Kos "Lets be real, were just not that powerful"

[grantcart]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7569312&mesg_id=7569312

In the thread John Cole is quoted as saying

Why is it that all the people who claim to be the base turn out to be self-serving, self-promoting jackasses who have very narrow agendas and love to inform us that if the Obama administration does just what they want them to do right when they want them to do it, they will “keep the base.” Otherwise, if they don’t fulfill their agenda right then and there, they will “lose the base.


Kos's reply is instructive

John is a friend, so I say this with genuine respect -- yes, the Democrats have a base problem. And no, it's not because of Ed Schultz, me, Jane Hamsher, or anyone else. Let's be real, we're just not that powerful.


Well my appreciation of Kos as having a clear understanding of how we fit into the political landscape went up a 100%.


If anyone believes that liberals can get elected and then start dictating major policy change then they really don't understand the underlying conservative nature of America.

The US can adopt a liberal agenda but it has to be shown that the policy fixes a problem and doesn't make it worse. It takes time, requires patience and persistency, qualities that the President excels in.

[Cha]

1. I just really don't like those

so called leftists who are disingenuous and are all about fattening their coffers over basic reality.

And, those interneters who constantly whine about the President and won't even acknowledge what has been accomplished and the Progress made are regressives who are only in the way.

Thanks grant!

"The US can adopt a liberal agenda but it has to be shown that the policy fixes a problem and doesn't make it worse. It takes time, requires patience and persistency, qualities that the President excels in."

[sandnsea]

2. "we're just not that powerful"

That's what they say every time they fuck up. They are powerful enough to get a good number of people riled up to be a thorn in the President's side. These are people who have access to the cable networks. Don't tell me they aren't that powerful.

I think the shock of what we could have had is settling in.

[angee_is_mad]

10. they were powerful enough to bring the Presidents numbers down

and help doodoo brown take Teddy's seat. I know coakley was a shithead for a candidate. But my God, a man who posed nude for cosmo and makes provocative remarks about his daughters and is basically a ditz won.

[cliffordu]

3. Yep - Kicketty. Did you know that

grantcart sounds EXACTLY like General Buck Turgidson on the phone??

Strange but true.

[Kaleva]

4. Obama's base is broad and crosses the political spectrum.

Also, the Democrat base changes with the locale. Some here who claim to be a part of the base could never be elected to any office of meaning where I live because the "base" would think them to be too extreme.

[Number23]

5. "The past couple of months, I’ve hated Democrats more that I ever did when I was a Republican."

Wow! That's one HELL of a statement that John Cole made! And the fact that this sentiment is shared by so many Dems who look at these liberal screechers and are shaking their heads should speak volumes.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. I've never been a Republican, but I completely get where he's coming from.

The insanity of our party these days is infuriating. Sadly, I did see it coming. We're less a party and more of a conglomeration of loosely affiliated single issue voters. You can't please everyone in that crowd without a lot of time on your side.

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. Stephanie Miller said on her show last week, that she'd been offered a....

buttload of $$$ to write an Obama bashing book. She turned it down flat, but it looks as if other liberals might be willing to take the money and run. I've maintained from the outset, that a lot of radio talkers & bloggers know that conflict sells, just like sex.

[Blue_Roses]

8. this is so true...unfortunately

the evidence of the change doesn't happen instantly for the "doubting Thomases" to see.

[Hamlette]

9. I don't think that America's underlying nature is conservative

I think the underlying nature of all societies is conservative in the sense that you express in your next to the last sentence.

In some ways America might look conservative in relationship to several European countries but I don't think its true. I have traveled throughout Europe, all of my family members lived in one European country or another for five or more years and trust me, they don't say "there will always be an England" for nothing.

Ancient vestages of sociatal crap (think: class) and laws (you can't buy a soda from a vending machine in Switzerland on a Sunday, for instance) are alive and well.

We think we are backwards in so many ways but womens' rights and gay marriage and legalized pot has come slowly in Europe too. (Pot is only legal (decriminalized) in The Netherlands and Portugal. Gay marriage is really a thing of the past few years in Europe. Married women couldn't have a bank account in their own names in Switzerland in the early 1970s. Abortion laws are pretty "progressive" in the US compared to most European countries (check it out, abortion on demand is not as widespread as you think.)

I think it is hard for all societies to change in part because we've see some unintended results (think school bussing to achieve integration in Boston). It makes us all gun shy.

But in terms of liberal principles and underlying fabric, regardless of whether people call themselves liberal or conservative, the whole individual freedom thing puts the US ahead of most countries.

Don't be so hard on us. We're not so different and in many ways, because of our lack of history, we're miles ahead.

(cue some patriotic music here. I'm headed home after a 12 hour day in the state unemployment office.)