Most recent district race the D forgot he had a previous commitment and bailed out leaving us with a libertarian or repuke. Pathetic.

years now that the MINORITY PARTY is more powerful than the MAJORITY PARTY!

So, I'm looking forward now to seeing the MINORITY PARTY use its new found power and make sure to BLOCK EVERYTHING the MAJORITY PARTY tries to do.

It's a relatively new concept, 'the minority rules' but it worked for Republicans so now WE have that power.

So I'm excited to see the MAJORITY PARTY whining about how helpless THEY are now.

I wanna see democrats out there fighting against republican legislation like their jobs depend on it.

I want to see them fighting also.

That is what they are elected to do, but then a bunch of them (not all - there are some good Dems in Congress) suddenly become helpless buttheads when it is time to do something politically unpopular.

Being a leader means that sometimes you have to do unpopular things. The batch we have in Congress seems to think "leadership" means "get out of the way of those mean old Republicans"!

It's about not pissing off their donors. Fuck that! I'd prefer if they did not care about another term and concentrated on doing a good job this term. There are no national dems left in my state. I almost didn't vote for one guy because he put out commercials trying to be to the right of the republican. I wonder how many old school dems just gave the fuck up and just voted for weed and the minimum wage.

You and me both.

Make an impact while you are there instead of crying how little you accomplished over 8 or 9 terms.

It makes me mad as a wet hen how some of these idiots have taken up seats for decades and accomplished exactly nothing but becoming wealthy.

Poor folks have poor friends and might vote to benefit others they know. Just as some of our legislators vote for things that benefit their rich friends (donors).

here on DU that will fight tooth and nail to get Hillary elected.

I'm not interested in fighting for another insider that will benefit herself, only herself and a handful of her compatriots.

We've had enough of the "in it for myself" politicians - we need somebody that actually gives a shit about the American people from top to bottom.

I hope she does not run.

a bit better than Satan as opposed to supporting Hillary. Hell no. We need her as President like we need to take a bath in sewage.

How dare you!!11!!

shtick she gives off is about as pleasant and having your head repeatedly flushed in a toilet and it is your own hand pressing the lever.

I think that's what I hate most. Entitlement. She acts like a Targaryan.

Don't dare awake the Dragon, Brave. You won't like the dragon when he's angry LMAO!

She is definately nobility. I'm small folk. Or a bastard. Or both.

Even though I'm female. The Watch seems like a better place for me than Cersai Clinton's retinue.

Their knees do not bend. And spearwives can have spearwives. I love the free folk best after the Starks.

I would indeed have a spearwife! Aerows the Wildling has a nice ring to it

There are no turns.

It's called UKYP, I saw it once during a Parliament session shown on CSpan. They are age 11-18, hold elections and present their views to lawmakers and service providers. Originally started to focus on millennials for the future (more on wiki). Why can't the US Congress have this for the people, especially underrepresented youth and poor? Do it and televise it!

after one term for actually serving my constituents, not the special interests.

member than 99% of the dingbats we currently have in office. Congress has an approval rating lower than ringworm, cockroaches and a ten car pileup. They have absolutely earned it, too.

go to DC, do they job they people asked them to do, expecting to be there for only one term and planning to do as much good as they can while they are there.

Then they are supposed to be okay with going back to their homes and families.

But I have a feeling that if they did have that attitude and just did their job for the people who elected them, and did not worry about who likes it in DC or who doesn't, that they would be surprised because the people would probably send them back again.

Either way, they should go there, do the best job they can with the time they have and not expect or care about going back.

And they cannot see it themselves. The longer they are there, the more out of touch many of them are. Many of the same people have been in congress since before I was born.

culture there that is so far removed from ordinary people, they can't relate to them at all after a while.

It is very like the old European system of Royalty and Nobility, you are so right.

Hilarious...

depend on it?!!

It would be like democracy or something.

when it comes to Dems seems to perpetually be the minority, picked on party.

It doesn't matter who is in charge of Congress or the White House, those poor Democrats get sand kicked in their faces and boo hoo hoo.

Here's what I see - Democrats LOVE when Republicans are in power, because they can blame them for their own inability to act. They don't want to displease their lobbyist sponsors. They also love when they are in charge, and twiddle their thumbs, because they have good intentions, make pretty speeches, and still don't want to anger their lobbyist sponsors.

I can't conclude anything different from the actions the Democratic party has taken lately. I detest Republicans, but at least they are up front in their desire to screw everyone and anyone over.

can't do anything because now they are in the minority are we? After all these years of being told how powerful the minority is??

I sure hope not. We are not that stupid.

I remember when they were in the majority and couldn't blame Republicans anymore. So they blamed the Blue Dogs. The leadership just couldn't get the Blue Dogs on board. So the voters kicked out the Blue Dogs. And then they BLAMED THE VOTERS!

I doubt too many people want to hear any more excuses. So I don't think blaming the Republicans is going to work anymore.

I try to be positive, but sometimes it seems voters in this country are stuck on stupid.

Don't mean to be a downer. We'll overcome this and be a better nation if we can deal with the idiots that keep dragging us into the ditch.

The Republicans do NOT have 60 votes in The Senate,
so they won't be able to do anything.


Some members of DU are going to learn a bitter lesson about party propaganda.
GW Bush never had 60 votes either.

like Blanche Lincoln, where they pissed all over a potential Progressive victory.

The Establishment Dems' job is to allow the people to let off steam by thinking they are voting for somebody who is going to help them, while in reality they just sit on their hand and blame the Republicans for why they sucked up to their corporate donors again.

They are victims when in the minority, and victims when in the majority.

I am tired of the "We can't do anything because ..." narrative.

to achieve their political goals.

They knew that Obama would get all the blame for their government shut downs, for their trashing of the economy during the Bush administration, and for the slow growth afterwards that THEY caused by refusing to back a larger stimulus.

They didn't care how much misery they brought to people because their ultimate goal was to bring Obama and the Dems down. They knew that most people don't understand the political process and blame the guy at the top -- Obama -- for anything that goes wrong.

Well, the Rethugs didn't succeed in keeping Obama to one term but they have succeeded, now, in taking over both Houses of Congress.

Democrats, by contrast, care about the real consequences of their actions in real people's lives. It isn't all about political gains for them. That's what makes them different, that's what makes them better, and that's what makes them vulnerable.

to stop Republicans from wrecking the country? That was the entire point of my post. If you can't be part of the solution, at least stop being part of the problem.

That is the point of frustration for me.

in the face of the Rethugs scorched earth tactics.

That was Paul Krugman's recent question. People criticize Obama for concentrating on health care reform instead of the economy. But what else COULD he have accomplished on the economy, that he didn't accomplish, in the face of the divided Congress and their determination to filibuster almost everything? They WANTED the economy to stay in the dumps, because they hoped that would keep Obama from being re-elected.

What could the Democrats have done to prevent the greatest recession since the Depression? How could they have passed a bigger stimulus without Rethug votes?

Thoughtful minds want to know.

The reason I made this post.

1. Prosecute the torturers that have now sullied the reputation of our nation.

2. Jail the fraudster bankers that bankrupted our nation.

If those two aren't enough, I have no idea what would be. Both have severely impacted our nation - the first destroyed our image, the second destroyed our economy - and NOBODY was held accountable.

is not worth the effort of filling in the oval or punching the chad or fiddling with the screen.

I'm not going to sit here and excuse the Democrats that are currently in office for being delinquent in their duty.

I'd take Republicans to task for it, and I'm going to take Democrats to task for it, too.

There is no excuse for allowing rampant lawbreaking to continue - and it is a guarantee that it *WILL* continue if no one is held accountable.

would make our country better and stronger. Politicians of all stripes should be fighting to get there first, but no. they have to wait till their big donors figure it out. Fucking bullshit.

That would have brought the country to a complete standstill, and the economy was hemorrhaging at the time.

I agree that the bankers should have been prosecuted. And it's not too late.

doesn't stop the bills from coming in, either. It's immaterial, though. You prosecute someone for wrongdoing because the societal contract demands that people can't murder, torture, rape and steal without facing consequences.

A society doesn't punish murderers, torturers and rapists because it is convenient and easy to do so - on the contrary, they do it because it is the RIGHT thing to do to preserve society.

the Wall St Criminals and they passed the Health Insurance Bill.

Which is why the claim that the Republicans 'wouldn't let us' never was a believable excuse.

don't know where that idea came from, it is elitist and arrogant to assume that the people are that ignorant.

It is BECAUSE they understand that they are refusing to play the 'lesser evil' game anymore.

And this is WAR.

Whatever tactics it takes now to block all Republican Legislation is what we should be looking forward to.

If you're saying that blocking Republican Legislation with every trick they can find, is going to 'harm the people', I could not disagree more.

Blocking Republican Legislation is HELPING the people.

to pay attention to what has been going on politically. They're too busy just trying to live their lives. And when the economy isn't going well, they blame the guy at the top -- not their local Congress people.

So, basically, yeah. The Republicans now have an agenda that they won't be able to accomplish.

.... I wouldn't place any bets on it.

This is all a dog and pony show to distract from the fact that both parties have a common owner.

so we'll see if the story that being in the minority is as powerful as we have been told. I hope it does serve to stop Republicans as successfully as, we are told, they stopped Dems. But if it doesn't, then we have one more piece of evidence of how much of a rigged game it is, and not in favor of the people.

There will be exceptions. There will be excuses. The Democratic party has no shortage of excuses why they can't (read "won't&quot block everything the Republicans want.

The supposed power of the minority that we've heard about as an excuse the past 6 years will suddenly go away once the Democrats have that power. The power of the veto pen will become surprisingly (to no one) weak when it's Republican legislation being passed across the president's desk.

And we will all be told we want ponys and need to grow up if we have any problem with any of it.

not talking about myself of course, lol.

for state and local offices. I am not sure right now if I can ever vote for another Democratic presidential candidate. The disconnect between the values of the national party, with its shameless kowtowing and pandering to the tenth-percenters, and now the Cheney torture gang, may well be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me. I blame myself for falling for the sales pitch in 2008. I should have known better because I have seen it before.

The last few weeks have shown how completely the Feudal Fascists' Long Con is the concerted product of BOTH parties at the national level.

so I'd say the answer is yes.

nor is San Jose's outgoing mayor, Chuck "GQ" Reed.

even the most dem/liberal areas are not so great when it comes to certain things. issues are different because they focus more on local issues rather than national agendas/foreign policy.

but a lot of times there is the NIMBY attitude when it comes to supporting certain things they might overall be for but just not there.

Still an old-line liberal city for the most part.

of people like Rahm. He is part of the problem this country has and if energy that goes to other elections were to focus on people like him, he would have a lot to worry about.

Looks like it is now necessary to start from the bottom to rebuild this party which has been taken over by right leaning, corporate tools like Rahm. He doesn't like Democrats anyhow, so why should they support him?

So your post seems odd.

of course, he's a lame duck.

There's one at least.

should take as a role model.

She is unafraid to stand up, makes phenomenal arguments to any that attempt to detract from her stern message, and she doesn't back down.

If Elizabeth Warren announced her running for President, I'd be first in line to back her.

Warren and Sanders.

Bernie is, after all, an independent.

again can only keep the minority power through the
Senate filibuster. It remains to be seen whether the
repugs eliminate it during the first week of the new
Congress.

tells me that nearly half of the Party has ideals directly opposed to mine.

Anyone who thinks torture is justified under any circumstance is not someone with whom I want to associate.

I seriously question ANYONE that doesn't think this needs to be prosecuted.

The things we accept from our party is heinous.

to do anything that would jeopardize even one vote. This makes them appear to be spineless jellyfish.
On the other hand, Republicans have learned Thst it only takes 50% plus one vote to win an election so they don't care who they offend. This makes them appear to be strong and principled.

I hope that is the case instead of the more cynical, sinister view - power without responsibility. In any case, that's pretty much what they got so the motive means nothing.

let me know if you want to hear it

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???

makes me want to barf. There is only one way to approach torture allegations - DON'T DO IT and PROSECUTE those who DO.

There isn't a gray line.

makes me feel ashamed.

Particularly with the torture report being made public. I can't and WON'T come up for a justification why it was necessary to rectally feed someone.

I just can't.

but I am disgusted with our government.

There was a long hard battle for blacks to be able to vote in the US. MLK did not give up after the first march or so, he was arrested several times and endless humiliation but the Civil Rights Bill was passed and the troubles did not stop there. There are lots of issues worth fighting to gain a satisfactory end. Hillary was fighting for Civil Rights in her college days. She has taken other perhaps unpopular positions in her like. She personally supports same sex marriage and feels like the states are far ahead of Congress in accomplishing same sex marriages. She is very much liberal, supporting minimum wage increases tied to Congress getting raises.

Back on subject, I have read your post in the past and you are with the Democrat platform, this would be a good reason to remain a Democrat, Changes will come with strong people voting for candidates who are going to start winning over the GOP. One of these days the angry old tired men will not be here to vote and I expect our younger ones will overcome.

to admire or respect in the party of today. When my political ideology solidified (around 1970) there were real Democratic liberal leaders like McGovern, McCarthy, Proxmire, Abzug, Shroeder and Mo Udall-all men and women of integrity who took the job seriously and weren't bought and paid for. Al Gore Sr, Birch Bayh, Frank Church, J Willian Fullbright and William O Douglas had nothing in common with weaklings like Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein and Steny Hoyer.

If I was under 30, I seriously doubt I would have any respect for the party of today. Its really depressing.

but it is up to the populace, the voting public, to vote for decent human beings instead of the clowns we have in office.

Something has to give, Rowdy, I agree with you that we have some crappy candidates. I don't know what we can do to change it, but we have to do something.

a nutcase like John Arthur Eaves. The only time a "real" Democrat runs, like Barbara Blackwell for lt gov or Gary Anderson for state treasurer they're ritually slaughtered.

I can actually remember a time when I really thought Mississippi might become a real part of the New South. Jimmy Carter even carried the state in 1976 but it all fell to pieces when Reagan came along. And the rest, as they say, is history....

The politics of our state is enough to make a stone weep.

Hope springs eternal, though. Maybe one day, not only can we join the New South, we can join the 20th century. Hell, I'll be optimistic, maybe we can actually join the 21st century!

The incomparable Barbara Jordan, Anne Richards, Ed Muskie and Fred Harris, the "socialist" senator from Oklahoma. That's the party I joined in the early 1970's-not this gaggle of preening, pretentious cowards.

I was proud to tell people in Mississippi I was a liberal Democrat back then-it meant something.

I have to go to the DMV anyway so what better way to make a statement.

I have been a Democrat for 40 years. I just switched to Independent.

I still vote D, but have no formal affiliation with the "organized" party