Democrats have "ENTHUSIASM GAP". Repubs fired up.

[bertman]

Robert Reich summed it up like this:

"I had dinner the other night with a Democratic pollster who told me Democrats are heading toward next fall's mid-term elections with a serious enthusiasm gap: The Republican base is fired up. The Democratic base is packing up.

The Democratic base is lethargic because congressional Democrats continue to compromise on everything the base cares about. For a year now it's been nothing but compromises, watered-down ideas, weakened provisions, wider loopholes, softened regulations. Health care went from what the Democratic base wanted -- single payer -- to a public option, to no public option, to a bunch of ideas that the president tried to explain last week, and it now hangs by a string as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid try to round up conservative Democrats and a 51-vote reconciliation package in the Senate."

continued at the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-enthusiasm-gap_b_479981.html

[msongs]

1. appeasing republicans has a negative effect on the dems base. who could've predicted that? nt

[DJ13]

3. You would think the party might have learned that in 1994

Its almost as if they WANT to lose seats this November.

[Warpy]

5. Our conservatives, like their conservatives

are incapable of the insight it takes to realize they've ever been wrong about anything and our conservatives, like their conservatives, are therefore incapable of ever learning a single thing from their past mistakes.

Conservatives are the problem, they've always been the problem, they'll always be the the problem, and they are our enemies.

All we can possibly do is try to vote them out if they're GOP and eliminate them in primaries if they're Democrats.

[DJ13]

7. [phone] 11111

[Lorien]

10. Conservatives aren't the problem. They aren't in control. We have the Presidency,

the Senate and the House. The problem is that we have no positions on the issues, no direction, and we aren't hammering the people who caused all the problems to begin with or calling them on THEIR inaction and lack of ideas. If ANYONE in the party were skilled at leading, at controlling the message, at basic talking points, or could organize the Left to TAKE A STAND ON THE ISSUES we would easily CRUSH the Right. They've handed us all the ammo we need. But instead we pussyfoot around, don't commit to anything, and beg and plead for bipartisanship. It's not working. It's time to get tough and start acting like the majority!

[Warpy]

11. What part of "our conservatives" didn't you get?

Our conservatives call themselves "moderates," Blue Dogs, New Democrats, and members of the DLC.

Obama is actually to the right of center, which anyone who closely reviewed his voting record in the Senate should know.

Our conservatives are just as incapable of admitting wrong and learning from their mistakes as theirs are.

Get it yet?

[leveymg]

15. "We" don't have the Presidency, any more than "we" have the Senate.

They, the Corporation Party, have it all.

[tom_paine]

24. It's the Corporate M$M/RW Lie Machine Fusion that straight-jackets them, also

How can you even begin to have a dialog when most of what people think they know is either partially or fully false?

I am not condoning the Democrats, I believe their only hope also was to take dead aim at the False Reality Bubble and try to smash through it by speaking, directly, siomply and with common sense.

They chose not to do so, probably for a variety of reasons inclding DLC takeover and fear of losing Corporate Aristocratic Money. It is some mixture of ineptidtude, being intimidated, and self-reinforcing systemic alterations like those which made the Corporate M$M/RW Lie Machine Fusion.

WHY no longers matters. This is how it is and will be for the foreseeable future, until we finish sliding to the bottom towards What We Are Becoming.

"The avalanche has begun. It's too late for the pebbles to vote."

More than begun. We are getting closer to the end of Middle Transition Phase.

Are "Relocation Camps" (now there's a well-marketed euphemism for ya') in our future? 50-50 chance now.

[wroberts189]

17. They do seem a bit dead set on failure don't they?..

I keep having the same thought.

[yurbud]

14. they would rather lose than lose their corporate patrons

[begin_within]

2. If the Dems would start acting like Democrats instead of corporate suck-ups,

I'd have a lot more enthusiasm for them. That includes Obama and the party leaders.

[Upfront]

23. But, But

they have already been paid lots of jack to become corp. suck ups. I don't understand why many of us still can't see this. They want no health bill at best or the one the Sen. passed as a fall back. Vote them out or at least try to. Obama was the worst vote I have ever cast. Wake up people.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Because The Administration Says That Demanding Democratic Ideals

is "Fucking Retarded". That's a direct quote, I'm simply reporting it.

So, we Democrats should get excited about Republican ideals? I don't think so.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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

[aquart]

8. We were VERY enthusiastic when we voted in this majority.

Not so enthusiastic about what we got for our money.

THE LAST THING I EXPECTED WAS THAT THE REPUBLICANS WOULD CONTINUE TO TELL US WHAT TO DO!

Are the Dems "unenthusiastic"? That's a euphemism for "want to wring their necks."

[Lorien]

9. Amen aquart. Just about every Dem I know off the DU boards is pissed as Hell

not merely "unenthusiastic." They feel betrayed and used, or simply like their reps are so spineless that they're even cowed by petty bullies when our side has it all! Conservatives aren't the problem here; they've given us plenty of rope to hang them with by causing all the original problems and offering no solutions. But Democrats refuse to touch the ammo that falls right into their lap. They take no stands on the issues, they don't have a message to control. Obama may be a great speech maker, but he's absent from the helm of this rudderless ship.

[depakid]

16. It's a similar feel to 1994- other than the fact that the right wing is even more demonstrably whack

which baffles my older friends and colleagues to no end.

Lack of message control is right... and it's astonishing in its utter ineptitude.

[tom_paine]

25. It's a similar feel to early 1930s Germany (but less violent for now)

Read "Defying Hitler" by Sebastian Haffner.

Obvious, 1930s Germany and 21st Century America aren't exactly the same but many MANY similarities do exist.

I am reminded of Haffner's "on the ground view" of April 1933, when the 60% of Germany that "remained sane" was, according to Haffner, bristling with anger and dread, almost of a mind to maybe fight the Nazis, at least in those first days, or at least resist.

That 60% of Germans was absolutely STUNNED when all the opposition parties folded without a whimper and did not provide a single instance of leadership around which a reistance could coalesce. Speaking of the Communists, who had hithertofore boasted and bragged that they would go down in a terrible fight against the Nazis, only were capable of folding up the tent and getting a few escape visas for the Communist Leadership, that was the entent of their resistance.

Haffner describes it as a sort of national nervous breakdown in the absence of leadership, the moment passed, any thought of resistance melted away and the German Bushies, the Nazis, thousands of times more violent than our current crop (for the moment), had their way and the rest of the story you know.

Sound familiar? It should because it pretty closely mirrors what much of the Democratic Party Base is feeling. And yes, in many way it also resembles a "national nervous breakdown" and the knowing that NO ONE is one our side - it's just us and the Nazis (or Bushies).

I still say don't rule out some actual VERY Nazi-like stuff, "relocation camps" or other rebranded, remarketed Nazi ideas, because the Tea Party represents an entity that may one day stand higher than the American Corporatists who called it into being, just as one daythe Nazis stood over the Germamn Industrialists who called IT into being.

No one can say, maybe we'll just have Inverted Totalitarianism, but now that the economy is crashing, if the American Corporatists can't blow another funny-money bubble, I suspect the rage and need for murderous scapegoating will eventually out, as it always does when these kinds of demons are released.

Seems to be a constant of the human condition, so get ready 'cause here it comes.

[gateley]

12. K&R -- Why do we do this to ourselves??

I think the big reason is we're not motivated by FEAR, or racism. Or both!

[FrenchieCat]

13. Since the Democrats in Congress appease Republicans,

we might as well do it too. That'll work!

[bvar22]

18. Who could have predicted that...

..letting Joe Lieberman write the Health Care "Reform" Bill would have pissed off so many Democrats? :shrug:

"When given the choice between a Republican, and a Democrat who acts like a Republican, the voters will choose the Republican every time." ---Harry Truman

QED Massachusetts

"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[Bluenorthwest]

19. Obama and Kaine has purged many from the Party

through months of pandering to hate filled bigots who share their petty superstitions. One wonders if they will be able to draw support from the religious anti gay crowd. That is what they have tried for. Hope they can.
My Senators and Rep have been informed that if they vote for a 'reform' that forces us to purchase products from companies that donate to Obama, without any public option or choice, I will not vote for them in the future. Period. Thus far, not one of those three men can explain how this law they are pushing would apply to my family. So they have no idea how it will work, what costs are expected, how the discriminatory tax laws will apply to this Insurance Forced Purchase. They are not able to explain at all how it will work, or what our financial burden will be. They have no idea, yet they ask for my support. Support for a thing they do not understand at all.
I will not vote for people who vote yes without knowing what they are voting for.

[DisgustedInMN]

20. I am firmly convinced that the ..

.. DLC is deliberately trying to lose the November elections as a means to cover their worthless fucking asses. Hanging is too good for them.

[jgraz]

22. Sure looks that way to me.

[FourScore]

21. K&R

[GinaMaria]

26. It might be worse than that

People around me who used to identify as Dems now call themselves independents. In terms of Brand Loyalty... that's a huge problem.