TAX-CUT DEAL: ENGINE FOR CHANGE?

Maybe the tipping point has been reached. Maybe Democrats will hereafter so maintain their anger over the tax-cut deal that they will go on the offensive. Maybe the party of Andrew Jackson, the very personification of American toughness and resolve, will stop whimpering like a horde of mama's boys about being picked on, and apart, by schoolyard bully Republicans. Maybe the party of Harry "Give 'em hell" Truman will now begin operating from a position of strength that should be the birthright of the champions of working men and women, of social justice, and of all of those unlucky enough to be bypassed when silver spoons were distributed. Just maybe.

Thus far Democrats of recent vintage have demonstrated scant inclination and even less stomach for taking on the wealthiest Americans who believe they are deserving of special favors from the political party for which they have paid and are paying handsomely, building in the process a powerful propaganda machine that almost routinely convinces the majority of the electorate to vote against its own interests.

It is the same Republican party that back in the mid-1930s fought against workmen's compensation and Social Security as a sure path to the perdition of socialism and communism. The same GOP that a few decades later blathered that Medicare and Medicaid would surely be the end of the great experiment in democracy forged by the founding fathers. The same GOP that only last year voted in lockstep against extending health insurance to some 30 million people who do not now have it.

It is the same GOP that has preached with conviction borne of exceptional hubris the mantra that laissez-faire capitalism is the heart and soul of the nation, that rules and regulations shackle the economy from seeking its own level. In other words, let Wall Street operate above and beyond the law and the people will inevitably prosper. Prime the pump from the top and wealth will trickle down to the rest of us.

Precisely this kind of thinking did less to spread wealth than it did to compound the fiction that right here in the United States every mother's son and daughter can line their pockets if only the smartest investors are allowed to put deals together and buy and sell totally unfettered. Prime it from the top and everyone prospers.

That kind of thinking led in time to Enron, Madoff, and such outrages as cigarette manufacturers expressing no moral reservations about spiking their product to ensure addiction. That kind of thinking brought the implosion of the U.S. economy and ultimately the global economy. Advertise something-for-nothing and the suckers will line up to get their 'share.' But meanwhile, the tail must continue to wag the dog.

And so, with the days of the lame duck Congress dwindling down -- one in which the Democrats have a paper majority in both the Houses, overstated by the inclusion of blue dogs who often enough have voted with the minority -- an onerous tax deal is struck. In the bargain, the GOP achieved its goal of extending the Bush tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest 2 per cent of Americans.

No one can guarantee how much of the tax reduction would bolster the economy against how much would serve to further bloat the deficit or lower unemployment. To say nothing of the likelihood that extensions of the tax cut will lead to it becoming permanent, with, as Princeton economist Paul Krugman termed it "devastating effects on the budget and the long-term prospects for Social Security and Medicare."

The tradeoff to assure welfare to the wealthiest includes the extension of benefits for the unemployed; a temporary cut in the payroll tax, and tax breaks for investment. How much of this would funnel into the economy is a matter of conjecture, punctuated by doubt.

Progressives are rightfully incensed. A filibuster may be in the offing. Suggestions have been made that President Obama's capitulation to the GOP requires retribution in the form of support for a liberal presidential candidate to oppose him in the 2012 Democratic primary election.

As difficult as the deal may be for most Democrats to swallow, once the new Republican majority House of Representatives and virtually equally split Senate is seated in January, Democrats are unlikely to have much to celebrate over the next two years. With time running out on the lame ducks, a protracted stand on Democratic party principles is countered by nearly one in 10 Americans jobless and the distinct possibility that unemployment will worsen. The economy has deteriorated to the point where even temporary relief is welcome.

The danger inherent in the current scenario is Democrats engaging in circular finger-pointing rather than retaliating with a united front against the efficiency of the GOP machine that brought on the untenable circumstances that have been likened to blackmail and the holding of hostages.

With President Obama making what is perceived as over-the-top concessions to the GOP after interminable polarization of the two major parties, the tax-cut deal, unattractive as it is, may mark the last best chance to achieve bipartisanship that could determine the future of nothing less than the great American experiment in the durability of democracy.