Note to Dems: Run Against the Koch Brothers

[Joanne98]

If we want to beat Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and the Astroturf phenomena that is the Tea Party movement, why not go for the jugular vein? Define every GOP candidate as a surrogate for the Koch Brothers.

It seems as if the Tea Party movement has energized the Right and that the Left seems lethargic. But what is the solution? The idea of Democratic candidates running against George W. Bush is a tactic of past campaigns.

The Dems need a bogeyman who can both revitalize liberals and frighten the daylights out of Independent voters. This someone should be able to make even old time patrician conservatives uncomfortable -- in much the way that the demagogic populist conservatism of George Wallace and Lester Maddox did in another era. Indeed, Tea Party conservatism is undoubtedly causing William Buckley, Jr. to spin in his grave.

There are two such bogeymen available. And although they are not GOP candidates, I am not sure that they need to be to serve the purpose.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/8/29/183546/065/Front_Page/Note_to_Dems_Run_Against_the_Koch_Brothers_

[PhilosopherKing]

1. The bogeymen are a part of something bigger.

We live in a corporatocracy. Run on that of which the Koch brothers are a part of.

[rawtribe]

2. LOL

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9014275

[Joanne98]

3. %$^%&**

:argh:

[Warpy]

4. I hadn't seen that but I can't say I'm particularly surprised

Those old boys have their tentacles into everything. It's no source of wonder that the Wall Street Democrats have been in thrall to them, too.

Now are y'all getting why the DLC is our deadly enemy?

[Blue Owl]

5. Pull back the curtain for once

and expose the pile of turds running the "show" that is the GOP.

[dembotoz]

12. great t-shirt in there somewhere

[rgbecker]

6. Link to New Yorker article. Get up to speed on these guys now.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer

Time for internet transparency.

[whathehell]

7. Excellent idea.....Hope our Dems

aren't too lame to run with it :eyes:

[ProfessionalLeftist]

8. If they're smart, they'll do just that

RE:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all#ixzz0xwszxjw9

These idiots are insidious, sneaky, criminal.

[billlll]

9. cock? koosssh? how

Say the name?

[ProfessionalLeftist]

10. "Coke"

is the correct pronunciation I believe.

[Hawkowl]

11. So rethuglicans are Koch suckers?

As in feeding off of the Koch's?

[bergie321]

13. Run against failed Republican policies

Democrats suck at messaging. The big debate is whether or not to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone or just extend the Bush tax cuts for the bottom 97%.

Screw both plans. Let the "Bush tax cuts" expire. Pass new Obama tax cuts for the bottom 97% and small businesses.

[billlll]

14. wrong . JFK 92% needed... end hmlessness, hunger

Cop, teacher,
Food inspector shortage

Need LBJ's Great Society and to

copy Finland....

TOP QUALITY OF LIFE.

( Globally, UN says.)

[Moostache]

15. No...screw ALL of the tax cuts.

THE CLIFF NOTES VERSION OF THIS RANT - raise taxes on everyone, but most onerously on the top 0.01% of the nation and reduce spending NOT on social programs first but on out of control military expenditures and then REFORM the social programs to continue ferreting out waste and fraud via 100% transparency.

THE MUCH LENGTHIER (AND UTTERLY POINTLESS TO BOOT) RANT ITSELF:

We are being sold a false bill of goods - we must choose between either bankruptcy or social spending "austerity" cuts to balance the budget. THIS IS THE BIG LIE MADE FAMOUS BY HITLER...

We do NOT have to cut social spending programs to the bone to achieve budgetary goals, we need to pay our fair taxes at ALL levels and control our most out of control spending - which starts with the military and the police-state apparatus that it has spawned since 2001. This nonsense about taxes "killing jobs" has been floating around for goddamn forever already. Riddle me this Batman...if these Bush tax cuts were so goddamn great at creating jobs, why did the Bush administration preside over the worst job numbers in 50+ years with them? If they created so many jobs, then why are they not STILL creating jobs RIGHT FUCKING NOW??? I have to call massive "bullshit" on this one....if these tax cuts are such a great economic tool, then why exactly did they coincide with the near total collapse of the economy and the utter destruction of the middle class? Oh yeah...that's right...because ITS A FUCKING LIE!!

The answers are simple - but implementing them requires the kind of moral clarity, certitude and courage that our modern-day triangulating Democrats lack. These spineless cowards would find a way to LOSE to the one-legged man in the proverbial ass-kicking contest...

Want a balanced budget?
END the wars - entirely...not just dog and pony shows for the press about "combat operations"...close the fucking bases, bring the men and women home and cut fucking bait already.
END "empire USA" by likewise closing 95% of the USA's existing cold-war era base infrastructure and troop deployments.
END the CIA, its secret prisons and renditions and while we are at it, the extensive, pointless and cash-grabbing "war on drugs" as well...the prison-for-profit industry is another pointless drag on the nation's health. Just another example of how the political connections and money of a few are used against the good of the many.

Those acts alone cannot solve the problems of structural deficits, but its a MUCH better start than hacking away at Social Security as a FIRST RESORT!!! The idea that Social Security and Medicare are bankrupting the country have been floated around for 75 and 45 years respectively. IT IS A CANARD. The eternal solvency of each system is tax reform away from reality. Lift the caps on contributions to the system and means test the pay outs from the system and voila...Medicare and Social Security are solvent for the foreseeable future. Further strengthen the programs by actually setting those fund aside and forever stopping the looting of the trust fund and we could REDUCE the retirement age to once again pay full benefits at age 65.

Next step, is to return the nation to the idea that taxes are not some sort of evil plot to deprive you of your money while handing it over to a shiftless dark-skinned person. Taxes are what allow civilization to be maintained and a nation to remain a viable entity instead of a dysfunctional banana republic. Taxes are what pay for infrastructure and make a country competitive on the global stage - this nonsensical idea that small business owners are somehow going to make the USA stand up to China and its 4X greater population is fucking crap, pure and simple. The only way the USA can compete with China is by marshaling the one resource we still seem to have - aggregate "wealth" in the form of stolen profits in our upper 0.01% of the population - and putting it to work FOR the people instead of for a very tiny subset of the people.

To "save" America, you must first and foremost save it from its own top flight citizenry and their own greed. I like taxes no more than anyone else, but I am able to draw the distinction between paying for a stable society and wallowing in the ginned up fears of people who want to use my fear as the weapon to extort more money for themselves. Why raise everyone's taxes? To change the narrative...to inject capital back into the government so that it may immediately be sent back to the people in the form of massive new infrastructure projects in roads, bridges, energy generation, energy distribution and transportation. We need people to realize that the 21st century requires us to make the same kind of contributions to the nation's greater good that the 2oth century required. The top tax brackets for most of the nation's most prosperous post-WWII years was over 67% (at times maxing out over 90%!). THAT is what is required again and no amount of kicking and screaming or wailing about how unfair it is will change that fact.

The final step in all of this is to repair the damage done to the functioning of government by the brazen tactics of the current Republicans. We can and must have an ongoing and eternal debate regarding the size and scope of the government. It is a necessary condition for preventing true tyranny...but the debate must be about the role of government and its proper place in the lives of the citizenry. We currently have a broken government due to the aforementioned lily-liveredness of the Democrats and the craven opportunism of the Republicans, especially in the United States Senate. Filibuster reform and reinstitution of the majority rules principles of voting must be restored to the law making bodies of the Congress.

We can endlessly debate how the government SHOULD function, but we must stop allowing the debate to actually STOP IT from functioning at all.

There you go...in a long, drawn out and pointless rant, essentially 3 reforms that would make the current situation a very serious, yet manageable crisis instead of an existential threat to the republic. We stay the current course and we will get a right-wing demagogue in the White House who will complete the destruction of the nation and ensure a 21st century third-world America. We change while its still possible and maybe there is a second act to the American Century after all...