Clearly, we need our own crazy party.

Since crazy is apparently what gets things done in Washington.

It is a simple enough principle. Everyone who has raised a small child learns it. When the charming and lovable but undeniably also unreasonable and immature being in your care throws a tantrum, you do not, under any circumstances, give that child what he is demanding. Doing so merely ensures that you will see another tantrum really soon, probably at a moment when you are under tremendous social pressure to give in to the child and thus spare those around you the earsplitting howls. Give in often enough and you see a situation where the child is in charge and you the parent are merely trying to placate him. This is always bad for both parent and child because the child has no idea how to run its own life and the parents no longer have the power to implement their much more reasonable ideas about same. This scenario leads to something which is actually called, in the parenting books, "tyrannical behavior" on the part of the child. They don't have a phrase for the parental counterpart to this, but I suppose we could dub it "Congressional Democrat behavior."

The problem with this analogy, of course, is that a child does not have the power to crash the national economy.

This is why we go on caving in. The howling children who either don't understand the consequences of their own actions, or don't care who suffer because of those consequences, are willing to bring the country down in order to get what they want, and so they have to be soothed and rocked and given candy and boy am I sick of seeing it happen.

But of course there is another principle that all this demonstrates, which is that "compromise" is driven by fear of extremism. We're all supposed to be happy with this deal because it doesn't cut Social Security (yet) and because it promises "50/50" defense and non-defense spending cuts if the "trigger" has to be activated. We're supposed to be happy with this because what the Tea Party would have demanded is so much worse. And by Christ am I tired of that scenario too. Because it means that as the extreme wing of the Republican party has gotten more extreme, what counts as "reasonable" has been moving farther and farther right.

50/50. A bipartisan supercommittee. Sounds fair. Until you stop and think about the fact that this "trigger" mechanism institutionalizes the idea that everything has to be split "down the middle" and that each party is somehow now entitled to half of the budget. Regardless of which party is actually in power, or which party is supported by a larger section of the American people, or indeed which party wants what is good for the country as a whole or for the people living in it and which party merely wants to feed more cash to its cronies or to gratify its ideological itches.

We need more than two parties. This has been obvious for a long time. But the two-party system appears to have an unbreakable lock on the federal government. Other parties do exist, all along the ideological spectrum; but none of them have an effective presence in Congress.

Except, of course, the Tea Party. Which is not, technically, its own party--but which, during this past debacle, certainly functioned as a self-contained radical conclave whose support the Republican leadership could not take for granted and who were intransigent and unreasonable and had to be catered to. And they got--not everything they wanted, but way too much of it.

The right, in other words, has found a new way to work the two-party system. You sneak an extreme mini-party into on eof the big ones, and then it gets to work the levers and pull the strings and make shit happen.

All right. Well. Surely we on the left are crazy enough to do this. We've got plenty of crazy people who believe in crazy things like national health care and taxing the rich and reforming the school system in such a way that it would actually serve all the people who rely on it. What's to stop us from creating our own crazy party? Maybe instead of the Tea Party we could call it the Latte Party. And they could all run on this platform: We will fight for our ideological principles whether they're practical, reasonable, and feasible or not! We will refuse to negotiate! When asked to compromise for the sake of the greater good, we will instead throw gigantic super-destructive tantrums until we get our way!

It's so crazy it just might work.

It's not an attractive picture, is it. And indeed, this is the problem: most of us on the 'left' don't have much of a stomach for antics of this kind. But goddamn it, something has to be done, because I am tired of seeing everything go the way of the tantrum-throwers. And it is apparently too much to ask for the Democrats to stand up to tyrannical behavior. We could, for instance, have gone back at some point and said: We will put up a bill for raising the debt limit which does not link it to anything. This has to be done for the economy to keep functioning. You can vote for it or not vote for it. And if you do not vote for it, well, you can be the ones running next year with the slogan, "I Helped Destroy The Federal Government."

We could, in other words, have called their bluff. The results might not have been good, but it would be an interesting experiment to try.

Ah well. Another bipartisan "compromise" in which we lose a little more of the ground we are most half-heartedly holding. Hooray.

#@$!,

The Plaid Adder

that was before I became a member of "the professional left" and "the 15%" and all the other terms meant to marginalize.

Somehow we're not supposed to get fired up about ideals because it's all about "the art of the possible."

but by the President's spokesmen and his followers who all too often like to play the victim when those on the left have a substantive policy disagreement.

why Democrats would have to hold a good Democrat's feet to the fire to begin with.

Shouldn't a good Democrat WANT to fight for, to uphold, Democratic values?

who had to convince us he wanted the job more than anyone and would do the bestest most fantatical job than anyone else to actually do the job he pledged an oath to do and actually defend the party's and this nations most important values?

We need people who make a living being politically active and can spend 40 hours a week really getting an in-depth understanding of what's going on and finding ways to impart that knowledge to others and ways to make real change and do the work that's required in order to make that change.

That's one reason the right is so successful. Right-wing extremism is actually extremely profitable, so they have money to spend building up an army of professional ideologues.

The're in office now.

is you cannot predict the outcome of their actions for them. They have to see it for themselves and no two situations are alike. This will continue.

the dangerous idiots on the other side *got* what they wanted. They'll cry about it, because that's what dangerous idiots do, but I see a compromise which at this point doesn't address revenue. It's not 4:1 even. It's worse.

We can paint it as a victory because we defined victory down, but it's just convincing ourselves that that yellow stuff collecting in our shoes is rain.

But the Repugs have places like Kansas, Utah, South Carolina.... Where would we get the Latte party elected?

maybe best to start with a microphone and see where that gets us.

on the other hand, a crazy party is more affordable....

1) A lot of people would turn out just to see what a crazy party is like. If it's fun, perhaps they'd stay.

2) It allows for a direct diffusing of the tea party. When our people talk about our own side's crazy party and how they won't stand for something. I can imagine the talking heads having to ask if the reference is for the "Crazy Party" (Noun) or "crazy party" (adjective). By association the Tea Party becomes the conservative "crazy party"

So crazy it just might work...

Edit: Something originally was an "it" but I wasn't trying to make a reference so went with a word that is more generic.

Teabaggers are anti-trade and very, very anti-immigration. The European "populist" right is even more pointed in their rejection of globalization. They have, of course, benefited from the anti-immigration sentiment in Europe that they have helped to foster. And they push nationalism over internationalism and seek to reimpose tariffs and border controls within Europe.

Since WWII it has been liberals who have pushed globalization and conservatives who have fought it. This is particularly obvious in Europe today where liberal governments promote immigration and a strong, borderless EU, while conservatives oppose both.

But liberal support for globalization has been almost as strong in the US. FDR and Truman made it a point to create multilateral organizations like the UN, GATT, IMF and Brenton Woods to make sure that the world didn't go back to the high tariffs, border controls and an ineffectual League of Nations that existed in the 1930's. FDR repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act and negated the tariffs put in place by Smoot and Hawley. Kennedy started and Johnson finished the Immigration Act of 1965 which repealed the republicans' 1924 Act and greatly liberalized immigration laws.

Modern American conservatives have embraced globalization more than their European counterparts, but even their embrace only extends to trade and economics and even that is opposed by the teabagger base of the party. When it comes to immigration and culture our conservatives go back to their roots of 1882, 1921 and 1924. They believe the less the better.

cause the latte party will be a part of the Democratic Party.

We will be voting for Democrats, real ones.

I like it.

and it is what he really wants - next victims? medicare/aid and SS

The media is not and never was sworn to uphold the Constitution, they are there to profit. Sitting there talking about how the 'MSM' is not doing their duty is to assume they have a duty other than profit. The folks who foist this meme that the media is supposed to do the President's job are like people sitting outside Burger King waiting for a Royal Absolution.

problem is getting people other than ourselves to listen. We now have a dual system - they listen to their media and we listen to ours. Very few are listening to anything that contradicts their own beliefs.

as I've been driven around the bend by events.

and if it's just me writing in, well that's too bad, but I've had it with the current DINOs.

They only threw their money behind the Tea Party because it accomplished their short-term goals of less taxes on the wealthy and less government regulation of unruly corporations. What they were almost in for was a Second Depression. Sure, they would probably survive and still be rich, but in such an environment, they would have much more difficulty holding down left-wing thought in America; because once people realize they're losing a lot, while the rich lose little, they may decide to swing left, against the rich and powerful.

showing a LARGE majority of Americans holding "leftish" positions. It's just that this New Silent Majority is EXTREMELY underrepresented in office.

When it gets bad enough, they'll see crazy. They won't like it much, but it's inevitable they'll see it.

Who are we kidding, we know Obama would never listen to us, nor would they deal with us.

DNC, DCCC and general party funding sources and concentrate on the CPC and the Black Caucus - send all money to only progressives, and set up as site where we direct our crazy people to do the same. Act as a real third party without actually leaving the Party.

the DCCC or the DNC another cent. I will contribute to individual candidates only. That will not include Obama, of course. Obama will just have to rely on his corporate money.

You can find them in the GDP forum. Just look for the threads praising Obama and this deal.

Our crazy party would just be a crazy party, whereas their crazy party would continue to be portrayed as the frustrated voice of decent, hard-working Americans that needs to be listened to :puke:

already signed?

and you have 1000 posts already? Am I misunderstanding you?

I've been here a long time and was wondering where all these folks with 1000+ posts are coming from, lol!

for months the whitehouse caimpain staff has been sitting back watching the grassroots in wisconsin fighting back and winning. they finally noticed that ordinary working union folks and thier supporters do not need the national democratic party`s help and never asked for it. finally the boys in chicago decided to unleash their "grassroots" political machine in wisconsin. i suppose any help is appreciated but wisconsin should be wary of those who come baring gifts.

everyone on both sides of the aisle are watching wisconsin.

It is an important set of happenings to watch and support.

And I think anyone there would do well to heed your warning.

The problem is we don't have the corporations to fund any kind of movement.

The last thread that discussed this got locked so be prepared for that.

the Democratic Party. We are talking about giving it its own crazy party branch. At the moment we have no candidates except the progressives we now have in Congress.

not saying it's impossible, just saying it's a lot harder

Not to mention the basic fact that the right wing extremists appeal to natural human fear and intolerance, all of the basest elements of mankind, which are easier to appeal to.

Harder to convince people to go the good route, particularly when they've been indoctrinated for a 100 or so years that people cooperating is evil communism.

When the left is faced with such a situation, they do nothing. I mean literally nothing. No work, no purchases, nothing.

I could be being quaint here.

-Hoot

decides to cut entitlements, take away mortgage interest deductions, the remaining homeowners walk and we are forced into destitution, THEN AND ONLY THEN will we take to the streets.

the media will do what they should have done with the teafuckers.....laugh and ignore

talents on the left. One of the reasons 'they' do better in mass media is because on our side, those with such talents are liberals. So, we do not use what we have to support crappy sell outs of the people. The liberals have mad skills. The 'moderate centrists' have none at all.
I offer to you the 08 election. During that time, some actual liberals were giving the candidate Obama some help. We made him a superstar in short order. A culture responded, in mass. Ah, the Obama Girl, ah, will i am, those out of the blue 'happenings' that made so much hay. So many things.
Don't you miss the way it was? People all over suddenly claiming their middle name was Hussien? Remember that? Those were heady days.
None of that will be done for Republican Jr policy pushers. None. And the 'moderate centrists' are lost in the media, because they do not have a real image to use. They stand for nothing, thus they are nothing, and you can not make good TV out of nothing.
If the right wing conservative 'Democrats' would get out of the way, the landslide of media and culture in our favor would drown any efforts by the right wing. They are using dated, silly modalities, and they are also stagnant and easy to upset. But you have to know how.
Maybe Carney and Gibbs could figure out how to promote water at a desert 5K, but I doubt it.

They are not impartial and objective reporters of events. They are in collusion with the politicians. Both groups are accountable to the same masters- not to us.

to bash Obama, not to demand any progressive policies.

When DU demands things like "nationalize the oil industry" when does Bernie or any of the other heroes ever go on TV to demand that? When has he ever demanded that the state nationalize all major industries as is appropriate to a socialist? I simply do not understand this.

He and those others are to blame, never do they publicly speak the reverse of the tea party demands.

Why don't they?

That's a big difference.

so they have that going for them.

I don't characterize them that way, but let's grant that for the sake of argument. What do you suggest to do to get people elected?

The tea-baggers and ultra-conservatives want to demolish education, does that tell you anything?

I don't know how to appeal to bigots and those who disdain knowledge, and are the ones roped in by tv agit-prop like Fox News. It's disturbing and the country's well-being is at stake.

We, meaning my district, State, and region, elected many Democrats to DC, and not one Republican. So speak for your East Coast self with this 'unlike us'. We, the Democrats of the West, get lots of people elected. What the fuck is the problem with the rest of you?
So, again, you mean 'unlike you' both 'they' and West Coast Democrats get people elected. Anytime y'all want to drop the crap and take some notes from winners, you are welcome to do so.

third party there would actually be a legitimate two party system. Democrats and Republicans are heads of the same hydra as are the courts, the corporations and the mass media. The Citizens United v. FCC decision merely climaxed a long evolution in the consolidation of that relationship.

The government of the US is the servant of capital and the enemy of labor and always has been. If the experience of working people's own lives doesn't make that clear nothing will.

Being a Democrat is like preferring the master who strikes just as hard but less often than the other. That is a perfectly rational choice for slaves. If you ever want to see representative democracy in this country it will come through the influence of a powerful and militant socialist parties in conflict with the status quo. There is no other way.

Didn't someone say that?

I think it was during Iran Contra. Anybody guess?

That means getting loud and getting unified.

Until then, they will roll over us.

I doubt that sane discourse and properly-spelled signs would have gotten any attention in the media or on the web.

The people you see on camera are severely deluded. It's the ones you don't see who are the geniuses.

Obama is like that parent you see in the store who is mortally embarrassed to discipline their kids in public.

Thanks for this piece. I really enjoy your take on things.

Too bad, because they are right most of the time.

it will end just as soon as there isn't an audience. In a toddler that is...

they just prefer to complain about being ignored, make excuses for why people dare think for themselves and blame the media, rather than accept the fact that tens of millions do not vote for them because they disagree with their views.

"...each party is somehow now entitled to half of the budget. Regardless of which party is actually in power, or which party is supported by a larger section of the American people...."

This only will be "institutionalized until Republicans regain power and then it will back to majority rules.

already - by claiming he is risking losing his base! I still want him to say no to this and at least try the clean bill option. He can always go back to this flawed bill if they refuse.

I got one of his emails today - I unsubscribed. I hope he gets the message.

Disaster capitalism.

running for office locally. The last may even be the most important step. That is how the rethugs have taken over the country. I have trouble at caucuses because I cannot hold my temper.

like the Koch Bros who would back a movement to take back the Dem Party. We should be looking for a few of them, or is there such a thing as a rich person who actually supports Democratic Principles?

the one that really hated Bush and had an international foundation? I'll bet he wants to kick Obama in the shins right now.

I wish I could give this multiple recs. You have said it all.

Also, it is good to see your writing again. Your common sense, wit, and way with words have been sorely missed by this member.

marginalize them in the UK, but perhaps that the image might work for us here...

Our positions are entirely reasonable. As a matter of fact nearly the entire nation is with us on what we want.

In addition to ending the wars we want single payer heath care and hold the following positions - mainstream positions.

I kind of thought that Obama was too. Maybe that's all Michelle.

You're right. We need the equivalent of Diego Riviera.

You keel my country. Prepare to die.

CSR Qingdao Sifang Locomotive, which is the fastest train in the world.

We are, by far, in a huge majority already, just not organized & nurtured along. Even if we were well organized with an agenda, we would face resistance from the government through "Homeland Security". Teabaggers are untouched & un-hampered by "Homeland Security"; in fact, I suppose any police presence while their "tens of people" are publicly gathered is for the purpose of "protecting" them.

:argh:

Ah GEORGE SOROS. That's his name. Does anyone know him?

But with my low post count I'd surely be taken for a re-puke and banned so couldn't risk it.

Glad someone with status has opened this bottle up.

IM IN.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=211258725592719

Flash-Mob the county party executive committees
Wednesday, August 31 at 10:00am - November 30 at 10:00am

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Each county in America has two PACs, a Democratic PAC, and a Republican PAC. These PACs are run by a democratically elected executive committee. These PACs endorse 99% of the candidates that get elected. 50% of those committee seats are vacant. Many of the seats that are filled, are occupied by conservatives, even in the Democratic party.

If you feel like the Democratic Party is not making the progressive argument, it's because progressives do not fill the Democratic County Party Executive Committee seats.

That has to change.

We are flash-mobbing the democratic party county party executive committees to fill the 200,000 empty seats and displace any conservatives that occupy them now. We are taking control of these committees, to take control of the party, and take control of our government.

America should not be number 13. We should be number 1, and only progressive values in our government will make it that way.

Well duh, but I for one didn't know the seats were so empty. Maybe others here didn't know that too.

Thank you!

I feel like I'm in the Left Out party.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

kr

I could abide by a party which exalted logic and scientific truth above all else. This is what Locke saw democracy as being, anyhow.

Amidst the trauma, one of DU's most intelligent and articulate voices returns.

On edit: This is Jumptheshadow, inadvertently posting under my spouse's name on her laptop.

but the crazy party has to be completely out there beyond the point were we will be happy to wind up.

Counter their balanced budget amendment with our balanced budget amendment. From now all users of public services must bear the complete cost of their individual usage. Therefore big business doesn't get a reduced rate for filling your mailbox with junk mail, they have to pay the fully loaded cost for each piece of crap they send.

You want to use a federal highway, you pay by the mile with a factor for higher weight vehicles paying a higher rate since the cost of maintenance should be borne by the people profiting from the use of the public goods. Yes, prices will rise but they will be borne by the people benefit instead of by everyone.

A company wants to get a drug approved....they pay a percentage of the cost of the FDA based on the expected number of drugs to be reviewed each year.

You want to do business in country Y, you pay a percentage of the state department since you (and your employees) are users of the state department.

Similarly, another important balance is the balance of federal receipts and disbursements. No state should get a lower percentage of federal disbursements than its contribution to the federal receipts. STOP having blue states subsidize red states...let the red states begin to balance their budgets NOT on the back of the other states.

good to see you around, Adder.

The Best Party and Jón_Gnarr

Try all the banksters and outsourcers for treason, execute them, and use their assets to take care of the deficit. After we propose that, we can dial it back to advocating national health care, winding down the military empire, investing in the post-oil energy economy, etc. Those things would then seem much more reasonable, no?

Of course, we're all socialists already.... (see my sig)

Send money, guns and lawyers.

It's been decades now since people were first coddled by modern right-wing propaganda like Rush & Fox. And the programming (in this case, read as 'brainwashing') has been so successful that their followers will willingly shoot themselves in the foot if it means some black, Muslim or gay family gets to starve elsewhere. How can we beat that? As liberals, we're the equivalent of 'herding cats;' there may be a resounding call to order by our leaders, but we won't listen, nor obey. Therein lies not only our greatest strength but our greatest weakness; the GOP lapdogs obey the sound of a whistle, but we don't.

The problem at the moment, however, is the modern media. As others have pointed out before, the right looks to Fox as 'the only' source for news, and any info from other sources is dismissed immediately. (I know, my mom's husband is one of them) A rational liberal is portrayed as 'a far left extremist' while the craziest right-winger is given hours of air-time as 'just one of the people.' It's a loaded deck and I don't know how to overcome it; believe me, if I had any ideas I'd be sharing them by now...

On another note, they're willing to lie - to themselves, to their constituents and to anyone who'll listen. Their representatives will vote against a bill that'll help their constituents, then their reps will go home and claim to love the fact that the bill passed. That's not only pure bullshit, but psychosis, plain and simple, and on an order that's very difficult to grapple with.

On another note, they cover each others' backs. Liberals routinely get into 'circular firing squads' over simple questions like 'is it orange-red or red-orange?' The conservatives provide an unbreachable front - to them it's either black or white and liberals are simply squabbling over tones of gray. They can at once stand for and against the same issue under debate, while facing no scrutiny at all from the modern media. Their solidarity hurts us as we find ourselves unable to come together in the first place.

Ultimately, they have a single, unified goal: The restoration and maintenance of an American Aristocracy. And their goal is easy to achieve; simply oppose anything that doesn't help the already wealthy, and pass legislation that helps them even further. At the same time, use your considerable media influence to convince simple-minded serfs to support your proposals. And that is achieved by turning those serfs against their own fellow Americans, and against themselves, through the use of 'wedge issues' like abortion, immigration, gay marriage and "they're gonna take yer guns away!!!!."

We, on the other hand, have countless and varied goals - protecting the rights of labor, protecting and strengthening S.S. and Medicare, ending war & reducing our defense budget, educating and caring for our young, etc. And ultimately, that is our downfall: we care about so many things that, as a result, we scatter our influence. We use a shotgun on a field of rabbits while they use a scoped-rifle on a single deer at a time. They have only a single objective, and as such can focus their influence into a powerful beam of energy that gets shit done, even when it hurts most of us. It's time we focused our energy to pushing "the middle" back to "the middle." But that requires a media presence that doesn't cast us off as loonies while making idols of the tea-party right.

having to make coalition governments might actually work here..

This (a rabid left-wing sub-party within the Democratic Party) is exactly what needs to happen.

I think it could get some financial backing by proposing single payer universal health care. Employers hate paying for employee's health care, and with a single payer system, they wouldn't. It reduces the deficit, it's pro-business (not that I care, but they do), it's a more efficient system, and a more humane one.

We'd be going up against the health insurance industry, a formidable opponent, but that's kind of what the whole idea is, to go after those who profit at our expense.

The fundamental issue has to be People before Profits. And it would be this party's job to make damn sure everyone understands that this country has been on a perilous right-turn downward spiral, in the last 30 years, which led to a dangerous concentration of wealth in a very few hands, and that this must be reversed. We've been losing an undeclared class war for 30 years, time to make it official and fight back. The wealth is here, it needs to be used for the common good, not to make a few people obscenely rich and powerful. That's a pretty easy sell to most people. And we have plenty of data, charts and graphs that show quite clearly how asset distribution has concentrated in that time period.

It tells how we can make the Dem party more Progressive - it's easy and can be done in time to influence the 2012 elections.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1640640

I know this isn't new information, but it's new to many of us. It is kept a big secret in both major parties. The parties will tell us quickly enough how to work for them for free, and how to donate money to them. But they make it very hard to find out HOW TO INFLUENCE THEM.

Precinct committeemen can vote for party leaders. In the public elections they determine how the vote is counted. They determine the party's candidates. In some places these party committeemen positions are vacant, or a matter of simple appointment just by asking the county party chairman for it.

Just working for the party as-is won't do us any good. At best, we'll keep electing candidates we don't like that way. It worked for the TParty, and with as little time before the election as we have now. Lots of us doing this all over the country could make a difference.

Maybe lots of you knew this but I didn't, and I have ASKED how to break into the party and got no answer. It's very hard to find out, even though it's so simple and easy. This is how.


(Thanks to libmom74 for her mention of this upthread.)

I followed your link and that is an excellent OP, way to go.

sophisticated. I don't know.