The President Asks...the People Respond

While on his bus tour last week, President Obama asked people to take advantage of this Congressional recess to contact our representatives and tell them to get serious about solving the problems we face.

And people did just that.

On Wednesday morning, as his tinted black bus pulled into Randy Hultgren’s congressional district, President Obama told residents that Republicans like Hultgren must be willing to raise taxes to reduce the deficit.

A few hours and 90 miles away, Hultgren’s own constituents had picked up the message, repeatedly hectoring the freshman congressman at a town hall meeting to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

“We have clear information that . . . tax cuts, especially to the super rich, has not increased any more jobs,” one man told him. “I want to know under what conditions you would be willing to consider increasing taxes, especially on those who can afford it? ”

“I just have one question for you tonight,” said another. “Did you sign Grover Norquist’s pledge to never raise taxes?” — referring to the promise that has been signed by most congressional Republicans, including Hultgren.

“Don’t you have the confidence in your own ability in Congress to make up your own mind? You need Grover Norquist to tell you?” the man continued.

It is a scene that has been repeated at town hall meetings across the country this August as Democrats make a concerted effort to use this month’s congressional recess to change a national narrative on taxes.

I believe that since the heart of the debt ceiling negotiations, President Obama has been more willing to draw directly on his experience as a community organizer to mobilize citizen involvement as these issues are being decided in Congress. I think its a GREAT move.

But can someone please explain to me how a person who purports to be a political analyst via their position as a front-page writer at Daily Kos so totally misses what's going on? Joan McCarter wrote about the same story. And yet, when citizens engage to challenge their Republican representatives, she somehow thinks its a message to the Democratic establishment.

Okay, so the question is, is this a grassroots, bubbling up kind of thing, or have establishment Democrats really internalized public opinion on this issue?...

The grassroots has done its part, sending the message. So now elected Democrats have to do theirs, and fight for real "shared sacrifice."

Huh?

She completely misses the point that if Democrats had their way, tax increases would have been included in the deal and that this strategy is designed to put pressure on Republicans. Its really politics 101.

I know I shouldn't be surprised. But sometimes these people's political ignorance stuns me.