What should be our response if Obama proposes austerity at the state of the union?

[yurbud]

First, I know some will say ''wait and see if he actually does,'' but if you don't prepare for the worst, you are far more likely to get caught with your pants down. I have to wonder if the people who keep saying that here aren't trying to get that outcome.

The rest of us know that expecting Democrats at the top of Congress and in the White House to do the right thing is a crap shoot at best (and it goes without saying that we wouldn't even have that much of a chance with the GOP in power).

What can we do to do if he goes that route, including the conservative wet dream of cutting Social Security benefits and starting to treat it like a regular budget item instead of what it is, a program with its own separate revenue stream that is so healthy the rest of the budget has borrowed from it?

Since Obama didn't let the Bush tax cuts expire, he missed a chance to shift at least part of the cost of repairing our country to those who broke it: the very wealthy assholes on Wall St.

Since the buzz in DC is about deficit reduction, that means cutting programs for working and middle class people, firing public employees, and breaking public employee unions.

What can we do to prevent or respond to this outcome? The biggest demonstrations in history worldwide did not stop the Iraq War and a tsunami of letters and phone calls from voters both left AND right did not stop the blank check bailout Congress wrote to Wall Street.

When Democrats at the top conspire with Republicans to enact conservative and neoliberal economic policies, Democratic voters are too often paralyzed, and clearly even the backhanded boycott of voting in the last election doesn't seem to bother Obama much.

Is there some peaceful, nonviolent way to escalate protests that nonetheless makes them harder for pols to ignore?

What can we do to overcome that inaction, and prevent policies that will further downsize the middle class and make us look more and more like a Third World nation, with a handful of very wealthy living in gleaming gated communities on a hill, and the rest of us living in shantytowns, surviving on the garbage and sewage that trickles down the hill?

[begin_within]

1. Tax the rich and the corporations.

And use the money to provide universal health care and a basic standard of living for everyone in the U.S. Oh and pay off the debts.

[rucky]

2. + cut defense spending

by a lot.

[customerserviceguy]

15. If you do so strategically, it can be done

I'm sure the tea partiers are just as upset over at least some overseas spending. Maybe we don't need troops in Germany or Japan to continue to pacify them after WWII, or troops as sitting ducks in South Korea. I can imagine there are a lot of other places around the globe that are expensive to maintain, with questionable efficacy of establishing a strategic deterrent.

[golfguru]

20. US has 800 military bases around the world

and we are borrowing Billions every year from China to maintain those bases.
I can't think of any more stupid spending than that.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Well, Hell, that sounds like a really great platform.

Who we gonna elect to enact it?

[Ozymanithrax]

9. Then you need to elect a congress that will pass a tax increase.

The Republican House will not do that.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. I love your spin on the old Reagan line--

the gleaming gated community on a hill.

[emulatorloo]

11. "City on the Hill" was popularized by John Wintrop in 1630

[Jackpine Radical]

16. Hartmann writes about the phrase in his book

"Cracking the Code," pointing out how Reagan's adding the "shining" adjective increased its power.

[emulatorloo]

17. Gotta get that book. . . .thnks

[QC]

26. Here's one of the all time greatest uses of the phrase:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOdIqKsv624

[elehhhhna]

5. GREAT! All y'all biggest benefactors of the U.S. GO FIRST!11!1

for a change

[DCKit]

6. I'll be screaming "You LIE!!!!" at my TeeVee.

Austerity is code for non-consensual economic rape. If anything, the government hasn't spent nearly enough to stimulate the real economy.

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

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[QC]

7. As with every other issue,

we must trust and obey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q00TXBPl9i4

[Cleita]

8. I'll say

you and your multi-millionaire and billionaire peer group go first.

[anamandujano]

10. Let our leaders lead by cutting their salaries, health benefits,

close their fuking gyms and hair salons and move them to a Holiday Inn conference room to do their trash talking.

Some organization with media access needs to start a campaign.

THE PEOPLE NEED TO BUY THOSE ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES AND OWN THEM FOR GOOD.

WE ALL KNOW WE DIDN'T VOTE IN THESE NON-PRODUCTIVE PRANCING PUKES* WHO DO ANYTHING THEY WANT AND MAKE OUR LIVES AS MISERABLE AS POSSIBLE.

*Please add DISHONEST DITHERING DEMS.

[Imajika]

12. I don't know what the answer is, but you make a really good point...

"When Democrats at the top conspire with Republicans to enact conservative and neoliberal economic policies, Democratic voters are too often paralyzed"

This is a real problem. I was just commenting on another thread that all too often we are now wed to our political party instead of ideas. Everything is done through the prism of "well, we can't rock the boat within the Democratic party because it might make us look weak and embolden the Republicans, and we all know the Republicans are worse". In short, we will tolerate even the most appalling policy positions from our party leaders in the interest of unity and keeping the GOP from even potentially exploiting any division within our ranks.

[sadbear]

13. Austerity for the rich!!!!

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[Laelth]

18. Vomit. n/t

-Laelth

[jenmito]

19. I don't know-what was your response when Obama signed the repeal of DADT into law? n/t

[yurbud]

24. I applauded that. Now I'd like to see equally progressive action on the budget, foreign policy,

Wall Street, and K-12 education.

[rug]

21. It depends on whether he address his remarks to those who are already living in austerity.

[yurbud]

22. an answer in this thread: 'Matt Stoller: Understanding the Strategy of the Democratic Power Class'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=211467&mesg_id=211467

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BzaDem]

31. Well, if you are successful, that just means you'll be voting for an actual corporate patsy in 2016

when it comes time to unseat the Republican you put into office (voting for Ben Nelson if necessary). Sure, you might deny this now, but as Nader voters showed from 2000 to 2004, there is a large difference between what people claim they will do at one point and what they will actually do in the future. Reality has kind of a tendency to do that (just ask those who didn't vote for Gore).

[NoPasaran]

25. Post furiously on the Internet

[Jakes Progress]

27. Many here will hail it as a great idea.

[yurbud]

28. it will just seem like many. It's about seven.

[Jakes Progress]

34. But, but. Aren't they the base? The magnificent ....

They say all the time that we lefties are out of it, that they are the ones who know how it really goes.

[yurbud]

42. I mispoke. I did a poll on this a few years back, and there were 6 out of 285. 31 moderates

who didn't accept DLC label.

So DLC, 2%

(since they control the party leadership, I'm not sure why people here who support them are so reluctant to even acknowledge their existence).

All self-identified moderates, 11%

Progressive Dems and further left, 86%

[Jakes Progress]

44. You can just follow the threads

to see the number. On anti-DLC threads if there are 300 responses, about 40% are against the OP in question. But they are the same names over and over and over. The 180 anti-DLC posts will represent 90 to 100 different members, but the the 120 pro-status quo posts are by the same four or five posters.

[yurbud]

46. and they often post the same glib one liners over and over even when it doesn't fit the context

[Citizen Worker]

29. A general strike. But that will never happen. Instead we'll collectively wring our hands and say,

if he dares do another like this I'm really gonna get mad.

[whosinpower]

30. The vast majority of americans hold no power

10 percent of americans hold 98 percent of the financial stocks on Wall street. They have the voice. They have the keys to the kingdom and they won't give it up.

So, what is a person to do? As you said, protests are largely ineffective....until they become riots and then they get noticed, but for all the wrong reasons.

Flood the phone lines of your representatives to the point that they are jammed.....perhaps for weeks, not just hours. Flood the email, flood the snail mail, US postal service with letters.....millions of letters. And finally, a general strike - until Social Security is secure. That is the goal after all. Government made a pact - and you have faithfully paid into that program. You did your duty as a worker and a citizen. Main street should not be treated as a piggy bank that can be raided at will.

[Perky]

32. Applaud

So long as Medicare, Medicaid and SSI are protected and the Defense and homeland Security programs are reduced

Look.It will be viewed as draconian for a Democrat to touch the social safety net and the GOP is not stupid enough to mess with their base most of which is over 50 and their electoral fortunes runs through Florida and Ohio and since we have to pay interest on the public debt there is no place to make major cuts unless it it DOD and DHS.

[Phx_Dem]

35. +100.

[socialist_n_TN]

33. I'm just going to CONTINOUSLY ask...........

why the RICH doesn't have to sacrifice in the name of austerity.

[texshelters]

37. Write all the Democratic Senators who can block that, point out

that the Blue Dogs were unelected in the last election and we don't support them, and take to the streets with our cell phones in hand so we can flood the White House switch board with "WTF!"

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[sweetapogee]

39. this thread

Is A Classic!

[saras]

40. Start at the top

I will happily cut my lifestyle and income to that of the wealthiest people and corporations in the country. When they cut back to below where I am at now, I will cut back some more.

a peaceful, nonviolent way? Sure, a general corporate strike. Figure out how to support yourself without them, so that you can stop working for them. As long as you're going to cut your lifestyle and income anyways, why not do it voluntarily for a good purpose?

[mmonk]

41. We should all eat cake in our banana republic.

[KoKo]

43. "Tuck it Up" and "Lick Our Wounds" ...out of sight...like dogs who've been beaten too much

but learn to deal with their Master. Beaten they "lick wounds" and when "whistled or called for" they COME ...Here, MASSA...I'm HERE! Kick me once again! Kick Me...Kick me. I'm good for it. I know you are a very good man...and you only BEAT ME because I am a useless Dog...and somthing under your boot that only exists because of your gracious spirit and the scraps and bones you throw me "under the table."

I accept my place, "MASTER." If I ever rebel ...make sure you KICK MY GUTS OUT...because "I AM NOT WORTHY to have the Scraps from YOUR TABLE. I will BE HUMBLED! I WILL BE KILLED EVENTUALLY FOR THESE SCRAPS THAT I ATE...THOSE from YOUR TABLE.

[Beacool]

45. To tell him to start with his own house.

Like Carter did in the 70s.

:shrug:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

47. Hit the streets.

Take the lead from much of Europe. Non-violent action, mass arrests.

If 10k people show up in DC and get themselves arrested, then do it the next day and the next, and the day after -- then will get some attention and a platform for heading off an austerity agenda.

And then vote any bastard -- and I do mean any bastard -- out who goes along with any such legislation that rears its ugly head.