Night of the Living Dems :: Steven M. Cohen

Like lumbering undead creatures in a horror flick, Democrats keep lurching towards a health "reform" bill, regardless of content, as the objective of passing any sort of grab-bag legislation has apparently become an end in itself. Staring blankly into space, staggering forward in the sort of grotesque lockstep that used to thrill science-fiction moviegoers in the now-quaint days before computerized special effects, the majority party appears determined to invade and destroy any remaining bastions of common sense and bipartisanship. Emerging after eight years of Republican control, these political zombies have risen from their electoral graves to wreak havoc on regular citizens cowering in fear and dread of a monster of their own creation—the burgeoning federal government.

It took a major suspension of disbelief for audiences to become terrified by the spectacle of flesh-eating ghouls, and the same flight of the imagination is now required of Americans to convince themselves that the congressional majority is working in good faith on their behalf. At this point the entire process has taken on an aura of the supernatural, appearing to exist in its own atmosphere, hermetically sealed from reality, as if politics occupies a special dimension in time and space. Democrats in Congress inhabit their own world, one without Gallup polls, town meetings, talk radio or confrontational cable news channels, snugly and smugly insulating themselves against the inconvenient intrusion of public opinion. What counts now is the legislative outcome, not the eventual consequences of their handiwork.

At the very least, Americans ought to be alerted—as well as alarmed—by the frenzied nature of this so-called legislative process. With apologies to used car salesmen everywhere, it must be noted that Democratic lawmakers increasingly resemble purveyors of automotive clunkers hoping to unload them on hapless customers before they realize the engine is wheezing and the wheels are falling off. "Have we got a deal for you!" has become the Democrats' mantra to the minions. Thus our diligent senators met in a Sunday session, which included a visit from the president to spur on their noble efforts. Shutting down debate and self-imposed year-end deadlines are the order of the day. Democrats are mobilized to act now before the great unwashed start to wonder exactly what is in those several thousand pages.

This shameless exhibition is so patently dishonest that one wonders why Republicans are rather restrained in their protests. Most glaringly, Republicans' various alternative proposals seem to fade into the background noise and thus are nearly absent from the public debate. Perhaps it's because they don't know how to get their message across, or, more likely, that they have been intimidated into defensiveness by liberals ready to remind Americans that our present maladies are solely the consequences of the previous administration's policies. Either way, the public's rising chorus of objections appears to be genuine and home-grown rather than the product of the minority party's eloquence.

Right now the Senate more resembles a Middle Eastern bazaar than an august deliberative body. The leadership is busy cutting individual deals on pet projects with wary party members who might stray off course, a bald and oily use of tax dollars as political favors—bribes plain and simple, which in the real world is a prosecutable offense. In the twilight zone of the Senate, however, this is known as deft political horse trading. The recipients of these handouts know better than simply to trust their fate to party leaders and are savvy enough to demand protection through the outright purchase of political goodwill before they must face the voters again. Again, one might think these crony deals would be easy targets for Republican attacks, but they seem to slide by without eliciting much outrage.

Hence the pod-people of Congress stumble forward, seemingly oblivious to an increasingly restive public that has repeatedly and convincingly expressed its intense discomfort with Democrats' version of health care reform. Could it be that Congress is so deeply cocooned in its self-proclaimed omnipotence that it has managed to filter out clear indications from a large segment of the public that it should stop this charade? It seems inconceivable that supposedly sophisticated politicians have become so disconnected from their constituencies because they have convinced themselves they "know better" than non-members of the politically elite class. Or perhaps it's that our political leaders presently in power have developed such contempt for the everyday concerns of the American people that they simply refuse to take them into account when pursuing an ideological agenda at odds with America's traditional values.

While the Democratic leadership in the Senate continues to conscript walking mummies in its quest for the magical 60 votes, some of these somnambulists might want to summon the momentary presence of mind to consider whether their party chieftains are leading them off a cliff. Unlike many of their political representatives, the American people are not mindless followers reeling in a mental void. They are acutely aware of the vital issues that affect them—like the size and influence of government in general and its role in health care in particular— they are involved in an active debate over those issues, and they have a long memory. Come the day of reckoning, an election less than a year away, even the undead may not be able to ignore the message.

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