it is very much double-plus ungood. Very bad indeed.

Here's an excellent primer of the words and concepts that are rapidly coming into use around DU in the last few months: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Newspeak_words

This is now a cat:



This is now NOT a cat under any circumstances. And it never has been or ever was:



Get with the program, Citizen!

It looks like the Columbia River Gorge. There is a herd of yaks on the Washington side of the river, near the bridge at The Dalles.

I put "yak" into Google Images and it was the first clear medium sized pic that came up.

You can get the image url by right-clicking. hope this helps.

Yaks are cool critters.

but the picture if it's labeled correctly in my google search was taken in New Zealand interesting how they can look so much alike.

I love progressives, personally. I've been one for years. My personal politics are pretty much socialist.

But I want to win the election, because I am poor and disabled and live in a trailer park getting by on food stamps and Medicaid, so the idea of risking a Ben Carson presidency is fucking TERRIFYING to me.

So call me a progressive pragmatist, I guess. I support the only one who can win. My (and your) pie-in-the-sky ideals can go to hell right now.

when I was just a kid. And I am tired of watching them die or fade away.

I have, with the exceptions of 1976 and 1980, been forced to hold my nose and settle for second best for more than thirty years. Even in '76 I preferred Jerry Brown in the primaries, but I did genuinely respect Jimmy Carter as an honest and decent man even though he was rather less liberal than I liked. Enough that I went out and banged on doors for him that year.

I thought I was getting something new, fresh and real in 2008. Boy was I ever a complete sucker, along with millionsof others who thought meaningful change would come. The only reason I voted for him again in '12 was because he was not Mittwit. And that was the ONLY reason.

I'm old enough now to have the luxury to vote my conscience after a lifetime of compromising. My state will go blue regardless of my vote. I no longer accept that the only choice is between quarter-pounder and half-pounder shit sandwiches. Nope. No more. I don't have to answer to anyone but myself anymore. Not here or anywhere.

Yay, grown-up life--sucks doesn't it?

But there are people out here whose lives SUCK a hell of a lot more than yours, and they NEED to keep Ben Carson or Donald Trump or WHICHEVER denizen of the clown car out of the White House. Lives are on the line. Literally. Any Republican would cut food assistance, cut heating assistance, destroy the ACA, and generally wage a death campaign toward the poor, the sick, and the non-white.

Do you think your psychological angst over politics is more important than other peoples' LIVES? Seriously?

I'm sorry, but I think the people who swear (and MEAN it) that they'll abandon us if Clinton gets nominated are selfish, privileged fauxgressives who care more about their own feelings than about the REAL suffering of the underclass. I have a damned hard time feeling anything but disgust and rage toward them. My life, my childrens' lives, my neighbors' lives, none of those lives mean anything to them. At least not unless they can.have their way.

It's okay for us powerless peons to have to suck up unfairness and live with the shit-reality of life, but for the precious Bernie-or-Busters?? No, never! Burn it all down if we can't have what we want! Let the poor die, let the bombs fall, let the rights be taken away--fuck the world if we don't get our way.

And the beat goes on.

I don't know how you live with yourselves.

the wrath comes quickly.

I'm representing poor disabled people who are sick to fucking death of you fake liberals acting like your precious feelings matter more than our LIVES.

It's sickening. It's IMMORAL. And it is a crystal clear example of white middle class PRIVILEGE in action.

A little self-examination is really overdue for you lot. Really.

or on how my state's EVs are assigned. None. Zip. El Zilcho. Bupkis. The square root of nada. ZERO.

Minnesota is a very blue state and has been since 1976, when I cast my first vote for president. Here are the stats. http://www.270towin.com/states/Minnesota

In fact the only time MN has not gone Democratic in a presidential year since 1956 was the Nixon landslide in 1972. Them's the facts, Jack. I base my decision on the state where I live.

But vote I surely will. I'd crawl to the polling place to vote for my congressman, Keith Ellison.

And I am a powerless - and unemployed for three years - peon.

And what leads you to the curious conclusion that Hillary Clinton gives even a single hamster turd about the 99%? The hawkishness? The welded-at-the-hip connection to the banksters? The trickle-down economics every "Democratic" nominee has pledged allegiance to since what seems forever.

It would be wonderful to have a woman president. But I'd prefer one who resembled Eleanor Roosevelt to one who resembles Margaret Thatcher.

Bye now!!

that your vote has no effect. There have been Republicans elected governor in MN recently.

And since Indies are the largest group of voters, you should look to someone other than Hillary to win the General election. Think about it.

For Republicans nationwide. She will motivate their cave-ork base like no other Democrat possibly could. They've been waiting half their lives just to vote against her and they will grab the opportunity with both claws.

Truth.

A deadly combination for a Democratic candidate.

That makes us unwanted on this site.

I apologize in advance if you get this a lot:

Thanks for the memory.

I had written a poem, many years ago, before this song had come out and then the song came out and everyone that saw or read it thought I got the name idea from the song though my poem came first. Lol.

"angry chair" sounds like a fairly common concept, like a space to get away. It's not completely unique. But I thank you for reminding me of this whole album. Most of it is really good, and at the time (1992), it was innovative.

Someone is for sure going to say "they sound like Creed!"

It seems likely that some people, in trying to appropriate the term for themselves alone, are inadvertently giving progressivism a bad name through over-zealous behavior. That doesn't mean they aren't genuine progressive X's, whatever the X's may be, though.

It'll pass. Progressivism has been around for a long time, and probably very, very few of America's progressives have ever heard of this site.

yesterday it is the left who gets blamed.

100 times out of 100.

Bear in mind that there are, indeed, people on this site who are paid to make YOU (or anyone else) question whether it is 'acceptable' to 'be' {thing}.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be doublechecking your beliefs for consistency and humility often, but if you find that kind of question like you posted popping into your mind, you're most likely having psych tricks deployed against you. They're far more insidious than most realize. So the second you hear that in your mind, back up away from the screen and start thinking over what all you're read recently and be exceedingly careful as you re-parse everything. You'll usually find the trick once you start doing that.

IOW, no, it's not bad...but some people are paying big money to make you think it's bad. Now, it's not PERFECT (obviously), but that's not the same thing at all. Don't let them bait you into thinking it is.

Being a "progressive" was bad.
The "bad" was just the word I used for the subject line.
It is more related to the fact that I have been on this site for 9 years and I have never observed a OP or post or been insulted for being a progressive, I'm on DU for crying out loud. It was just strange. I wondered if others were having similar experiences.

IDK.

Or at least voting for not falling back into a place where it might take another fifty years to dig out of, if we don't end up having both our ladder and shovel stolen from us.

History shows us that it can get very bad for most people very quickly, especially if it doesn't seem to the PTB that population in general doesn't care who's in charge by getting out and voting. With today's technology blurring boundaries between reality and personal space, it's going to be even more difficult to recover.

Haele

The math is the math. There aren't enough progressives, especially in places like Kentucky, and many areas below the Mason Dixon where "progressives" can effect the kind of change they seek, or make much difference in the balance of power. If there were, we'd see a whole lot more Greens, Socialists, and parties to the left of Democrats getting elected in those areas, right?

Politics | January 9, 2015

U.S. Liberals at Record 24%, but Still Trail Conservatives

by Lydia Saad

You followed me to my OP, a whole separate thread, just to keep making your point.
I don't call DU members out like that. I do my best to keep it civil and make it about the issues not the person.
I also gave you Pew Research data that doesn't jive with your data:
The share of independents in the public, which long ago surpassed the percentages of either Democrats or Republicans, continues to increase. Based on 2014 data, 39% identify as independents, 32% as Democrats and 23% as Republicans. This is the highest percentage of independents in more than 75 years of public opinion polling. (For a timeline of party affiliation among the public since 1939, see this interactive feature.)

When the partisan leanings of independents are taken into account, 48% either identify as Democrats or lean Democratic; 39% identify as Republicans or lean Republican. The gap in leaned party affiliation has held fairly steady since 2009, when Democrats held a 13-point advantage (50% to 37%).
Link: http://www.people-press.org/2015/04/07/a-deep-dive-into-party-affiliation/

I don't buy your "its about liberals vs. Conservative" argument. Its about Democrats.
I also told asked you why is "liberal" or "progressive" such a dirty word for you? They are terms used by Democratic Party candidates, HRC and Bernie and O'Malley and our president, to describe themselves.
Secondly, Democrats are Democrats. Splitting hairs is not in our best interest.
You draw lines of distinction in a way that makes me think you don't like the people that identify with those terms. The problem is not mine.

The whole political system is so fucked up in the USA.

It's why, unless it's a mass presidential election, they do so poorly. Conservatives are good at framing progressives and liberals and they really can't figure out how to fight back. They buy into the idea, something Dukakis felt while running for president, that if you're honest it doesn't matter.

Well it does matter. Walter Mondale got up in front of millions of Americans and told 'em he was going to raise their taxes. He also said Reagan was going to raise their taxes, which was true, but that part was ignored. All they heard was Mondale saying he was going to raise their taxes...then people wonder why he lost nearly 50 states?

In a more serious vein, is there a recognized continuum of political thought? Is a progressive more liberal than a liberal? I call myself a progressive and a socialist. What does that tell anyone about my stand on a specific issue?

The GOP has succeeded in 30 years of messaging in convincing many Americans that liberal is a dirty word.

and it could only happen given the nitwit know-nothing religulous traditions of 'murka:

that the GOP promotes.

And yes, the GOP, while terrible at governance, is expert at messaging. But that expertise is a survival mechanism.

GOP candidates must lie about their intentions to get elected.

This guy, who really knew how to play the Mighty Wurlitzer:



Right there is the entire philosophy of the modern Republican Party, for everyone to see

So, yeah

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027299110

Do like Steve says:

I'm a progressive and a liberal and I don't feel at all like a "second class citizen" either in the Democratic Party or on DU.

I think the way some self-declared progressives declare themselves, is a big part of the problem.

On the other hand, there certainly are some "hippy punching supporter" type posts here at times but I just take those with the large shaker of salt they deserve and otherwise mostly ignore them.

You can't control what other people post but you can control how you react to it. And you can control the quality and tone of your own posts.

Slowly attempting to hijack my OP with all the ways that "progressives" or "liberals" have ruined elections or otherwise bad for the Democratic Party.

"First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What do() (they) do...."

It is what they do. 24/7/365.

Hifiguy. Excellent post. Thank you.

Bernie is progressive Bernie is a liberal Bernie is a Democrat.

Hillary supporters are not progressive not liberal not Democrats.

Only you self described Bernie folks are progressive liberal and Democrats. Get it? There aren't a whole bunch of you get it?

Yeah well some are here to waste your time, they feed off negative attention. Best to ignore them.

Americans generally believe in very progressive things, but the Democratic Party is no good at articulating that and they are no good at blasting the other side and explaining why they suck. So we get this false idea that Americans are overall conservative. They are not. Democrats are just spineless weasels and won't stand up for what they really believe in. And they are much too beholden to corporate interests. We vote for those we think can win instead of those who will really stand up for what's right and end up losing every time.

No one can work with those shit-weasels in Congress and it is high time the President used the bully pulpit to call them out. He does that to some extent, but he needs to do more, as do all the candidates on our side. Bernie does; Hillary still apparently believes in bipartisanship, which is complete and utter waste of time.