essaysfromtheedge

Babies in Suits

Yesterday, March 2, 2005, Indiana state democrats were faced with 132 bills in the current session at the statehouse.

Bauer, the current leader of the minority democrat party, was faced with a bit of a quandry. Among those bills were issues he was not keen on tacklng: daylight savings time, BMV reform (the BMV is a huge source of money from its vanity plates), and the Colts stadium (the democrats are smarting because Republicans didn't just roll over and accept Indianapolis Mayor Peterson's proposals on the new facility).

So, Rep. Bauer cast around for some fresh ideas on how to handle the crisis. And his gaze fell squarely on previous democrat strategies: one from Texas, the other from Washington.

The first strategy was borne out of the Texas Republicans' desire to redistrict the state. Such redistricting would have favored Republican lawmakers, since they are the majority. They sought to use gerrymandering as a way of solidifying their base by drawing "new" Republican voting zones.

The Texas democrats didn't like this one bit - despite the fact that gerrymandering has been a favored tactic of theirs for decades.

So, the Texas dems fought back the only way they knew how: they cut and ran. Instead of standing nose-to-nose with the Republicans and fighting for their principals, they bailed: left the state, in fact. High-tailed it for Oklahoma and New Mexico.

They thought the voters would interpret their immature action as a sign of determination.

It didn't work. The voters saw through the charade, saw them exposed as the unprincipled little babies they are, and the Republican gerrymandering was a success.

Et tu.

In Washington, whining has been raised to the level of an art form by Senate democrats. Rather than fight the good fight on Bush appointments, democrats have chosen the unconstitutional tactic of the fillibuster (the constitution does not allow fillibuster for "advise and consent" issues like judicial appointments).

They basically sat down, grabbed a magazine, and said, "Make me."

Passive-aggressive behavior at its pre-teen best.

Of course, they may have won the moment, in no small part because of the Republicans failure to force closure, but they eventually lost they day with both the voters and with the government. They lost seats in both the Senate and House in 2004, and Bush has re-issued his appointments, which the dems are now forced to approve.

So, Indiana democrat Bauer has obviously taken these two examples of democrat "principles" and has chosen to adopt the party option:

Cut And Run.

Indiana State House democrats spent the entire day yesterday in what they call "caucus". What this really amounted to is a boycott. A walkout.

A temper tantrum.

Rather than staying and fighting the Republicans toe-to-toe (which any reasonable adult would do), the Indiana dems put on their whiner hats, stomped for good measure, and threw a passive-aggressive party.

They let 132 pieces of very important Indiana lawmaking fail - budget issues, education issues, economic issues, BMV reform, daylight savings time, the Colts,... everything got trashed because the dems took their ball and went home.

Which leaves Indiana two options: either award the babies in suits by supporting them, or throw the bums out when they come up for re-election.

The second option seems the only adult thing to do.



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posted by Tomás @ 3/03/2005 10:29:00 AM