Restoring Sanity

Oh how I wish we could've been there.

What an event by all accounts - if anything, to tell our fabled leaders: "Enough."

America has had enough of the antics, of the obfuscation and we demanded real change. Yes, REAL change. We were sick with what the Republicans did during their 8 year stint that we voted for a radical shift. As we now face a mid-term election this coming Tuesday America isn't really happy with how the Democrats have played out either.

Until both parties try to reapply their pulse on America - we are going to keep seeing the revolving door in Washington.

That's why the recent Restoring Sanity rally on the National Mall in D.C. was so important. Take any picture from the event and SEE the demographics. Old, young, white, black, Hispanic, male, female -- proved that you can get over 200k folks coming together to tell Washington that they need to change their attitude. They need to change their approach with how they govern.

The problem is - they won't.

A very telling interview with President Obama took place on the the Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week - where Jon (to his credit) really laid it out there for the President to address the fundamental problem with the party and the direction of things in Washington. It was a great display of a leader doing this in secured measurements to ensure that change is at least moving forward. Progressives are never really going to like that it wasn't "everything" that Obama preached for and something even he admitted to.

"Obama: You know, there are folks, I'm sure, who don't think that we've achieved the ideal. And so, I guess, on all these issues, my attitude is, if we're makin' progress, step by step, inch by inch, day by day, that we are being true to the spirit of that campaign —

Stewart: You wouldn't say you'd run this time as a pragmatist — it wouldn't be, "Yes, we can — given certain conditions..."?

Obama: No, I think what I would say is, "Yes, we can, but — [audience laughs] — it is not gonna happen overnight.""

I think as a society - we really need to look at that reality. But when pressed about the frustration in Washington:

"Stewart: Do you believe government is nimble enough to handle these 21st-century crises? Is government agile enough — you said, "We want to build a 21st-century regulatory regime for business" — by the time government builds that, obviously it'll be the 22nd century, but won't they have already started trading molecules in some sort of weird — Does government still have the ability to be agile enough to handle these types of things?

Obama: I think it's a legitimate question. I will tell you that there are a couple of things that have changed in our politics that are gonna have to be fixed. One is the way the filibuster operates. As I said, that's just not in the Constitution. In fairness, Democrats used it when Bush was in office and felt very comfortable using it — although not to the extent that it's being used today. What we've been seeing is unprecedented. And that makes it very difficult for us to move forward in serious ways, and actually reduces compromise, because what ends up happening is that if Republicans know that they can block anything because we don't have 60 votes, then they feel no need to compromise. That means the Democrats, then, their attitude is, "Well, we're not gonna compromise; we can't get 60 votes," and everybody moves in opposite directions. The same thing is true, I think, when it comes to how our districts are drawn. You know, we've got a lot of districts that are so safe — 90% Democrat or 90% Republican — that that also helps to polarize the electorate, so there are a couple of things that are structural that are probably going to need to be changed, but, having said all that, we have made a lot of progress over the last 18 months that, from a historical perspective, ranks up there with any legislative session we've seen in history. And we're gonna have to continue to make some progress on things like energy (which didn't get done), on immigration reform (That did not get done.), and most importantly we've just got to do a lot more work in terms of generating the kind of jobs that ensure we've got a growing middle class and that people are able to live out the American Dream, because right now I think there are a lot of folks who are worried that if we don't make serious investments in education, in energy, in infrastructure, in research and development — that we're gonna start fallin' behind."

(see the video and full transcript at LincMad.blogspot)

......

Admittedly -- I was certainly caught up in the same frustrations. But I also see a party that is creating more hell and frustration upon themselves - than the other party. I'm patient as long as it feels like our representatives are moving in that direction, Mr. President. Unfortunately that's the problem so many of us see and that's why many of your candidates are in trouble this week.

That's why the likes of Restoring Sanity were important for you to see and understand that America is frustrated not necessarily with you, Mr. President. They are frustrated by the electorate that have a really hard time buying into your plan for the future or be bought out by special interest groups.

The GOP make absolutely no apologies that they are corporate hacks. They don't care that they're painted as unforgiving, uncaring, shills for industry so as long as their own personal tidings are taken care of.

It's time for real representatives to step up and to represent Americans. Not some corporation, not some shill for the insurance lobby or the oil lobby or the bank lobby or the military industrial complex lobby. We need representatives that know that a gallon of milk costs a shade under $4.00. We need representatives that know how hard it is for folks who ARE trying to work, who have spent a lot of their lives playing by the rules and who feel left out of the process. We need representatives who care about Americans first -- corporations and businesses second.

It's time to restore sanity in the process and to put people in power that want to make change - REAL change .... and not revert us back 10 years or believe some incredibly stupid notion of "trickle down economics."

Bring it on Tuesday America. Make your vote count.