Expect all parts of their pro-corporate/Wall Street agenda to be stalled by our conscientious Democratic stalwarts!

with all the power we are told is now in their hands.

Is that naive of me?

Obama fail as much as the GOP. l There will be a 60 vote majority favoring the GOP when it comes to voting on legislation that would promote the President's agenda and a few of the Dems in the Senate believe that SS and some other liberal policies and laws need to be reigned in. They are deficit hawks and won't give up on austerity even though the deficit has been cut and is coming down. They won't talk about that so that means it isn't happening.

I've wanted a rainbow-farting unicorn for so long!

Or will they just blatantly flip flop and try to use their minority status to allow the Wall St agenda to pass, hoping we won't hold them accountable?

That's the issue, gang!

Can we count on them too?

tried, the Minority had the power to block them.

I think we will learn a lot when eg, SS cuts, the Chained CPI, comes up for a vote. I am assuming that with hte power we now have, no way can the Majority get anything like that passed.

from hamstrung majority to powerless minority status.

I am not sure I trust them to stand up. By that I mean not taking credit for the good of the last six years. Anyway, we shall see. Senators who have to run in 2016 will not be leading the charge.

and use the veto.

That's the way the system is.

People who wanted progressive legislation should have gotten out and voted in 2010. Then there would have been a longer time to get some more done.

will make it true. Progressives want CHANGE. Conservative DEmocrats whine that progressives want too much. So why would they stay home? They don't. They vote for change, they GOTV. It's the Conservative Democrats that don't care if there is fracking, Keystone pipelines, Wall Street bailouts, environmental damage, an unregulated NSA/CIA Security State, that stay home. Progressives vote because they care.

As far as will the Democrats filibuster? I am not holding my breath. Maybe here or there, but they won't like being called obstructionists by the Corp-Media.

As far as the President using his veto, Well we know he and McConnell see eye to eye on the Free Trade Agreements. They see eye to eye on Frickin-Frackin. They see eye to eye on Wall Street bailouts and tax cuts for the super-rich. Don't see the President vetoing any cross country pipelines. I think he and Arnie Duncan and the R's are all on the same page re. education. Doubt he'd veto legislation ending teacher's tenure.

As far as SS and Medicare, and the ACA, I'm betting he COMPROMISES*.

*Compromise in this case means "roll over."

the Left. The only thing that I've heard that remotely makes sense is that the Left wants too much and will upset the Oligarchs.

. . . as I am sure you can infer from my posts.

I think they are few and easily recognized. I think a bigger problem is authoritarian worship. People that want sooooo very badly to identify with a savior. These people down thru history are the easiest to lead. They are the ones that join the posse because they want someone hanged, usually doesn't matter who.

Most on DU are politically liberal free thinkers. I love DU

Party with their right wing policies, I'm speaking about the Third Way/DLCers who have so much influence over this party now. And they are LOSING ELECTIONS with their 'brilliant Third Way' policies. They are ANGRY at the voters for finally figuring it all out and refusing to continue to go along with it.

So the fall back position to try to take the heat off them, their tactic is to 'Blame the Voters'! Same thing this time.

And all that does is lose even MORE voters, the blatant attempt to deceive.

anything', so the voters listened and threw them out. What did you expect voters to with people who, they were told, the reason for not getting that legislation they voted for?

and am opposed to us doing so as well. If we are ever going to have elections mean anything then voting for the GOP to be a majority of the Senate needs to mean that we get GOP bills out of the Senate and voting for a Democratic majority should result in Democratic bills out of the Senate. Let the President veto the bills and make the election of 2016 be about whose bills we want to see come out of Congress and be signed into law.

insist we follow the Marquis of Queensbury rules. They lie, cheat and steal. They are bullies and it's past time to stand our ground.

When we have children dying due to poverty and lack of proper health care, this fight is literally life or death.

which is the very essence of democracy. Obama can, and should, veto the awful laws that they pass but they won the election and ought to get to pass laws that they wish to pass. Otherwise, elections have no meaning whatsoever.

How can they mean anything? It's past time to fight back.

the filibuster is very asymmetrical in its effect. It prevents us from enacting popular legislation such as the public option, ENDA, the dream act, and card check while it prevents them from enacting unpopular legislation right now we have divorced control of the Senate from any public policy effect so people can use their Senate votes to express hatred of Obama or whatever else they decide. Make the people of Iowa know that if they elect people like Joni Ernst then they might have a voucher instead of Medicare and maybe, just maybe her pig castration ad wouldn't have been so successful.

. . . that in the opening session of the new Senate, Republicans take a vote on eliminating the filibuster altogether -- which they can do, in the opening session at least, with a simple majority vote. Harry Reid should be strung up by the balls for not having done this when he could, as many of us wanted him to.

delay the Keystone Pipeline. I can only hope that there are enough votes to filibuster the TPP. But when push comes to shove the R's will dump the filibuster.

and I doubt the filibuster will delay the pipeline.

Democrats are killing people. It's past time to fight for the lives of our children and our troops.

The party has to change, we have to remember how to fight for the people. The fights were have among ourselves should be how to best get things done and what we want to accomplish. Not whether we should move right and give up fighting.
I saw progressive policies winning even in red states and weak liberals losing. Trying to play fair with a bunch of Dothraki screamers. Ridiculous.

Majority hasn't helped at all. We are told that the Minority has more power than the Majority.

So I disagree with you. You set a goal, then you use the tools available to you to get to the goal. IF we are being told the truth, Dems in the majority, doesn't get those bills passed. Why? Because the Minority also had goals and used the tools available to them to get what they wanted.

I want SS to be protected, so that those who worked all their lives are not cheated out of what they OWN. If being in the majority wasn't enough to stop them from lying and connecting it to the Deficit, in order to CUT benefits, then I'm all for filibustering, blocking, obstructing the criminals who would try to take that money away from those who own it.

Iow, you have to decide, what is more important, the well being of millions of people, or trying to look more reasonable than those who are trying harm those people??

Easy choice as far as I'm concerned. You fight for what you want.

. . . In the opening session of the new Senate, Republicans take a vote to eliminate the filibuster altogether -- something many of us tried, but failed, to get Harry Reid to do.

Last edited Mon Nov 10, 2014, 11:05 PM - Edit history (1)

and I thank you.

Am I wrong about this? Will the Minority lose its power now, or take advantage of it?

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The question is, will they? I'm already seeing 'reasons' why Dems can't do what Republicans did because 'what would the media say about them'.

We'll be watching when SS cuts come up I suppose.

Thank you for your comment, we have the power, all we have to do is use it!

heads and go along to get along.

is the GOP. I hate my cynical self that tells me Democrats will fold like a creased map. I hope as I prepare for the worst.

believe in, regardless of how bad it may be for the country. I would like to know why Dems don't have that same right. I've been told that we can't fight hard for what we believe in because 'what would the Media say'? I don't know, it's never happened so maybe we would find out. Or 'Right Wingers would call Dems names'. Okay, We call THEM names. Why should we care what the media or the GOP say?

Shouldn't we care more about the millions of people who will be adversely affected if we DON'T fight?

I'm afraid you may be right. Though I don't believe it is because they are worried about the media or the Far Right attacking them. FDR never cared what anyone thought of him or what they might say. I think it's something else.

I also think the people will be watching what they do now. I wonder if they care as much about the people as they supposedly they do about the Media and the GOP.

where they are afraid of offending their donors. Elections often reward those with the most money. I believe that elections also favor those that honestly stand on principle and are willing to fight for their policies. I know that is the kind of candidates I want to vote for. Personally, I've given up on the media. One distraction to another. Let me also say, Sabrina 1, that you are one of the more thoughtful and honest posters. I am always interested in what you are saying. Often you state very well what I struggle to put into word.

are the losers. I wish though, that we could find politicians who would go to DC, decide when they win that they have only a certain amount of time to do the work the people sent them to do, assume they will have only one term and make the most of it, then go home. But they might be surprised, if they actually did that, it's likely they would get more time from the people. But I think you are right, they need money to get there and stay there. THAT should be the number one priority of the people, to end the bribery that is the root cause of many of the problems in DC.

Thank you for your kind words JEB, the feeling is mutual!

If the Dems were to act the same way as the Republicans, the Corporate Media would totally crucify them.

One obvious example: would any Democrat get away with doing the things that Chris Christie does? No way in hell.

I really do not see the Democrats having the stomach to be obstructionists.

with the advantage too. It is called being chumps and if that isn't it then it is just being complicit.

But we will be lectured on how it is 'different' for Dems, how we have to worry about what the Right will say if they actually fight for the people, or the media.

I doubt that will convince anyone. I'm with you, THEY told us to stfu about issues not being addressed, progressive legislation not being passed because of the Power of the Minority. So I hope no one tries to USE their minority status now to excuse them going along with, eg, the Chained CPI, because they can stop it, we know they can, they told us what the Minority can do. And if they don't, what more do we need to know?

Christie yelled at a Hurricane Sandy victim and the media still treats him as a serious contender.

Why did Congress, and I believe Democrats were more than responsible for this, allow the deregulation of the Media? That was Clinton, no? Surely someone as smart as he was KNEW what would happen when they were allowed to own the media?

Maybe things are they way they wanted to be. Christie? It wasn't the media who got him reelected after Sandy when he was under fire, IN A BLUE STATE, for his mishandling of that tragedy. DEMOCRATS ENDORSED HIM, more than sixty elected Dems betrayed their own candidate, the party leadership refused to help her, and supported that corrupt, bully.

So no, it's not the media, it's the leadership of OUR PARTY and so long as people continue to put blinders on and 'blame' this or that things are only going to get worse.

If Dems had put up a fight in NJ instead of supporting the Republican, the media would have had to report that HE LOST.

about the Democratic Party when they suddenly become the party of opposition to Republicans when not in power.

That's why I wanted them in power to begin with...to strongly oppose Republicans and their agenda. Not to compromise. Not to reach across the aisle. Not to move us further to the right. To dig in, stand a line, and refuse to move a single hair further to the right, while using every resource at their disposal to push that line to the left. Even if they couldn't move the line, at least they wouldn't have given up any ground.

That's why I vote for Democrats. And that's why the last 8 years has been a "disappointment," to say the least. To be more blunt, it's felt like a betrayal to me. I think it's because the neo-liberal Democrats really don't WANT to oppose Republican policy. Partisan bickering is a stage show to keep the masses entertained.

I expect there will be a silver lining of opposition rising. How thick, how rich, how layered, how strong that lining...remains to be seen.

feel, disappointed, even betrayed. The problem is that the party leadership isn't listening to voters, they don't seem to care.

Eg, after the loss they suffered in 2010, the voters made it clear how and why they voted the way they did.

Rather than listen, we were lied to about that election, they chose to go on the attack against the voters.

They are trying to do it again, but sometimes people have just had enough and the continued lies about the 2010 election are not working anymore.

I hope we see some pushback against the coming GOP agenda, they certainly are not shy about pushing their policies, no compromising there while Dems insist we have to keep on compromising, something that no longer makes sense, they are now contradicting themselves.

On the one hand they talk down to voters who are begging them to fight telling them 'compromise is necessary to get anything done', but on the other hand, they claim 'we CAN'T get anything done because of Republican Obstructionism'.

Maybe it's just time to do what they were elected to do rather than having to constantly 'explain' and make excuses for why they are not fighting for the people who elected them.