Thank God for the Democratic polices of the past...or we would be totally shafted

[Peacetrain]

We would be in it so deep that the Depression would have looked like a side show.

First of all, unemployment numbers are skewed by the fact that since Ronald Reagan, they cook the books and do not count the long term unemployed to try and put a rosier picture on where we are economically.

Secondly, if it were not for the Roosevelt programs of Social Security and Unemployment Insurance, we would once again be seeing soup lines. As it is now, families are the largest growing group at the free dinner at the local soup kitchen'

Thirdly, the national press, who used to be part of the working class, are now paid and part of the top 10% economically. People who think they are the "average" have the unmitigated gall to say things like, "people should have 6-8 months of pay saved back for hard times", when reality has that same said group using credit cards to buy milk.

Fourthly, we are not a hard economy anymore, but a soft service economy. We need to split this economy and be hard producers of products again, as well as the soft service portion. The pushing of a green revolution may be just the ticket to get us back on track

So thank you JESUS, for the democrats of the past who put through the programs that are keeping our heads above water as much as possible at this period of time.

Last thought, locally, retired families who had 401-K's, have lost so much value in their product, that the Social Security check is what is making the difference. Just as it was meant to be. (I know many who have that as their only retirement income, but that is a different story.)

[Juche]

1. You forgot medicaid and medicare

In 1993, before the GOP took over the congress in 1994 Clinton eliminated the cap on medicare taxes, which dramatically increased revenue. Had he not done that medicare would be bankrupt by now.

Imagine how bad this situation would be w/o medicare and social security. Not only would we have the problems we have now, but we'd have 40 million people struggling far far worse than they are now on top of all this other crap.

[Peacetrain]

2. Good Point!

I just wish as a group of Democrats, we would get in their faces about this.. If it were not for us, and the policies we have put forward, we would be a third world economy.

[Juche]

6. Paul Waldman wrote about that

In his book being right is not enough.

http://www.amazon.com/Being-Right-Not-Enough-Progressives/dp/0471789607

We need to constantly remind the country what progressives accomplished and conservatives tried to stop, and have an overarching moral narrative while doing it. Progressives have always fought to make our world more inclusive, fair and representative so that everyone is protected and offered a spot. Conservatives fight to keep the system hierarchial (whites above non-whites, men above women, the wealthy above the poor, americans above everyone else, christians above non-christians, etc), slanted and designed to stay that way.

What do minority rights, women's rights, ending child labor, medicare, medicaid, social security, making human rights integral to US foreign policy, environmentalism, animal rights, prisoner's rights, international humanitarian aid, the minimum wage, etc. all have in common? As a rule of thumb, progressives fought to make them a reality and conservatives fought to stop them. People need to know how bad the country would be if conservatives had gotten their way.

And we will get universal healthcare, a strong union movement and gay marriage eventually. Just like we got medicare and social security in the past.

[Peacetrain]

10. We have so much to be proud of, and we sit around and quake in fear

at how the republicans will react to us.. they should quake in fear in how we think of them :fistbump:

[thunder rising]

3. Really! Then you think of Pelosi and Reid and think ... we're truly fucked

[Enrique]

4. Pelosi and Reid saved social security in 2005

and Pelosi's off to a good start in 2009 with two wage fairness bills right off the bat.

[Deja Q]

7. Thank you

:thumbsup:

Now I'm not always kind re: Reid, but there's nobody here that supports anybody 100%. A technical impossibility, given the gamut of choices that inhabit human nature.

[Peacetrain]

11. true..no one can fill all our bills

[Greyhound]

5. Neither of the magical men in the sky had anything to do with it.

[leftstreet]

8. There's more than one?

:shrug:

[Greyhound]

13. But the Great FSM is not a man...

Probably not a Democrat either, being beyond such silliness.

[Peacetrain]

9. Well you just have to deal with the fact that I am a Christian.. and

that is how I talk sometimes.. don't take it personally

[Greyhound]

12. I didn't.

But there is a dangerous disconnect between reality and fantasy that we are seeing played out here in America when we ascribe the results of the actions of people to those of mythical beings.

That mental conditioning leads directly to the kinds lunacy we see today, people believing the the earth is 6,000 years old and playing with dinosaurs, for example. I'm sure you understand that this is not so, but a lifetime of indoctrination makes such intellectual backsliding possible.

Words have meaning.

[Peacetrain]

14. Yep some who claim to be "Christians" sure make it hard on the rest of us

I am hardly a lunatic, and do not believe in fundamentalist beliefs such as the earth was created 6000 years ago.

I am not indoctrinated, I do not hallucinate, nor believe that GOD is a guy with a long white beard.. (aka Zeus like) which imagry always amused me.

Words do have meaning.

But not all Christians are delusional .. but those that are, sure make those of us who are not pay a high price in some ways.

I have always said, that most who claim to be Christians are not..they do not have the stuff it takes to live the kind of life they profess.

In fact many progressives no matter what their religious stands, are better "Christians" in living the type of life professed than those who claim that mantle, and proceed to try and beat others into a pulp with it..

I think we sort of got a sub thread started in this, but to take it back to my original op.. Those Democratic programs I was talking about, are the stuff that Christ would have embraced. :)

[spoony]

15. Lol, I clicked this thread just KNOWING someone like you

would show up to express incredulity about anyone mentioning the...the...G WORD! So sadly predictable. Like some Pavlovian thing.