Is the Democratic Party dead as a progressive force?

All indications are that the Super Committee will slash Social Security and Medicare, while allowing the 1% to retain their unconscionable tax breaks and allowing the military budget to get off relatively unscathed. (My Inbox is filled with warnings to this effect, from advocacy groups.) The Obama Administration, staffed with Wall Street executives and Bush-era advisers, has prosecuted only whistle blowers such as Bradley Manning, while allowing torturers, war-mongers, and various corporate and GOP criminals off the hook. Protect ’em and blame ’em is their rallying cry. Yet I’ve heard many meek Democratic colleagues say, “Oh, we can’t prosecute them. It would be a distraction. We have to be nice to them.” That’s why the Dems are being bullied. That’s why the GOP won on almost every issue. That’s why voters gave the Dems a shellacking in 2010. The Democratic leadership won’t fight.

Things are no better in Washington State. Expect another all-cuts budget to tackle the addition $2 billion deficit, despite the apparent unconstitutionality o[f Tim Eyman’s I-1053.

But no matter how badly the Democratic leadership performs, the grassroots of the party let them get away with it, because the GOP are even worse. I suppose the politicians take the easy path, thinking “Why should I fight the right?”

So, the GOP plan to drown the government in the bathtub and undo the New Deal is coming to fruition.

They’re winning. The Democrats — perhaps understandably — lack the will to fight because they have been outmaneuvered and overpowered.

The Occupy Movement is a rejection of normal politics, because neither major party serves interests of the 99%. Indeed, the approval rating of Congress is 12%, according to recent reports. And so it’s hard to imagine the Occupiers joining forces with the Dems.

The Democrats have to stop blaming the Republicans (and Tim Eyman here in WA State), but the leadership, both in D.C. and Olympia, are taking the easy path, and the grassroots party members are letting them get away with it. Slash and burn.