I heard a funny thing this morning. Republicans said that if the Democrats go ahead and pass health care reform by the process known as “reconciliation,” or, to us laymen, a majority vote, it would make bipartisan cooperation more difficult in the future. This from the party that has made partisan obstructionism its only strategy since Obama was elected. What’s especially galling is their claim that major legislation shouldn’t be passed without bipartisan support when they have zero interest in contributing to the process. The GOP alternative to health care reform is the status quo, with minor tweaks that do nothing to solve the major problems.  The same goes for financial reform. They’re all for it so long as it doesn’t protect the consumer or include any provisions that prevent the banks from ripping us off again. The genius of the Republican spin machine is that they package their contempt for the public with a populist message. They’ve somehow persuaded the people their policies have hurt the most (remember bank deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, pork barrel farm and highway bills, the Medicare doughnut hole, massive deficits on their watch–all the things that got us in this mess in the first place?) that they’re on the side of the little guy.

Despite warnings from the right that if Democrats pass health care reform, they’ll be destroyed in November, I’m of the opinion that they’ll be rewarded by the voters for actually doing something, and that goes double for financial reform. Much of the anger at the Democratic party and Obama has to do with their failure to deliver, not with over-reaching, as the right wing choir has preached from day one. If they finally give up the hopeless pursuit of cooperation from the GOP and use their majority to deliver for the American people, much will be forgiven.