What is a Democrat?

“If I were a Republican this would be a night to party.”

Rep Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo,) Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus - 07/31/11 on MSNBC

“We are tying similar handcuff to the next time we raise the debt ceiling.”

Rep Michael Grimm (R-NY) - 07/31/11 on MSNBC

“It is often poor people, the young and the elderly that get the short end of the stick. Somehow I don’t think the Defense Department is going to suffer as much.”

- Mayor Jean Quan, Oakland CA. - New York Times 08/02/11

I would love to say I am Democrat - but I simply don’t know what that means anymore.

To me a Democrat believes in using the power of the government to help people with problems beyond what their own communities can solve. Democrats understand that the hidden hand of capitalism reaches towards greed and self-interest, and that sometimes the power of government is the only way to block its grasp. Democrats stand up to protect a weaker minority be they women, blacks, gays, the uneducated, the sick, the elderly or the poor from a powerful majority determined to rob them of their rights, their homes, or their health.

Our President doesn’t look like a Democrat. The Senate Majority Leader doesn’t look like a Democrat. The 95 House Members who voted for the debt ceiling deal don’t look like Democrats.

They all look like weaker versions of President George W. Bush.

The Party establishment and the President both are trying to put a good face on the deal. (http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/01/five-things-for-liberals-to-like-in-the-debt-ceiling-deal/). (http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/08/01/not_as_bad_for_democrats_as_you_think.html). Their arguments revolve around the amount of cuts to the Defense Department, the small size of cuts scheduled for 2012, and most cuts are “back-loaded.”

The issue for Democrats is not the size of the cuts, but that they happened at all.

If the cuts to entitlement programs are the smoke and mirrors that the Tea Party dissidents claim they are, then we gave on core principles too soon, and got nothing in return. If they are as deep as Liberals fear, then we truly gave away our moral high ground for nothing.

At this point in history there is little difference between Republicans and Democrats.

We can no longer say Republicans will cut Social Security and Medicare and we won’t, because we just did. We can’t run against the “Ryan Plan” because we just adopted it.

Both Parties will cut the social safety nets that support the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. Neither Party will ask the people who benefited the most from the pirate years of the Bush presidency to sacrifice a cent for the greater good of the country.

Both parties believe in domestic spying. Both parties support torture. Both parties continue the massive rollback of civil liberties that have occurred in the US since 9/11. Both parties are willing to protect big business from any consequence of the fiscal meltdown of 2008 but leave the average mortgage holder in the cold. Neither party is focused on creating jobs or doing anything meaningful to end the recession.

Obama the candidate and Obama the President are two different people. Think of all the differences Obama drew between himself and John McCain during the 2008 campaign - end the Bush Tax cuts, end the war, support single payer health coverage. Look at what he delivered. Did all those people who cheered in Grant Park on election night vote for this?

Presidents Johnson, Kennedy, Truman and Roosevelt would not believe what they would see in the White House today. Not only that an African-American is President but that a Democrat without strength, without principles, whose main policy seems to be to appease political extremists sits in the Oval office. They would turn their surprise to Congress and see Democrats in both chambers who supported the President as he gave ground on every single core principle of the Party.

The Party that I believed in, volunteered for, voted for without exception for my entire life no longer exists.

The Democratic Party as I knew it is gone. I may as well say I am a Whig.