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A Five Step Program for Democrats: How to Win in 2012
Want to know why Democrats took such a “shellacking” in the midterms?Because Republicans ran unopposed. And if Obama and the Democrats want to regain power, they better make some radical adjustments in their worldview. Here’s a 5 step plan for doing just that.
Step 1: Accept the fact that there’s a war on for the soul of America. On the one hand corporations and their Republican lackeys are seeking to discredit government for the sole purpose of eviscerating it, so that they can consolidate the transition of the US from a democracy to a plutocracy.
They have skillfully created the myths that “the market,” if left alone, will be the source of all good things by pure serendipity, and that big gubmint’ is a flailing bureaucracy that is skilled in only one area – wasting your money.
We’ve experimented with this ‘Market uber-alles” philosophy three times now – in the late 1800’s; in the 1920’s and again in the 1990’s and the first decade of the 21st Century, and each time it has resulted in an unmitigated disaster. Anyone who still believes that unconstrained free markets are the key to prosperity is engaging in magical thinking.
And yet in this last election belief in the Republican dogma expanded beyond the cohort of academic ideologues and later day Randites who purport to believe this conservative humbug into the general population.
Middle class citizens are -- unwittingly -- drinking the corporate kool-aid, and carrying their water. The plutocrats and their Republican allies are using fear, anger, bigotry, and hatred to persuade Tea Partiers and other assorted fanatics to act on behalf of the plutocracy and against their own best interests.
Compromising with these fanatics can only result in fanaticism.
This war has been going on for three decades now, and because Democrats have been doing their best Neville Chamberlain imitation, the ultimate victory of the plutocrats is nearly at hand. In terms of income disparity, trade deficits, budget deficits, and corporate control of our elections and the media, the US has all the hallmarks of a third rate banana republic.
Meanwhile, taxes, regulations, and international trade agreements are being written by corporations, for corporations, before being rubber-stamped in Congress and the White House. For the plutocrats and their Republican allies, unemployment isn’t the problem, it’s the solution. As surplus labor floods the market, wages crash. As CEO bonuses skyrocket, middle class foreclosures go up. As deficits sore, fat cat taxes stay low.
If this were merely a war for inside-the-beltway bragging rights or Party dominance, it wouldn’t matter so much. But ceding the field of battle to the Plutocrats will devastate the United States in ways and degrees that exceed a terrorist’s wildest dreams. It’s also a recipe for more Democratic defeats.
Step 2: Stop following polls, and start shaping them. The Republicans are dragging public opinion to the right, and Axelrod and Obama’s solution has been to follow them rightward – thereby moving the entire country to the far right, and reinstalling the very policies that brought this county to the brink of economic disaster and destroyed our reputation and influence internationally.
Obama needs to fire Axelrod. His advice has been consistently wrong politically, and consistently damaging to the Party and the Country.
He should fire Geithner, too. He hasn’t done a “heck of a job” any more than Summers or Browny did, but even if he had, he’s a liability. Hire a progressive for Secretary of the Treasury and signal to the people whose side you are on, often and loudly.
Step 3. Have fights, it’s OK, even if we lose, and we may lose in the beginning. Fights serve to sharpen the differences between the two parties and to make clear who it is that each represents. People went to the polls not knowing that Obama had cut taxes for 98% of Americans; not knowing that TARP had mostly paid for itself; not knowing what was in the Health Care Bill and not knowing that it would cut the deficit by $192 billion; not knowing that the stimulus plan helped and would have helped more if 40% hadn’t been devoted to tax cuts at the insistence of Republicans. They went not knowing that the economy had added jobs each and every month since March – in short, not knowing that Obama had started the long, slow job of rescuing the US from the worst economic disaster in 80 years.
They didn’t know that Republican policies had led to the record deficits Republicans ran against.They didn’t know that historically the country had lower deficits and higher employment when Democrats were in charge.
Why didn’t we know? Because Democrats ran from our successes because they weren’t polling well around election time. Why didn’t they poll well? Because Democratic silence allowed the Republicans to set the terms of the debate about issue after issue. Single payer health care had a 70% approval rating in early 2009 – and it remained near there until the summer of “keep your government hands off my Medicare,” and other Tea Party lunacy.
If Republicans want to filibuster, buy them a case of Depends and make them filibuster. Make them defend additional tax cuts for those making over $200K; make them filibuster against a jobs bill; make them filibuster extension of unemployment benefts; make them filibuster against adequate care for our Veterans; make them defend their position on deficits while they cut and gut government, and fight for CEO tax breaks. Make them spell out what all that means for middle class Americans. As they stand there hour after hour, day after day, defending the plutocracy at the cost of Middle Class America watch those poll number move our way. Wouldn’t it be nice to have Republicans chasing the polls back toward the center and ultimately toward a society that is civil, just, and free from corporate hegemony?
Step 4: Make campaign finance the main issue. The hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into our political process is not only a tragedy threatening our democracy, it is a political opportunity of unprecedented magnitude. If we were half as clever as Republicans politically, Republican candidates would be dragging around their corporate bribes in the same way Jacob Marley dragged around his chains composed of “… of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel."
The Democratic Party is guilty of chasing corporate campaign funds and serving corporate interests to get them. Indeed, one of the reasons we got trounced is that progressives and young people dropped out of the process, disillusioned with the tremulous nature of the split-the-difference Democrats, and the corporate friendly DLC faux Democrats. Silly progressives – when Obama said change, they thought he meant change.
This last election should have taught Democrats what they should have already known – there’s no future in being Republican-lites. Dean was right, that field is owned and occupied.The only time Democrats will win with that strategy is when Republican greed, incompetence and/or hypocrisy has so devastated the country that the public comes out and votes“not them.” And once that happens, Democrats are caught trying to solve nearly irrevocable problems with no mandate for the solutions needed to solve them.
Fortunately, in the age of the Internet, there are alternatives to corporate money.
If registered Democrats contributed, on average, $100 each, then the Democratic Party would have a war chest of some $7 billion dollars. Imagine running on people’s money, not corporate money. Imagine exposing Republicans for what they are: knowing corporate shills, or hapless dupes carrying corporate water unwittingly.
Step 5: Stand up for our values. Republicans have succeeded for three reasons: they have made elections about values and themes, not specific policies; they have used wedge issues and fear, hate and insecurity to divide us; and Democrats have had no message and offered no alternative.
In fact, Democrats were so busy running from the notion that government could be anything other than a pox on society – let alone a force for good – that they ran on nothing.They were loath to suggest that the vaunted free market – left to its own devices – would screw us all before collapsing in upon itself. Fact is, you can’t support a consumer economy if only the top 1% have the wealth to consume. Period.
And every time we get big bad gubmint’ off the backs of private industry, economic disaster descends upon the country as it must, given the regressive, self limiting policies of the Republican Party and the Plutocrats they represent.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, when you stick to issues, liberal and progressive policies are popular.People want to cut Defense, end the wars of choice, save social security and Medicare, tackle global warming and energy independence, support education, create jobs – on and on it goes.
Pundits will note that Grayson and Feingold lost, and sagely suggest it was because they were too liberal – or progressive. The reality is, they lost because the Republicans ran a national campaign against liberal and progressive policies while the Democrats ran from those positions. But giving lie to the conventional wisdom and the pundits is the stark fact that overall, it was progressive Democrats who fared well, and blue dogs who didn’t.
Democrats need to get in touch with their inner Roosevelts – both Teddy and Franklin. We need to name the beast and run against it; we need to “ welcome their hatred.” We need to declare that the era of “hear nothing, see nothing, do nothing government” over.
Yes there is a war on – and as with any war, if only one side fights, it will win. But this battle is not simply for Party dominance, it is for the survival of this nation as our founders envisioned it.
The time for compromise is long gone. It’s time to fight.
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83 Comments so far
Show AllI dont thing this author reads the comments much here on CD, if he thinks that people here are all excited about the Democrats getting power back. I think most here feel that coming up with practical ways to start a third party that is truly of, for and by average people would be much more interesting.
The author is drinking Kool-Aid. Never never will I trust ANY Democrat!
Regime Change Now! Change we can believe in! Yes, we Can, Yes We Can! Impeach Obama!
The Dims primary mission is getting more croporate money than Repugs get.
When Dims lose an election they just browbeat their working class followers into sending them more money.
I was all with you until that last demand, Sivasm. Impeach Obama? Surely you misspoke. That would only lend the rotten imperialist system credibility, and allow them to continue the reign of world terror with only superficial changes. What is needed in international communist revolution, going light years past an impeachment, which would only be a win for the oh-so-lovable Republicans, in any case. If you want a peaceful, prosperous world of equals, join/build/create/lead the party of worldwide socialism.
Absolutely! Well said.
OilyBomber is the liberals, blacks and Dimos Judas Goat.
Exactly. These types of authors apparently do not read the comments and as a result they waste their time writing these articles on CD. Also, if they'd read the comments, they'd learn the fallacies in their reasoning.
Rule 101 - Know your audience.
My first thought: I once saw a list of about 130 "third" political parties in the U.S. and I don't see any sense in starting the one hundred thirty-first or the one hundred thirty-second.
My second thought: How many of you attend the monthly meetings of the Democratic Party in your county? The meetings I have attended have had only 5 to 15 people present and anyone who wanted to say anything had the opportunity. That included coming up with ideas on how and who to get into political office. Even if you came alone, you could make a difference. But, of course, in some counties you actually have to be a registered Democratic voter to get in the door.
My third thought: The number of people and the amount of effort it would take to change the Democratic Party is less than would it would take to create a winning "third" party. Those of you who have attended some monthly meetings, let me know what you think.
To hell with Axelrod, we need to fire Obama, that way Axelrod and the rest of them can leave with him!
All great ideas, and the Dems won't do any of them. We do need a new left, populist type of party. Let the Democratic party die.
This is not just thinking =inside the box= it is thinking inside a lead coffin. Even a =third party= presumes that American democracy can control 21st century Capitalism.
It cannot. If it were a boxing match, the referee would stop the fight in the first round.
A neighbor recently suggested bungee cords for the ankles of the Koch brothers. He likes cords 29,000 feet long, attached to an aircraft circling at 30,000 feet.
Reverse the numbers; cord 30 thou and aircraft at 29.
Than what can?
You must be pushing for world anarchy, or you're not pushing for anything.
And how do we even know what 21st Century Capitalism is? We'll have to wait for the 22nd Century to find out. I think its more accurate to say we're stuck now in the final stages of 20th Century Capitalism and are still fighting to determine the outcome – we are in a dire struggle to ensure 21st Century Capitalism is the Fenris wolf chained, and bound to our bidding, unlike the horror that we are currently facing when the deregulators cut the fetters that held the beast in check.
If the controlling third party were democratic socialists they would usre control capitalism -- right out of business for the most part. There is no need for capitalism, and, for the most part, people should work for their money instead of leeching off the workers, and the producers should have control over what they produce: basic Marxism.
The challenge and work is getting at least a plurality of people to understand this and act together to make it happen. People have to understand not only that they are being ripped off, but how, and to stop unknowingly supporting it.
Another garbage article by a neoliberal, capitalist, obscurant.
I don't want the Democrats to win, and certainly not the Republicans to win: both parties are pure crap! If we can't get a truly progressive party in then we are sunk -- and we probably are, but I will *never* vote for Democrat or Republican again, because both are just wings of the fascist party. If somebody in the Dems want's to act progressively, then dump the party and join another or run independently.
The country can't afford any more of this garbage, and neither Ds or Rs are going to change -- just lie more and get into more wars, more violations of human rights, more destruction of the environment, and transfer more money to the rich. With any luch the people will finally figure out the Lucy is never going to hold the football for Charlie Brown. Just ain't gonna happen!!
A sad turn of events that happened in the 2008 elections was the "illusion" that the Dems had crafted by chanting the two mantras: "Obama" and "Change". Democract voters of America and those disgusted with 8 years of Bush/Republican era allowed themselves to be taken over by this illusionist called Obama. Even as Mr. Obama raised the higest ever campaign contributions from corporate coffers (whose generosity was acknoledged by him even before he got elected - by lobbying for TARP giveaways to Wall Street), they missed out on observing whose coat pockets he has been hiding in.
Barring the difficult event of a few 3rd party pro-people candiddates like Nader winning over, I was silently praying for a re-win of republicans and consignment of dems to oblivion. Why? At least, that way, people of America will be free from the Republican-Democrat two-sided illusion, when there is only face to both sides of the coin - that of the corporate and super wealthy. An extermist run of the republican econmics for a 3rd term in succession would at the least jolt the people to their senses and an awareness about the return of American economy to the robber-baron times.
Sadly enough - we have to run through the "republicans are better than democrats, ...democrats are better than republicans, ..." gymnatic gyration in yet another presidential election in 2012.
It's too bad this country doesn't have a volume control that could be turned down or switched off. With all the ear-splitting decibles put out by half the country, one can't even think straight any more. Of course neither the noise nor silence is going to make a difference in what the dims do.
Why do these authors keep publishing these lists of what the Democrats need to do to regain the support of the left. Isn't it obvious by now that just having to tell them these things means that they are not a left leaning political party.
The Democratic Party has been moving steadily to the right ever since their electoral loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980. All the proof anyone needs is the fact that Arlen Spector felt comfortable enough to jump ship and run as a Democrat. The Democratic Party of today is really the Republican Party of Richard Nixon - probably even that of Ronald Reagan.
In the short term, if you really want to send a message to the Democrats in Congress to behave like progressives, then nothing short of tens of millions of REGISTERED DEMOCRATS need to officially change their party affiliation to the only nation wide leftist party - the Greens. Nothing short of the prospect of ACTUALLY loosing their voting base will force the Party to change.
Even this may not compel them to move left. As I've stated before, the Democrats have taken over the role of the old time conservative Republicans, while the Republicans have become almost some sort of bizarre cult - a mixture of militaristic predatory capitalists, homophobic racists, and religious zealots.
Unless somebody way smarter than I can see a way to deprogram these people there will be no solution that can work. With roughly half the nations population committed to apparent national suicide the time is more than likely approaching where we will be looking at another civil war, only this time its not North vs South, but Blue State vs Red State.
The Dims have moved further rightward than even Nixon ever was. Although Nixon was a crook, he was ideologically left of Obama.
" With roughly half the nations population committed to apparent national suicide the time is more than likely approaching where we will be looking at another civil war, only this time its not North vs South, but Blue State vs Red State."
Yes, and unfortunately I think we have a pretty good idea which side the police and federal government will stand on this. I think it will look more like a purge than a war unfortunately.
Leftwing, rightwing and centerist are symbolic terms used to artificially divide the continuous spectrum of political philosophy into controlable groupings. These groupings not only don't reflect the true nature of the political spectrum they also frame the discourse into a linear relationship when a circular one far more accurately symbolizes the body politic.
The linear metaphor of left-center-right finds anarchists and libertarians as the two most apparently distant groups when, in my opinion, these two artificially labeled groupings are kissing cousins philosophically. Anarchists and libertarians are no more different in political philosophy than say RINOs and DINOs. The circular metaphor, in my opinion, much more accurately reflects the real relationship of America's morphing political paradigms.
The circular metaphor offers an alternative to the political dead end of our current artificial divisions. With it libertarians who see big government as anethma realize they have cousins at both shoulders not just one. Anarchists, who equally despise big government, do too. Likewise issues like gun control and marijuana legalization can be understood as philosophical cousins. So too for any of the diverse and colorful combinations on the political wheel. Circular logic shows us we are all cousins because, seen through the circular metaphor, all people and their intricately woven individual paradigms are equally distant from the 'center'.
Mr. Mud - ed. of The Mud Report - http://themudreport.blogspot.com/
And both the left and the right are clamoring for the Constitution to be reenstated.
This author ignores that the Dimos have been complicite in and facilitated every detrimental policy implemented by the USA government.
the writer assumes the two parties contest for power by winning elections. Karp says as long as two hacks are running it doesn't matter which hack wins.
DeArmond says it is almost impossible to build a third party. But relatively easy to take over one or the other of the two parties. both would be nice. Fill up the Precinct Committee Slots with reform candidates. Then you elect reformers for State Committeman and woman. Then replace the party Chair. And keep on trucking. That's how Jimmy Carter beat the hacks. Of course Nixon helped. and the Vietnam war helped.
The parties are the gateways to power. They are hollowed out and vulnerable to a quietly hostile takeover. But you can't do it sitting on your dead ass.
Or, that may be like sending healthy people into the cholera wards hoping that the cholera will disappear. Most well intentioned people are either kicked out, marginalized, or ground up by the machine. Before a third party can be effective we need to rebuild functional social groups from the ground up. We need functional socialism at the very local levels, right down to families, and organize from there.
"[It is] relatively easy to take over one or the other of the two parties. both would be nice. Fill up the Precinct Committee Slots with reform candidates. Then you elect reformers for State Committeman and woman. Then replace the party Chair. And keep on trucking."
One of the persistent Democratic fantasies is that if only they could get a Democratic president and Democratic Congressional majorities progressive legislation would follow automatically, as if the numerous layers of legislators and administrators below these didn't matter. (A curious approach for people calling themselves "democrats", no?) The evangelicals understood better how to take power. Their motto was: No elected position is too local or low-level to fight for. Their strategy was to fill up the power pyramid from the bottom upward. I would say that the results thoroughly vindicate the strategy.
Of course, key to the evangelicals' success is their persistence over decades -- a persistence driven by an almost reptilian urge for power and security. The same is true of the plutocrats' success. One of the tragedies of the human condition is that the higher in the brain a desire originates, the more probable it is that the desire will falter over time, particularly when opposed by a movement driven by a lower level of the brain. (See "Cheney Speaks to the Reptile Brain", http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0817-13.htm.)
Don't forget that the people who want an anti-Democratic system are generally the very rich. They have lots of money to spread around to front groups or whoever will do their bidding, and they can keep doing this over generations. They can spawn new front groups and think tanks almost at will; they can own the media. They can outlast their opponents. The people who want more democracy are, almost by definition, people with little money; their efforts are done sporadically, by volunteerism, and they get tired. They sometimes win some battles, but over the years, they get exhausted, and the plutocrats with their barrels of money, never do.
The house we live in is beyond repair. We need to get together, stop listening to the insane people among us, knock it down, and build a nice new house for ourselves. The Founding Fathers would smile down on us.
Go and see "Inside Job" and you'll come away with a better understanding of the problem America faces.
While the accounts of the financial crisis and outright theft of people's money are already somewhat old hat - though the director does an nice job in focusing on the corruption at the business school level - the reason to see it is the interviews with the players.
In interview after interview, what strikes the viewer is the psychopathy on display.
It's like going to Arkham Asylum for a field trip.
The people leading our government and corporations and who mold economic thought in America are unrepentant freaking criminals.
Until everyone knows in their bones that both parties in our "inverted totalitarianism" subscribe to this morally, ethically and economically bankrupt battery of ideas, nothing will change.
Personally, whenever I use the word "neoliberal" I try to always follow it with the word "horsesh*t" whenever I post to try and help drive home the point.
We have to start shouting down any and all of our "leaders" - in government, in business - who subscribe to this failed model whenever they speak.
The more we "dialogue" with these psychopaths, the more cover and legitimacy we give them.
We have to begin to tell them their ideas are horsesh*t to their faces.
Comments from jw smart post "he doesn't know what he's doing"
He knows what he’s doing. He’s a Republican agent.
Reply
madamab says:
November 12, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Yes indeed. It’s interesting how he has fooled so many people into thinking he is simply naive or bad at his job, rather than what he is – a bad person with bad intentions, who is actually doing exactly what his corporate masters instructed him to do.
If he had ever, once, demonstrated proof (beyond words) of his “good” intentions, I could see why people would believe it. But what has he ever done that supports his supposed Democratic values? Nothing! If you go by actions rather than words, his behavior speaks for itself.
He is a bad person with bad intentions. Take it to the bank.
Reply
The Alabama state house went red for the first time since Reconstruction and now one House member in Louisiana has changed parties giving Repubs the House in LA for the first time since Reconstruction. There is a state Senator who is probably change parties also. That *should* make all the state houses in the South all Republican I believe.
Congrats Obama! Yet another item to add to your legacy of two years.
PLEASE JUST GO AWAY!!!
How about every time one of us posts anywhere (other than here, since we are already convinced), we write at the end of our post:
OBAMA, PLEASE JUST GO AWAY!!!
Maybe we can start that ball a-rolling.
I'm sending you the whole first page because it's worth a read.
Obama is toast, and mainly because of this. Hillary would have a difficult time winning this s@it. Obama can't win. period.
The intense focus on the coming struggles between President Obama and congressional Republicans obscures one of the most important and underreported results of the midterm elections: the GOP takeover in the states.
Republicans picked up at least 675 state legislative seats on Nov. 2. As with the increases in the House, that gain is the biggest any party has made in state legislative seats since 1938 and is far larger than the GOP's tally in its 1994 landslide. Given the distribution of those gains, Republicans now have the power to work their will in the states in ways they can't begin to think about doing in Washington.
Before the midterm elections, Democrats controlled 27 state legislatures outright. Republicans were in charge in 14 states, and eight states were split. (Nebraska, which has a single legislative chamber, is officially nonpartisan). Today, Republicans control 26 state legislatures, Democrats 17, and five have split control. In New York, officials are still determining who is in charge in the state Senate. Republicans control seven more legislatures outright than they did after 1994 and the most since 1952.
Add in the results in the gubernatorial races, and the picture brightens even more for the Republicans. Before the midterms, Republicans controlled the governor's mansion and both legislative chambers in just nine states. Today it is 21 states. Democrats are in full command in 11 states, down from 16, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
The changes also came in some unlikely places. The NCSL notes on its Web site that Alabama's legislature is in Republican hands for the first time since Reconstruction. Republicans hold the North Carolina Senate for the first time since 1870 and the Minnesota Senate for the first time ever.
The heavy losses Obama and the Democrats suffered in congressional races across the industrial heartland were matched or exceeded by losses in state legislative races. Republicans now control legislatures in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. All those states also now have Republican governors, except Minnesota, where the contest hasn't been called (although Democrat Mark Dayton is leading).
Democrats are still in charge in many states along the coasts, including California, Washington, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maryland. But Maine's legislature and governor's mansion flipped from Democrats to Republicans. Where Democrats hold legislative power in the interior, it is often in places where Democrats are far more conservative than the national party, such as Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia.
Republicans didn't take power in the states by means of incremental gains. The shifts in many places were truly dramatic. Republicans gained more than 100 seats in New Hampshire (which has the largest state House delegation in the nation at 400). That came just four years after a huge Democratic wave hit New Hampshire.
In Michigan, the state House flipped from 64-42 Democratic to 63-47 Republican. In Minnesota, the state House went from 87-47 Democratic to 72-62 Republican. In Iowa, Republicans went from a 12-seat deficit in the state House to a 20-seat majority.
In Texas, Republicans will have at least 98 seats in the new state House, according to NCSL figures. That is a gain of at least 23. Texas Monthly's Paul Burka, who has followed state politics for three decades, called the results of the midterm elections in the Lone Star State "an annihilation bordering on political genocide." Democrats may not be a factor in state politics for a decade, he wrote in a column for the magazine's December edition.
The impact of this Republican tidal wave in the states will be felt in a variety of ways, starting with redistricting. In states where the powers lie in the hands of legislators and governors, Republicans are now in a strong position to draw congressional and legislative boundaries that will help lock in their gains for future elections. Republicans couldn't have timed their big victory any better.
The shifts in power also could have a significant effect on the 2012 presidential election. The electoral map that Obama was able to expand in 2008 will probably look more conventional in 2012, with some of the unlikely victories he engineered - Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia among them - more difficult to duplicate. But beyond that, Obama will be up against Republican governors in virtually all of the traditional battlegrounds, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/13/AR2010111302389.html?hpid=topnews
Dimos could not have timed Repugs victory any better.
There is absolutely no chance whatsoever that the corrupt democratic party will follow this path and progressives must stop wasting their time with this useless party and start a third party.
Under the Bush administration terrible crimes and abuses occurred against the Constitution and the American people. In 2006 the Amertican people voted in the Democrats in Congress expecting them to correct these abuses and punish those that committed the crimes. Instead, the Democrats perpetrated another crime against the American people called "obstruction of justice" when Nancy Pelosi took "impeachment off the table". That's when progressives should have bolted from the Democratic party. That's when I stopped voting for anyone with a "D" or "R" by their name.
PEA: In addition to what you outlined, I'd add the continuation of brutal wars and the bankers' beastly bailout. I, too, will probably not vote Democrat again in my lifetime.
Jill, found this "COMMENTARY: Harold Koh's endorsement of the legality of Obama's drone war"
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9600-commentary-harold-kohs-endorsement-of-the-legality-of-
obamas-drone-war.html
Regime Change, Change we can believe in! Yes, we Can, Yes We Can! Impeach Obama
JILL: Thank you for asking THAT question on behalf of all (or at least most) of us. I posed a question to you in another thread, but I see you have answered it here, inadvertently. Good.
The author is assisting the readers in taking the final step out of their delusion about the democrats being able to be revived. As Sue, on the tv show "Glee" said to the leader of the glee club,
" IT'S OVER ! "
When I read an article like this one from John Atcheson I just want to scream. I would like to suggest a name change for the political partys. No more democrat/ republican crap. The democrats are no more progressive (whatever that is) than the republicans are conservative, in as much as they don't conserve anything. I would offer more meaningful designations, like The Wolves Party and The Sheep Party. This we can all understand even when the wolves are wearing sheeps clothing which is all the rage these days. It would furthermore be an ongoing reminder that a nation of sheep is destined to be ruled by wolves if history is any guide. So, getting back to this hackmeister Atcheson I would suggest he flog for the socialist party if he really wanted to scare the wolves a bit and it doesn't matter to the sheep as they get shorn either way. Win-win, yes,no?
The blurb following the article informs us that the author "is currently at work on a fictional Trilogy that centers on climate change."
I hope his fictional fantasy is more credible and compelling than his political-analysis fantasy.
#1 I didn't notice democrats were AWOL when the removal of laws and regulations were removed from our economyto create unrestrained markets noer were they missing when war was declared, money spent for cronies, etc. Give me a break from this democratic apologia.
#2 Bull! Its the democrats who have been pushing people right by their arrogant governance and refusal to listen.
Thre author got this right... Obama needs to fire Axelrod. His advice has been consistently wrong politically, and consistently damaging to the Party and the Country. He should fire Geithner, too. He hasn’t done a “heck of a job” any more than Summers or Browny did, but even if he had, he’s a liability. Hire a progressive for Secretary of the Treasury and signal to the people whose side you are on, often and loudly."
Its too late to save this presidency though.
#3 About time! But fight with facts, not slogans, not lies and mistatements. And not from Olympian heights.
#4 Jeezzzeeee. You better make jobs and the economy, the well being of our citizenry #1 or you won't need tpo worry about it. This #4 of yours is way down the list.
#5 Absolutely! But we will also have to revist some of those beliefs and policies. Some are far out of date and false.
Edit. "beliefs" was a bad choice, I meant theories.
Democrats and Republicans are both pro-Empire, pro-War, and are thus anti-People--an analysis shared by almost 100% of people commenting. They are thus Barbarians and incapable of being supported by anyone wanting to remain civilized. This begs the question: Does the author even realize he's promoting Barbarians when he really wants civilized people with civilized values running the system?
"People went to the polls not knowing that ... TARP had mostly paid for itself"
The banks paid off the TARP bailout with profits from the government's money, lent to them at damn-near-zero interest and borrowed from them at double-digit interest.
"... not knowing what was in the Health Care Bill ..."
Would it have helped if they HAD known what was in that big steaming pile of corporate welfare?
"... and not knowing that it would cut the deficit by $192 billion"
That is to say, the Obama administration chose to save less by maintaining the war on sick Americans than it would have by ending the war on the Afghans or the war on the Iraqis (let alone both wars).
"They went not knowing that the economy had added jobs each and every month since March ..."
... but knowing, by direct observation if nothing else, that in none of these months were there enough new jobs to employ all the people entering the labour force.
"If registered Democrats contributed, on average, $100 each, then the Democratic Party would have a war chest of some $7 billion dollars."
Imagine what would happen if registered Democrats contributed, on average, $100 each to a party that HASN'T repeatedy screwed them.
If all registered Democrats had donated $100 each the Democratic party would have asked the corporations who contributed a few thousand or tens of thosands what they do, and ignored everyone else. $100 does not get a person access.
Those are five nice steps for almost any party to follow but there's one thing. The Democratic and Republican parties aren't in the mood to follow them or they would have done that a long time ago. Now how about we stop worrying about winning elections and focus on governing? The voters were pissed off at the lack of populist progressive governing more than campaigning. When you're an incumbent and not an outsider anymore, you can't expect to get very far if you have nothing to show for your job so far. It's like trying to renew a job contract despite very poor job performance ratings.
I don't want the democrats to win in 2012.
I would however like to see the democratic party to split, and to some degree, it will. The majority of progressives will not vote for this president again no matter what kind of 5-step sham that's improvised.
Just not gonna happen. Charles Atlas turned out to be Pee Wee Herman (with respect to Pee Wee).
Forget about Obama and his party of liars & thugs. There's no future with them except re-living four more years of George W. Bush. That would give him 16 years in office.
I'm with you! If I am going to be eating out of a garbage dumpster I will vote for either Dem or Rep. If I want to avoid complete destitution I am choosing to build a MASS MOVEMENT NOW to be sure to force my elected "leader" (whichever party) to do what I FUCKING WANT not what they want for us to do by the rich class.
WAKE UP PEOPLE..... GENERAL STRIKES AND BOYCOTTS NOW!!! ride a bike, carpool, mass transit, baking local, shopping non-corporate, raise chickens for eggs and food, learn sewing skills, join a CO-OP live MORE like you belong to your community not like you want to live better than your community members....that is how the RICH live (a dead and shallow existance). : )
Work on creating a real alternative to the DemoRepuclicrat Duopoly!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/
606/petition-to-initiate-a-progressive-coalition-representing-the-marginalized-left-and-restoring-the/
Your wish has been granted...by Nancy Pelosi and the democrats.
We still have Reid and Obama to go. Maybe November 6, 2012 will fix all that.
Isn't talking about forming a new 3rd party that can win or even talking about the Greens can win now a "hope for change" and has any party or movement done anything or won anything without leaders?
Also we seem to be down on Leaders especially those with "charisma".
Now when one of our "leaders" compromises (and politics involves compromise) with a less progressive move, we disown them fast.
The Republicans mostly stick together no matter what even after they are split (new Tea Party and the old party) and they understand that winning is about power and money and avoid tough issues and use strong emotion like fear of the other people.
The Progressives and Dems are not into power and money as much as mostly attacking each other.
So basically the Right wins by saying the Left is weak and wrong.
The word "left" means weak and right means right, so this is a no brainer.
Looking for a powerful 3rd party for the last hundred years without a strong leader with name recognition has not worked as much as we Hope for the change.
Our winner take all system evolved from the history of winning by war and intimidation that is now our main USA legacy.
The system has evolved, not written down for repeal and that is why the next election will never change the system and our culture of War for profit and power.
The Left vs Right or Conservative vs Liberal seems to me more of a born with personality brain function (aggressive vs passive) than any environmental cause.
The poster who recommended the Sheep and Wolves two parties instead of what we have now is a reflection of this unfortunate reality.
People vote for people first, not parties and that is why Leaders win elections.
In Florida the Dems and progressives could not join with the new Independent, Governor Christ to defeat the Republican so they lost the senate and the governors office both.
Simple reason was Liberals and Progressives split their vote.
I predicted this would happen but the Dems ignored my advice as usual.
Things are so screwed up now that I don't see much difference between what either party can get done for the people.
There is nothing to party about in politics anyway, so I remain a skeptical realist.
It seems to me, while still a monumental project, it would be a lot easier for a genuine labor-green left movement to take over the Democratic party than form a new party. Isn't this what the reactionary right has done with the Republican Party to considerable success?