Mr. nonunion-member, average income loyal Democratic voter can kiss any chance of having any influence on the head of his party good-bye if , , ,

The passage of the legislation in the House and the Senate that has come to be called health care reform is not in the best interest of many if not most Democrats. They will be better off in the long run if these bills die quick deaths. Even a slow death will be in the best interest of most rank and file Democrats.
Thus far Barack Obama has not been seen to take input from any part of the Democratic Party that did not give him large campaign contributions. With Team Obama, having just voted for the president and maybe having given him a few hundred dollars is a quick ticket to nowhere. They are not interested in your opinion and would prefer that you just shut up and do as you are told. Part of me says that this is typical of the authoritarian nature of the Democratic Party. But I also realize that it is also part of the nature of large organizations. Also, my freshman poli sci professor taught us that one of the three main laws of political science is: what have you done for me lately. (Number two was ‘it all depends on whose ox is being gored’ and, now, forty four years later I can never remember number three).
If the president gets his killer bill passed in the near future Mr. nonunion-member, average income loyal Democratic voter can kiss any chance of having any influence on the head of his party good-bye. If the president gets his way here then Obama and his top advisors will be so full of themselves that there will not be enough space in any normal, gigantic room in DC for both their heads and any person who is not giving them large sums of money.
So my humble plea to average Democrats is please do not reinforce the president’s ingrained habit of ignoring normal people. Please for the sake of all Americans and for the sake of the democratic ideal make him work harder and really listen to just regular people for a change. Please do not back him on this and give him no reason, except for the occasional CSPAN moment, to leave the back rooms with the fat cats. Please give him some real motivation to stick to his campaign promise to be the president of all Americans. Do you remember that promise that was often repeated in the campaign? It is hard to remember because he went to Washington and has not taken input from normal people. He has pretty much stuck around other Democrats, in back rooms and with fat cats. Please help free our president from these bonds. Please give him a good reason to get rid of his ineffective advisors and give him reason to actually listen to common, everyday Americans.

Another Use for Democracy

When George Bush talked about spreading democracy I was skeptical. This quote from Mark Steyn offers the only good explanation I’ve seen for such talk: “Go back half a decade to when the administration was threatening to shove democracy down the throats of every two-bit basket case whether they want it or not. Democratizing the planet is, in a Council of Foreign Relations sense, “unrealistic,” but talking it up is a very realistic way of messing with the dictators’ heads. A pipsqueak like Boy Assad sleeps far more soundly today than he did back when he thought Bush meant it, and so did the demonstrators threatening his local enforcers in Lebanon.
Democracy does not develop in a vacuum. A society with a receptive state of mind must exist. An active ethos of scientific inquiry is helpful. A religious frame of mind with continually evolving theological explanations and always changing areas of doctrinal emphasis is congenial soil for democracy to grow from (which helps explain why nonreligious and anti-religious liberals and progressives are congenitally antidemocratic).
Most countries in the world lack the cultural history and attitudes necessary for sustaining democracy. Observe how many third world countries institute a democracy but then quickly descend into a ruler for life military dictatorship.
I like Steyn’s idea of democracy as a weapon to give more freedom to Assad’s subjects. It’s too bad that Barack Obama is so adverse to measures that cause discomfort to dictators.