Democrats’ best bets are . . . Republicans

It’s not easy being a Democrat these days. The president may be one, but the country is being run by Tea Party sympathizers. President Obama spends most of his time responding to the demands of a wild and crazy group of Congress members who want to turn America upside down.

Watching the Washington scene can make you wonder who’s really running the asylum. You don’t have to be an economic genius to figure out that cutting the size of government, coupled with reducing taxes for the rich, makes no sense.

A country as big as ours can’t run on fumes. It needs money to support two wars, a massive army and millions of people who legitimately rely on government for their daily survival. Medicaid may be an expensive social program, but taking it away from people under age 55 and giving them vouchers that won’t cover their costs will crush the health care system.

Travel around America and you realize that our roads and bridges are in a horrible state of disrepair. Our rail system, which provides cheap travel to the masses, is in need of government support to keep the trains running. Local governments don’t have the money to do the things they used to do, and they don’t have the will or the opportunity to raise taxes. The message at home is, get it from someone else.

New York state isn’t in any better shape than the rest of the country. Upstate New York is in a state of chaos, and the suburbs are feeling the crunch from high real estate taxes and the not-in-my-backyard crowd, who oppose anything and everything. The mass-transit system is badly underfunded, and in places like Nassau County, a bus system that caters to the poor is losing taxpayer support.

With everything that’s going on, the average Democrat could lapse into a state of depression. Except that there’s one ray of hope. It’s called the Republican Party.

Wherever you look, the Republicans are facing their own internal time bomb.

In Washington, the right wing has dragged the few surviving Republican moderates over a cliff. People like Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin have decided that the party would be best served by gutting every program that helps people, and that if rich people make enough money it will filter down to all the poor people.

At a time when the Republican Party should be getting ready for the 2012 presidential election by searching for serious candidates, the news cycles are dominated by Donald Trump and Michelle Bachman. Trump and Bachman may be attractive to Tea Party people, but independent voters, who will decide the next election, won’t support either one.

Democrats in New York state have had much to cheer about, as they hold all of the major elective posts. Despite being forced to make massive cuts in the state budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s popularity remains high, and he has the ability to help candidates at all levels over the next two years.

The next election for mayor in New York City will be in 2013. There’s no such thing as a Republican Party in the city, and the party isn’t in much better shape on Long Island. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, a Republican, was a strong favorite to be re-elected in November, but he’s not running, and the Republicans have no strong contender to fight Democratic Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone.

So the message to diehard Democrats is that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Just when things seemed so bad, the Republicans will be coming to the rescue.

Jerry Kremer was a state assemblyman for 23 years, and chaired the Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee for 12 years. He now heads Empire Government Strategies, a business development and legislative strategy firm. Comment below or write JKremer@liherald.com.