Prairie Fire Journal

The defeat of Democratic candidate Martha Coakley in Massachusetts' U.S. Senate race for Ted kennedy's old seat pretty much underscores the past year as far as Democrats are concerned. After Barack Obama's inauguration a year ago, the Democrats claimed to be the party of change. Now, a year later, they have proven to be the party of incompetence.

Beginning with the Democrats' failure to provide any substantive economic relief to the working class, and ending with the watered-down and still incomplete healthcare reform legislation, 2009 proved to be just more of the same crap. Democrats spent more time kowtowing to Republicans and kissing the asses of conservatives than they did confronting the issues important to the people who elected them to office.

And the Democrats still don't get it. They still insist on playing nice with the Republicans, even though the Repugs haven't shown any signs of stepping back from their obstructionist agenda. Just today, president Obama advised fellow Democrats against trying to jam a health care bill through Congress, and instead come together around a bill that can draw Republican support, too.

I've heard Obama say some stupid things, but this statement really takes the prize. It just goes to show that Obama is either naive, stupid, or just outright delusional. Are you people really paying attention to what's going on in America? This is just the kind of lameass crap that the Democratic leadership has been pulling for the past year.

The Democrats can only blame themselves for the debacle in Massachusetts. Coakley is an elitist who believed it was preordained that she would be coronated with the crown of Ted Kennedy's former seat. She was out of touch with the grassroots and basically out of touch with reality. As a result, she got trounced by her Republican opponent, Scott Brown.

Coakley's defeat wasn't a vote against healthcare reform or the platform of the Democratic Party, it was a vote against Democratic Party elitists who would rather make deals that sellout their base constituency than take a decisive stand that might require confrontation rather than compromise. Congressional Democrats have, for the most part, been spineless in their attempts at getting any progressive legislation passed.

The American people gave the Democrats the majority they needed to get the job done in Congress. Unfortunately, they haven't had the necessary backbone to stand up and fight for the American working class. Too much of the Democratic Party leadership is beholden to the same corporate interests as their Republican counterparts. The past year was just more of the same as we had the previous eight years under Bush. And it just keeps getting sadder. I think now would be a good time for progressives to begin finding a new political home in a third party.