The rotten cancer at the heart of the Democratic Party

[Stoic]

No long post. It's very simple and it's been going on since the 80's. The Democratic Establishment, the people who run the party, detest the base. They hate the liberals and progressives to their core. They need us to get re-elected but can't stand actually doing the work we send them to Washington to do. So every election they promise us the world and afterwards we get the hard stick in the eye. Until this is resolved we will never have any lasting success.

[DontTreadOnMe]

1. I am ready to vote very carefully in the future

And donations DIRECTLY to the candidates I support.

Wanne see my grass roots?

[DJ13]

2. Wanne see my grass roots?

Thats not legal in most states.

[ThomThom]

40. only if it's blue!

:)

[tularetom]

3. If you want to put a face on it, here ya go

[scarletwoman]

4. +100

[jgraz]

11. Shit, warn a person, will ya?

:scared:

[Darth_Kitten]

74. LOL

:evilgrin:

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Here's another.

We each posted atwo faced image, making four faces in all.

[Holy Moly]

78. OBRAHMUEL RAHMABAMASCAMA

the name of the game

BTW
Izzata a wart on His nose
I'd never noticed before?
Or did that just pop out only
after He started lying to His base.
Ah the fatal flaws are beginning to divulge
beyond the powers of cosmetology to
conceal.
Will His nose grow even longer
and even more wartfested as
He lieth unto us even more
in the coming new year?
The befuddled bedraggled base wants to know...

[rollingrock]

19. Obama's Rove

Emanuel is to Obama as Rove was to Bush.



warning: graphic image

[Mari333]

29. thats the face allright UGH.

[ChiciB1]

59. That Shot Looks Exactly Like What I think Of Him! Looks Like He Ate

the real "tweety" and is damned happy about it! Smugness fits him so well! Even BEFORE he got "in" the WH, long before that, I saw him in the House and there was something about him that said... NO WAY!!

Trust isn't a word that comes to mind when I think RAHM! Not knocking Jewish people, but what is it about Rahm & Joe? Makes me wonder! Both of them have a "way" with Obama! Or get their way, or maybe actually use ways to make him bow down, in his own little way!

Couldn't help myself!!

[athenasatanjesus]

5. primaries primaries primaries nt

[bigwillq]

7. I tried. But I only get one vote.

Not too sure how much different it would be, though. Not because of my candidate but because of the system. Obama is to blame, for sure, for some things, but the system is corrupted big time.

[JDPriestly]

68. Face it. The press sold us on Obama.

They presented our choices as being either Hillary or Obama -- two sides to the same coin.

Edwards and Kucinich and other candidates did not get equal time.

The fact that Obama allegedly had promised his wife that he would stop smoking -- but that he did not keep that promise was hidden from us. We were not shown the full picture of Obama.

On the other hand, the press ridiculed Kucinich and Edwards.

It was not until the election that the press ridiculed Obama. Until that time he was protected -- not perfectly -- but more than Kucinich and Edwards.

It's really sad. I went to the candidates' websites and read their platforms. I found Edwards to have the most complete, most progressive stands. Kucinich was also excellent, but I thought Edwards had a better chance at the nomination because he had run for vice president. I also thought Edwards' experience in economics, in the Senate and in the courtroom prepared him for the debates and negotiating.

One of the things I liked most about Edwards was his statement that you cannot sit at the table and negotiate with insurance companies. I know where he learned that -- from negotiating settlements in lawsuits. He was right then. And it is still true that you cannot negotiate with insurance companies unless you first show them you can beat them at their game. That is where Obama showed his colors -- his overconfidence, his lack of experience, his naivete.

[rwheeler31]

6. Funny you did not mention the bankers.

[lunatica]

8. The word you're looking for is 'corrupt'

You know how we can recognize it in other countries? We know it when we see it everywhere else. Well show me how our bought and paid for representatives are not corrupt in equal measure with any third world country or dictatorship.

It became obvious with the Bush administration. It not so different now. Money is king and those who have money are the rulers of kings.

[closeupready]

48. I made a comment earlier that the financial sleight of hand we accept as standard business practices

among banks in the US and which financially harm Americans are actually illegal practices in many third world countries. To say nothing of universal health systems (I mean, people in Cuba live longer on average than Americans) and other 'socialist' programs.

[shadesofgray]

9. Why aren't they just REPUBLICANS? Why are they even bothering to

call themselves Democrats?

That's what I don't understand.

[Stoic]

10. The teabaggers kicked them out.

Now they're infesting our Party.

[jgraz]

13. Because the corporatists need fake opponents.

Otherwise the sham would be too obvious.

[rudy23]

50. Nobody would show up to watch the Harlem Globetrotters just shoot baskets.

Or Sean Hannity arguing with himself. There needs to be a dummy team in there to legitimize the exhibition.

[pundaint]

64. Should the party be renamed the Washington Nationals?

[TorchTheWitch]

21. in order to have a one party government

you have to fool the people into believing there's at least two parties, and one of them represents the interests of the working masses.

[CrispyQ]

35. Bingo!

That's it in a nutshell.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[FiveGoodMen]

54. So that the people with the real power and money get their way no matter how we vote

[NorthCarolina]

12. The DLC is a Cancer Within the Democratic Party, no doubt about it. (nt)

[Cleita]

16. Amen.

They are in power in the party now, but that can change. We need to get some good union people running for office to change things, not that the present party will help them, but the grass roots will.

[NorthCarolina]

34. Only the people can return the Democratic Party to an advocate of the people.

To accomplish that it is important to remain aware that the public media will push back hard in trying to marginalize ANY populist/progressive candidates making a primary challenge against an incumbent DLC'er. The Senate is the hard one because of the 6 year term, however the House could be turned around in short order with a motivated base, and access to information on the progressive candidates running.

[mother earth]

62. We still rule the internet, though they'd like to end that, but

while we do, we can do it. I still believe they screwed Dean (& us) out of his rightful primary win (back in the day), they feared the grassroots, the grassroots put him in that race, out of nowhere. It was how I first fell in love with Dean...and he has proven to be a man of the people.

We need to tackle campaign reform & take care of the monster vote switching machines. Now we understand why that hasn't been front and center...hmmm...he who counts the votes has the real power.

[mother earth]

61. A second Amen, Cleita, we have to take back what they stole.

[Individualist]

20. +1

[Juche]

14. The GOP is the same way

This is one of the few things the democratic and republican party have in common. Both have activist bases (progressives vs. evangelicals) but both fundamentally end up working for wealthy corporate interests since those interests are better organized, better funded and know how to manipulate the electorate better.

Sucks, and it'll take decades to change it.

[Stoic]

15. The corporate sell-outs better watch out.

The Teabaggers and the Dirty Fucking Hippies might band together in common cause and throw them all out.

[Juche]

17. I don't think the teabaggers will

The wealthy and powerful know how to play divide and conquer, and they know how to play on people's vanities and weaknesses. The teabaggers fall for it.

So they try to divide gay vs straight, American vs. mexican, white vs non-white, christian vs nonchristian. Then they use flattery and stoke fear in the straight, american white christians (you guys are too smart and hardworking to need welfare and handouts. Besides, liberals are destroying society and opening up the borders to Al Qaeda). Then after everyone is divided, they plunder.

It'll never happen (teabaggers rising up against the wealthy). The teabaggers have bought the wealthy and powerful people's bullshit hook, line and sinker.

The GOP base (due to stoking xenophobia) wants strong borders. Corporate interests want porous borders because porous borders results in a labor surplus of workers who have no labor rights, low wages and few recourses from employer exploitation. Guess who got their way, the xenophobic GOP base or the wealthy corporate interests?

The progressive base isn't perfect, but we generally don't fall for the divide and conquer/flattery & fear bullshit.

[Laelth]

43. Spot on. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[eridani]

25. Very true, but the Repukes keep catering to their base and making nice

--even though they don't really want to make abortion illegal, etc.

[lady lib]

56. Exactly right. nt

[tonysam]

22. The Democratic Party is now being held hostage by the same

neoliberal/Friedmanite types who have helped destroy the Republican Party with their ruinous economic philosophy. Now that the GOP has been overrun with weirdos, it was time for the neos to take over the Democratic Party.

[garybeck]

23. Did you ever feel like it's all just a big play they're putting on

and they all know the plot and conclusion before it starts. they all have their parts to play... Joe Lieberman, etc.... they walk up to the mic, read their parts... the play is just for us, to make us feel warm and fuzzy. or just warm and fuzzy enough so that we don't grab our pitcforks...

[GreenPartyVoter]

36. Yep.

[freddie mertz]

51. Reminds me of a famous Frank Zappa quote:

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."

[Blue Owl]

53. Joe Lieberman's role

is to drive progressives and critical thinkers completely insane and render them brain-dead from trying to figure out how he remains in politics.

[FiveGoodMen]

55. I didn't always think so, but yes, that's the way it looks now.

[Raine]

60. On point

EXACTLY!!

[bugfragged]

72. Like the Party and the Resistance in 1984.

The Resistance gave the sheeple something to hate when in reality it is used by the Inner Party to identify its enemies.

[dmallind]

24. If the doctrinaire liberals and progressives are the base....

....why does the party platform look like it does, a fairly centrist document? Where in it are the calls for nationalization, closed shops, military dismantling and strict gun control that the democratically (and non-corporate sponsored) elected party activists elected by their peers would naturally include if the far left were even a very significant let alone dominant part of the gressroots party machinery?

[eridani]

26. There is a call for single payer. The WA state Dem platform is indistinguishable

--from that of the Greens.

[dmallind]

28. Agreed - even the national includes a PO (and of course private insurance too)

But government provided health care is hardly the exclusive mark of those far left of center. It can easily be justified on economic impact that even a sane Republican (OK OK what am I saying) would be able to support. We just did a lousy job of explaining how. But the party platform is on the whole not a particualary progressive document is it? It does not contain hardly any of the DU echo chamber priorities, and supports some things that are anathema here.

[eridani]

30. My state party platform sure the hell is

It inclued most of the DU talking points. Not that you would know it by our legislative delegation.

[dmallind]

31. I am not challenging, but sincerely interested. Have a link?

I confess I have not spent much time looking at divergent state platforms. The national platform is centrist almost at every point. If there are state delegations that veer into DU policy preferences then one of two things must be true:

a) The states like that are few and not able to get these things into the national platform when all states vote.
b) There are other states with actually quite right of center Democratic platforms and the national platform indicates itself a compromise.

A quite interesting question I have never thought about before.

[eridani]

33. See below

http://www.wa-democrats.org/index.php?page=display&id=137

[eridani]

32. Speaking of party platforms--how about those Dems from the year 1900?

http://janda.org/politxts/PartyPlatforms/Democratic/dem.900.html

(The approval of the Chinese Exclusion Act strikes a sour note, but otherwise our great-great grandparents seem to have known a thing or three that we of the 21st century have forgotten. Lose the xenophobia and the planks on issues specific to its era, and this platform could serve us very well today.)

We declare again that all governments instituted among men derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that any government not based upon the consent of the governed is a tyranny, and that to impose upon any people a government of force is to substitute the methods of imperialism for those of a republic. We hold that the Constitution follows the flag, and denounce the doctrine that an Executive or Congress deriving their existence and their powers from the Constitution can exercise lawful authority beyond it or in violation of it. We assert that no nation can long endure half republic and half empire, and we warn the American people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at home.

(snip)

We are in favor of extending the Republic's influence among the nations, but we believe that that influence should be extended not by force and violence, but through the persuasive power of a high and honorable example.

The importance of other questions, now pending before the American people is no wise diminished and the Democratic party takes no backward step from its position on them, but the burning issue of imperialism growing out of the Spanish war involves the very existence of the Republic and the destruction of our free institutions. We regard it as the paramount issue of the campaign.

(snip)

We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and intimidation and oppression at home. It means the strong arm which has ever been fatal to free institutions. It is what millions of our citizens have fled from in Europe. It will impose upon our peace loving people a large standing army and unnecessary burden of taxation, and will be a constant menace to their liberties. A small standing army and a well-disciplined state militia are amply sufficient in time of peace. This republic has no place for a vast military establishment, a sure forerunner of compulsory military service and conscription.

(snip)

Private monopolies are indefensible and intolerable. They destroy competition, control the price of all material, and of the finished product, thus robbing both producer and consumer. They lessen the employment of labor, and arbitrarily fix the terms and conditions thereof; and deprive individual energy and small capital of their opportunity of betterment.

They are the most efficient means yet devised for appropriating the fruits of industry to the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, and unless their insatiate greed is checked, all wealth will be aggregated in a few hands and the Republic destroyed. The dishonest paltering with the trust evil by the Republican Party in state and national platforms is conclusive proof of the truth of the charge that trusts are the legitimate product of Republican policies, that they are fostered by Republican laws, and that they are protected by the Republican administration, in return for campaign subscriptions and political support.

We pledge the Democratic Party to an unceasing warfare in nation, state and city against private monopoly in every form.

[CrispyQ]

37. This is worthy of it's own post.

Then those, who call us on the left malcontents, whiners, purists & a plethora of other names, can learn how far to the right the party has drifted.

Excellent post!

[eridani]

75. Will do n/t

[sendero]

27. Is really a cancer at the heart of our government..

... and it is rooted in "one dollar, one vote".

[bvar22]

38. Remember THIS Democratic Party?

"In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens."
--FDRs Economic Bill of Rights

Well, THAT Democratic Party is dead, DEAD, DEAD!
It has been bought by Republicans masquerading as Democrats.

[Laelth]

39. What a wonderful Democratic Party that was. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Lydia Leftcoast]

41. If you get a chance to see the Spencer Tracy-Katherine Hepburn film State of the Union, do so!

Tracy is supposed to be the Republican candidate for president, and yet his speeches are out there in Kucinich territory. It just shows you how thoroughly corporate interests have hijacked both parties.

[Laelth]

42. Thanks. I'll see if I can find it. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Zodiak]

44. It'll be resolved

Unfortunately, I think it will be resolved because these assholes are not going to be re-elected with this attitude.

[rhett o rick]

49. Which specific assholes wont get reelected? Here's how I see it work.

The choices in the future will be either a way-out wacko running for the republicants like a Palin. And a right of center Democrat. That'll be the choices.

I am assuming you werent talking about them losing in the primary? That just doesnt happen.

[Vidar]

45. K&R.

[boomerbust]

46. And let's not forget...

[closeupready]

47. K&R

n/t

[BlueJac]

52. Well said and very true

[scentopine]

57. They should be punished. What is the best way?

The extreme centrists have gone crazy. Voting does not work as we have seen. What is the best way to send a message that business as usual will not be tolerated?

[newspeak]

70. I am tired of progressives being identified with the repukes' extreme

fundy right. When most are not radical lefties, it's just that the nation has moved so radically corporate right. Being a FDR democrat does not make one a radical lefty-supporting labor rights, equal rights, environmental rights, health care, education and regulation does not make one a radical lefty. Our nation has been yanked to the right these past twenty years. It took talking heads twenty years to convince the populace that the media was liberal, as they replaced any objective journalist with screaming, hate spewing corporate toady talking heads. It's been quite a process to convince the populace to go against their own interests while wealthy greed heads point the finger at who to blame for the nation's woes. As long as that finger is not pointed at them, as long as their base can be influenced with sound bites, prejudices, nationalism and outright lies. What the populace doesn't understand, that there are corporations who feed off the government coffers that are in no way considered American anymore. There are corporations who could give a shite about the wellbeing of our communities or the state of our nation, as long as they can make a profit--and amass power to maintain that profit.

[scentopine]

73. Couldn't agree more. The left is without representation. There are two parties...

Republican and Republican.

Bill O'Reilly talked about a good side effect of the new war is all the jobs it will create for people fighting in Afganistan.

Wall Street got their stimulus, we got ours.

Unbelievable.

[whistler162]

58. You really detest the Democratic party don't you!

[scentopine]

71. LOL! Next question is - why do you hate America? -nt

[dusmcj]

63. wealth ? /nt

[pjt7]

65. Rahm's Brother is the Real Life

Hollywood Scum Agent, that Ari from Entourage is based on.

[datasuspect]

76. Rahm was a piece of shit when he had his office on Irving Park Road in Chicago

he's a piece of shit now.

[stillrockin]

66. Amen.

[rurallib]

67. The Dems treat us just like the repugs treat the fundies.

Once they use us to get elected, it's back to greasing the skids with lobbyist money.

[BrklynLiberal]

69. ...

[B Calm]

77. Nothing like being screwed without lubrication. . .