The Scylla and Charybdis of Voting For Democrats

One of the things I see a lot of on the Left is fighting amongst Progressives over the proper reaction to the perennial selling out and betrayal of liberal principles by Democratic politicians whom we elect to office.  Every two years we mobilize on behalf of some Democrats, help to get ‘em elected and then – at some point during their term – find ourselves yelling, “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”

It’s like clockwork.

Writing My Senator

I’ve been paying attention for months now to the rumblings on Capitol Hill about granting a tax holiday to multinational corporations to allow them to repatriate the billions of dollars in profits they have sitting overseas without having to pay U.S. taxes on those profits.  Congress did this only seven years ago, with disastrous results.

So I was quite dismayed the other day to read this article at ThinkProgress.org explaining that Senators John McCain and Kay Hagan have indeed hatched a plan to allow multinational corporations to repatriate these monies at the low, low rate of only 8.25%.  What particularly troubled me is the participation of Senator Hagan – she’s a Democrat and, more importantly, she’s my Senator.

So I took the time to draft a letter to her urging that she abandon her support for this idea.  I tried to be as respectful and polite as I could be without also sacrificing the necessary tone I thought the situation warranted.

My letter to Senator Hagan is below the fold.