My enthusiasm gap started AFTER the results were in....

[Pholus]

And some advice to my president, if he would like to remain in office. It's unsolicited, I know.

I thought I could watch some news after election day, but this extended cheerfest in the corporate media makes me sick.

And our President is actively participating in destroying his own policies and positions by meekly accepting it.

I just heard Karl Rove on NBC talking about all Obama's extremist policies and how their number one job is to get him fired.

How does our President respond?

Talking about how he needs to work with these guys. WHAT???????

BULL! He needs to spend LOTS of time demonstrating where they are not only wrong, but dangerously so.

Instead, he is just "Mr. Measured Response" That didn't work over the last two years, why fit the definition of insanity here?

People want leaders who FIGHT for what they believe in.

They aren't rational, they aren't going to put two and two together. They don't take the long view.

They see one side bitching and complaining "for the people" and silence from the other side. Duh, no wonder we got whomped.

I can explain the enthusiasm gap pretty darned simply. I didn't feel it before the election NEARLY as much as I have in the days following.

Why is it that I am the only person who sees the trend?

1) Bush gets installed after a handful of votes in Florida:

Result: REPUBLICANS GOVERN LIKE THEY STOLE IT, WHICH THEY DID.
DEMS ROLL OVER.

2) Bush beats Kerry by yet another handful of votes:

Result: REPUBLICANS CLAIM A MANDATE, GET EVEN MORE EXTREME.
DEMS QUIETLY GO ALONG.

3) Obama gets in on a popular wave of discontent with obviously failed policies:

Result: DEMOCRATS meekly call for bipartisanship try to work with the other side,
look like spineless wimps who cannot get things done even with a clear control
of everything.
REPUBLICANS CALL THEM EVERY NAME THEY CAN THINK OF.
LIE, DISTORT, CHEAT, OBSTRUCT

4) Republicans lie their butts off, get elected because our side unable to
articulate what they did even though it's clear:

Result: REPUBLICANS CLAIM A REPUDIATION OF ALL DEM POLICIES, NEATLY DON'T
HAVE TO EXPLAIN WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE DIFFERENTLY. OPENLY
DECLARE GOAL IS TO REMOVE DEMS.
Dems talk of "bipartisanship" and how the people have spoken.

NO FREAKING WONDER THERE IS AN ENTHUSIASM GAP! As a lifelong active DEM *I* am demoralized by watching this spineless bootlicking. I'd join a liberal version of the teabaggers in about a second right now.

The American people do not support you, Mr. President, because they don't even see YOU standing up for you.

GET OUT THERE PRES!!!! You are smarter than the whole bunch of corrupt ignorant loons combined. ARGUE WITH THEM. STOP THEM. MAKE THEM DANGLE FROM THE END OF A ROPE OF THEIR OWN MAKING. MAKE THEM ACTUALLY HAVE TO GOVERN. DEMONSTRATE THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF EVERYTHING THEY DO. ENDLESSLY REPEAT. SHAME THE CORPORATE MEDIA INTO GIVING YOU THE SPOTLIGHT. PROVE TO ME THAT YOU DESERVE YOUR JOB!

You did it before at the republican retreat! Why did you stop?

And if you're worried about being unfair? Don't. The other side isn't. They know there is a winner and a loser and they are quite clear about which side they want to be on.

ARE YOU?

[stray cat]

1. Should we have government in e next two years or should everyone take their marbles and go home

Don't laws and bills require a vote in the house and the senate?

[Pholus]

2. Yup, and the message is going to be that the dems are obstructing again. We need some ju-jitsu here

[Pholus]

3. Let me refine that. The 'thugs are going to be in campaign mode. Point that out,

every chance you get. Make them put legislation out there and let it sink on its merits. It isn't enough to "maneuver" to victory, you have to win the war of propoganda as well. We seem to think that by being rational people will understand. They don't.

[Poboy]

8. Thats why we get our clock cleaned. They NEVER stop campaigning, while 'we'

stupidly think oh, 2 months before the election, better try to get the 'message' out. STUPID.

[Toots]

5. I say just say NO

Stop everything Republican. That strategy worked just fine for Republicans, and we don't seem to have any strategy period..

[Pholus]

7. I don't think this will work either -- it's our job to lead right now. Say "No" like them and...

it gets painted as gridlock. And we're the incumbents.

[Toots]

4. If he will capitulate this easily and quickly with Republicans what will he do with China?

Or any other foreign entity? He is demonstrating complete weakness and I am starting to see what Republicans have been talking about for two years now..I can no longer support such behavior..

[Pholus]

6. He's not going to knuckle under to China. The problem is that he's too much of a team player!

It's killing the national debate. People need to see the differences!

[Toots]

9. I feel so much better now that you told me he would not capitulate on China.

His actions speak much louder though. He alreay has made a trip to the Chamber of Commerce (to make peace) which actively supports outsourcing to other countries including China..

[Pholus]

11. That's a 'pug meme....

I think GWB was the greatest threat to America in recent memory but I don't doubt for a second that he had his version of America's interests at heart.

Why would I think any less of our President, who is great? His only failing is an inability to understand he is dealing with an opposition party that wants to destroy him.

He can work with them, but he can still beat them.

[kwolf68]

10. Rest assured

Democrats awoke Wednesday with a new sense of purpose.

I am even more energized. I've been posting here more, getting re-involved with the political landscape.

The thugs on the right are hypocritical, hateful and dangerous. We can't work with them, we must work to oust them in 2012.

We do that by simply exposing the myth of their paradigm, their delusions and the reality that their ideas are not fit for a modern thinking society.

These are people who would be perfectly fine if women's suffrage had never come about and people still believed the earth was flat. And those are the 'good things' I can think of. Basically, this crowd is unfit to govern because they are amateurs and because they are not good leaders.

Oh sure, they would be fine leading a nation full of right-wing zombies, but there are a lot of people who will find their policies absurd once the light of day shines upon them.

Have faith fellow Dems...sometimes you have to let the dog out of the cage for him to shit on the lawn to show people where that shit comes from.

[Pholus]

12. I hope so, and I'm with you on this!

I just had to express my frustration with the corp. media this morning!

[kwolf68]

14. And you made good points

It is VERY frustrating.

I remember vividly after the Dems took major control in 2008. The meme from the media was

-This doesn't mean a mandate to move left? Enter naysayers.

This term, the Repukkkes take control...The meme?

-This means a mandate to move right yes?

The nuance is subtle, but it's there.

[CrispyQ]

13. “We believe we have compromised significantly, and we’re prepared to compromise further.”

John Kerry made this statement in regards to the talks about greenhouse gasses & unfortunately it appears that the party has been adopted as their new battle cry.

[Pholus]

15. So what's the *best* way to call our representatives on this?

[CrispyQ]

16. Liberals are in a real Catch-22 situation.

We vote for repub-lite 'dems' to keep the batshit crazy right wing out of office, which tells our party leadership that we will support more & more right leaning candidates, so that's what they give us. Party leadership frequently supports the right leaning candidate over the liberal one. :grr:

Today's dem party is more like yesterday's republican party, & as the right wing crazies go further & further to the right, the dem party will follow. A few more election cycles & I won't be able to vote dem no matter how hard I hold my nose from the stench.

To those who say we'll end up with President Palin, well, maybe that's what this stupid country needs to wake them up from the "free market/no regulation/trickle down/tax-cuts-for-the-rich-are-the-best-thing-for-our-economy" delusional bullshit they've bought for the last thirty fucking years.