically wanting a public option according to a just released poll, it is time for the media and conservative Democrats to stop acting like the public option is so polarizing. Let’s remember this is not scary socialized medicine with Josef Stalin coming into the doctor’s office in a nurse’s gown. This is a merely a competitor with no profit motive competing against those health care providers who put you on hold for 15 minutes or deny your claims after you have already have had a 300 dollar procedure. I hope Nancy Pelosi and the congressional Democrats stand strong on their budget friendly legislation with the public option.

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