The People Are Speaking. Are Democrats Listening?

In the campaign for this election, Democrats made a point that it was about about a Congressional vote on their health care proposals. They made an issue of the fact that Scott Brown was a vote against their health care proposals. As such, they effectively turned this into a referendum on their health care proposals and they therefore ought to heed the message of that referendum. And now, they have their answer on how the public feels about the Democrats proposals. And it's pretty clear that feeling is "nay." And if a heavily Democratic and liberal leaning state votes against where Democrats are trying to take this country, what does that say about what the rest of the country must be thinking? The question then becomes, will the Democrats heed this message that the people don't want their health care and their other boondoggles, or will they arrogantly cling to the notion that they know what's best for us irrespective of what the people have made clear? (Not that I necessarily think that "The People" are a paragon of contemplative and pragmatic problem solving. It was, after all, "The People" that bought houses they could never afford with loans they could never pay back. Sure it was banks that unwisely offered such loan products to such people, but it was ultimately the people that freely chose to sign on the dotted line.) My wager goes to continued arrogance and denial.

In 2008, the people voted for change and handed a mandate to the Democrats to fix things. It was not a mandate for the liberal demagogues to run amok and ram liberal ideology down our throats. The change was supposed to be to fix things not to trade one nut-job ideology for another nut-job ideology.

From a report on Yahoo News:
"I voted for Obama because I wanted change. ... I thought he'd bring it to us, but I just don't like the direction that he's heading," said John Triolo, 38, a registered independent who voted in Fitchburg.

To which I respond: and what direction did you think Democrats would take us?

I am reminded of the story of the fox and the scorpion. In their travels, a fox and a scorpion find themselves at a river. The scorpion says to the fox, "please Mister Fox, let me ride on your back while you cross the river." The fox replies, "But Mister Scorpion, if I let you on my back you would only sting me." To which the scorpion replies, "But why would I sting you for surely we would both drown?" The fox acquiesces and allows the scorpion on his back. Half way across the river the scorpion stings the fox. The fox asks, "why did you sting me for now we will both drown?" The scorpion replies, "I am a scorpion, why would you think I would not sting you?"

What the people voted for was someone to work to understand the problems we face and create solutions that solve those problems. Instead what we got is the same "tax and spend" "problem solving" that was rejected in 1994. Instead of solving problems with pragmatic solutions that people elected them to do, Democrats have simply resorted to the same out of control "tax and spend" approach to "problem solving" that was rejected in 1994. Unfortunately both Democrats and voters forgot the lessons that led to the rout of Democrats in 1994. And unless the Democrats realize that people want real solutions and not demagoguery and ideology, they may again find themselves soon kicked to the curb. We can't afford Republican inaction and incompetence, but neither can we afford Democrats' incompetent "solutions" that spend mind-boggling amounts of tax payer money without anything approaching actual solutions. If only real problem solving was as simple as mindlessly throwing mountains of money at the problem.