Jan. 2, 2013.  Last night the U.S. House voted to restore the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for singles earning more than $400,000, and for married couples earning more than $450,000. It is expected to be signed into law today by the President.  They voted in accordance with the will of American voters and against the will of Grover Norquist, head of an organization called “Americans for Tax Reform.” The essential purpose of this organization has been to see that taxes are never raised on the wealthy. To that end Norquist had managed to get some 275 members of Congress, nearly all Republicans, to sign a pledge to that effect. But 89 members of the Senate and 218 members of the House voted against his appeals. Could this be the death knell for Norquist and his organization?

 

Less than two months ago Americans voted to grant Barack Obama four more years to fix or manage our domestic and international issues and to set into motion specific new programs to implement his vision for the future. It was a convincing win. He won the popular vote over Mitt Romney and a Right wing agenda by more than 3 million votes, while winning the electoral vote by 332 to 206. At the same time a dozen or so Tea Party lunatics—hell-bent on destroying America—were handed their walking papers. 

 

Democracy had worked its will. Obama had restocked his political capital.

 

Many Republicans, however, still did not get the message voters had sent and continued their attacks on Obama and his platform as if there had been no elections. All of his efforts to resolve the “fiscal cliff” were being thwarted as if their agenda was the preferred course, and millions of Americans just did not know what they were doing in the voting booths.

 

All that has now changed.   A vast new information network that can tap into and report on the American will is now in place. They have been reasserting their votes and making their voices heard in large numbers. This new network is demonstrably more powerful than the hundreds of millions of dollars at the command of political action committees, financed by a handful of millionaires and billionaires. Sensible Republicans are now getting the message. One of their most articulate spokesmen, John Huntsman, said recently “the Republican Party is a holding company that is devoid of a soul.”

 

Perhaps last night’s vote was the first step in finding one.