Democrats: Dumb-ocrats

So there's this goofy game called InkBall that came with my computer. The object of the game is to use your mouse to draw ink strokes onto the board (like the pen you use in the Paint program) to direct these little blue, green, gold or red balls into holes of the same color before the clock runs out. There are 5 different skill levels, from Beginner to Expert. The higher the skill level, the more complex the game -- with various obstacles, more balls in the game, less time on the clock and balls moving more quickly. I've been playing this game recently and am now playing in the 4th (Advanced) level. There are times when I fail to get past a screen and get angry. I mean really angry. I mean screaming, cursing, pounding-my-fist-on-the-desk ANGRY.

Now, you might think I'd be even angrier because a right-wing, anti-gay Republican -- one who's posed nude in Cosmopolitan, for crying out loud -- has won the Massachusetts special election to serve out the rest of Ted Kennedy's term in the U.S. Senate.

You'd be wrong.

I feel the same way I feel about the end of the Eagles' season, come to think of it. I'm disappointed and disgusted, but not really angry -- because I'm not really surprised. We've seen Barack Obama and the Democratic party continuously kowtow to the GOP, even as the GOP edges closer and closer to out-and-out ultra-right lunacy. Despite the fact that poll after poll indicates that on just about every issue people favor Democratic policies over those of the Republicans, Obama and his party continue with strategies (watering down things like health-care and financial regulation reform) designed to try and win a few Republican votes instead of pushing for actual change as promised in the 2008 election, and then letting the voters punish any Republicans who do nothing but block real reforms.

Obama won a decisive victory in 2008. Ever since then he's been playing nice, wanting to be bipartisan. The GOP has never had any interest in bipartisanship. They're out to win at all costs. They've been that way pretty much since Reagan was elected in 1980. They unleashed the birthers and the teabaggers and the hatemongers (not to mention the professional liars such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck), all of whom have one mission: to bring down Obama's presidency by just about any means necessary. Their policies have been dismal failures, they have no new answers for the problems facing our country, but refuse to try the ideas Obama has proposed. Obama and the Democrats, instead of pushing back, continue to step aside.

Now, they're seeing the results of one-sided bipartisanship. The election in Massachusetts means that the Democrats, instead of the 60 needed to break GOP filibusters, only have 59 votes in their corner -- counting the independents who align themselves with the Dems, although one can hardly consider the weaselly Joe Lieberman as much of an ally. This follows wins in November by Republicans in governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia. My guess is that "independent" voters and loyal Democrats are disillusioned by what's gone on since November 2008 and are either voting Republican or staying home. I feel just as disillusioned, but I won't stay home and I'll never vote for a Republican. The extent of my protest is, I stopped following Barack Obama on Twitter.

We'll see if the Democrats wake up before it's too late, but they'd better hurry. There are mid-term congressional elections in 2010. The GOP is out for blood, and right now there's some blood in the water and the sharks are circling.