Democrats: Boldly waiting until the time is right [View All]

BY KEVIN HORRIGAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Dick Durbin, who has come a long way from Assumption High School in East St. Louis, was back in town the other day. I asked him a version of the question that every pundit is asking every Democratic politician these days: What ever happened to the Democratic Party?

Iraq, I said. Health insurance. Income gaps, gilded-age plutocrats. Risk-shifting that puts the burden of the social contract on the backs of individuals. Why isn't anybody out in front raising hell? <snip>

"I understand the frustration," he said. "I tell you, it's hell not to have the pulpit. This man (President George W. Bush) sets the agenda. He moves the agenda. It's always been that way. And we (Democrats) don't speak with one voice. You don't until you have a nominee. The media doesn't treat us in the same way as they treat the president and the White House." <snip>

So this is what leadership looks like now: A Republican president with poll approval numbers in the 30s, the nation bogged down in an endless war, the NSA listening to private telephone calls, widening income gaps, 45 million uninsured Americans and at least that many more straining to meet co-pays, a middle class whose real earning power hasn't increased in 30 years, pensions at risk, Social Security at risk, etc., etc., etc., and the Democratic Party is waiting for the "right moment to strike." <snip>

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/14213080.htm