The Dominoes Begin to Fall

In the past 30 years as a member of the Democratic Party I have gotten used to seeing my party's elected officials snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. My party has elevated this tactic to an art form.

The Glen Beck show was being abandoned by advertisers in throngs, due largely to complaints about Beck's increasingly racist and unhinged attacks on the Obama administration.

Van Jones's "Color of Change' got more than 50 advertisers to drop sponsorship of Beck's program during the election on charges of racism.

Beck goes after Jones full-throttle, pulling out a comment he made about conservative Republicans being "assholes" and a signature to a petition that questioned George W. Bush's handling of 9/11 that called for further investigation. Both took place before Johnson became the president's advisor.

So what do the Democrats do? Did they stand up in unison and refute Beck's insane claims and overt racism? Did they stand by the president's advisor and vow to continue supporting his rights? No, they remained silent. Just like they let the teabaggers take control of the health care reform debate. Just like they remained silent while rightwing radio inflamed millions of crazies and loosed them into the public square unchallenged. Just like they always do.

Last night Jones resigned. I can hear Rahm now, crowing about how that distraction is out of the way now so the White House can focus on the important issue of killing the public option. Because that's how the conservative Republicans work, right? Give them what they want and they are satisfied. They will now suddenly stop criticizing Obama and everything that he and the Democratic party say and do, right? They would never move immediately to the next target, would they? They would never perceive this as validation and a victory to spur them on to even greater acts of craziness, would they?

I remember how so many Republicans in the Bush administration fell on their proverbial swords after consorting with the rightwing pundits who were calling for the wholesale execution of all liberals. Remember that? Remember how so many of the extremist members of the Republican party disappeared so Bush, with his mighty majorities in both houses of congress, could focus on his legislative priorities? Remember how Goldberg and Malkin and Coulter and all those other vile people were abandoned by the Republican party? Remember how Bachman and Inhofe and all those other insane members of Congress lost Republican support after they did and said so many crazy things time after time? No?

Democratic leadership has become an oxymoron. They either can't or don't know how to play the game. They concede, they resign, they compromise and they manage to alienate their base, independent voters, and the watching world time after time.

Tuesday millions of American school children will not hear President Obama urge them to stay in school and work hard at their studies because Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, and Sean Hannity, to name just a few, succeeded in getting the Obama Dept. of Education to waffle and acquiesce and squirm and change their address and school boards across the country pulled out wholesale to avoid controversy. The strategy? Post the address on the Internet tomorrow! That will show those crazy, crying parents who weep and wail about socialist indoctrination! You know they will race to their computers tomorrow and when they hear Obama's skilled oration they will suddenly be silenced!

Back in November 2008 I remember feeling hope for the first time in years. I remember thinking "Wow. Now we have a popular president with an amazing mandate, with huge popularity, with majorities in both the House and Senate. Now we can really start to clean up the mess of the last 8 years. Obama has his work cut out for him and it will be hard but we will be there to support and help him." I went to bed elated.

Now 8 months later I am dumbfounded. Obama negotiated with himself and produced a too-small stimulus and left the Wall Street banksters with the keys to the Treasury vault and I thought, well, he hasn't gotten his leadership feet yet. Give him time. Then he backed off immediately from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and I thought, uh-oh. I read about continuation of the Bush administration's policies on secrecy and extra-constitutional efforts and I remembered the promise of "transparency and change." I heard Arne Duncan start to spout Bush's education policies and advocating Republican platform changes to public education and I started to cringe.

I won't go on. It's been done to death. Now that the president has decided to remain silent and above the fray while the rightwing crazies run the country. When the Republicans bluntly say on national TV that they have no intention of negotiating or voting for anything Obama and the Democrats propose, he shouts "More negotiating! More compromising!" and goes after his own base and progressives with a whip.

I really don't know what to say or what to do. He has conceded the fight without entering the ring. He has pushed his supporters out of the arena and told us to be silent while ignoring the hate speech from the right and its congressional representatives altogether.

I fully expect to see more and more Obama administration resignations as Limbaugh/Beck/et al pick them off, one by one and the rhetoric gets ever louder and more obnoxious.

The dominoes are falling and I feel helpless about doing something, anything to stop the tumbling. I sign the petitions. I call my representatives. I donate to organizations running ads. I attempt to counter the idiocy in conversations. But I feel like it's all a waste of time.

I want Obama to succeed. I want America to better itself. I want progressive change to come sooner rather than later. But I guess it takes smarter and better people than me to figure out how you get this done when the Democratic party continues to shoot itself in the foot over and over. Please tell me, and the millions of other confused voters, what do we do now?

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/7889

Contemplate.

whodathunkit?

This is nothing new...




A World Restored, by Henry A. Kissinger 1957

When will we ever learn?

so apparently, Pence just has to snap his fingers and the Democrats kiss his ass. Can't wait to see who the next person is that Pence deems "undesirable" in HIS administration. Does Obama call him every evening to get the latest dictates?

I would suggest that the next time that you receive a request for funding from the Obama administration that rather than writing that check you put a note in that you will be sending money when the administration grows some balls and stops pandering to the Republicans.

Screw this being civil; we are in a damn war in which the middle class are facing extinction. I read both of Obama's books and it was clear to me that he was for civil compromise and discussion. You can compromise with reasonable people but you can't compromise with the devil. The Republican Party is infested with evil bastards who have no intention of compromising. They are out to simply destroy every New Deal piece of legislation and will resort to any means to do so. They, along with a number of Democrats, have been bought and paid for by their corporate masters to do their bidding.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not about to desert Obama. I just what him to know that we expect him to stand firm and that we will back him 100 percent. Hell or high water. No compromising; this is out and out war. I am like Popeye. Sick of this and not wanting to take it anymore. It's time to take names and kick ass.

and (though I haven't followed the whole thing in great detail) I am perfectly willing to hold out hope and remain confident that the health care package will do what we all hope it will do - allow for affordable health care to all those who don't have the means now.

We'll see. Perhaps the apparent frustration and anger at "capitulation" to the repugs is just drama intended to prevent actual capitulation?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x363697

The key to progress is to eliminate self-sabotage. They are like yin and yang.

I have been reading about the Van Jones resignation, but for some reason it did not register in my brain that Van Jones WAS the "Color of Change" - no wonder Beck went after him, full throttle. I have one question, and I am sorry if it is a "dumb" question:
Is there ANY possibility that Van Jones resigned on his own accord? That the Administraton had nothing to do with this resignation? If the latter, wouldn't the Administration make a statement to this effect?
SOMETHING has to be said/done. Otherwise, this is only the beginning. I have already heard the Freepers say that Beck will go after Valerie Jarrett next ("exposing" activity re her rental houses in Chicago).
They will find this Van Jones episode very empowering.
The best thing I can hope for is the WH saying: "We stand by Van Jones and we do NOT accept his resignation."
ANY chance of that?

the resignation isn't accepted, and the President makes it publicly known that that individual has his full respect and support.

Well said. That is what he should do. If he doesn't the RW will roll him over and over. Like they did with Carter and Clinton's early appointments. They knocked out the best ones first thereby compromising the Dem President. It's their old "playbook"...the script..and it works every time.

After all these decades...why do Dems not learn? That's the question we keep asking. Those of us old enough to remember Carter, Clinton and the rest back to Kennedy.

implicate Cheney and Rumsfeld in arranging 9/11? What happens if he is right do they reinstate him?

That incompetent fuck finally turned in his resignation and * initially refused it.

Perhaps we should start responding to fund raising letters received from Team Obama by asking for the CHANGE we were promised during the campaign and not COMPROMISE with criminals amid obstructionist. Van Jones' resignation is not acceptable to me. He led a successful campaign against Beck and should be rewarded for that. I'm getting the feeling that some of our President's top advisers are to blame for all this ineffective "compromise" that is going on. I did not vote for Rahm Emanuel nor David Axelrod nor Valerie Jarrett to be my President, and frankly, I do not like the "advice" Emanuel has publicly aired on health care reform, nor his efforts in dealing and compromising with the Blue Dog DINOs, neither of which has met with any success at all from my point of view.

I haven't much money to give (my husband and I are about a minute from total destitution) but when I scrape $10 or $25 together I am giving it to Act Blue or one of the other organizations working for progressive causes. In one letter to the White House I told the president I will, again, believe he is on the side of the people when I hear Rahm is resigning to spend more time with his family.

...the ONLY of them that bothered to speak out was the Congressional Black Caucus.

THAT was when I registered "unaffiliated" - I still vote Dem/Progressive - BUT I cannot belong to a party that will NOT stand for ANYTHING.

"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything".

I didn't know the whole story re it being Beck who made the attack on Jones!

Obama should have refused his resignation -- what a shame!

So Rush, Beck and O'Reilly are still on the air but Van Jones is gone and the

administration and the Green cause are harmed! Good going, Dems!!!:crazy:

phrase my father taught me long ago and I've passed on to my children. Now I don't know WHAT to say to them! Obama isn't the person I though he was going to be. You can blame those around him, he obviously is listening to them, but STILL in the END, he IS the POTUS and day by day I see him leaving his "base" scratching their heads and wondering what ever happened TO CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!!!

Many here keep saying "give him time, give him time" but "time" doesn't seem to be working out so well for us Democrats. I understand he has to work with others, The Congress, The Senate, etc., but what about "we the people?"

I could say I'm sorry for making these comments, but I'm not because THEY don't seem to be very sorry for what they are doing in D.C.!!!

I guess the resignation will stand and the compromises just keep on coming!!! Writing letters, calling representatives and senators DON'T work, but what DOES seem to work are those on the other side SCREAMING & YELLING and getting their way!! They make a BIG fuss and THEY GET THE COVERAGE! They have "cohesion" and no matter whether it's completely STUPID, and they look like MORANS, folks... look around... tell me Who's Winning and Who's Losing!

I don't feel much like a winner these days, and my CYNICISM grows!! I worked very hard after Obama became the nominee even though he wasn't my first choice. I walks miles, I made phone calls, I marched, I held up signs on the side of the road EVERY week in the hot Florida sun, and now I wonder what has happened!

If I thought there was a chance for a third party, I would HAVE to switch because even though DEMOCRATS have the whole enchilada, I don't feel all that PROUD of them these days!! They had NO Spine during BFEE, and it continues today, and Obama isn't taking the bull by the horns or shaking any trees!

The OP has stated everything I'm feeling and I'm afraid it's NOT going to get any better!!! I could go on with issues that have left me wondering, but I think so many of us already know about them, and I feel so many of us feel some betrayal by it all! I know many here still say "Give Him Time!" Tell me how much more time do we need when we've already seen so much go down the tube???

I could see that his rousing speeches were full of populist mannerisms but devoid of content.

However, I didn't expect him to be such a down-the-line DLCer--you know, continuing most of the Republicans' policies but under a different name.

People who wanted the person they THOUGHT Obama was, they should have voted for Kucinich or drafted Feingold.

Unfortunately, our mass media have trained the public to go for style instead of substance.

even though the hold majorities in all branches of government. The Bush people caved to nobody, and did whatever they wanted for 8 straight years, unchallenged.

This is EMBARRASSING.

Where's the leadership?

In the corporate boardrooms. That's why Repubs seem successful and Dems do not. Both answer to the money. Dems' populist line worked this time, not last time - on the voters. Doesn't matter - it's just a line and they are all players.

Bingo.

I don't know what the answer is. I don't think there is one. I think we're screwed and the America I grew up loving and believing in is toast, and the Democratic Party is a pathetic joke.

Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

:shrug:

do you think insanity makes you rich and powerful?
will you vote dem again and expect different results?

We all want to play in the band, but we all march to the beat of a different drummer.

I had a spark, but the struggles over the past 40 decades is nearly gone. I feel defeated. It's the Fourth Reich, and they have won One World Government, IMO. Who would've thought that they'd use Corporations to achieve NWO. It's as if they are 'out of this world' intelligent. I think of Roswell. I think of Operation Paperclip. All that I've read used to be interesting. Now it's a burden.

The OP states:
"Democratic leadership has become an oxymoron. They either can't or don't know how to play the game. They concede, they resign, they compromise and they manage to alienate their base, independent voters, and the watching world time after time."


I'm more cynical than the OP.
I beleive the "Democrats" are playing "The Game" perfectly, and have been for the last 30 years.
These people are professionals, and none of them are dumb.
Forget the lofty campaign rhetoric and smooth talk.
Nothing happens by accident.
"By their works you will know them."

I will make an exception for The Progressive Caucus, though on some days I am ready to believe that even they are in on the scam.
The illusion must be maintained.


"If we only had 70 seats in the Senate....THEN you would see something!"
Send in your donations TODAY!

it is impossible to keep up." --Lily Tomlin

The Democratic party merely exists to soothe the masses, imo. The elites rape the shit out of us until we can't take it, then they give us the Democrats. And after that sham is up, we go back to where we started. And on, and on, and on...

Hard pounding vs medium pace. But we're fucked either way.

A classic case of good cop bad cop.
If we are to put an end to this game we will need to take back the democratic party or take to the streets and storm the Bastille.
But the progressive leadership appears to like things the way they are, probably because it is a money maker for them.

though I believe that its has been a lot longer then 30 years!

I'm very disgusted. A party that stands for nothing. I guess they never played follow the leader as kids.

I've spent a ton of money (that I now wish I had back) supporting Dem candidates, DCCC, DSCC, etc. They get nothing more. I've worked my ass off in the past. Now, I stay home.

In 2007, I resigned from my DEC in protest of the continued funding of the Iraq war. Are we any closer yet?

Last year, I switched to "No Party Affiliation" when they caved on FISA and telecom immunity. And, it's gone downhill since.

How cynical can I get? I'm a former Dem congressional candidate. When people ask me why I switched, I tell them that I'm particular about who I associate with. I'll never vote for a Republican, but there's a hell of a lot of Democrats I'll never vote for either.

Unless maybe Russ Feingold or Howard Dean decide to challenge Obama in 2012.

give a tinker's damn WHAT WE THINK!! There is NO SHAME and the only recourse we have is to capitulate and walk meekly behind "the leader" OR REVOLT!

REVOLT doesn't seem something anyone wants to do, and I'm not very good at walking meekly behind some Pied Piper!

It's nothing less that DISGUSTING! Feingold, Sanders and a few others can fight back, but they are few and far between! Howard Dean keeps trying, but THEY don't care much about him either!

This isn't an America I knew or have ever known!! I keep thinking about NERO & ROME!!!

I've said this before and will say it again... I Voted For This Man, But This ISN'T The Man I Voted For!!!

Anyone have ANY suggestions about what we can do?? I don't, I've tried for a very long time, and may well "opt out" because of it! NPA, that's probably what I'll end up doing, even though it means I can't vote in any primaries here. What good does voting do ANYWAY???

that what you're saying here is all too plausible to me. :(

Facts have a well known doomsayer, chicken little, sky is falling, circular firing squad, hyperbolic bias.

Been enjoying watching you expand. Good path to follow.

I think it was Lawrence O'Donnell who said that ultimately the people don't really trust the Democrats
because they don't stand up and fight.

Why should the people think we'll stand up and fight for them when the head of the party throws a great
guy like Jones under the bus.

At the 2005 rally on Capitol Hill urging that the Ohio electors be rejected by the Senate, there were
all these stickers saying "Grow a Spine." The point was well taken. But you can't grow a spine and
apparently the leadership can't even figure out that they need to look like they have a spine.

Obama was bought and paid for by Corporations. I never went to bed with 'hope.' His campaign was great marketing...that's all it was. I knew he would break hearts.

If he stands up for the people with the Public Option, I will be shocked. I would love it if he did..but there are powerful people against this....who can cause death so easily.

Even though Obama has done NOTHING to lessen the corporate stranglehold on America, it's the height of insanity to even INSINUATE he's working for them and not us! Obama could never do such a thing! Why, he talked about change! That means he's totally honest!

Also, he's playing chess! Also, we're too stupid to understand what he's doing ten steps ahead of everyone else!

The lack of a public option will be my confirmation that the Democratic Party, and the President, do not value my support.

We shouldn't have to. Politics isn't about secrecy.
and really, we don't need to.
We already know what will happen.

These Insurance Companies are afraid of the Public Option and the 'competition' it will bring them. Gee, here I thought Capitalism involved a level of competition.

Funny how the Single Payer System was squashed immediately.

Wish I could "talk you down" and point out some obscure important detail that you've overlooked.
But, if I could do that for you, I could do it for myself, and I can't. Like you, I want Obama to succeed in doing what we all thought was going to be accomplished when we worked our asses off getting him elected. But, at this point, I am just sort of going through the motions and hoping I can look back some day on how I feel now and laugh, "Boy, was I wrong!"

We ARE right about what we want for this nation and the world. We just might not get to see it happen in our brief candle's span.

I really keep coming back to the same answer. When a marriage doesn't work, and neither party can see eye to eye...well, if you don't love me by now...you will never, ever, ever love me.

Split the country up. I'm sure some sort of arrangement can be made. It will suck and be difficult but ultimately it will be better for everyone.

Didn't end so well for those that tried it last time.

Seems to be a pretty common dream to "conservatives", strange to see it suggested here.

The last election, President Obama won 8 Bush states, right? And if we could ever eliminate Republican election fraud, Democrats would win by an even wider margin. Let's stop the whole idea that we are not a United States. The majority of real Americans, Republican and Democrat, want a public option as an example of our unity.

If you want to go breaking something up, then break up the media and other un-American mega-corporations that are destroying us and publicly fund elections.

EVER. You don't know anything about me. I live in a bastion of fascist Christianity and I'm a frigging pagan. I can't even talk about my religion openly here. The general wisdom around here is putting an Obama sticker on your car is inviting violence upon your person.

Yes, to preclude your coming snide comment, I am trying to move north. Don't judge people by their post count, it really makes you look like an judgmental idiot. Try being open to new ideas.

Frankly I don't give a crap if you think my comment is unwelcome. Is this an open forum or some sort of groupthink exercise? This isn't about secession. It's not 1861. This is about a mutually decided division of the country - not some sort of half-assed campaign stunt by a Texas governor.

Call a second constitutional convention and get it done, peacefully. There is historical precedence for this kind of division: India and Pakistan. Turns out Hindus and Muslims have a hard time living with one another. So Gandhi does the only rational thing one can do in that situation - not fight it out, separate the combatants.

Listen brother, whether you find it "unwelcome" or not, I'm tired of sharing the same space with GOP pigs. I hate them. I hate them all. I never thought that I would be a victim of history but there you go. They're hurting me and they're hurting my family. If you want to spend the next fifty years trying to deal with their insane antics and obstructionism, go right ahead. Arkansas is a beautiful state except for the right-wing christian conservative radicals who say their democrats but aren't. Feel free to move here. I'm sure they'd love you down here, right before they ate you. I didn't catch where you live, but trust me when I tell you that these people here will NEVER agree with anything you or I believe.

I don't want to compromise with them or coexist with them. At this point...well I won't go that far in this post. I will grant you that such a division would be difficult to accomplish, nevertheless I feel like it is something to consider, not simply dismiss it out of hand because you might get scoffed at or ridiculed. It's called courage, get some.

I'm fine living in a country with two political parties, like the Democratic Party and the Green Party. Not the Democratic Party and the Nazi Party. One more thing, we didn't try dividing the country. We forced the south through violence to stay in a bad marriage. I won't go so far as to judge Lincoln wrong in this post, but I think he would have a different opinion in 2009.

I honestly do think secessionist talk is unwelcome here and counter-productive. That comment has nothing to do with YOU. Hear that? The idea is what I am taking objection to, not you personally. You don't care? Fair enough response, I guess. Imagine how I must feel when I never intended to suggest you were a Repub yet you took it that way? Why bring up your post count, that is out-of-bounds? Why suggest that snide is the only response I would give? I hear your ideas give you some comfort but your suggestion is fantasy. When one come to a message board for some reasonable discussion isn't some push-back for fantastic ideas expected? Your metaphor just doesn't work.

The people you have a problem with are your neighbors, right? Invite their wrath. Take responsibility for our democracy every chance you get or not. If you like, follow the common wisdom or not. It seems pretty clear what side you come down on in fight or flight. Your message screams fighter, but who is your enemy?

I lived in the south and was not welcome there so I can otherwise sympathize.

Break the Dems and Reps into four or five parties (Progressive, Moderate, Conservative, Libertarian, Batshit Crazy) that would have to form coalitions to govern, along with SCOTUS decisions reversing the "money is speech" and "corporate personhood" rulings, combined with massive regulation of lobbyists, and reinstatement of the fairness doctrine, then we might begin to see the change we've been hoping for.

In the meantime, politics as usual.

However, we might be witnessing an opportunity to facilitate the two major parties self-destructing; the question is, is there a will to fill the vacuum at a populist level? We know the corporations will do everything in their power to keep the status quo.

Facilitate the two major parties self-destructing? You can help the Republican Party do it faster than it already is? The largest caucus in the Democratic Party is the Progressive and they could exercise their power and reclaim the party since progressive values represent the center, no? We may be seeing that happen in the health care debate.

The enemy is in our midst. We can push the DLC'ers and other scum out, not be cowards and walk away. So, with the choice of fight or flight, the situation is that serious, are you suggesting we give the enemy our party?

All the fairness doctrine talk is pretty controversial. I have heard persuasive arguments from strong progressives that that is not the way. Can't recall the arguments atm, sorry, but maybe you can find them.

The populist level is being run by Fox on one side and the Progressive groups on the other. I really don't see a clear populist vacuum when people are informed. If you want to help fill in the populist vacuum and haven't already, start talking to your neighbors and knocking on doors and encourage others to do the same.

The activists in the Democratic party have had more chutzpah than its leaders for a long time. But to get legislative change in place, it would sure help to get more from the leaders. No matter how much separation Democrats get in the election, it seems that the advantage is always squandered. We're going hat in hand to ask for policy changes when the votes in the national government are more than 60% Democratic!

The President is going harder now at the issue of health reform. Maybe the more forceful approach will work. Cut to the chase - get to a vote.

As the grassroots, we all have to keep finding ways to get the Democratic message to broader audiences, and put pressure on the leadership, and on the media that exaggerates the clash every time. It's a sad situation, but there's no choice beyond pressing on.

They do it constantly. And 'we' end up arguing with eachother, instead of firmly supporting the Dem administration.

If it continues, dems etc. will have a rough time in '12, and maybe even '14.

I suggest we all give the dems a shot across the bow by re-registering, en masse, as Green party members on 11/3/09. Won't 'hurt' the majority in congress or anything else, but will garner huge publicity, be a wake-up call to the spineless dems and a threat to withhold support in the future if they don't take their base seriously!

Help the progressives act like a movement and not a party, since the dem party now occupies the former republican moderate place on the spectrum.

Spread the word.

I'd be there in a second.

It's simply irresponsible to be a Republican today. We may have some loons in our party, but we don't egg them on and bus them in. Even the so-called moderate Republicans ought to be decrying the lies and slanders of the lunatic fringe, but they are not.

What gets my goat is when the media does not debunk their claim that they are "we the people." They are not. They are the most partisan Republicans, and the most insane ones to boot.

How long do they have to act crazy before somebody has a "have you no decency, sir" moment and calls them out on it?

SAVIOR OF THE REPUBLICAN MAFIA

you know, those here who fall apart at the first mention of anything being

wrong with the Obama administration!!!

:eyes:

We need to take back the press if we want to have a fair stake in this country. Otherwise, every time an Eliot Spitzer is accused of a crime, he will be "guilty, guilty, guilty" and every Ted Stevens will get the benefit of the doubt.

It is easy to tell the Dems to ignore the corporate media, but those guys in the press determine how a large chunk of middle America thinks.

help. There are hundreds upon hundreds of bank owners and they are all rich, corrupt scumbags. The same would be true of ANYONE buying up bits of the media. The Fairness Doctrine kept things more balanced and civil for decades. It kept the people informed. Without it things will only continue to slide downhill, just the way Ronny Reagan intended them to.

able to take off with the speed it has if we returned to it -

It signals that the right wing has been able to turn a minority

fringe into thugs for their benefit!

We need to push this with Democrats -- the need couldn't be clearer!!



:)

9/11 threads that NYC and Van Jones and many others are asking to be pulled --

MIHOP

OTOH, I will say there is some question in my mind about all of the elections since the mid-
1960's and late-1960's when the large computers used by MSM began to come in and the individual
voting machines. The computers gave MSM exactly the power that Fox/Jon Ellis used in 2000
to pull the election from Gore to Bush. Followed, of course, by their violent fascist rally to
stop the vote counting -- and the Supremes--!!

I'm not entirely up on this story because I thought Beck was on suspension?
How did he run an attack on Jones?

So what do the Democrats do? Did they stand up in unison and refute Beck's insane claims and overt racism? Did they stand by the president's advisor and vow to continue supporting his rights? No, they remained silent. Just like they let the teabaggers take control of the health care reform debate. Just like they remained silent while rightwing radio inflamed millions of crazies and loosed them into the public square unchallenged. Just like they always do.

I'm starting to think Democrats really like being "Swiftboated" . . . because that's all this was --
another swiftboating.

Rahm and the DLC are useless except to the corporations they serve --
DLC should be out of the Democratic party. And Rahm is only there because
Obama a saw fit to elope into the White House with the DLC and with many of
the financial advisers who created the economic chaos we're suffering!
Notice . . . capitalism isn't suffering -- the taxpayers bailing them out are suffering!

Democratic leadership has become an oxymoron. They either can't or don't know how to play the game. They concede, they resign, they compromise and they manage to alienate their base, independent voters, and the watching world time after time.

As we all obviously know, everything has been dumbed down, purposely --
but, mainly, we are seeing the effects of the corporate-buying of government and elected officials.
That's includes Obama and every other Dem -- ALL PRE-BRIBED AND PRE-OWNED!!
Baucus running the health care discussions!!???

The speech by Obama to school kids is another dumb run -- no one could have anticipated right
wing nuts objecting? And what would Bush have said if this was the other way around? We now
have military recruiters in our high schools following kids around - even into bathrooms because
of that warmongering/fanatical administration -- charter schools ripping off government!
And how silent the Dems are on all of it !

I'm sure Obama's majority was probably a land slide -- but we'll never really know!
But while I was hopeful, I'm not naive. When you put Rahm and DLC on your team, you pretty
much know where things are going! Plus, the financial advisers who helped create the mess!

And why wouldn't Dems move immediately after '06 to end the wars bankrupting our nation?
Because Americams still believe lies of WMD/mushroom clouds????
Is this possible? We're paying three times what every other nation is paying for health care,
while we're also bailing out capitalism -- and financial houses -- in one of the biggest
rip offs of government/taxpayers ever played out . . . IMO!

It's a fixed fight ... look to campaign finance BRIBERY . . .

If we truly want change, we have to OWN our government and OWN our elected officials!!

Love Firedog Lake!

How I have come to hate truth.

why our government is even reacting at all to a group of mentally unbalanced, unhinged people is beyond me.

K&R

We don't like people who talk about class conflict, who have affairs, who talk loudly, who point out unpleasant things like that taxes have to go up. It should not surprise us when the weak sycophants we vote for get elected.

stand it already.
Shrill. Mean. Liars. Unpatriotic. Stupid...... the list goes on.

I want to know what we can do to shut them up. This is so horrible.

Helllooooo.... we WON.... we don't need to do anything they want. Duh.
I soooo do NOT get this.

it emboldens them. Remember why so many voted for Bush in 2000 (even though it wasn't enough for him to win)? They said that they wanted "a uniter not a divider", they wanted to "change the tone in Washington" after the blow job scandal-forgetting that the whole "scandal" was a GOP run circus. The public does what the Dems do; they give into the bullies thinking that it will shut them up, and it only makes things worse.

What changed EVERYTHING was Reagan killing the Fairness Doctrine, but now even young Progressive have become brainwashed Dittoheads on that issue and think that it's not important to reinstate it, or worse, that it HARMS free speech instead of doing what it honestly does, which is protect it. Hellllooooo....THAT'S WHY WE AREN'T HEARING ANYONE SPEAK OUT ON THE LEFT!! THEY have the megaphone, and they've kept it from us for almost 30 years. Until we "get it" it will only get worse. Much worse.

The dems need to mount an open assauly of Faux. Cut off the head of the hydra.

Clinton was a philanderer, a rapist, a drug pusher, a serial rapist, a child rapist, a drug user/abuser, a draft-dodger, a commie pinko socialist, a killer & a murderer (remember the Clinton death lists of all the people he supposedly had killed?)

And, his wife was a man-hating lesbian on one hand and sleeping with Vince Foster on the other. Oh, and don't forget the death of Vince Foster was investigated on at least five separate occasions by Congress. Five times! But, Hillary was also a commie socialist pinko, too (Remember the outrage over her saying, "it takes a village to raise a child"?) and had her own death list and was referred to as Hitlery, etc, etc.

While they've added the racism with Obama being president, it's not all that different than 1993.

I'll grant you "they" eventually got to the mainstream, but for the most part it wasn't screaming, yelling, in-your-face, waving hitler signs.
So far, I'd say at this pitch... how will it escalate?
And the answer is not one I want to explore.

Huffington, Helen Thomas, Maddow, Olbermann...pretty much everyone has been screaming "GROW A SPINE!!!!" to the Democrats for nearly a decade now. They won't. They refuse to. Most of them are Repugs in Dem clothing anyway; they want their corporate masters to win, so they remain weak for a reason. They are selling us out for a fistful of gold and a rich lobbying job when they get voted out of office. They aren't Progressives. They aren't Liberals. They are GOP enablers, and they are just biding their time until they get to hand the reins back over to their masters yet again. :grr:

was to copy your post and email it to the White House. I know, I know. Fat lot of good it will do. I share the frustrations of everyone in this thread. I actually dream about writing the Wednesday night speech. It would be combative and defiant to the point that Beck et al would be frothing at the mouth. Of course they already are, but you get my point.

The President needs to publicly admonish Republican Senators and Congressman BY NAME on Wednesday. He needs to call them out for their support and encouragement of the lies being spread. And he needs to tell them they are in the minority and WE WILL GO IT ALONE!

I would be ecstatic if any of the above occurred, but I'm not optimistic.

Your superb post has been emailed to The White House. It may be passive aggressive on my part, but I feel good about having done it.

say so... STILL, it matters NOT!!

Say "when" at the time you feel you've been "tarred and feathered enough?" Revolution is all I can think of, but hey, ALL THE FLOWERS ARE DEAD!!!

What do we do now? Escalate. Be less concerned about appearances and aprobrium, and more about payback and justice. If our leaders are all shot to hell, or have shot themselves in the foot, then lead. Take command.

under the bus for the sake of achieving their agenda.

It's wrong and sickening. It will not move the Republicans one iota closer to helping with heath insurance reform. It does nothing to further the cause. It just takes a brilliant ally with his brains and dedication out of the game.


That's it! I hate sports analogies for politics, but this fits so well:

Do you take apart your first string when you're in a tough game?

NO!

Yes, the dominoes are beginning to tumble and the "failed" Obama administration is realizing that the American people will not stand for his fascist agenda. A victory for true Americans!

:puke:

:)

Performance art, how cute!

Do you want a cookie?

Fuck you troll.

or are they all just coming out of the woodwork?

Because there is a whole hot mess of crazy out there right now.

That said, I disgree with some of the premises of your argument. i have heard some Democrats strongly repudiate and forcefully argue with the tea-baggers and the health care obstructionists- Rep. Weiner, Sen. Franken, Barney Frank etc.. it may be that the MSM is giving equal voice to fringe elements and the minority party just because it increases ratings. the pukes know this and are clever at manipulating the MSM. I also think that the Van Jones affair was a tragedy because he's a brilliant and creative man, BUT he was becoming a distraction even if it was because of that Beck moron- this happens on both sides of the isle in politics. Plenty of repukes have had to resign because of their backgrounds, public pressure and bad press. it's not fair but I believe this was for the most part his decision- that he didn't want his controversial statements and past to negatively affect in any way one of the most critical debate of our generation. The fight is bigger than one man. He set the ground work for green jobs and the work will go on.

I'm spending the week-end visiting my dad in South Carolina.

I've never seen so many misinformed, ignorant, good christian racists in my life.

I got tired of biting my tongue yesterday, and told a few, that it's a crime that they allow so many stoopid people to vote. If Reagan didn't turn them loose, they'd still be institutionalized, instead of running around the halls of congress, a'la Bachmann and Palin.

I don't think they understood.

If the democrats aren't going to govern for the people, it makes no sense to give them our time, money, energy, passion, and creativity.

None. Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over & over & over and expecting different results.

The democrats lay down the gauntlet on health care and sell us out for corporate profits, they lose us. We need to vest our energy in supporting and creating a party that represents the people.

How about a progressive party with the progressive caucus and the few courageous Senators joining up -

Petition them. Pressure them.

People aren't going to run to the Republicans. They have lost the country. The people must rise up and demand real change. And, obediently voting for people who stab us continually in the back because they think we will always be there doesn't work. Can we admit that now?

that just gets thrown down a "rat hole!!!!" Not only are they spineless and bought and paid for... WE helped them get where they are!!

We also MUST STOP helping them run us into RUIN!! Wake Up, people DO matter, even if they can't see it!

I don't have money to throw away, it slips away daily, and the TIME, so much TIME I gave seems so very WASTED!! I should have listened to so many who told me how I was WASTING MY TIME! That's how I feel now, and not only am I ashamed and saddened, I feel SCREWED!!!

Today is LABOR DAY... labor on my friends, it IS OUR FUTURE! We can't fight back at the ballot box because it hasn't worked, THEY are filling their pockets with OUR hard earned money, our optimism and something called HOPE & CHANGE!!

Words are only words!!

Dr. Dean and his brother, and Bernie Sanders, are the only leaders i can really count on.

there WILL be a Public Option! I DON'T BELIEVE that at all!! But I do REALLY think Howard Dean, Bernie Sanders, Feingold and a few others ARE my kind of people!

Still, they are being dismissed by those in POWER for the most part! Rahm Emanuel thinks Dean is a loud mouthed rabble rouser!

Something MUCH NEEDED for "we the people" but something we aren't really getting!! Obama has really disappointed me. Wonder what Teddy must be thinking right now?? The TORCH got passed, but the flame is DYING!!

If you look at the actions of Obama as just part of the one party system play, they make a LOT more sense....

I could not agree more. I feared we were in trouble when Obama announced 'we must look forward' when asked about the crimes of the Bush administration. And it really seemed that the writing was on the wall when he announced he wanted to have a team of rivals. Really, Mr. President? Where were you for the last eight years when these people ruined, yes ruined, our country, forged wars on innocent people, threw money at the most despicable war profiteers, nearly killed the Bill of Rights and shredded the Constitution, pumped up the profits of big business while more and more homes were in foreclosure and millions lost their jobs?

And our Democratic president wanted to reach across the aisle to these people. I am beyond disappointed. Did he learn nothing from the lessons of the past?

and I have a tip for you... courageous, principled Democratic leaders are all but gone. The handful left (like Howard Dean) are devalued to the point of Democratic national nothingness. Don`t blame the media. Don`t blame Republicans. Blame the fully-purchased, spineless corporate Democrats and the DLC.

Democrats used to stand with the poor, the homeless, the unions, the workers, the needy, the hungry, the sick. They marched against wars and fought for equal rights. No more. Now most of them stand with Republicans and anyone else with a fistful of campaign cash. They`re silent when they should be screaming. They`re idle when they should be marching.

Think I`m being too rough? Really? Heard antyhing about New Orleans lately? Dead soldiers and civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan? Homeless children? Dead steel towns? Bankrupt fishermen? How about inner city despair or rural poverty? But wait....things must be better than I stated. They all have flag pins.

Wish I could give it a K&R. Sadly, everything you have said is true.

...out of the same trough. This post deserves it own recommendations.

disingenuous. That would be like describing Bush's war in Iraq as "just a little weapon searching."

And put the corporatists on notice that they can't f with us any more!

Obama would get a 20% ratings bounce IMMEDIATELY!

working within THIS ADMINISTRATION!! Need I say more??

I used to think that "they" needed "people" to work "for" them, even us lowly farm hands, but seems I have been so very wrong! We are DISPENSABLE.. we AREN'T needed, we're just "in the way!"

Going On Strike won't even help!! Take a NUMBER, because that's ALL WE ARE!!

I can understand and even empathize with your disappointment....but maam, the matter is not whether Obama and the democrats or even republicans succeed or fail without us, the voters, repsonsible for electing them to office showing some large degree of responsiblity for the people we choose to vote for.

Progress, whether it be forward or back, depends on us, the grassroots voters.

There are several things we the voting masses must demand, like written proformance contract agreements between the voters and those we elect that allow the voting masses to remove the elect from office when they reject the will of the people that elected them. Term limitations are as well a must in order to get fresh smart people with fresh forwardly progressive ideas that have actual workable, economically viable, common sense solutions to problems imbedded within the bills. We should demand that bills that become eligible for vote in either house of congress be made public in order for the voters to review them, at least one month before either the house, senate, or both cast votes and if it's decided by the masses, be subjected to special referendum and the entire nation of voters deciding instead of just 435 people deciding for 300,000,000.....as we all know when mistakes or outright errors are made and passed into law, it's too late to worry about it after the fact.

Our government and elected representatives succeed or fail ONLY when we voters succeed or fail. Bad government and bad governors at every level of government begins behind the closed curtains of the local area voting booths...it's as simple as that and you can deposit that in the bank.

a new face elected?? Name recognition and the greasy palms extended pretty much ensure that incumbents DO GET RE-ELECTED!!!

I don't like Bill Nelson as my Senator, but when his opponent was non other than Katherine Harris, what CHOICE did I have?? NONE, REALLY!!

And I don't think Billy Boy was worried at all!

Katherine had a boob job.

to be STUCK with him, no matter what! My point is confirmed... just TRYING to get someone else seems useless!

I was thinking Meek would be viable, but now that (at least to me) Obama's wheels are all wobbly and loose, Meek may be dead in the water. And yes, I do know it's "the other" Senator we're talking about, but if Obama doesn't start "performing," Meek might just be the BIG LOSER!

Appreciate your comment......but this whole political representative ordeal is derived from an all but failed system of how political candidates get selected in the first place.....think about this, who would have been your personal choice had you been allowed to choose whom it is you would vote for as your senator. When if ever was the last time you were personally in on the political candidate slection process above the local/county levels. The questions of course were rhetorical because we little people seldom if ever get to choose whom it will be that we will cast our votes for at any level of government.

We have let ourselves be lulled to sleep in a belief that political party elitists can do for us that which we are less capable of or incapable of doing anymore ie THEY choose political candidates for us to vote for....and as long as we accept that, there will be no change whatsoever in U S politics at any level, local, county/parish, state, or national.

After you read the U S Constitution, ask yourself this question: "Was it ever intended for this nation to have a year round, full time career politicians congress."

The answer is no. Now the only way today's full time career politicians can justify their existance is to make law after law after law every year, with an average of ten thousand new laws each year believe it or not, which has near strangulated all but the upper crust in this nation and the operations of government itself.

The most enforced by law/regulation entities in this nation my friend are you and I. We suffocate in laws made by an oligarchy that for all practical purposes exempt themselves from the laws they make and/or sign into law. That's a fact or bush, cheney, rove, et al ux would be sucking air through jail cell bars.

I suppose I waste my votes because I choose to vote for an independent or write in a name that I chose, but I don't consider it waste....what I do consider a waste is vote with the herd for a lesser of two evils you yourself described in your reply, which often as not is the case.

Republican "Ivans" with D's stuck behind their names - deep undercover saboteurs.

before we either transform the Democratic Party or go to something new?

of Bush and company what we get is even more disappointment

I'm beggining to believe that the Democratic Party is a pipe dream, Something that
is great in theory but in reality dissipates like smoke on a windy day

The schoolyard bully wins again
Where did we lose the will to fight for what we KNOW is right ?

And it is embarrassing. And infuriating.

Just once I would like to see one put up even a fucking glimmer of a fight. I am fed up, disillusioned and probably will never work on another campaign again with the exception of local ones. Be prepared for a certain group to jump all over you for being a "debbie downer"

giving the portion of the "Fired-up" story, I wept. Why? I remember when he first conveyed this heartfelt experience.

TODAY, I fear that Obama has folded to Wall Street and The Military Industrial Complex run by The Pentagon.

WE ARE NOT SEEING ANY PROGRESSIVE CHANGE.

It's not conservative vs. liberal but working Americans vs. the super-rich.

We now have ONE corporate duopoly.

If we want TRUE CHANGE we must flush-out the DLC/Blue Dogs from our beloved party. Until then we will serve the Corporations NOT individual Americans.