Decision Time Dems. You can control the Congress for 2 or 40 years

If you do the bidding of The People (ie healthcare- public option only, the wars-bring them home NOW, civil GAY rights, and others) you will find yourselves sitting in the power chair for more than a generation.

If you do the bidding of the Special Interests and Lobbists, those millions of us who pounded the pavement to get Obama (and many of you) elected this past November, simply wont be there for you and we may never be there for the party again.

FUCK BIPARTISANSHIP. THE VAST MAJORTIY OF AMERICANS WANTS THIS CHANGE THAT WE WERE PROMISED.

The Clock's running and The People are watching. Time to put on your Big Boy Underwear and do the damn job. If you dont, we'll make sure that you dont have to worry about it again in 2010 and 2012.


USE IT OR LOSE IT.

FUCK BIPARTISANSHIP. THE VAST MAJORTIY OF AMERICANS WANT THIS CHANGE THAT WE WERE PROMISED.

Wait-wait- I have some EXCUSES I need to tell you about...

;)

you will find yourselves sitting in the power chair for more than a generation."

Couldn't have said it better myself. Are you listening, DC Dems??

K & R!

If Democrats can break the corporate fat cat habit and return to their roots, they will earn the profound gratitude of the American people.

Of course, it will make the corporate fat cats very angry.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced a similar dilemma and made the right choice

"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace -- business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me -- and I welcome their hatred." -- FDR, Madison Square Garden, Oct. 31, 1936

When you get down to the heart of it, that's where the essential tension is and it's not going away. There's still hope they'll find their spines and their consciences again.

Besides Eisenhower's "Military Industrial Complex" statement, I think FDR's "I welcome their hatred" is one of the most important things uttered by any 20th century President. Copied & pasted! Thanks for including the context of it.

They outlived FDR, sadly. Hopefully, they will never outlive this Republic because if this Republic dies before the corporations do, we only have a corporate dictatorship.

he won't even CONSIDER doing anything PROGRESSIVELY BOLD!!!

it's not even "in the room", let alone "on the table"...

Yup. The first step in responding to a problem is acknowledging its existence.
The old enemies of peace are indeed still here. And they've gotten smarter and more ruthless over time.
Meanwhile, we as a people have become more apathetic, misinformed, and disengaged.

after getting in, and after a failed military coup orchestrated by them, when he rallied The People to make the changes that brought us the prosperity we enjoyed for 35 years afterward.

I don't have the quote handy, but he also lamented their lack of understanding that he also saved them by saving their system.

... and I suspect some left over to pay down our debt and pay for other more USEFUL things than stuff like subsidizing companies to outsource our jobs overseas with tax breaks, etc.!

Companies might not like it that they can't profit from the benefits they get back from buying off our congress critters! But FFFF THEM!!!

Big challenge to Baucus here especially! He's becoming the most hated DINO in there now, and likely won't win another term (though conveniently for him, his next election is a ways off). Does he switch to becoming a Republican or give up his power over the Finance committee.

I suspect he waits until he's felt he's been able to KILL any hopes of meaningful health care reform and THEN he switches parties. Might wait for a few years to not lose his power over other issues too.

I appreciate your heart, but your declarations are quite silly. You speak for no one but yourself (though others may agree), and you're certain to find that there are nowhere near the numbers you speak of that would join you. No where near it.

And ironically, if things were to be done the way you suggest, almost as if kucinich were in charge, then you'd find that we would most certainly be in power only 2 years.

He speaks for MOST OF US!!!

YOU, on the other hand, speak to your MIRROR...

which is no where near being representative of the majority of the nation as a whole. MindCrime is 100% correct.
Thankfully, President Obama seems to realize and understand this also.

and that's backed up by actual data on the issues- not baseless assertions.

The OP is exactly right- and the people WILL stay home of the Dems don't deliver.

The data that shows 70% of Americans polled want health care reform, but not even half are willing to pay for it? Real progressive.
Or maybe the data that shows the majority of Americans do not favor gay marriage?

Strange how everyone has no qualms about spreading Depleted Uranium all over the planet, monthly commissioning of 3 Billion dollar fast attack submarines, while people are going bankrupt for getting into an accident of falling ill to something cause by poor nutrition, medical incomptence, or Corporate pollution.

You got it wrong buddy. We already pay dearly for something that is being stolen by the Corporations, and that is healthcare that actually would promote National Security by maintaining a healthy citizenry that would see the fraud for what it is and take action.

so what do I have wrong? Hell, I wouldn't doubt that those who don't want to pay for govt health care also wouldn't mind a tax cut in order to cut military spending.

This fictional belief that the majority is progressive is based on only wishful opinion, not facts.

(Let's let the ladies put on their Big Girl Underwear too)

Rec.

Blah blah blah ranty ranty blah.

:sarcasm: Um.. where do you think you are? This is a message board, people say stuff. Deal with it. And the poster is RIGHT - I will NOT continue to vote Dem just to get betrayed AGAIN. They have a filibuster proof majority in Senate and House with Dem prez - it's theirs to lose - and by god it sure does look like they're trying to!

If they can't get shit done with a filibuster proof majority and a Dem (supposedly progressive) as prez, then I'll be damned if I'm going to continue to support them. Perhaps there is too much corruption. Perhaps the corporations own them. Perhaps Americans are just too fucking stupid to ever vote anything other than Dem or Repub, no matter how much they get fucked over. But I would rather go down swinging with my man Kucinich than to stand there at the plate like the Dems are doing and accomplish no real change. "Protect the status quo" is likely to be their new motto if they don't start to seriously address the problems this country faces. I'm hoping for the best, I really am, I would love to see Obama and the Dems accomplish great things - but history tells me to expect the worst.

.....'cause this congress ain't gonna do shit.

Kinda sad I know just how badly our government sucks/is corrupt. And I expect that the Repubs in Dem clothing will be called out (Bill Nelson, Mary Landrau, etc) before it's said and done and perhaps we can get REAL progressive Dems elected at some point. :shrug:

the corruption is thoroughgoing and democrats are expert at making you think there is a difference. the number of democrats who really are on the side of the people is pitifully small.

faith in the democratic party is absolutely foolhardy, unless you want to be ruled by the rich.

FDR got a lot of things done that probably would've fallen to flames in today's world. Corporations and their lobbyists are a lot more sophisticated in getting what they want than the ones of the 1930s and 1940s.

when they strut across the stage and tell their humble beginning boohoo stories.

What has happened to all the those salt of the earth type Democrats since their convention? Where did they all disappear to?

n/t.

My eyes get weird sometimes.

I couldn't agree more...

and most won't fold to any level of pressure that will endanger their seats. The majority in a state can often look different than a national majority and even more so in a Congressional district. Often, national level pressure is blunted by very limited primary options. If they aren't getting heat from their constituents there is little that can be done other committee assignments and the like.

Most of the bipartisanship in play is within our party, it takes substantial give and take to get to the 50 votes requiring a tie breaker from Biden. To get to 60 we pretty much have to go a long way towards the Republicans not so much to get their votes, though we might grab a couple, but to get ours. It is also stagecraft that plays really well with moderate and independent voters that we must coalition with to ever win jack apple shit.

It's fight or fail, Dems!

They don't.

He has much higher approval #s than anyone in congress. He could use that clout. That would be nice.

and they also know what the American people (as a whole) want. These so-called Dems. are either playing up to their congressional districts or they're in the pockets of lobbyists. Exactly what do you want him to do?

I agree 100 %

to Paul Krugman's and Bob Herbert's latest columns in the New York Times.

If you don't have time to read all the responses, choose the view "Readers' Recommendations," which ranks the comments not in chronological or reverse chronological order but in order of the number of people who gave them positive recmmendations.

Times readers are feeling that they've been had. They voted for change, and on the most important issues of the day (health care, war, civil and Constitutional rights) they're seeing either no change or merely cosmetic change.

Don't make snide remarks about the OP. Go read those comments. Then come back and say that the OP is wrong.

I don't care how many piddly little bills the Democrats passed on other issues. On the big issues, the ones that Dem voters were most upset about, they've been AWOL or downright obstructionist.

I like that big wheel picture, too. DINOs beware. You could get flattened.