If you thought Democrat leadership in Washington is accountable to someone, or something other than D.C. Democrats … you’d be wrong. Despite overwhelming and near historic Democrat losses in both the House and the Senate, the party faithful are poised to appoint the very same losers that just guided them through the disastrous mid-terms.
Even the generally Democrat friendly media can’t figure this one out. Chris Cillizza at The Fix points out how private sector leadership is generally held accountable in ways that evidently don’t apply to the current crop of Democrat leaders.
Nine days ago, Democrats lost (at least) eight of their seats and their majority in the Senate. On the House side, the party dipped to at their lowest level — in terms of raw number of seats held — since World War II. How did the party react to this rejection from the American public? By preparing to re-elect every single one of their top Congressional leaders, of course!
If this makes no sense to you, it’s because you are a thinking human being. The way life traditionally works is that if something goes really badly or even worse than expected, the top guy (or gal) takes the fall. CEO of a company who pushes a new product that flops? Bye bye. Manager of a baseball team that has a load of talent but misses the playoffs? See ya!
Cillizza also links and endorses the thinking of Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh, who called for both Pelosi and Reid to step down.
Both Reid and Pelosi need to face a harsh reality of politics in an era of syncopated partisanship and polarization: After a certain period, congressional leaders’ caricatured images get so ingrained that they become electoral liabilities for their parties…
….Some will no doubt protest that the midterm losses weren’t Pelosi’s or Reid’s fault, and that therefore they shouldn’t bear the consequences. But this isn’t about blame. Rather, it’s about giving the Democrats an opportunity to offer fresh faces, different voices, new approaches.
Unfortunately, things like accountability, or taking responsibility for one’s failures is only for the little people. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi aren’t too big to fail – they did fail, miserably. But it seems they are too big to challenge, at least in the eyes of their fellow Democrats.
So much for change. Evidently, that’s only for the little guy, too.
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