DISPATCH FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.: UNOCCUPIED VOTERS

Greg Thrasher

By Greg Thrasher, VOD Washington Bureau

March 5, 2012 

One of the political realities of America today even during the Presidency of our nation’s first non-white President is the emergence of special interest political movements which have altered the legislative agendas of both state and federal political bodies. Here in Washington DC the influence of the Tea Party unlike any other special interest political movement has paid dividends.
 
The Tea Party has created an atmosphere that has influenced Congress and to a lesser extent the White House. The push for a smaller government with drastic cuts in government programs and expenditures is real in the beltway.  Even the Department of Defense has produced an austerity budget.

President Barack Obama has tendered a budget which proposed cuts in federal spending in excess of $4 trillion as well as reductions in existing entitlement programs This theme of smaller and compressed public spending and budgets now is a national trend in every state across the nation. What is insane about this national plea is that even seniors and others who are recipients of federal aid and support have surrendered      Washington, D.C.: Tea Party rally       to this madness and even promoted cutting their own federal benefits from Medicare to social security. 

Postal workers in Detroit protest drastic cutbacks

The national government spending cuts forecast a future of less government workers from postal clerks to reduced military troops and national military bases . The results of such large scale reductions in our federal budget simply mean more unemployment, and reduced healthcare and pension benefits. The dependents of federal employees, from spouses ,children and care givers,  will have to find a way to stay afloat when the breadwinners of these families are laid off and civil service jobs are eliminated. 

President Barack Obama

Instead of fighting back and becoming more vocal against the Tea Party movement and others who seek to shrink the federal budget, public workers’ unions are capitulating to the objectives of those who seek to reduce federal spending. The reality is that even traditional non-profit organizations, which have as part of their charters that they must care for the general welfare of their members, are also retreating and offering token pushback to the cries of reducing and cutting spending in Washington. 

Of course a progressive nation with an agenda that promotes the well being of its citizens must challenge the trends of downsizing government spending by all means necessary. It is incumbent on all of us to influence and demand that these groups challenge our President. We must articulate to President Barack Obama that his proposed budget cuts are not acceptable and more importantly he must change his course . Progressive leaders and activists must engage the president during his reelection campaign to realize that unless he steps up and protects the jobs of public employees and programs which help the poor, seniors and our children,  President Obama will not get our support in November.
 
We cannot allow special interest groups like the Tea Party and backward factions of the Democratic Party to shape and influence and create national policies that are against our interests and put all of us in peril. We must aggressively mount our own political  movement that goes beyond protesting in the streets to becoming unoccupied in the voting booth. Unless political power works for us in 2012, our political allies become our adversaries not our advocates.

greg_thrasher@msn.com