The Blue Dogs Need To Be Put Down

Blue Dog Democrats, if you don't know, are Representatives in the House who lean to the conservative side of major issues. Plainly put, they're Republicans who know they can't win as a member of the GOP, and so place their careers before their constituents.

This has never been more obnoxious than now, with the health care bill getting ready for a major vote. Wouldn't you know it, too? These pathetic politicians are, as I've said, putting their careers ahead of their party as well as those that they represent, and in this case ahead of progressive (see: intelligent, or at least thoughtful) legislation that would help millions of Americans who shouldn't have to pay for health care in the first place.

Socialism! Communism! Fascism! They all scream that universal health care is a slippery slope that could lead to any of these scary "ism"s. I'm quite sure that anyone who would do this doesn't know that communism and fascism lie at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. I wouldn't be surprised, though, because they're idiots.

Georgia Representative Hank Johnson, not a Blue Dog, bemoaned his party's lack of movement on this issue. Poor Henry Waxman, one of my favorite congressmen, who bears a striking resemblance to a cartoon mouse, also had some harsh words for the conservative Democrats, saying, "We're not going to let them empower the Republicans to control the committee." Nevertheless, he realized that he needed their votes and had to give an apologetic press conference next to Mike Ross, a Blue Dog from Arkansas.

I've said it before, but enough with the conciliatory, pusillanimous tone that Democrats use all the time in Washington. I partly blame President Obama for this, because he's the one who wanted to ensure bipartisanship across the board. The problem is, though, that the Republicans won't meet him halfway because they only want to hamstring him into passing tepid legislation that would effectively maintain the sad status quo.

The real problem now is not these Republicans, but Democrats. The former has become a laughingstock, and thus irrelevant to anyone with two brain cells to rub together, but the latter needs to step up forcefully, finally. First of all, the elephant in the room are actually these Blue Dog Democrats, because they're are not really Democrats--let's make that clear. As I said before, they're really Republicans who want to keep getting elected, a la Arlen Specter. Take North Carolina Representative Heath Shuler: he's pro-life, anti-gun control, and also against gay marriage. Sounds like a Republican to me, no? If it looks like blah and smells like blah--you know what I'm getting at, I hope.

The Blue Dogs need to stop playing it safe, suck it up, and vote with their party--at least the party that they claim to, ahem, be a part of. Say what you will about Republicans, but they get things done. Awful things, but still--they passed all sorts of crazy shit when they were in the majority. And easily, I might add.

Now Democrats are in the majority, but conservative Democrats are actually rendering their dominance of Congress moot.

I have a solution. It may not be popular with the other side of the Party, but the Blue Dogs need to be euthanized. They all have broken antennae, or at least aspirations that impede what they were elected for, and thus need to be put down.

R