Has the Democratic Party sold its soul to the Devil ??

[kentuck]

The same Devil that controls the soul of the Republican Party?

Most Democrats felt uneasy or betrayed when the Administration continued the support of the big banks after they took power in January of 2009. There was something very "undemocratic" about giving so much money to Wall Street and so little to the people on Main Street. It was almost like they had adopted the old trickle-down theory from the Reagan years?

Not only did they continue the war in Afghanistan, they upped the ante. They created a commission that will probably recommend cuts to Social Security and very few tax increases. They triangulated the left base of the Party and compromised away too much to a discredited, dishonest, and incompetent Republican Party.

They seemed oblivious to the dire situation with jobs and seemed to believe, like Republicans, in the magic of the marketplace. There was little appetite to restore the progressive tax system that has defined the Democratic Party since Roosevelt. They seemed to be willing to continue the disastrous tax policies and supply-side theories of Reagan and the radical Republicans.

This is not meant to be criticism of the Party just for the sake of criticism. This is meant to be constructive and to get us to look at where we are and where we are going...

[FBaggins]

1. Nah... maybe rented it. n/t

[Subdivisions]

2. Yes, it has. n/t

[Little Star]

3. It sure is looking thay way.

[SheilaT]

4. Can an entity such as

the Democratic Party have a soul? Does the Devil buy souls? Many unanswered questions here.

[Ozymanithrax]

5. There is no devil. A political party has no soul.

Therefore, no they did not.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Two fallacies in your question: 1) there's no such thing as 'the Devil', and

2) there's no such thing as 'The Democratic Party'. At least, I have my doubts about #2.

[Edweird]

7. It has been taken by the DLC. DLC=GOP.

[justinaforjustice]

8. Obama and Friends Are Liberal Republicans, Not Democrats.

The Rockefeller Republicans (socially liberally but fiscally conservative) were kicked out of the Republican Party by the religious extremists. They didn't just disappear, they took their vast wealth and corporate connections and formed the DLC to take over the Democratic Party. They did and are now very much in power and their policies are not Democratic Party policies.

We have to oust them from power in the Dem Party and restore labor and progressives to control. If we don't we will simply have more Republican legislation. That is why Simpson was appointed to the Catfood Commission, the liberal Republicans want to abolish all FDR's social safety networks, just like the religious Republicans do.

[WI_DEM]

9. Oh brother!

[ThomCat]

21. Is that intended to be a serious reply?

The OP seems serious and worthy of real discussion. Given that

1 Goldman Sachs holds so many of the top position in the Treasury, and they have blatantly used their presence there to benefit Goldman Sachs.

2 Obama's education program is nothing more than union-busting, blaming teachers, "No-Child-Left-Behind" under a new name (that we all hated when it was Bush's program), and privatizing schools so that public money goes becomes private profits. Worse, they are so in love with the idea of privatizing schools that the private schools aren't being held to the testing standards that they are using to judge and tear apart public schools. So private schools get public money and haven't been held to any measurable standards. No study has shown that these privatized schools benefit kids, but we are all seeing that the gutted and money-starved public schools harm kids.

3 Health care reform is giving us a requirement to buy insurance policies most people won't be able to afford to use, instead of removing insurance companies to lowering costs. Insurance costs are going up. More people are going onto medicaid, as planned. Fewer doctors are accepting medicaid. If people have to pay 20% of their income (as planned) for insurance, and can't afford the co-pays, then they won't use the insurance. The insurance companies have guaranteed profit for a product many people won't use, as planned.

4 The guy elected by the larges anti-war movement in history INCREASED two wars. Instead of actually leaving Iraq we are just Replacing soldiers with an unknown (but apparently growing) number of contractors, and re-branding the remaining 50,000 soldiers and pretending they aren't going to see combat. Only the mainstream media in the US seems to be buying this story that we withdrew. The rest of the world all seems to know that we are keeping a presence of over 100,000 troops in Iraq between military and contractors.

5 Obama formed a commission whose mission is to justify ways to cut social security benefits and raise the retirement age. Both of these are goals republicans have wished for but could never, ever achieve. This would not be the first time that we would learn that it takes a Democratic administration to really screw us all and create mass poverty. Because democrats can get the left to lower our guard and accept legislation that we would have screamed bloody murder about and foughy to the death to resist if it had come from republicans.

Given all of this, and other issues in this administration, such as his support for free trade, support for voluntary regulations, spying on Americans, Torture, Rendition, etc., the OP definitely has a valid question to ask.

[donheld]

24. Amen

[AnArmyVeteran]

10. We've been sold out, swindled, betrayed, lied to, hit on, etc...

The two party system is corrupt. They are both owned by the same evil masters.

[Cyrano]

13. Then I guess that if that's true,

what, if anything, do we do about it? Do we just sit back and say, "Goodbye America"? Beats me.

[SugarShack]

11. Both parties fish out of the same money bucket....plain and simple

[Ignis]

12. You're just begging for a repost of The List.

:hide:

[RKP5637]

14. Sounds all correct to me. n/t

[Luciferous]

15. Yep.

[Bluebear]

16. And how. nt

[tridim]

17. I sold my Boba Fett action figure to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[Progrimm]

18. Perhaps

They have, but we can go around them, they need our major funders (the unions) to move forward and I think we can use that to get them to do what we the people want sooner or later.

[Fumesucker]

19. Eh, if the Dems could just get the Professional Left to STFU then everything would be fine..

It's the damn Professional Left that's the source of all problems in the Democratic party, if it weren't for their pathetic kibitzing all the *real* Democrats could clap hard enough to save Tink.. umm... the Obama administration.

[w4rma]

20. The House has been good. The Senate and this administration is filled with DLCers.

The DLCers need to be PURGED. Entirely purged from the political party. I don't think we'll lose many votes by ignoring them or getting rid of them and we should gain votes from people who confuse the Democratic Party's policies with DLC policies.

[Lasher]

22. I share your pain. Political parties evolve.

The GOP of today is nothing like what it was back when Lincoln was president. The Democratic party has changed too. We were once the New Deal party, the party of FDR. The party that stood up for working people, the poor, the infirm, the middle class.

But then in 1980 Reagan assumed the presidency by defeating the Democratic incumbent Carter. There were basically three reasons for Reagan's victory: Ramifications of the Arab oil embargo, the hostages situation in Iran, and an ironic migration of racist Dixiecrats to the Party of Lincoln.

However, according to the propaganda at the time (and ever since) from hired rightwing shills such as their lavishly funded think tanks, this represented a sea change in the basic ideologies of most Americans. Tragically, our Democratic leadership overreacted by buying into their lies, and decided to fundamentally change our party's brand in order to appeal to the horde of Reagan worshipers that did not exist. They foolishly corrupted a winning and morally virtuous platform.

From that time until this, neoliberals have been in control. There is a reason you haven't heard the term 'demand side economics' for years, if ever. Just like the GOP, our neoliberal Democratic leadership believes they should put the interests of big business and the wealthy elite ahead of middle class priorities. And just like Republican counterparts, they will not be dissuaded from their fantasies by the harsh realities that ensued since 1980, and were particularly prevalent during the disastrous GWB years.

Why did Clinton support NAFTA and other measures that directly led to the permanent decline of US wages and living standards? Why has Hillary teamed up with Tata Consulting to promote even more H-1B and L1 visas? Why did Obama declare up front that single payer universal health care was off the table but nothing else was?

It's because everything evolves. The Party of Lincoln is now a place where racists feel welcome. And the party of FDR no longer puts the interests of the middle class and poor first. This is why we have suffered such decline; for decades we thought at least some put our priorities first. But I have only recently come to realize, thanks almost entirely to enlightenment from this message board, that this has not been so.

[Enthusiast]

23. Answer: No

They sold their honesty and dignity for money.

[donheld]

25. Same thing