As adept as the Democratic Party is at “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,” I cannot see how the party can manage to lose the 2012 elections. At the presidential level, the choice appears to be between a caring, populist president and a legendary rogue. Is America so screwed up that a majority of voters would choose the rogue?
At the congressional level, the Democratic platform puts the American people first, while Republican leaders have made it crystal clear that they are the standard bearers of the richest One Percent.
I was wondering whether Americans are so brainwashed that they actually buy the theory that by further enriching the rich, the rest of us will prosper. So I was reassured when I read this morning that a Yahoo survey (photo above) shows the concerns that Americans care most about are the very concerns that Democrats are fighting to address.
Yahoo surveyed its readers on what they wanted to ask Republican presidential candidates at tomorrow’s debate in Des Moines, Iowa. And the questions they got were about such things as the growing income gap in America, inadequate education funds, lost teaching jobs, threatened student grants, foreclosures, homelessness, corporate pillaging, infrastructure spending, the dangers of climate change, gay rights and widespread bullying in schools.
Click here for more on the survey.
I would dearly love to hear the Republican candidates’ responses, as they have all denied the dangers of climate change, fought President Obama’s job creation bill and its provisions for infrastructure spending and hiring teachers, and in general reiterated their belief that tax cuts for the rich and corporations – along with eliminating protection for the American public – would solve all of the country’s woes in time.
Meanwhile, as Mitt Romney said in so many words, let the foreclosures continue until the housing market bottoms out.
Also, Republican legislatures across America have laid off thousands of teachers and other essential public employees, cut school funding and generally waged war against the workers in their states.
As this survey clearly shows, the Republican Party in its present iteration is completely at odds with mainstream America.
In what cockeyed universe, could such a party win a general election?
