Where the hell is the Democratic leadership? My rant (or my breakdown)!

I'm sorry folks but it's as if We the People are out here alone in the political wilderness talking about how to regain control of our wayward country (and the DNC...never mind the DLC), while Kerry and the rest have all just gone back to work.

I know there are emerging stories out there that allude to vote fraud. I know some votes are still being counted and recounted. I know the lonely few liberal talking heads (Vanden Hueval, Trippi, Carville, etc.) are out there supposedly advancing our cause and not just their careers.

But what I want to know is where is the OUTRAGE from our Democratic leadership?

It's here on DU. It's on other liberal blogs. It's among friends. But what about the outrage among those we have chosen to represent us in our party?

This reminds me of those months right after 9/11 when the Democrats rolled over and didn't ask any questions about going to war, went down that 'bi-partisan' path and, smiled for the cameras with Bush in front of the rubble.

Damn it, Democrats (as in those we voted for)-- get out of your cushy D.C. offices and make some damned noise! Stir up some trouble! Bush isn't going to turn the water cannons (or guns) on you honorable people while assembled, angry, and demanding electoral justice in the streets. It just wouldn't be pretty to see Nancy Pelosi plastered and dripping wet against a wall at the mercy of a water cannon on the evening news in her Evan Piccone suit.

History tells us they have no trouble gunning down our activist students.. so step up!

Come to think of it... that's exactly what we need! We need to show just how crazy these rightwingers are! Challenge them. Draw them out of the shadows. "Smoke 'em out" and expose their anti-American, anti-freedom, intolerant beliefs. Just like a brave few who stood up to McCarthy, Nixon and Johnson. Look at history -- nothing is gained without sacrifice.

Where are the heros?

Apparently we only put them on t-shirts now and sell them at Abercrombie & Fitch. Sorry, Che --but you look as good on khaki as you did in it.

okay. I am done. Flame away.

It's not up to them. Welcome to major party shift. And

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good, now this is the great secret of US History... the politicos usually GET BEHIND political movements and leaders once they prove they have legs

Welcome to the revolution. The leaders of that revolution are YOU and ME... and the democrats will get behind us once they are good and ready.

(and yes I still believe Kerry will be doing this when he has evidence, not until then... if he does not get it, well then it is UP TO YOU AND ME)

Now here is some history for you... the civil rights, you remember them right? GOOD, it began overtly when Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the buss, not the democratic party...

Oh 1930s, the democrats led, but you do know that the Communist Party got the largest number of votes in US History in 1932, don't you?

1880s, the democrats again got behind those third party voters... they were not ahead

So yes, it is up to us.. and it does not matter if you had any third party... politicos FOLLOW, they rarely lead, and we are at the forefront of this... you and me... look behind... others may be lining behind you. But you have to believe, we are those leaders, it is up to us.

Now go on... scream this secret from the rooftops and do something... me... well see that economic activism is now fully engaged.

:-)

it is up to us....

Hey even the greatest change that we fought a civil war over... the GOP was a johnny come lately to the emancipation, and though even today that is what people think the civil war was fought over, it was actually a minor matter, as the subsequent period of recontruction proved

Oh and I do not intend to be condescending... the medium does not help... I know

:-)

Hear that DUers? IT IS UP TO US!

No offense taken.

I am aware that the party of Lincoln was looking for a fight with the southern landowners and the slaves were a convenient excuse. I have ancestors who fought on both sides of that war. We've been here a few hundred years.

Isn't history a fascinating subject? We humans never seem to learn.

I find Howard Zinn's take on it quite good... that and primary sources...

I just love it, and it is amazing these days I find myself thinking back to those days at College, I was a history major and did an MA in it... thinking well, well, what true lessons can we get? Well as usual the revolution shall not be televised

It may take a year, it may take four, it may take the rest of my lifetime... but I know it is up to me and you

I were more articulate).

The rebirth or reflowering of a nation. Could be exciting if you survive the struggle required to get us there.

now I don't think this nation will survive in her current form... I mean that, I don't think this country will survive as the United States

I am, too, and I am in total agreement with your thoughts on how it's up to us to lead, not to follow.

The labor and civil rights movements are two great examples of how the Democrats sluggishly came around to taking up the banner of these movements. It did not happen the other way around, with the Democratic leadership getting clubbed on the picketlines or sitting at segregated lunchcounters.

On the dark side, you can look at the religious right and how it helped to drive the GOP into the far right.

electorals due then
as i see it, they are required to verify state's votes. they put their stamp on it, they swear by it. they are liable for the fraud.
im hoping that's what the 17,000 lawyers are up to.
after the 13th, no holding back, no more silence

I don't know about the "dem leadership" maybe that is an oxymoron. Those left on the hill do not appear to be outraged. They appear to be doing some major sucking up. Where is the outrage. Where are the real journalist uncovering the criminal activity from the past two presidential elections? We are losing Dan Rather and Bill Moyer. Is everyone afraid? Are the scared for their lives? Are they scared of small planes? Is everyone daft? Has this * dynasty put fear into everyone? Has the * hyjacked God too? Where is the outrage, where is the outrage? Where are the demonstrators? Where are the signs? What happened to the millions of anti/war protestors, did they not vote? Surely not? Something smells rotten? Bigger than Watergate ever was? and life just goes on. THe dems on capital hill just went home to eat Turkey. Is it just politics as usual for them?

Anthrax Attacks

As to the media, they have literally TRILLIONS before the Republican Congress, rocking the boat is not conducive to good business...

Next you'll tell me there's no Santa Claus.

Moyers? Really? I've had my head in the sand this week and missed lots of news.

David Bronccochio is taking the helm of NOW. But of course it's low level on the media, too busy reporting NBA brawls and such.

I just read a remarkable speech by AIDS activist Larry Kramer, graciously posted by DUer 94114_San_Francisco here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

while Kramer is addressing the gay community, specifically gay men, if you read about half way into his text you'll see that he is also addressing every one of us . . . in his speech, he quoted another speech given by Bill Moyers on October 20 . . . Moyers knows exactly what's happening, and what the REAL issues are:

“For years now, the corporate, political, and religious right—this is documented from 1971 on—the religious and political right has been joined in an axis of influence whose purpose is to take back the gains of the democratic renewal in the 20th century and restore America to a rule of the elites that maintain their privilege and their power at the expense of everyone else. For years now, a small fraction of American households have been garnering an extreme concentration of wealth and income while large corporations and financial institutions have obtained unprecedented levels of economic and political power over daily life.”

“Take note,” Moyers continues. “The corporate, political, and religious conservatives are achieving a vast transformation of America that only they understand because they are its advocates, its architects, and its beneficiaries. In creating the greatest inequality in America since 1929, they have saddled our nation, our States, and our cities and counties with structural defects that will last until our children’s children are ready for retirement, and they are systematically stripping government of all its functions, except rewarding the rich and waging war.”

“That drive,” Moyers continues, “is succeeding with drastic consequences for an equitable access to public resources, the lifeblood of any democracy. From land, water, and natural resources, to media and the broadcast and digital spectrums, to scientific discovery and medical breakthroughs, and even to politics itself, a broad range of American democracy is undergoing a powerful shift in the direction of private control.

“We are experiencing a fanatical drive to dismantle the political institutions, the legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual and cultural frameworks that have shaped public responsibility for social harms arising from the excesses of private power.”

... loses the 'democracy.' It's frequently pointed out that we're not a 'pure' democracy - that all the people assembling, discussing, and voting on all the issues is too burdensome. (I often wonder if the 'issues' are more the creation of government than otherwise, but I digress.)

So, we variously call ourselves a 'democratic republic' or a 'representative democracy.' The 'democratic' facets of our governance are (1) elections, and (2) those so elected taking guidance from the will of the electorate. In other words, our representatives must listen to the voice of the electorate, not only when campaigning but when acting on our behalf.

They don't. They listen to their campaign cash registers - now, during their entire time in office.

IMHO, one of the most significant 'features' of the last four years has been that both Bush* and Cheney* have not gone a single month without campaigning. Not one. Indeed, weeks are rare when they didn't attend a fund-raising event or some partisan function. Presidents once campaigned "from the Rose Garden" by staging various popular policy announcements, bill-signings, or hosting civil leaders. Even the facade has been abandoned.


In my opinion, the most effective law we could pass would be one that absolutely prohibits any elected or appointed public official from engaging in any fund-raising activity of any kind. Zilch. Nada. Not even campaign fund-raising.

...A) the one wing that is scared shitless to take a political position against Republicans, and B) the wing that is carving up the pie with Republicans. And there they are.

America or democracy. Face it, they're opportunists who are only out for themselves.