Tuesday the American voters will chose which brand of elites they want to govern them, Senior Editor Paul Jay said, quoting Conservative columnist George Will. "Surely in a democracy it's time for us to quit being sentimental and say the question we settle in an election is not whether elites shall rule but which elites shall rule," Will originally stated. “George Will did something that no one is supposed to do on American television: Acknowledge that we live in a class society,” said Paul Jay. “Of course, in elections we hear all about the middle class. One would think that presupposes there is a lower and an upper class... but no one wants to talk about it, never mind suggest it’s the elites that rule.” In 2008, people voted for the elites that “promised change they could believe in”, but less than two years later, public enthusiasm for the Democratic Party has dwindled while the Republican Party has gained momentum. “President Obama and the Democratic Party could lose 50 or more seats in the House, might lose control of the Senate and a string of governorships across the country,” said Jay. Jay said that part of that momentum can be attributed to choices made by Obama’s administration. “The Democratic Party allowed Republicans to rebrand themselves as populist behind the skirts of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.” Jay lists six major choices of the Obama administration that allowed the recovery of Republican Party, starting with the choice to not investigate President Bush and Vice President Cheney for criminal actions while in office. Obama left the previous administration off the hook for the costs of a war founded on lies, and an economy founded on gambling, and now the origins of the present mess are lost in the public memory. Failing to demand a system overhaul for the the broken-down banking and automotive industries are number five and four. Instead, Obama appointed a staff from Wall Street to help mend a system in need of complete renovation, and similarly failed to build a green economy out of the GM/ Chrysler bailout, said Jay. “The message could have been if you want public dollars, then you have to serve the public interest.” Not defending the public option for health care reform is reason number three. “When the process began, polls showed that most people were ready for a government run health insurance program of some sort. The insurance industry wanted a more regulated environment where everybody had to buy insurance. The industry got what they wanted, big Pharma got a sweetheart deal to boot, and most people were left dazed and confused by the process.” Choice number two is failing to change American foreign policy. “The underlying assumption that the U.S. must dominate the globe by projecting military power everywhere goes unquestioned. The almost trillion dollar military budget goes untouched, when the funds are desperately needed at home,” said Jay. The number one thing Obama’s administration did that allowed the GOP to make such a resurgence, said Jay, it to strive for bi-partisan agreements. Instead of fighting for the policies he promised, Obama compromised at the expense of the American public. “By not fighting for a bigger more effective stimulus package. Not fighting for a direct government jobs program. Not fighting the deficit hawks by taxing those who had cashed in during the bubbles, and making them pay down the debt. Not fighting for promised legislation that would have made organizing unions easier and for polices that would have significantly lowered workers tax burden and raised wages. Not seriously dealing with urban poverty and immigration reform, which would have given blacks, Latinos, young people and the poor a reason to vote on Tuesday.” Finally, echoing George Will, he said “Perhaps it’s way past time we realize that we are not one nation, there really are two Americas. That the lack of civil discourse and extremes of competing ideology is not the underlying problem but a symptom of an objective difference of interest. That what’s rational for most billionaires may not be so sane for the rest of us.” To read/view the full interview - How Dems Allowed the Tea Party to Rebrand the GOP
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