Many people assume that Republicans are bad and Democrats are good, so all we have to do is replace Republicans with Democrats and our problems will be solved.
WRONG!
In many, many ways, Democrats are part of the problem. Very often they actively go along with Republicans or timidly fail to oppose them.
Robert Reich’s July 1, 2019, article said the Democrats caved in to Republicans about the border, despite huge public concern: https://www.nationofchange.org/2019/07/01/dems-cave-on-the-border/
This June 28, 2019, article reports that the highest-ranking Democrats in the Senate (Schumer) and the House (Pelosi) HELPED REPUBLICANS GIVE TRUMP $4.6 BILLION in Border Funding WITHOUT protecting children: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/28/spinelessness-schumer-and-pelosi-under-fire-after-democrats-join-gop-give-trump-46?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email
On July 4, 2019, Indivisible (www.indivisible.org) sent information about how DEMOCRATS HELPED REPUBLICANS ABUSE IMMIGRANTS rather than protect human rights. In the paragraphs below I have summarized (and sometimes quoted) what their e-mail said:
The question of the month: Trump, Democrats, & Immigration
The Trump regime is kidnapping children from parents and holding immigrants in concentration camps with “atrocious conditions without basic necessities like access to clean water. There is a crisis at the border, but it exists not because of a lack of money but instead as a direct result of choices this administration has made.”
Their e-mail summarized “what happened last week in Congress. The Trump administration asked for billions of emergency dollars purportedly to address the crisis at the border, but in reality to fund their anti-immigrant hate machine. So this was a big opportunity to fight back. It was an opportunity to define an alternative vision for what America is really about. It was an opportunity to make use of the new Democratic House majority. But then three bad things happened.
Bad thing #1:
“With Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s support, Mitch McConnell passed a bill through the Senate to basically give Trump a blank check. More money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), more money for detention, and no real checks on how it would be spent. It was so bad that our partners at the Defund Hate Coalition — a leading coalition of immigrant rights advocates and allies — declared that the bill was literally worse than nothing.
“At this point, all hope was not lost! We flipped the House of Representative last year. That meant we had power. That meant we could say NO to Trump, and demand a better deal! Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t want to negotiate — but too bad! Elections have consequences, and we built a big ol’ blue wave last year to flip the House. We were ready to fight this.”
Bad thing #2:
“Then a group of conservative Democrats, organized by New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer and the ironically-named Problem Solvers Caucus, led an internal revolt demanding that the House pass the bad Senate bill, with no amendments. Yes, a group of Democrats demanded that Trump and his enforcement goons get a blank check.
“Bad as this was, it was a relatively small group of House conservatives. And we knew that Speaker Pelosi was a master legislative tactician. So we could still win this. We just need to repel the conservative rebellion and pass a strong House bill.”
Bad thing #3:
“And then the final bad thing happened: House Democratic leadership folded. Over the objection of leading immigrant rights advocates, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and progressive members of Congress, Speaker Pelosi put the terrible Senate bill up for vote with zero amendments. Nearly a hundred House Democrats refused to support the bill, and it passed with mostly Republican support.
“Just to underline that point — Pelosi led a mostly Republican coalition to pass Trump’s border bill. The New York Times reported this as a “striking defeat” of Pelosi, but it was really a striking defeat for all of us, most especially the immigrant families who will suffer as a result of this Democratic legislative forfeit.
“It pains us to write all this. Indivisibles poured our hearts and souls into flipping the House last year. And we rallied behind Pelosi’s leadership in her bid to become Speaker. On a personal note, we were both staffers on Capitol Hill when Pelosi led the charge to pass the Affordable Care Act — she was a real hero of ours. And we hoped that she would wield her power and fight back against Trump’s agenda.”
