Helplessly Hoping...

Ah, Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young....Helplessly Hoping...

Today Barack Obama will present the democratic proposal to counter the republican "Path To Prosperity."  So, liberalism 2.0 boils down to adding tax increases to  conservative budget cuts.

Of course the mellodrama on the left, because they now realize that Obama is going to cut their benefits or because "THE LEFT" has sold the democrats upriver, or just due to the fact that the republicans have successfully divided and conquered the masses, will raise in pitch and frequency but the reality is our country is in a transformational deficit and we are at a loss of ideas and leadership. 

Of course voter turnout dropped from a surprising high of 57% in 2008 to a disappointing 38% in 2010.  Regardless of ones political beliefs it obvious, after factoring in all the Tea Party anger, all the blogging about the Founding Fathers, Ayn Rand, and 'taking our country back' that the American voter is NOT reactionary nor conservative.  With all the energy expended by the right to capitalize on what they perceived as an opportunity to benefit from the creation of a "..non American born, muslim, socialist president" they were only able to get voter turnout, with lukewarm support of the democrats to 38%!

So much for the concept of America as a "right of center" nation. With all the effort expended by the right in 2010 they only increased voter turnout by 1% over 2002 and less than 1% over 2006.  Its obvious that the issue is not that the republicans are successful at dividing and conquering but rather that neither party truly appeals to the vast majority of Americans.

While voter turnout was high in 2008 historically it was not all that impressive when compared to voter turnout in 1960, 1964, or 1968.  If we reflect, just superficially, we will note that the democratic party in those prior years was much more 'liberal' than it is today and there was an obvious distinction between the two parties then, both of which are lacking today.

As the right wing malcontents pull the republicans off the cliff of reactionary irrelevance the democrats are finding themselves being pulled to the right also.  For all the talk of bipartisanship and compromise on the part of President Obama the reality is, that most of his efforts in this regard were with members of his own party!  

If we take the average voter turnout for the three most recent presidential elections and compare them with 2008 we will note that 2008 represents a 5.1% increase in voter turnout, or right at 10% of the historical average.

That represents the desire of American voters for a more left of center government!  That is an indictment of our two party system and its neo-liberal bias to represent the true wishes of the voters.

Whatever President Obama proposes this evening is really irrelevant in the long term.  The reality is that a huge gap has opened up, on the left, for a third party and if the democrats refuse to offer policies that are nothing more than neo-liberalism as liberalism then this opening will be filled by a third party.