The Republicans woke a sleeping giant - the workers.

[yardwork]

As a lifelong Democrat I have watched in despair as the Republicans turned working Americans to their side with twisted "values" issues, convincing blue-collar workers and the suburban middle class to vote Republican on the basis of guns, God, and gays. W the loser was a "nice guy you want to have a beer with" and Ronald Reagan was a saint.

It seemed like nothing the Democrats said made any difference. We were "elitist." We fussed about unimportant things like the economy using big words and "lying with statistics." We "didn't care about the little guy."

Recent events have finally opened the eyes of the people. Multi-billionaire Wall Street hedge fund operators get a no-strings-attached bail-out and keep their bonuses and luxury junkets, but Detroit gets nothing unless the skilled workers who build the cars agree to slash their wages and benefits. The real Republican family values are now exposed for all to see.

Thank you for waking up. Now let's join in a bloodless but serious people's revolution to put this country back on track. No more preemptive wars. No more replacing government agencies with greedy incompetent for-profit corporations raking in billions in secret no-bid contracts. Health care for everybody - not just Congress. Reinvestment in our country's infrastructure - repairs to bridges and highways so that people can get to work without being killed. Restoration of government oversight of industry so that people can work in decent, safe conditions.

Let's get to work.

[robinlynne]

1. Here Here!

[yardwork]

2. Thank you. Pass it on!

[morningglory]

3. You tell 'em, Yard!! nt

[yardwork]

4. Thank you!

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

5. Word. nt

[cordelia]

6. K&R - very eloquent. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Yep. Free market. Here it comes.

Republicans aren't going to win another election for the next four presidential terms.

[jimlup]

8. I hope the damn rethugs never win another election period

I hope you are right and I hope that the workers rise up and put the republican party in its rightful place - the scrap pile of failed ideas

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. I don't know what the fuck they're thinking.

Do they really think that Americans are going to accept getting their wages busted and still believe in Republican policies? Hell no. The bubble has burst. The MBA is dead, so Unions will rise again. That is free market for you.

[yardwork]

15. That won't do any good if the Democrats start behaving the same way.

We need a worker's revolution in this country.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. What the Dems do in the next eight years will either make them as strong

as they were when they ruled for forty years, or they will just hand it over to the Republicans who will turn us into a third world country.

And, btw, in forty years, Anglo Americans will be in the minority. Believe me, there are upper crust individuals in third world countries that would make good ole boys look like choir boys.

[DainBramaged]

9. I think so, and they sent a chilling wake up call to the manufacturers in the auto industry

all that money, hundreds of millions of dollars, thrown at the GOP, and what did they get? Slapped in the face. They KNOW now which side of the street their real home is on and it isn't the side of the GOP.

[1776Forever]

10. Least we forget how long it took some people check this out from Daily Kos 2006!

"Republican family values are now exposed for all to see" - What the H took them so long? And we could of course add dozens more to this including the now exposed Rumsfeld / Rice involvement in Abu Ghraib!

Take a look at this blog from Daily Kos back in 2006:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/6/6530/13927

Republican Family Values?
by DarkSyde

Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 03:53:00 AM PST

With all the speculation, rumors, accusations and criticism in the media and blogosphere, investigations, arrests, indictments, and guilty pleas of Republicans these days, every now and then it's good to consult an updated program. Programs, get yer programs, can't tell your hearsay from your alleged Republican perps from your alleged Republican pervs without a program. Note: All persons are presumed innocent until such time as they may be proven guilty in a court of law. Or until they cop a plea.

* Vice President Dead-eye Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff Scooter Libby resigns after being indicted on felony charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the CIA leak investigation

* President Bush severely criticized for his role in the domestic NSA wire tap program; Close advisor Karl Rove deeply involved in the same investigation that indicted Scooter Libby; Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has been severely criticized for his role in the torture memos. The President, the AG, and Mr. Rove have not been charged with any wrongdoing

* Tom DeLay, former GOP House Leader already under indictment in Texas, suddenly resigned from Congress Tuesday under a swirling dark cloud of corruption speculation after two of his former senior aids copped pleas and a third may be about to follow suit (See Lindsay Beyerstein's Delay perp walk shot)

* Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist is under investigation for possible securities violations regarding his stock in the company his family founded. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing

* Leading Bush 2000 Campaign contributor and personal friend to the President, Ken Lay, currently being tried for his alleged role in the Enron debacle while he was CEO. According to Conspiracy of Fools, Lay was nearly chosen to be Secretary of the Treasury shortly after Bush's victory in 2000

* Ohio Republican crony Tom Noe indicted on 2/13/06 on 53 counts, including forgery, money laundering, and theft, related to Coingate (Background and mugshot). By some reports, Noe was on the verge of being put in charge of the U. S. Mint in some senior level capacity

* Top-Gun Republican Congressman Randall Cunningham sentenced to eight years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges of accepting over two million dollars in bribes

* Republican mega-money man Jack Abramoff plead guilty to several felony corruption charges and is facing the distinct possibility of more. Currently free after being sentenced to over five years in prison to cooperate in other investigations one of which involves the gangland style execution of Konstantine Boulis

* Presidential Domestic Policy Advisor and self proclaimed Christian conservative Claude Allen arrested for his alleged leading role in a seedy, felony shoplifting racket

* Department of Homeland Security Assistant Press Secretary Brian Doyle facing arrest on 23 charges related to soliciting sex from a 14 year-old minor in a police sting operation (Don't you feel safer?)

* Update/Additions from comments: See also TPM's list, White House procurement wonk David Safavian arrested via OldYellerDog, another alleged pervert via Cory Bantic

The next time a conservative ditto shithead starts babbling about 'family values', do you think they'd appreciate a response with a snarky reference to the Borgia family or would it be best to stick with a more contemporary clan, like Ma Barker's gang, to drive the pithy point home?

[yardwork]

12. The brainwashing was strong in many of them. They had to hit bottom before they woke up.

[stray cat]

11. I an not crazy about bailing out companies but I am against intentionally targeting workers!

[yardwork]

14. That's the plan. We the people are in the way of the ego maniacs.

The few who have seized control want everything for themselves. They don't want to share. They want everyone else to die. Literally.

[Lifetimedem]

13. K&R

[yardwork]

16. Thank you!

[WillieW]

17. I could not have said it better! Thanks

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. K&R!

[AwakeAtLast]

19. They didn't know they were giving us the perfect Christmas gift, did they?

:D

[WolverineDG]

22. Yup, they've kicked the Reagan Democrats out of their party

so now all they're left with are religious nut-jobs & white supremacists. Poor babies. :nopity:

dg

[Davis_X_Machina]

23. They'll just split the workers...

...top from bottom, black from white, blue from gray from white from pink collar.

It's never not worked before.

[Hidden Stillness]

24. Basically Agree, but With a Partly Different Slant

Just to add a few different slants to this OP. I basically agree, although I will say that the usual "internet liberal" characterization of the Midwest as "conservative," "pro-Reagan," etc., is a fantasy world. This is why the Clinton "D"LC lost the votes of the Midwest (and others)--because we knew that behind all the pseudo-Democratic pretense, they were totally corporate, and anti-union. What people should notice, if they have not already, is that here in the Midwest, we are unions. The Midwest is where manufacturing unions were the strongest, we invented them, we know we need them, no one needs to "frame" anything to convince us, etc. The Midwest is union. When unions die or jobs are outsourced, we are the ones who suffer the disaster; so it isn't just workers, it is all Midwesterners. We are all outraged at the Republican moneyed-class killing our unions, just as if it were a hundred years ago. People are as universally angry here--even Republicans here!--as if you were threatening to take our Great Lakes water again. Republicans have, stupidly for them great for us and the world, awakened the whole Midwest, which can be surprisingly, radically anti-corporate.

If you think back, some years ago now, before any official "Democrats" anywhere were opposing anything Bush/Cheney and Republicans did, before Terri Sciavo, etc., the very first rebellion, was by old people, when Republicans tried yet another attempt to kill Social Security by commercializing it (and Rahm Emanuel supported killing it). The first sign of rebellion came from the people who have no connection to "consultants" or polls, but who remembered the New Deal, and knew how they have been saved by this program. Also, the line about how "blue-collar" (all lumped together) workers "supported Bush," "opposed gay marriage," and etc.--this has always been false. According to extensive studies by the UAW, going back years, union households--unlike statistics for white males as a group, for example--support liberal causes, voted for Gore, then Kerry, not Bush, etc. Union households, educated by union newspapers, meetings, etc., are Democratic, and vote for Democrats. They were never part of the "social conservative" (whatever) propaganda-trend.

[HopeFor2006]

25. I feel Hope for 2009.

:bounce:

[MilesColtrane]

26. Oh, it's on like a pot o' neckbones.

Time to take back what is ours.

[MadMaddie]

28. mmmm...neckbones..

[Codeine]

27. Please.

They are as asleep as ever, and will never awaken.

[MsLeopard]

29. Count me in!

K&R and hoping it happens! :toast:

[WhiteTara]

30. and now the nouveau poor

who were once the nouveau rich