I'm sorry, our Democratic "Leaders" are Failures

I have an idea for the spineless bastards (I love Boxer, but I'm sorry the Real ID act - aka the USA Nazification act - is the last straw).

Think any of them have ever read 1984? What is that they don't understand about the disaster that awaits us? Or do they just not care? Personally, I am sending many of them a copy of Orwell's 1984 with a concise dissertation telling them that they are personally responsible for the downfall of this country by their inaction, and will eventually pay a price for their treason along with the Republicans. They are not fit to fill the shoes that our founding fathers envisioned. Yeah, I could blame it on BushCo. (and I already do), but the Dems are just as much to blame. They KNOW Bush and the Repukes are a bunch of fascist liars yet they continue to acquiesce time and time again! Stop accepting the excuses people. Open your eyes!

The Dems they didn't read the Patriot Act before voting on it, they can't claim the same for this one! Michael Moore, put that one in your next movie!

and they're all in on it.

If you've ever watched a group of lawyers from opposing sides on a trial interact after the trials over you know what i mean about the "game".

They tear each other and their clients to smithereens and meet in the elevator to discuss where they're meeting for dinner. Bizarre, and what a game it is.

I too am afraid that no one has our backs.


edited for spelling in subject line

I think we have a winner!

I tend to agree.

What's scary is that I also think the torch has been passed from the bushes to the clintons for the next election. viz a viz Momma Bush's 'Clinton is my son' statement.

:shrug:

... either your theory is correct, or the whole Dem Senate is a bunch of sorry, simpering, cowering douchebags.

I'm really having a hard time deciding which one it is, but it is definitely one of them, because the old "waaaaahhhhhhh they attached it to an important spending bill" argument will only be accepted by other morons.

if one choses not to pay for a lawyer, perhaps because it is a lightweight, cut & dry situation, then the judge and prosecuter see to it that you are punished more heavily for not paying tithe to the lawyerly guild. It is a racket.

“Here it is, right here. ‘I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.’ ‘I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.’ ‘Hey, wait a minute, there’s one guy holding out both puppets!’ ”

Bill Hicks

Almost all of them ARE lawyers. They think they're better than we are. They are laughing at us. Maybe we deserve these clowns because we can't see through them. But they certainly don't earn what they take from us.

Fuck them.

Silence is complicity. Granted, when the more egregious bills come before the House and Senate, someone like Byrd or Kennedy or Boxer or Biden were allowed to get their digs in, though without any backup from the rank and file, former elected leaders or the DNC. Ultimately, just enough Dems sided with the pukes to make it law and you have seen the consequences of that: PATRIOT ACT, Bankruptcy Bill, REAL ID, etc. Once each of these has narrowly passed, you never hear a peep about the consequences the American citzens will suffer due to its passage.

I don't know about you but I never saw our leaders on the Sunday talk shows talking about the disastrous effects of such an incredibly biased bankruptcy bill in today's economy, ditto the DNC. I saw no experts, many of whom testified before Congress of the destruction this would cause to American families. No, the public discussion was all Social Security all the time. Nice feint.

We are on our own.

Kerry himself said nobody in the Senate is going to take on the Repuke vote-scam issue. Hello! How are we supposed to accomplish that when any mention of stastistically significant anomalies in Nov '04 are met with snorts of derision and accusations of tin-foil hatters from the MSM and TPTB? Elections will continue to be close, or at least appear that way, and the Dems will continue chasing their tails and pontificating about how much more rightward we have to go to win elections. :eyes:

There is a bill in the House, the chillingly named Constitution Restoration Act, which will make the US a de facto theocracy. The Senate bill is S. 520 and House version is H.R. 1070:

"In the worshipful words of the Conservative Caucus, this historic legislation will "RESTORE OUR CONSTITUTION!", mainly by barring ANY federal court or judge from ever again reviewing "any matter to the extent that relief is sought against an entity of Federal, State, or local government, or against an officer or agent of Federal, State, or local government (whether or not acting in official or personal capacity), concerning that entity's, officer's, or agent's acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government."

In other words, the bill ensures that God's divine word (and our infallible leaders' interpretation thereof) will hereafter trump all our pathetic democratic notions about freedom, law and rights -- and our courts can't say a thing. This, of course, will take "In God We Trust" to an entirely new level, because soon He (and His personally anointed political elite) will be all the legal recourse we have left."

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00266.htm

Let that sink in for a minute. Is anybody talking about this? The first reaction from our reps should have been uproarious laughter that something the lunatic fundy fringe dreamed up was actually put to paper and expected to be taken seriously by the legislative body. Second, should have been the unified demand that those who attempt to undo the rule of law be impeached.

Yet our "leadership" has other priorities than to warn us that the last constitutionally-guaranteed protection from unfettered executive authority, our recourse to the courts, is about to be taken away. Any judge who does not comply with the legislative and executive interpretation of God's law, can face impeachment.

"The language contained in the proposed law is more ominous than it may at first appear. It essentially suggests that federal judges may be able to institute biblical punishments without fear of judicial review."

http://ga1.org/secular_humanism/alert-description.tcl?alert_id=652948

The Schiavo debacle, that was meant to set the stage for the smooth passage of this abomination, backfired spectacularly. You know the flame beneath the collective pot has shifted from simmer to boil when even the RW frogs are starting to thrash and squirm.

Admittedly I'm pretty far to the left, but I don't recognize my country anymore. Once the nuclear option and the Constitution Restoration Act are rammed through, most of the rest of us won't either.

To the extent the two parties "fight" at all, it is mostly over trivial, divisive-to-the-public bullshit. Meanwhile, they have sold the entire world to their corporate whoremasters.

It is all about the corporate whoremasters. When elected officials began viewing government as a game to be played rather than a responsibility never to be taken lightly, the nation started going down the crapper.

The press and if it's not reported by the press they don't know it.

The British memo on Iraq.

Perception is reality if they think you don't know; is the same, as you actually don't know.

how long now?

Look, if you were a member of a gang or crime family in New York City or Chicago, you'd know that you don't fuck with the Don. If you are going to take him out, you have to do it quickly, unmercifully, quietly, and leave town for a decade or so until things quiet down. See Al Pacino in the Godfather.

I am really beginning to think that is what is happening. I'm at a loss to explain how so many supposedly seasoned professional politicians are consistently rolling over on legislation that SHOULD be a no-brainer. WHY? Why will NO ONE challenge this man?

I think it is because they know, if they don't "take out" Bush with one punch (I have to be careful what I say here, lest the monitors at BushCo think I'm making a threat, which I am not in any way!) punch, or else they'll be disappeared. Seriously. I think that is where we're at. And that means, we're pretty much doomed. They show no mercy...cross them, and you're history. The dems know it.

Politicans first. Ethics, morals, ideals, a distant second. Disgusting and pathetic.

"Because of all we've seen
Because of all we've said
We are the dead..."


This is the time that we have feared would come. The Republican Theonazis are working night and day to destroy our country, our nation and the only political opposition we have to confront them with don't believe it is happening. The Democrats (and not just the elected ones - many of the rank and file, too) don't seem to grasp that this is the end times for this nation. They keep saying all of these things that make you think that with the next election it will all be turned around; that Republicans can be worked with; that we're all patriots who only want the best for this country; and on and on... None of that is true. The Republican party as it stands now, is the number one enemy of this nation. They are not "misguided"; they are not the "political opposition"; they are the Hun. And whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we are at war with them - and we are losing...

I guess it all boils down to -- is he a raving lunatic -- or is he right?

It really is too scary. What are we to do? We live outside the mainstream, too few see whats really happening. I guess when it all comes down at least we tried to get the information out.

While the water's heating up all around us, sometimes it seems many prefer to think they're merely in a slightly uncomfortable sauna, rather than having their gooses cooked.

Well, history shows the abuse-of-power running amok that the Republicans are perpetrating has its limits, it's just a matter of time before what they're unleashing starts turning on them.

(I think you're right about our friend, David -- some of each.) :)

So you have to have an ID card... so what? You can always get a fake.

But hey, lets have fun and declare us losers, losers, losers. Make ya feel better?

Geeez, I think Kerry must be glad he doesn't have to lead this sorry bunch of whiners. The election was stolen and we hardly made a peep. The biggest peep I've heard has been all the Kerry and dem bashing, and bushco rolls on and on.

Politics is a hard nasty game, yet it seems like yall want it to be a game of schoolyard kickball. Well, it ain't. Grow up.

I just want to be free of all the mealy mouthed carping going on.

Yeah, I want to win. I don't like being a loser. If it means I have to give a little to get a lot, so what? As it is, I have given up a lot and got nothing. And who do I point the finger at for losing? The whiny Me, Me Me's I run across on this board. Here we are, at the end of the rope, and what do we hear?

"Dem Leaders are failures". Grow up.

I happen to agree with this statement, it is the role and responsibility of the leadership to take on the difficult issues and ask the questions that we are not in a position to ask. As an independant voter, I wonder how so many people can remain blindly loyal to the democratic party when the strongest party voices come from the house of representatives. Think of the party platform. The democrats represent whatever stance they feel will lose them the least republican swing votes. It's pathetic. More and more democrats are losing patience and hope. Here in Massachusetts, there is a big chasm growing between the "traditional" democrats and the "radical left-wing" democrats, who are pushing for a very progressive, liberal agenda. I believe these "radical" democrats are actual Libertarians crowding into the party to push the "traditionals" where they belong, the republican party.

Anyway sorry for my earlier flippant post. I think a lot of people, myself included, are tired of waiting for a strong leader.

Had the dems voted no, they would have been labeled as against our troops. See, its really quite simple: We are at the end of our rope, over a barrel with our shiny white asses pointed skyward. A tempting and pungent target for the puke bastards, eh?


Why are prostrate over that barrel? How can the pukes pass so many bad laws? That's what I am concerned about; how did we get here, and how do we get back in power?

Just whining and moaning while cutting down our leaders is leaving us with a very sore ass.

And not running like scared wimps. You stand up, fight, yell, get the message out - and put your damn job on the line for what you believe in.

Dems believe the war is wrong, kids are dying in the US because of this taht or other, that gays are getting shafted, and so on and so forth - but they haven't got the balls to stop it because they are scared of losing power and jobs.

So in the end, they vote the same way as the other party - which means that right now they have zero power, so what in the fuck do they have to lose by standing up and fighting hard??

You get power back by winning elections.

People don't like dems because we are all over the place, trying to please everybody. And while trying to please everyone we get painted with all kinds of nasty colors and now the sheeple don't know what to believe.

I agree, however, standing up and fighting hard can work. But who wants to lead us? All we do is bash every leader we've ever had.

Spend a lot of time on gay rights, and the environmental people will complain you are ignoring them, American indians? Who the hell has heard much about them from leadership of late?

So none of our leaders can please everybody all the time - but they sure can try by making a solid platform that includes as many as they can an vowing to spread the fight across senators, reps, local officials, etc and keep us all up to date using a web portal on all the issues, speeches, proposed legislation, what we can do to help, et al.

We pay them pretty well and they have the power by virtue of the jobs we gave the to do something.

They can do better.

And it's been fun. Fun, but now we find ourselves out of power.

Look at who is in power... focused like a laser beam, riding on the clouds of 9/11, the pukes are carrying our flag around the world disgracing each and every true progressive.

And what do we do? We eat each other up after a long slow boiling. Look, I don't have the answers, but I do know our current course is one of utter defeat. Until such time as we can unify and quit eating our own, the pukes will pick on the bones we leave behind.

We really are not that far apart on the issues within the party. I think the method is what is broken now. Maybe we need to eat up those leaders who won't lead.

But too, we ourselves can do better and should. I know I could do more and there is no excuse for not doing more except I get too lazy or busy (and more busy then anything else, I run 4 data centers). I think too that we don't always know what to do and how effective it will be.

My goal would be to be more like a preacher/missionary. Take the message door to, leave tracts in bathrooms, and so on. But I can say I won't do it in an attacking way on bush or the repugs - I don't want to attack, I want to change peoples' minds on the issues and leave in tips on how to help (like a tract about current issues with american indians, gays, environment, et al that explain the issues and how we can all help to make life better). I would also like to get out more a message of freedoms and how certain legislation is harming that - without, again, attacking any people or parties - this empowers a person to not feel on the defense on their leanings on a political scale and shifts their mind to issues above party lines. Once they start believing in the issues they will start to change their party affiliation - and honestly, some on the dem side are not much better then some on the repug side. It's not about parties and people, it is about issues and how the avg american can be educated on those issues.

To me, as can be seen, I would like my focus and the focus of others to be on things and not people - and I think when that is the case they will start to open their eyes an not jump up and defend something because they like someone.

If I could practice more of what I preach I would probably be a better man.

What leader?

But we cant afford to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Sure, our leaders let us down on too many occasions. But mark my word, someday we will be in power again. And things are betters when Democrats are in power. Not perfect, but much better. If we obsess about things like the ID card and let our disappoinment demoralize us, that day when a Democratic realignment occurs is put further out into the future.

Buck up. Nothing is perfect in life.

I'm telling it like it is. The evidence is there, choose to ignore it at your own peril.

It's in your signature line, eh?

Frankly, I doubt you know what's going on deep down in the bowels of DC. There is a far greater battle than one vote here, or one vote there. To single out this particualr vote, as you've done, and in effect use it to poison the well from which we all drink, leads me to think you don't understand at all.

So, one opinion seems to have just as much validity when expressed as another does. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean its less important that your own.

Seemslikeadream's? Minstrelboy's, and others? I have. And it scares the shit outta me.

I think one way we got here was that we are fractured and disunified while the pukes are pretty much a solid block. We are being crushed one person at a time and each of us runs for cover every time the hammer comes down. That's why we are losers.

In fact, we had people (Skinner here at DU among them) rallying those of us you accuse of not making a peep to go to Ohio to rally for a recount. If memory serves, Kerry's concession put an end to that.

Politics is indeed a hard nasty game. I wish the Democrats would learn that and start playing it as such.

Jesus H. Christ on a trailer hitch!! Our nation is being destroyed; this isn't some damn game!

With your own post you PROVED the original message's point.

Who is this "we". Surely, if the election was stolen and our "leaders" had any strength of character at all, THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONES LEADING US TO MAKE MORE THAN A PEEP!!!!!!

Where the F__K are they on this?????? Where was/is Kerry?

Our so-called leadership is weak.

I can live with that. My contention is that we are weak because, well, we are weak. We all are after our own little kingdom and push each other to the side trying to protect our little circle jerks, creating disunity in the process.

"Dem leaders are failures" is nothing more than a whine. It is no battle cry, nor a call to arms. It is just plain weak. It's no wonder our leaders are weak.

Reports for duty like he is leading the platoon into righteous battle when most of us opposed the war.

You mentioned Boxer.

There's Reid, there's Pulosi, there's Kerry ... Gore, even ...... who else?

Dean? Kucnnich?

Who are our leaders?

Who **is** our leader?

In fact, it seems we're completely rudderless.

On some issues, some leaders are good. Kennedy, Byrd, Gore and Carter have certainly been vocal about the war, but they've gotten little if any support from the rest of the so-called leadership.

It's frustrating how they hand Bush a victory on almost every issue and then solicit our votes every two years. Based on what? Beliefs they never act on?

I've been a Democrat all of my life, and I've never been so at odds with my own party as I am now.

Now, I sak you, is that a winning proposition, or what?

To me, it's more like a whining proposal. A proposal of utter defeat.

After 9/11 and all that ensued it seems folks here would see the big picture and make moves to fight rather than crawl in the corner and blame everyone else.

Should I suddenly become an enthusiast for this war, because most of the Democratic leadership supports it?

Should I wax enthusiastic over the bankruptcy bill or tort reform? Tell all of my friends how much I support Real ID, Bolton, Rice, or our attorney general who believes in torture?

If all of these things happened, it would be for one reason and one reason only - I'd suddenly become a Republican in a moment of utter madness.

We have fought all of the above, and what's the result? Where's the success story? It's only 'whining' if you win some and occasionally lose some. We're losing on every issue.

There is no real support for any of these bad bills except from our enemies be they dem or puke. Besides, they are just laws, and laws are meant to be broken.

What I would have you do is help us unify so that we can win the next elections. Whatever it takes. Even If it means giving up a little here, a little there. Let's keep pour swords sharp for the real enemies and cut some slack for the ones who may still be willing to help us win.

Is that too much to ask?

Yet you think we should just break laws we disagree with? Sorry, but I have no desire to become the next featured felon on MSNBC's fun new Friday night "Lockdown" series.

Here's the deal - I, like many others, cut the party TONS OF FUCKING SLACK last year. This party unified like I've never seen it before - didn't matter what kind of Democrat you were, DLC, progressive, centrist - we all got down 'n got funky for our nominee. We even played nice during our convention, even though the Republicans spent *their* entire convention lying and trashing. We showed up at the rallies and cheered someone who'd supported a war we despised. I've been there, done that.

"Whatever it takes" doesn't cut it any longer. I'm a Democrat because I believe in certain things, and accepting LOSS after LOSS, CAPITULATION after CAPITULATION, seeing the Congress hand unprecedented power to a dictator is a little more than I can "take". You can bet I'm going to start holding my own party as accountable as I'd hold the Republicans for the utterly sorry state of our country right now. To do less would make me a passive observer to crimes of huge magnitude.

You may or may not be ridiculous, I dunno, and it's not my place to say one way or the other. But obviously, I thought some of your ideas were ridiculous.

It is ridiculuos ideas which have painted us into a corner. We are trying to please every Tom, Dick and Harry, all thw while pissing off people like you and me by losing elections and the faith of the people. People don't know what to think of the dems, and when they poke around and see us fighting each other, well, they smell something rotten.

However, we did look pretty good, right up to Nov. 2. Why is that? The answer lies in your post, eh?

Looking good is fine if you win. We can debate why we didn't from now until the next decade, but unifying behind a party that's self-destructing, at least from a legislative standpoint, doesn't sound like a winning game plan.

Do you want me to unify behind drilling in ANWR? Oh, okay - that'll pull in a ton of new voters. Why didn't I think of that myself?

I can't wait to tell an unemployed factory worker how much I'm unifying behind the bankruptcy bill. Vote Democratic! Whoo-hoo!

The only way to win is to change the direction. That simple.

not a vote of confidence.

Interesting that you are whining about our expectations that the Democrats put up good fight but are accusing us of not fighting when that is what you advocate by insisting we not "whine" about it.

They need to be the ones taking responsibility for those.

We need to take responsibility for holding their feet to the fire and stopping this shit.

Not turn them out, necessarily, but turn away for sure.

There are damned few who speak clearly. Everyone wants to be all things to all people.

Well that's simply wrong.

Our leader will be the one who speaks clearly and unambiguously. Who answers questions directly - even if to say he won't answer a given question. No weasels.

I'd rather a leader who represents 90% of my views and is clear about our disagreement than a leader who uses finesse.

Fuck finesse. I want clarity.