••• How is it that the GOP is poised to gain while stepping on the "THIRD RAIL" of US politics? •••

[breadandwine]

Social Security and Medicare are the "third rails" of American politics. Step on the third rail and you're dead meat.

So how is it that the GOP is STEPPING ALL OVER THE THIRD RAIL, DANCING ON IT, JUMPING ALL OVER IT WHILE WAILING LIKE A BANSHEE, YEEEEEHAH! BAM! BAM! BAM! BASHING A SLEDGE HAMMER INTO IT, STOMPING ON IT

and they are suffering no political consequences?

How?

Because our party is quiet as mice and think passion and enthusiasm and outrage are dirty words.

If you don't scream bloody murder, why should anybody think the GOP is committing murder?


We are a party of wimps that has quietly watched while the GOP holds a gun to its own head and yet we cave to them and say nothing and don't scream bloody murder.


Instead we have our Catfood Commission to go along with the GOP and gut and privatize and "reform" Social Security and Medicare.

Didn't you know? These programs are insolvent! They have huge trust funds that should be privatized! The stock market would make more money! The retirement age should be raised! We should cut and gut ALL these programs, cut spending in the middle of a near depression and hide under the desk! The Republicans might get mad at us otherwise! Glenn Beck is coming for you! We can't holler about GOP threats to Social Security and Medicare! We need to whistle and whimper and be good little boys and girls.

I admit it! Social Security and Medicare need to be cut and reformed and privatized! Now leave me alone, OKAY!!!!!!!

We are a pathetic party of wimps hiding under the desk even as the other side bares its glass jaw and just BEGS us to belt them.

But we can't do THAT! That were be fisticuffs! Fisticuffs I say! We're not ALLOWED to get mad, pissed off, passionate, sound the alarm, scream bloody murder, because THEN WE ARE STOOPING TO THEIR LEVEL blah blah blah. When in Rome do as the Romans do!!! Slash, cut and GUT Social Security! Apologize for Social Security!! Beg to be FORGIVEN for Social Security! Get down on our hands and knees and GENUFLECT before the GOP and go along with their jihad against Social Security, Medicare and other social programs.



We are so accustomed to being wimps we think it's actually a badge of honor. After all! We acted mature! Intellectual! Cerebral!


WE CAN'T STOOP TO THEIR LEVEL.

[divideandconquer]

1. Capitalist fundementalism

The bogus "free" market is now more important than the people, capitalism is no longer a tool but a religion.

[lefthandedlefty]

12. One problem

capitalism is real while religion (all religions)are at best just a theory.

[napi21]

2. I think it's one of two things.

1. The media is pushing for the GOP and not reporting that lots of people HATE their ideas..

2. The electorate simply doesn't believe the GOP COULD ever do it.

OH, and BTW, not ALL Dems are quiet & complacent. I'm sure NOT! I call, write, and scream at those AH's all the damn time! Too bad those we elect, Alan Grayson excepted, don't do the same thing! I was soooo happy on Friday when Rep. Weiner of NY yelled & shouted down that AH King in the House! They deserve much more of that kind of treatment.

I must admit though, if ourDems screamed at the Pubs everytime they deserved it, just maybe it would lose it's effectiveness because it would happen ALL THE DAMN TIME!

[GoCubsGo]

34. Four things...

3. Amnesia. Many Americans have very short memories.

4. Americans are big into instant gratification. They want it, and they want it NOW! They want the economy to be repaired overnight. They want all the jobs lost over the past 10 years restored--immediately. The Dems can't do that, so out they go.

[Warpy]

3. Uh, because they're DESPERATE?

Ending Social Security has always been the holy grail of the plutocracy. Since they benefit little from it, if at all, they think it's entirely dispensable, an unconscionable burden upon the government, and that their overall taxes would be far lower without it.

Everything they've done to it, especially putting it into the General Fund and raising the rates 6 times in the 1980s so it could be robbed to disguise the disaster their tax cuts caused, has been done to threaten its solvency and longevity.

They think they were close to ending it in 2005, even though Stupid's Potemkin town meetings stacked with fundies failed to generate a wave of support among the dumbest people this country has to offer. They now feel it all slipping away as Republicans become as popular as herpes, thanks to their mismanagement of everything they touched for over a decade.

This is their last hurrah, the last, desperate attempt to do what they have absolutely no support for doing, ending the most successful and most popular insurance program this country has ever had.

Smell the flop sweat? I do.

[xchrom]

4. Plenty of the democratic leadership believe

In cutting these programs in their own right.

And have since Moynihan.
They're not cowed. They are neoliberals
Who believe in privatizing government.

[Individualist]

25. Correct!

[msongs]

5. because "everything is on the table" is official democratic policy? nt

[JDPriestly]

6. Because "our party" has sold out to Wall Street,

and it is really Wall Street that wants to do away with Social Security and Medicare.

Wall Street is run to a great extent on foreign capital, and some of the countries supplying the capital, for example, some in the Middle East, do not care in the slightest about ordinary Americans.

Social Security and Medicare are programs by and for ordinary Americans.

To some of these Middle Eastern countries, ordinary Americans are just fodder for their personal vendettas, their wars, against their rival Muslim states. They want our young men and women to fight their wars, but when we Americans are old and no longer contribute to their economic well-being, to their national security, we are of no use to them.

The economic politics of the world changed drastically during the 1970s.

A wonderful symbol of what is happening to the United States is a video I saw here on DU this morning. In it, a young man (from my point of view) is sitting by his swimming pool in Nevada complaining about the fact that Congress is not extending his unemployment. I am sympathetic to this young man. I believe that Congress should extend the unemployment.

Like the young man with his swimming pool, we in American still have the outer appearance of a wealthy country. In fact, we are no longer wealthy.

More than ever, we need to keep Social Security and Medicare. The deep poverty in which we are really mired will become terribly evident if Social Security and Medicare are in any way changed so as to further support the huge war machine we have.

If Saudi Arabia wants us to fight its insurgents, Saudi Arabia should admit it publicly and hire Americans as mercenaries to do its dirty work. It should not be using our entire country and destroying us as a people in order to avenge its rivals.

[IndianaJoe]

7. Because the electorate is more stupid and indifferent than ever.

n/t

[Curmudgeoness]

8. Maybe the "third rail" is a myth. Well....

at least it is a myth if people have stopped caring about it. They have convinced so many people that there will be no money for them in the future without major changes, that these people are no longer willing to fight for it.

[lob1]

9. This is happening under a democratic president.

It's obvious the party is throwing s.s. and medicare under the bus. Our own party is doing this to us. Our own president is doing this to us.

[sabrina 1]

10. The Commission is Obama's commission. It was he who

appointed those Republicans who are enemies of SS.

People have screamed, but Obama has not responded other than to say he is waiting for their recommendations.

The Republicans cannot do anything if the president rejects their recommendations.

That is why Democrats are angry. Why do you think he is listening to Republicans on Social Security and why is he repeating their false claims that SS is in trouble?

I agree with you, we need to be screaming and kicking and calling Congress demanding that Republicans are not allowed to touch the SS fund. Some of us have already been doing that.

[Chulanowa]

11. Because the media is in their pocket

But yes, let's go on blaming democrats. Circular firing squad, commence execution!

[TheKentuckian]

27. It is pretty hard to blame the boogie man for this one.

It was the President who ordered this.

The President used his appointments to stack the commission with corporate fat cats and a token.

Reid and Pelosi followed suite with their appointments and were sure to keep fire breathing liberals far away.

You sure as hell won't find the likes of Tom Harkin, Pat Leahy, or Sheldon Whitehouse anywhere to be seen much less Sanders or Kucinich.

Of course the pukes loaded up on anti-safety net cretins but the point is we set this in motion and we loaded it with those willing to cut deals with big wigs and Republicans.

We've got Schakowsky, Durbin, and Stern we can kinda count on and Dick and Andy are far from unflinching.

[mitchum]

13. Because The War on Drugs! is the new Third Rail...

and has been for quite awhile

[rampart]

14. the catfood commission is bipartisan

and its budget will be passed by the lame duck congress, probably with few republican votes.

we are doing their dirty work, and will not be thanked by the voters.

[bvar22]

15. Because the Democratic Party no longer offers a CLEAR, unambiguous alternative.

The "Centrist" Democratic Party Leadership benefits from muddying the waters on issues that used to be CLEARLY DEFINED.

It is the Democratic Party Leadership that has put Social Security "on the table."

This is NOT the Democratic Party that your parents joined.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans."
---Paul Wellstone

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

16. +1

Would you like gravy and mashed potatoes or mashed potatoes and gravy?

[JVS]

17. Because it's Obama stepping on that rail

[breadandwine]

19. Winston Churchill once said:

"It is best to always be right and consistent. But if you have to choose, you must choose to be right."


So who cares if Obama in the past has sucked up to the GOP on Social Security? There's an election on. Why can't he and other Democrats say, "The GOP wants to kill Social Security, you know what, come to think of it, as a matter of fact!"

Who the hell cares about consistency. The point is that the GOP is baring its glass jaw and just BEGGING us to belt them on this issue.

And we sit here and say, you know what, we're wimps. We can't do that.


We are so F*CKING CHICKEN we could rescue the WHOLE F*CKIN ECONOMY by opening up a poultry farm......

[JVS]

22. "So who cares if Obama in the past has sucked up to the GOP on Social Security? "

In the past? The catfood commission is still active. It's an ongoing process.

You can't run on issues where you've just demolished your credibility.

[breadandwine]

26. Okay, you've got a point. Let's forget about Social Security.

We can't criticize the GOP.


We might be:

Embarrassed.

[JVS]

28. You have to walk a good walk in order to be legitimate when you talk the talk.

Obama's actions have forfeited the issue.

[bvar22]

32. I CARE!

I will only support Democrats who have shown consistency throughout their campaigns and terms.
I have NO respect for politicians who enable Republicans, and then suddenly undergo JailHouse Conversions for the TV cameras when an election is near.

If their Campaign Rhetoric does NOT match their performance, they are nothing but Scam Artists.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-15-2010/respect-my-authoritah

[Vinca]

18. The Catfood Commission was Obama's idea.

[Imajika]

20. Got bad news for ya...

..the issue is much of our party agrees with the Republicans on this. They just won't say so. Anytime they do raise a ruckus about SS and Medicare it is mostly for electioneering purposes.

Still, the Republicans are worse. The GOP's real motive is to move it into the stock market. They think the more people are invested in the market, the more likely that capitalism becomes so enshrined as our way of life that it will be impossible to really change anything - even around the margins.

Many Democrats just think it is finally broken since all the money has long ago been spent, and to keep it going they will propose cuts to benefits and raising the eligibility age. To these Democrats SS and Medicare are not sacred institutions to be built on, they are government services for the little folks that they can sometimes promise to raise or cut depending on what the electoral situation calls for.

We have two parties that basically believe the same thing. The problem really is that a 3rd party isn't going anywhere right now, and the Republicans are just far worse. So we have one bad option as our only real choice.

Oh and another thing. If we really want to change the Democratic Party into something seriously progressive we are going to have to accept losing some elections. That is another problem we are facing. In order to win, we sacrifice so many of our principles and platforms and nominate heaps of DINO's and Conservadems. We're not talking just Blanche Lincoln here, but probably the majority of our party isn't particularly liberal/progressive in the first place. We chose these people because we are afraid to lose a few elections cycles, but it is probably better to lose for a few years and really stand for something once we win. You have to admire the TeaParty for this actually. Sure, they are insane, but they are nominating like minded nuts. Yeah, they may lose in places like Nevada and Kentucky when they should have won, but at least they have the balls to nominate people who believe the goofy things they believe in.

[bvar22]

33. The Rightward drift of the Democratic Party Leadership over the last 25 years....

...is forcing me to consider longer term solutions than just the next election.
The Democratic Party Leadership is demanding that I vote FOR a virulently Anti-LABOR Blue Dog in the next election, when an acceptable Pro-LABOR Democratic candidate was available during the last Arkansas Primary.

When the Working Class & The Poor (Democrats, Republicans, & Apathetic), realize WE have more in common with each other than we have in common with the Ruling Class Leadership of BOTH Political Parties, CHANGE will follow.


"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for,
at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them."
--- Paul Wellstone

[Nite Owl]

21. Last I knew it was

a Democratic President who thought this up and appointed the people to the commission. He is the one stepping on third rail and right over all of us.

[WinkyDink]

23. I never thought I'd miss old Mayor Daley.

[EFerrari]

24. Stoop to their level? We'd need lifts to rise to the occasion.

There's nothing intellectual or cerebral about leaving the field to the opposition.

[DainBramaged]

29. I have been trying to explain this to the President a while

and other peeps too.

[Snarkoleptic]

30. Gotta hand it to them, they always swing for the fences.

[Orsino]

31. Because they have successfully watered down every Democratic initiative...

...so that one has to think to distinguish the results from failure.

The GOP offers the illusion of strength, successfully abetted by the television. We will be successfully hoodwinked into voting for more obstructionism.

[TheKentuckian]

35. We insisted on it. you know how irregular the gang of six deal was?

We gave away very passable drug reimportation and any fight to negotiate for prices.

We maintained the anti-trust exemption.

We insisted on taxing benefits.

We killed national exchanges.

We watered down derivative enforcement.

We dumped glass-stegall and watered and watered and watered again the Volcker rule.

We set up the wholly inadequate subsidies.

We allowed delay after delay after delay.

We legitimized their failed ideology.

We resurrected the catfood commission after they bailed out and killed it and then we, yes, we stacked it with those friendly to scalpel and chainsaw.

We put out jail for pot brownie laws and vote for em 100%.

We voted Ensigns trojan into the Wealthcare Act.

We escalate stupid and expensive war with no discernible victory or path to it.

We load up our cabinet with corporate lackeys and Republicans.

We played along with the farce each time that this time things would be different as each time they pulled away the ball. Shockingly even after doing so on their dream of a catfood commission with a up or down on the recommendations Lucy pulled the ball anyway and WE made it happen anyway!

We left BP in charge of a disaster of their making to the point that they could over ride the EPA and anybody else.

We refuse to hold Republican criminals accountable leaving them free to stir the pot and come back and do much worse.

We incorporate their idiotic ideas into policy for not a solitary fucking vote.

Republicans Ogga Bugga! They're mean old meanies and won't let us do stuff that's why it all sucks Donkey Kong anus. We did our level best, Scouts Honor.

[breadandwine]

36. SPEAKING OF TELEVISION why aren't Democrats making a stink about GOP opposition to Social Security

and Medicare.

Because we are wimps.

[Poboy]

37. Wimps? Some are, yes. In fact most are. Then there are the Dem corporate whores who will

go along with the lies. Their function is to divide the opposition(the Dems)who used to defend SS.
We are being SOLD OUT.

[Warren Stupidity]

38. holding hands with Democrats while stepping provides insulation.