Are we Democrats failing?

A pair of very interesting articles that speak to the failure of the Democratic party to address the giant problems we face. One from a conservative columnist and one from a liberal columnist.

To quote Jon Stewart:

The Democrats seems to be the kind of people who switch to Geico and lose money.

first from John Feehery (thoughtful conservative):

And the Democrats' inability to move on their agenda is a little surprising. Their party has a commanding majority in the House and 60 votes in the Senate.

Yet they have thus far failed to deliver on a public option, climate change legislation is languishing in the Senate, the No. 1 legislative priority of the labor movement -- the Employee Free Choice Act -- hasn't even been voted on, immigration reform has been postponed until next year or beyond, and they haven't considered any of the big budget issues, like entitlement reform or tax reform.

And then from Dan Froomkin we have:

Nowhere is the massive disconnect between Washington D.C. and the rest of the country more striking than when it comes to the issue of jobs.

Inside Washington, it is almost universally considered a foregone conclusion that unemployment will remain near, at, or even above 10 percent -- not just for months, but for years to come.
...
This situation creates no sense of urgency in Washington.

But as he points out, there is a giant disconnect with the rest of the country:

Asked to name the most important economic problem facing the country, registered voters cited unemployment twice as often as they mentioned the deficit or even the cost of health care; and four times as much as the housing crisis or problems with the banking system.

A whopping 83 percent see unemployment as either a fairly big or very big problem; and 81 percent say the Obama administration hasn't done enough to deal with it.

We didn't end the Great Depression until we entered WWII and deficit spent at a level that would make a Boulder liberal blush. Yet where are we now?

The bottom line seems to be that the big banks got what they needed - and that is all that matters. So Wall St good, Main St - can't afford to help. Of course the reason we can't help individuals is we gave all our money to the rich twits that caused the problem.

The '10 election is going to be a referendum on how well the economy is doing. And people aren't going to be grading us Democrats on a curve. Effort doesn't mean squat.