He musn't have gotten the memo that the president vanquished the teabaggers in a manner not seen since Clay beat Liston the first time.

This was as good of a deal as anyone could expect given the players, the timeline and the available options. All of the talk was on a CR too so we need to wait and see what the first deadline in December brings and whether any lessons were learned. We have a couple of elections coming up in 3 weeks that could tell the attention span of American voters. Who knows, come February 8th I may be echoing the same sentiments but not now.

politicians who behave like adults, who actually try to help this country and not destroy it. Most of the international community knows it's not the Democrats or Obama's fault, but they are aghast that a few politicians with such a small minority of support both could and would do so much damage. I mean c'mon, don't you think someone's sitting in Peru thinking, "why are these idiots sabotaging their own country? Don't they have some way to stop them?"
Obama and the Democrats negotiated a great deal and are amazingly keeping things going in spite of the Republican's obstruction since 2010, but the int'l community has better news sources than we do and they see this for what it is. A political party in our own country trying to bring us down. Our own (tea party) politicians ruining our country, increasing unemployment, the debt and the deficit. They probably wonder why we haven't shot them yet.

integrity, its creditworthiness, its good name, its reputation, its standing in the world, its infrastructure, its public health, its standard of living, its jobs market, its environment, its unemployed, its old people, its frail and/or weak people, its poor people, its Constitution, its founding principles, and its quality of life of the people. Luckily, only about 48% of the voters eat up this brand of governance and some 90+% of this 48% continue to vote for those who foster policies inimical to their own well-being. While this conundrum is seemingly inexplicable, the answer is inextricably intertwined with vestiges of racism, ignorance, prejudice, bigotry, pride, love of guns, a right to life while in the womb, and an all-consuming love of Jesus while at the same time advocating policies anathema to the teachings of Jesus.

May I add to your list of reasons the brainwashing done by right wing media including, but not limited to, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, FOX News, and whoever else deserves to be mentioned. These people learned to repeat something over and over until people believe it.

I would also add to your list of reasons a second reason. We don't communicate as well as the Right.

Let me explain. The Right seems able to condense an idea into a sound bite. We try to explain, in a pedagogical manner, our philosophy and beliefs.

The Right says, Drill, Baby, Drill. We go into long discussions to convince people climate change is happening, people are causing it, and it will not be good for people.

The Right says Welfare Queen. We explain how the poor suffer.

I believe most people don't have the attention span to listen to our long winded explanations.

They remember the catchy phrase, Drill, Baby, Drill. They remember Reagan's Welfare Queen sound bite.

It doesn't matter if the idea is false. It doesn't matter if we don't have a Welfare Queen problem.

Another modern example is the Right's pushing the phrase, voter fraud.

If repeated long enough, people will believe it. It makes me sad to say, people can be made to believe anything.

Once people believe an idea, only personal experience will change their minds. They have to suffer a disaster to see government helps them. They have to suffer a medical catastrophe and fight the insurance industry to believe our health care insurance system needs fixing.

I still can't believe the United States has people who don't realize Social Security and Medicare are government programs.

I can't believe the United States has people who are on Social Security and Medicare, who want to privatize or get rid of Social Security and Medicare. Perhaps these people are too young to have known an elderly person who lived in poverty.

I am reminded of watching television when I was younger when we didn't have a television remote. We would sit through television commercials. We would hear the same catchy phrases and commercials, over and over. We would see things like "Things go better with Coke", "Plop Plop Fizz Fizz", or the Hamm's beer commercials.

The Right wing uses these tools effectively. They repeat catchy phrases over and over. They brainwash people.

The Right wing does some other things.

The Right wing denigrates a word or idea, over and over, until people start to denigrate the word or idea. People used to say they were Liberals until the word, Liberal, got denigrated. The word, socialist, has been denigrated. In other countries, people are proud to say they are a liberal or a socialist.

Why did a number of liberals start to call themselves progressives? I believe there are differences between the liberal philosophy and the progressive philosophy.

When I think of a socialist, I can only think of Bernie Sanders.

We try to be intelligent when we present ideas.
The Right doesn't; the Right pushes an idea, over and over, with a catchy phrase, slogan, sound bite, until that idea is believed.

that during this fiasco, messaging from the WH did actually emerge with some powerful terms that were repeated from the top on down, and eventually throughout what is left of the liberal media with respect to the GOP's position -

1.) Hostage-takers
2.) Ransom
3.) Extortionists
4.) Deadbeat nation

And in an appropriately repetitive mantra given by the President - "Re-open our government, pay our bills, negotiate a sensible budget with a balanced approach".

So as a nod to your post - this sort of thing DOES work and it DID have an effect on the outcome... It's just that those who profess to be liberal, progressive, and to the left, tend not to act from a position of fear, uncertainty, doubt, or abject hate like the right that emphasizes selfishness, but will act from a position of concern and empathy that emphasizes community.

Thus the debate becomes whether to go for short-term gain (using the tactics of the right) or long-term gain (using the tactics from the left)... the danger being whether the extremism of the right might eventually trump the ability of the left to even function.

pretty far right of center approach. The proof is in the budget cuts already enacted which are wholly unbalanced imho, to wit: those not having benefited from the massive budget deficits created by junior have sacrificed much more than those who have most benefited by those budget deficits. Example, the effective corporate tax rate continues at 7%, and capital gains, dividends, and "carried interest," all of which almost exclusively benefit the most affluent, haven't been much touched whereas all phases of the social safety net is on the chopping block. Moreover, the highest marginal tax rates remain at near historical lows while as much as 85% of social security benefits are still subject to income tax, a historical high. Balanced, my ass. P.S., I'm a huge BHO fan, and he has been a hundred-fold better than any Republican would be imo, but the fact that he has governed from right of right-center in fiscal matters is a matter of record.

Our motto should be, No More Compromises Until You're Sane