Ever since the completion of the midterm elections President Obama has publicly stated time-and-again that he is going to use his executive power to do as much as he possibly can to begin to fix America’s broken immigration system.  This created a conundrum among Republicans in Washington and they immediately began to scurry around seeking a solution that would prevent him from moving forward with what they perceived as an overt threat to yet again abuse his presidential power.

Among the solutions that they are considering are another government shutdown and even impeachment.  Everything is on the table they say.  To support what they view as the lawlessness of President Obama and the severity of the situation, some of them evoked statements that Jonathan Gruber, who was a consultant to the Obama administration on Obamacare in 2009-2010, made calling the law intentionally vague so that it could take advantage of the ‘stupidity’ of the voters.  President Obama denies that Americans were duped into passing the healthcare law.

According to an article in U.S. News & World Report by Kenneth T. Walsh, ‘congressional Republicans expressed outrage at the deceptions described by [Gruber]’ and that Obamacare was falsely presented to the public to insure its passage.  I believe that this is just another expression of the vitriol that Republicans have for this president and another opportunity that they just cannot pass up to damage or destroy his legacy by branding him and dismantling Obamacare.

Congress has had ample opportunity to debate and work to fix our immigration system and still have not done anything.  The bipartisan bill passed by the senate has languished in the house for almost 18 months and continues to do so without being voted on.  Although during all this time they have done nothing to address this problem, they fume and threaten impeachment when President Obama even talks about using his executive power to make an effort to fix it.  Why is that?

The outrage that Republicans express at the president’s announcement that he will use his executive power immediately in an effort to begin to fix the immigration system rather than waiting until Republicans are in full control of the congress is just as disingenuous as the outrage they expressed during the early stages of Obamacare.

I wrote about this disingenuousness in an article titled ‘The Republicans’ Affordable Care Act Charade’ that was published in the Daily Camera.com about a year ago.  I reprinted it here and it immediately follows this article in the event that you would like to read it.

Reprinted on 11/18/2014 for your convenience

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was controversial and created political battles between Republicans and Democrats when it was a bill and continues to do so since it has become law.  Republicans fought relentlessly to prevent the ACA from becoming law and since it has become law, voted at least 40 times to repeal it.

In the meantime, in conjunction with continuously working to repeal the ACA, they have made efforts to sabotage it in any way possible in the hope that they will gain additional support from stakeholders – both inside and outside of congress, who will join them in their efforts to repeal it.  Their latest effort to sabotage the ACA via Republican Fred Upton’s bill has garnered some success and has the GOP all but visibly salivating at the prospect that this victory will be the edge that they need to finally derail the ACA.  Some GOP lawmakers were even giddy about this victory while spouting that even 39 Democrats voted for the Upton bill.

I was deeply saddened to see that 39 Democrats voted for this bill but I was especially surprised to see that Representative Tammy Duckworth was among those 39 Democrats listed.  I was surprised because I have been aware of her position on various issues and this vote did not fit that profile.

It is important for anyone who is of voting age – whether they are Democrat, Republican, or Independent – to remember that there are things in the ACA that are beneficial to them.  Some of these things are already in effect.  For instance, insurance companies can no longer deny insurance to anyone due to a preexisting condition.  And, children can remain on their parents’ insurance policy until they are 26 years old.  If the ACA is not successful, these things along with other requirements in the ACA that make insurance companies more accountable will be lost.

Under the circumstances, those who want to keep these benefits and are represented by elected officials who are working to repeal this law should let them know that they do not want it repealed.  It is also important for young voters, especially college students attending colleges and universities outside of their home state, to know that some of the same lawmakers who are working to repeal the ACA are also working to make it harder for them to vote.

The world knows that the Republicans outrage at the ACA rollout debacle and deep concern that some Americans lost their insurance coverage and now cannot access the ACA website to get insurance is disingenuous.  That means that the 39 Democrats who abandoned President Obama and voted for the Upton bill are aware of this too.

I can understand that some Democrats might feel pressure to take the safe political road because they are up for reelection in 2014.  What I can’t understand is why after weighing what is at stake for all of the American people versus accumulating points toward their reelection they would choose the latter; especially when the 2014 election is so far away.  In every walk of life that I am aware of, leaders are expected to be strong and do the right thing.  So even if the election were tomorrow I expect our leaders to do the right thing.  They should circle the wagons around President Obama and do the right thing: thank you President Obama for doing the right thing.  Stay strong!

I am a proud Democrat and I believe that the leaders that we choose must have more faith in those who put them in office.  Although too many of us do not follow politics and too often fail to see the big picture, those leaders that we select to represent us must have confidence in their own ability to ultimately explain to us why they made the decisions that they made.  Many decisions have been made by our leaders at one time or another that some of us agreed with while others didn’t.  But that is the nature of things; common ground is the common denominator of life.

In school I was taught that there are large and small common denominators and there are the largest and the smallest common denominators.  I was also taught that when you reach the smallest common denominator, that is as far as you can go.

My admonition to those 39 Democrats who voted for Representative Upton’s bill is for them to reflect on their vote and in conjunction with their responsibilities as our elected leaders, truly determine if they had reached their smallest common denominator.  If they had reached it, then they had a charge to vote like they did.  If they had not reached it, then they should put that vote behind them and make sure that as they move forward they always assure in advance of their decisions at what point they are on the common denominator spectrum.

Eulus Dennis

Soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sounded words of reconciliation shortly after the midterm elections ended. He said that the American people want their elected leaders to govern and this is what both Parties should do.  He said that just because there is a divided government …”I don’t think it means [the American people] don’t want us to do anything.”

How ironic it is that the senator who, when he was Senate Minority Leader, said that his number one priority was to make President Obama a one-term president had an epiphany and now believes that Democrats and Republicans should work together and govern. Was this sudden awakening brought on by the realization that he will soon be the Senate Majority Leader?  Was the ordinary but striking occurrence that took place the realization that he is the one who must now seek common ground between the Democratic and Republican senators and not just block or obstruct and engage in finger-pointing if he harbors any hope of a meaningful legacy as Senate Majority Leader?

It is also worth noting that these supposed words of conciliation did not come without a rider. There was a warning attached that said if you take steps to unilaterally do anything to move forward on trying to correct the immigration problem it will poison the well and be like waving a red flag in front of a bull.  That meant that any potential cooperation from Republicans would be lost.

It appears that the well has been poison for the past six years because the Republicans certainly haven’t cooperated with President Obama on any initiatives that he put forward. On the contrary, they have balked at supporting him on things that they regularly supported in the past and even withdrawn their support for bills they themselves initiated once he decided to support them.

Senator McConnell said that he would fix the Senate so that it operates again. What a curious thing to say when he worked so hard to break it.  He was not alone in those efforts but there is no getting around the fact that he was the minority leader when he said that his number one priority was to make President Obama a one-term president.

But some would say that what Senator McConnell said is behind us and the American people have spoken and given the Republicans a mandate, which was indicated by way of their resounding victory in the midterm elections. Wait a minute.  Doesn’t it still matter what percentage of the American people actually voted in the midterm elections?  Doesn’t it matter that there were new voter ID laws put into place in some states and some people who had been able to vote since the day that they became eligible voters were unable to vote in this midterm election?  Doesn’t it matter that voting days were reduced in some states, voting hours were cut back and there were fewer polling places available?

There is no doubt that fewer people vote in midterm elections than in presidential elections. And there is no doubt that a cross-section of those who vote in the midterm elections is less representative of America as a whole than a cross-section of those who vote in the presidential elections.  This is by no means an excuse for those who fail to exercise their right to vote during midterm elections; nor is it meant to in any way demean the voice of those who did vote; but to claim a mandate from the American people based on the results of the 2014 midterm elections without a caveat is quite a stretch.

Eulus Dennis

The 2014 midterm elections are over. Although ballots are still being counted in some of the close races and there will be at least one state that will hold a run-off in December because neither candidate for the US senate received at least 50% of the votes cast, the damage has been done, or the repair has been made – depending on whether your choice of color is red or blue.  Red was the color of choice for the majority of those who actually took the time to vote.

Speaker Boehner said that, and I paraphrase here, by electing so many Republicans to office and kicking out the Democrats who supported President Obama, Americans sent a clear message that Obamacare is a failure and they want it repealed. What?  Most Republicans did not talk specifically about the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) during their campaign.

What they talked about was Ebola, ISIS, people entering the country illegally, the beheading of innocent Americans and any other negative things that were occurring leading up to the midterm elections and laid the blame for what they called the poor handling of those situations squarely at President Obama’s feet. Then they tied any Democrat who was up for reelection to the President and what they labeled as his failures and implied that these candidates too were just as responsible because they had voted in favor of many of the issues that President Obama supported.

That sounds more like fear mongering to me. And it has nothing at all to do with Obamacare, which is a law that helped many Americans who had no health insurance because they could not afford it to finally be able to get health coverage.  It is still helping them and offers hope to those who are still without coverage.

It could have offered hope and help to even more people if Republican controlled states had not refused to expand their Medicaid programs and had it not been for all of the negative messaging and predictions of failure by Republican lawmakers before and after Obamacare became law. Good news though for all of those Americans who Speaker Boehner says want this law repealed; he has vowed to continue his efforts to repeal or destroy it.

The US Supreme Court has recently agreed to hear the case regarding Obamacare and for some of us that is a scary proposition. The Court did not have to agree to hear this case but the fact that they did means that at least four of the Justices agreed to hear it.  Even if they rule against the administration in a way that does not strike down the entire law, they can still gut it by ruling against vital parts of it.  Remember the voting rights ruling?

There are those groups who have key unresolved issues at stake who turned out in very low numbers. Many of the eligible voters who turned out in low numbers or did not vote at all were among those who heavily criticized President Obama as the midterms approached and made inflammatory statements like ‘the President has thrown us under the bus.’  Did those same voters throw the President under the bus?  Where were they during the midterm elections?

No matter your political affiliation, if you fail to vote, it does not matter in the least! My message and admonition to all eligible voters is that we need to make a commitment to ourselves right now to always vote; and not just during the Presidential election cycle.  And because I am a Democrat and believe that the Democratic Party has the winning message that will bring our country together, lead us forward and help it and all Americans to prosper; I admonish all Democrats – especially those who did not vote during the 2014 midterm elections, to resolve to always vote from now on.

Democrats are in a deep hole that it will probably take more than a decade to dig ourselves out of because Republicans now totally control at least 29 states. That gives them a massive amount of power to control things at the state level and, make no mistake; this is not a small thing.  That is why Democratic voters must gear-up now for 2016.  Winning then will be the best way to stop the Republican onslaught and reverse the ill-advised direction in which they are steering America.

Eulus Dennis

I was cautiously optimistic when the polls opened on November 4, 2014 but I became more depressed as the day progressed. By the time the polls began to close in state after state, I found myself staring blankly at the television screen and wondering why so many people fail to vote.

The percentage of eligible voters who actually vote in the Presidential elections is bad enough but the percentage that vote during the midterm elections is even worse. To be frank, the percentage in both election cycles is abysmal.  How can we be so nonchalant about such a prized right and toss it into the trash – that’s exactly what we do when we do not vote – the same way we would toss out a useless scrap of paper?

People in other countries who are not allowed to vote for the leaders of their choice would love to have the privilege of deciding who will lead their country. America regularly advocates on behalf of those in foreign countries who are fighting for democracy, which includes the right to vote.  There have been times when, in addition to applying political pressure, we have even put Americans in harm’s way to assist those who were struggling to establish a democratic society.

We have insisted that elections in these countries be fair and above board and that there be no election tampering during the election process. Yet, we struggle with keeping our own elections process fair and above board; if we do not, it certainly appears that we do.

There are a number of situations that occurred during these 2014 midterm elections that didn’t pass the smell test but it is very unlikely that anyone can really prove that there was a skunk in the woodpile. In other words, although there were some very curious occurrences in some of the states and it looked like someone was cheating, the likelihood of actually proving that they were is miniscule.  Time and again Florida has been a perfect example of these occurrences.

Pundits express a number of reasons as to why the Democrats took such a shellacking on November 4th. They said things like; it was President Obama’s low poll numbers, the economy didn’t improve, the economy was improving too slowly, although the economy improved – it improved too slowly and most of the American people did not feel its impact upon their daily lives, President Obama has been a weak and ineffective leader and blah blah blah blah blah.

The Republican Party defined all of these things and Democrats throughout the country swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. Instead of campaigning on all of the positive things that the Democrats and President Obama had achieved – he honored the will of the American people, they ran away from him and their accomplishments!  Politicians; what can you say about them?  Or perhaps the question should be what can’t you say about them?

The fact of the matter is that by deserting the President and refusing to have him campaign on their behalf did much more harm than good.

As eligible voters, we played a key part in this shellacking too. Maybe things still would have gone in favor of the Republicans in a big way but, at least, we could feel comfortable in knowing that this was what the majority of the American people wanted and that it did not reflect mostly what the extreme right-wing or left-wing of that party wanted.  I say this with a reasonable degree of confidence that I do not appear to avid Republicans as just another sore loser because of the abysmal percentage of eligible voters who actually vote in the midterm elections.

Those of us who did not take the time to exercise our privilege to vote do not have a legitimate reason to complain about whatever comes next as our newly elected officials unite with their incumbents and begin to exercise their power. The right to vote might be treated like a trivial thing now by some of us as long as we know that we have that right, but let someone even try to take it away from us and I have no doubt that our attitude regarding the franchise would change real fast!  The frightening thing about that is that by reacting instead of being proactive we could find ourselves in a harrowing situation.

Eulus Dennis

Verizon, AT&T tracking their users with ‘supercookies’ – The Washington Post.

Click on the title to read the article in The Washington Post.