a positive thread - go Democrats!

Many have been talking about hope and about change, and about the need to give the Democratic party politicians a chance and to support them. There was a very hopeful sign, a rare cause for hope, today that hints at real change, real change that reflects the rejection and repudiation by the voters of Reaganomics and the religious right, and that is in alignment with the traditional principles and ideals of the Democratic party.

Senator John Kerry, questioning the wisdom of giving tax breaks to employers to deal with the growing Depression the country is sinking into, said, "I'd rather spend the money on the infrastructure, on direct investment, on energy conversion, on other kinds of things that much more directly, much more rapidly and much more certainly create a real job."

This is a change, a breath of fresh air. The trickle down approach that has been tried for 30 years now - boost the business community in the hope that this will trickle down to the workers - has failed. The people know that. The activist community, or at least the most dominant voices within the activist community, have been slow to come to this realization and fully understand it, and this has resulted in the very odd situation where the political Left is being attacked on the heels of a massive and thorough rejection by the public of this trickle down approach by the government, as though it were the political Left that had been rejected and repudiated.

Kerry has framed this issue correctly, and has taken the right stance. Reaganomics stole money from the people, from the working people, and concentrated it into the hands of the few through a variety of shenanigans. Returning that money directly to the people, and using it to rebuild the public infrastructure rather than private industry is the best way to get relief to the people efficiently and effectively.

As Democrats, we have always sided with the working class. We have always held that strengthening the workers is what leads to prosperity, not weakening the workers and destroying the public infrastructure while giving favors and advantages to the few. As Democrats, we see the economy as the working people, not Wall Street, and we measure the health of the economy by the well being of the working people, not by the success of the investing class at the expense of the public.

Sooner or later, the Democratic party politicians must side with the working people and stop trying to play Reaganomics games with the country, and footsie with the right wingers. The success of the party, and the success if the new administration depend upon this. There is no way to take a safe and middle course, no way to avoid the responsibility the party has to the working people, starting at the bottom with the homeless and poor, the unemployed and the working poor, as well as with all of the people who are being marginalized, isolated and kicked to the curb, most notably in recent days our brothers and sisters in the GLBTQ community, and our brothers and sisters in the UAW, and advocates for public health care and safe food.

I applaud Senator Kerry for his courage and insight, and for his willingness to change his position, and I hope that we will look back on this day as the day that the fever broke, the day that we turned the corner on the battle with the right wing and begin to rebuild the country.

Politicians will do the "right thing" in a representative democracy when they know that we have their back, when we continue to speak out and when we continue to build public support for the approaches that are consistent with the traditional principles and ideals of the Democratic party and organized Labor. That is the only way that progress can be made, and we cannot short our responsibility in this effort either.

FDR: Indeed!
ER: And how!

He once said to ER "if you want me to do something, then force me to do it." He understood that he needed public pressure in order to act, and he welcomed that pressure.

Politicians cannot take risks, cannot do anything for the people unless they are pressured to by public opinion, and supported by public opinion. We build that pressure by speaking out. Accepting and welcoming and responding to that pressure is the job description, it is what politicians do in a representative democracy. They must go against powerful and entrenched interests to do anything for the people, and the wealthy and powerful are not "giving him a chance" nor taking a wait and see attitude.

If politicians put some safe and centrist idea out there, and their supporters fall over themselves to express admiration and advocate that we all be passive, do nit criticize and get on board, democracy is sabotaged and we signal to the politician that they cannot take any risks and should go along and get along with the wealthy and powerful - play it safe. That is the problem with the idolization of politicians, and the fan club zealotry. We send the politicians the wrong signals - "so long as you are better than Republicans, that is all we ask, and whatever you as the smart people decide we are behind you" is a very weak stance and in practical political terms, a reactionary stance.

Sooner or later, the Democratic party politicians must side with the working people and stop trying to play Reaganomics games with the country, and footsie with the right wingers.

As much as I appreciate your positive attitude, I think that ship has sailed.

I fully expect the Republican party will eventually reinvent itself as the 'working persons' party.

K&R for a great post though!

:thumbsup:

We have been smeared and accused of being whiners, pissers, moaners, doomsayers, purists, extremists, fringe, irrelevant and now today there is a post accusing critics of the centrism and compromise with the right wingers and the resuscitation and promotion of the right wing program and ideas of being mentally deranged.

We have been characterized as being negative for some nefarious reasons, with malicious insinuations and implication, and our motives and integrity have been questioned. "You will never be happy with anything" we are told and "you are just criticizing for the sake of criticizing."

I am very encouraged and inspired by Kerry's statement today - "happy" you might say. Yes, it is small, and yes we have a long way to go. But, it is the first few drops of rain on the parched ground after a long drought. I believe that it will become a downpour, that it must become a downpour.

Become the working person's party, well I guess I'll have to join them...guess you can go so far right you become left, or so far left you become right???

War is peace, etc.

I wonder what post-Orwellian looks like.

:hi:

I'll hope for the latter!

I am kicking this up.....it needs to be read and responded too.

So many seem to want to dwell in the negativity. I am happy with your report on Kerry.

I have also been seeing reasons to be positive. Small things really....but in the right direction.

Yes....go Democrats!!

We support politicians when they move in the right direction, and criticize them when they don't. Otherwise, support means nothing.

Gotta give credit where its due, while many called Kerry inconsistent, he's often just seemed to be willing to reconsider a position when its better for his constituents; much better than being intransigent which seems more the status quo.

Way to go, Kerry!

It takes a tremendous amount of resources and effort for the ruling class to build and maintain the dam - the dam in the river of human progress. One little chink in the damn can start a process that can not be stopped. We should be watching for those, and supporting them. It is not "human nature" for us to be ruled by the wealthy and powerful few - and we are - it is not "human nature" to be ruled by bullies - and we are, everywhere we turn - it is not the normal state of affairs for selfishness and greed to dominate everything, an d that is most definitely what we are living with now. The river wants to run free, and there is a massive amount of pent up energy, blocked and frustrated at every turn. One little opening, and the rivulet can lead to another and become a flood, and the people will break free.

why are the conservatives among us fighting such a relentless and desperate rear guard action now? Because they know that any ine little crack in the foundation can lead to the downfall of the "palace of privilege."

Kerry - however tentatively - just refuted and contradicted the Reaganomics approach that has a strangle hold on the entire political process. He took one small step in that direction, and one step is significant when there have been so few of those for so long now. Politicians are always testing the wind - they must do that. We need to learn to recognize when a breeze is blowing our direction and fan it.

People are expressing an exaggerated loyalty to and personal identification with various politicians, and are too emotionally invested in what they imagine to be the success of the career of politician they adulate. But they are not entertainers, and adulation and cults of personality do not actually advance their careers, and certainly are destructive to the people. This identification and loyalty has people holding tightly to illusions, and it blinds them to reality.

We are supposed to pressure politicians. That us how we support them. The wealthy and powerful insiders are pressuring them right now, and are putting maximum effort into that. A good politician is one who welcomes pressure from the public, recognizes it and responds to it, and then changes to meet the public needs; who would rather help the people than the wealthy and powerful few, if only we will have their back when they make tentative moves in that direction. They are not products on the shelf - static and lifeless, with features, advantages and benefits - that we merely select according to our personal tastes. Politics is a dynamic process, there is a give and take, and that process breaks down when people are loyal to personalities and labels rather than to ideals and principles and to each other.

None of the politicians are saints, and none of them are devils. They are, in a representative democracy, they will become, what we force them to be. That is how politics works.

Politicians are human beings, good, bad, indifferent; as you say we must applaud, support good action, disdain and buck against bad action, the politician himself may come under both. Indifference, complacency is our chief battle. Hero worship a second.

He has been the Senate sponsor for Youthbuild, a program he has been involved with since his days as a DA since he joined the Senate in 1985. He also wrote the precursor bill to S-CHIP with Kennedy in 1996.

Here is part of a 1993 Senate speech which describes well what happened in the economy in the Reagan years.

"In many ways, we are witnessing the most rapid change in the workplace in this country since the postwar era began. For a majority of working Americans, the changes are utterly at odds with the expectations they nurtured growing up.
Millions of Americans grew up feeling they had a kind of implied contract with their country, a contract for the American dream. If you applied yourself, got an education, went to work, and worked hard, then you had a reasonable shot at an income, a home, time for family, and a graceful retirement. Today, those comfortable assumptions have been shattered by the realization that no job is safe, no future assured. And many Americans simply feel betrayed.

To this day I'm not sure that official Washington fully comprehends what has happened to working America in the last 20 years, a period when the incomes of the majority declined in real terms.
In the decade following 1953, the typical male worker, head of his household, aged 40 to 50, saw his real income grow 36 percent. The 40-something workers from 1963 to 1973 saw their incomes grow 25 percent. The 40-something workers from 1973 to 1983 saw their incomes decline, by 14 percent, and reliable estimates indicate that the period of 1983 to 1993 will show a similar decline.
From 1969 to 1989 average weekly earnings in this country declined from $387 to $335.

No wonder then, that millions of women entered the work force, not simply because the opportunity opened for the first time. They had no choice. More and more families needed two incomes to support a family, where one had once been enough. It began to be insufficient to have two incomes in the family. By 1989 the number of people working at more than one job hit a record high. And then even this was not enough to maintain living standards. Family income growth simply slowed down. Between 1979 and 1989 it grew more slowly than at any period since World War II. In 1989 the median family income was only $1,528 greater than it had been 10 years earlier. In prior decades real family income would increase by that same amount every 22 months. When the recession began in 1989, the average family's inflation-adjusted income fell 4.4 percent, a $1,640 drop, or more than the entire gain from the eighties.

Younger people now make less money at the beginning of their careers, and can expect their incomes to grow more slowly than their parents'. Families headed by persons aged 25 to 34 in 1989 had incomes $1,715 less than their counterparts did 10 years earlier, in 1979. Evidence continues to suggest that persons born after 1945 simply will not achieve the same incomes in middle-age that their parents achieved.

Thus, Mr. President, it is a treadmill world for millions of Americans. They work hard, they spend less time with their families, but their incomes don't go up. The more their incomes stagnate, the more they work. The more they work, the more they leave the kids alone, and the more they need child care. The more they need child care, the more they need to work.
Why are we surprised at the statistics on the hours children spend in front of the television; about illiteracy rates; about teenage crime and pregnancy? All the adults are working and too many kids are raising themselves.

Of course, there is another story to be found in the numbers. Not everyone is suffering from a declining income. Those at the top of the income scale are seeing their incomes increase, and as a result income inequality in this Nation is growing dramatically. Overall, the 30 percent of our people at the top of the income scale have secured more and more, while the bottom 70 percent have been losing. The richest 1 percent saw their incomes grow 62 percent during the 1980's, capturing a full 53 percent of the total income growth among all families in the entire economy. This represents a dramatic reversal of what had been a post-war trend toward equality in this country. It also means that the less well-off in our society--the same Americans who lost out in the Reagan tax revolution--are the ones being hurt by changes in the economy.
You might say that we long ago left the world of Ward and June Clever. We have entered the world of Roseanne and Dan, and the yuppies from `L.A. Law' working downtown. "

Your knowledge about Senator Kerry's career is stellar. Thanks for your contributions.

I think there are good people in elected government positions. But I do not think they can fight for the people when we are passive and compliant, when do not speak out - in support of them when they do speak and fight for the people, and critically when they do not.

informed public fighting for the same things. This is a great thread - and not because it mentions Kerry. It is a really serious discussion of where we are today. One thing I think is interesting now is that many of the more progressive or liberal Senators are the committee chairs - like Harkin, Kerry, Kennedy, Leahy, and Dodd. It is interesting that Baucus (chair of Finance) and Conrad are also among the ones speaking out on the stimulus package. It is in the committees where major legislation is written - with the leadership as it is, a Democratic President, and a progressive supportive base this may be the time when some really good major legislation can be written.

I also think the majority of the party backs the things you wrote of. Obama at this point is still very much a clean slate. The problems he faces may force him to do big great things - it is likely impossible to be a mediocre President now - he either will rise to meet the needs (and be a great President) or he won't (and he'll be a failure.) What is clear is that we and the Democrats in the Senate have a vested interest in Obama succeeding - this may show that the Senators know that really supporting Obama and working to restore the country might sometimes mean politely pushing back if they disagree on strategy. There is an immense amount of collective knowledge in the Senate and its staff - it demeans the institution for them not to do their job as best they can.

In addition, it is a great sign that the Democrats are not acting as a rubber stamp for the incoming President. We moved very far in that direction under Bush with the Republican Congress - and it was bad for our country and constitution. It was also bad for the Republican party - which did not see the danger until it was too late - and then had the oddity of running a convention where I think they attacked President Bush more often than Obama's convention did! They then were trying to argue that Bush policy was not Republican policy. Yet for years, they rubber stamped everything. Even under the best President, having a Senate that questions at least the details - has to lead to better results. Either the President's responses will convince the Senators that the original plan was good or the proposals of the Senate will lead to better stronger bills. This is after all the reason an independent legislative branch is better than simply having a dictatorship.

As to us - I assume that both the President and the Senate will be react to support, concern, or push back given to each by the people who elected them.

You make some important points here.

I think the majority of the people support these things, and a brilliant survey done by Pew Research a couple of years ago confirms that. When people are presented with questions about politics without any partisan clues, on dozens of issues 60-80% of the people supported left wing political positions.

Good on Senator Kerry. You go John! :headbang:

said it won't help the economy at all....

There are two economies. One is measured by the success of the investors, the few, and that is the economy they are talking about in the media. That economy is the playground of the few, the privileged, the fortunate. Then there is the economy of the producers, the workers, the people who represent 90% of the population, and that economy is measured by the well being of the least among is and of the working people in general.

I do not think that Reaganomics - giving to the fortunate few and expecting that to trickle down to the rest of us - will ever work to help our economy, the working people's economy, and it amazes that any Democrats do, especially given the state of the country now. The people in the upper fraction of 1%, the super wealthy, have so gamed the system, that even the small investors, and those in the upper 10% income bracket are at risk and cannot be saved now by more handouts to the fat cats.

We help the many, the workers - knowing that this will rebuild the country and there will still be plenty tricking up so that no one will be forced to give up their 5th home or their yacht - or we keep subsidizing the few and weakening the country and driving the people onto poverty and despair. This is becoming life and death, and the wealthy and powerful few will not give up any of their privilege or power without a fight. There will be a fight, there is no avoiding it and fancy rhetoric about "including" everyone and ending the so-called partisan divide will not do a thing.

The Democratic party politicians will fight, they must fight, and we do them no favors by applauding and admiring them for any "centrism" they try to put out there.

The growing Depression is going to turn a lot of people into left wingers.

:toast:

Where are all of the people who attack left wingers by accusing them of "being negative" and "doing nothing but complaining for the sake of complaining?" Where are the people who call us whiners, and purists, and every other name, and who insinuate that we are disloyal? Where are the people who say "you will never be happy with anything?"

Where are the people who argue for "baby steps" and say "these things take time?" Where are the people who say we must "work within the system?"

Where are the people who keep telling us that hope and change are so important?

Could it be that all of those arguments against the Left are just ruses, are not sincere but merely serve to provide cover for dishonestly promoting conservative views?

Maybe you need to change the title:

Should We Bail Out The Porn Industry? (POLL)

:hi:

:rofl:

I am just no good at coming up with titles.

This is a good discussion...