How you been feeling about Democrats, recently?

I gotta say, I've been very pleased with the direction of our party for about the past month. Best stretch I've had in about three years, I reckon.

How about you guys? How you feeling about the Democratic Party?

Cautiously optimistic is my view right now.

I was trying not to repeat myself, though.

Thanks a LOT, jp. :P

I would have liked an option along the lines of "We're seeing some encouraging signs of improvement, but there's much work to be done."

No hedging of bets in this here poll. :)

Our leaders don't listen to their constituents. The calls came in to filibuster Chertoff and they didn't care.

Then, we'll see if the "backbone" exhibited by a few in the Rice/Gonzales nominations were but a sop to the progressives.

Yet ANOTHER very difficult one.

Man, we'd BETTER give them some credit if they're standing up to this shit. Voting against cabinet nominees? Voting against supplying our soldiers? Jesus, man. This is rough shit.

I'll give the ones who voted against Rice/Gonzales credit. But, I'm sure as hell not going to give them a pass if they collaborate with SmirkCorp in the slaughter.

Doing what's right is usually difficult.

You understand that they're voting to NOT supply our soldiers, right? Even though, I know, most of the money is being wasted on corruption and exorbitant Halliburton stuff...I mean, I know that. But our soldiers aren't gonna get the money from anywhere else, you know.

Without funding, (even tho' the bill will pass), the troops would have to be pulled out.

That's exactly why they should vote against it. The vote for the appropriations should be about the friggin', immoral, illegal, war, not Halliburton and the other bottom feeders.

posters here on DU.

But you gotta know when to switch modes and start positively reinforcing.

They're trying. Like Rove said, they ARE in a difficult position. They are fighting their asses off on SS, and just about everything else (other than the war money- but, again....you know). The key word is TRYING- they can't do anything more than that. There are still some idiot stragglers- here I'm thinking of those who are going on RW talk shows and saying they're "leaving the party" because Dean is Chairman. Few as they may be, good riddance.

But, shit, man. This is going to be a long, drawn out battle. They're doing what they can right now.

But, it's like kids. You praise them for their A in math, but you raise hell for their F in History.

the Defense budget. $400,000,000,000+

more work to do" one in there...

Dammit, people! Give 'em some credit! :)

Look I like Dean, I like Boxer, and I like Kerry but I have some serious problems, What is going on in Baghdad and Kabul NEEDS dealt with. We are bleeding money with no accountability and there are reports of brutal slaughter of women and children by contracts in Afghanistan, the request for additional money to support both wars is a paean to outmoded military technology which will not help with the fight, our armed service personnel are being treated like chattel with stop loss and lack of supplies, we need to straighten out the election in 2004. We need to bring those who corrupted the 2004 election to JUSTICE. We MUST hold those in power accountable for the prevailing climate of corruption and deceit.

And right now, these guys are on the right track. We need to let them know that they're doing good.

we need to weed out the people who don't stand up for the party and the people.The attacks are worse everyday by those lying sold out parasites that call themselves republicans.

Then the REAL fun begins. :evilgrin:

For the record, I honestly don't think there'll be that many, though. I think the Democrats have really learned their lesson, at this point.

You stray, you're dead anyway. They know that.

Stay with the pack.

I'd say they're doing well. I don't think things were as bad as everyone thought they were post-election, personally, but it was a good thing because we got the right man in for DNC chair because of it. I think with Dean in charge, we will be in a strong position to fight back in 2006 and 2008.

Why didn't I think things were that bad? Two reasons. Firstly, we didn't get blown out by any means for anything. We were not far off in the Presidential race and we came incredibly close to victories in places where we really shouldn't have had any business competing, namely some of the Southern Senate races. I know we lost in a lot of those cases, but did anyone REALLY think we'd have a shot at the Kentucky or South Carolina Senate seats to begin with?

Secondly, I don't think we lost because of our message. I think we lost because of two main issues. 1) Because the south will never vote for us, period. Outside of "consensus" candidates, they never have voted for us and they most likely never will. The rift has existed since the Civil War and will not go away. What's different now is the electoral college map has shifted more power to those states than was previously held. This is not cause for despair, however, we just need to tailor our message to the Southwest and Midwest. Rake in some true conservatives by putting a local rights spin on controversial issues and preach fiscal responsibility. States like Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio are all ripe for the picking. But that means we have to fix 2) the way we send our messages. Compare Bush and Kerry's speeches. Kerry would give detailed, nuanced answers to questions that unfortunately left most of America confused. Bush would just utter the same three or four word phrases constantly, and every damn night you would see them on the news. Yeah, there's a media bias, but the truth is that if you can tailor your message into a 4 word sound byte, that is what they'll use more often than not. And it sticks with people. Proof positive: people say Kerry didn't present any plans for Iraq or the economy. I think he did, but they were too long and complex for the average person to sift through. Bush didn't really present any plan other than "Stay the course", "Bring it on", or "John Kerry will raise your taxes". And yet people though HE presented a plan? People don't have attention spans for nuanced messages today, and we need to adapt to that.

Given that, I don't think we're as far off as a lot of people think, and with the current shake-ups and growth of spines in some of our Senators, I'm quite optimistic for our future.

I kinda got reactionary when you said we just can't win in the South, but you more than made up for it. I agree.

follow suit, grow some balls and tell Bush to f**k off.

:kick:

I thought that was awesome.

The party's really changing. They finally get it.

reject Bush's request for more Iraq war $$$, I'll start to believe.


:kick:

in order to jump-start them into any SEMBLANCE of ACTION.

But, hell, better late than never.

and ANY good that has come in the recent 2 months has been ONLY as a result of you good people here and the grassroots.


52 fucking warnings, Richard Clarke memo released...

nothing.



These corporate controlled WHORES need to be beaten CONSTANTLY.
Keep kicking ass folks, its the ONLY way to make them understand.

Show 'em love when they do right!

Wired: Boxer, Tubbs-Jones, Dean, Gore, Olbermann, Stewart
Tired: The Clintons, Obama, Kerry, Clark

Let the flames begin.

Cuz you know two months ago how this poll would have gone...woulda been pretty damned bottom-heavy.

Yeah, I know there's a few of you around...but, come on. Let's hear it. What's the problem?

As long as they don't cave later on down the road, I'll be really happy with them and feel like they are representing me.