DU tends to idolize a handful of congress critters: Sanders, Kucinich

[cali]

Weiner and Grayson (yes I know the latter two are no longer in Congress)and to disparage all other dem members of the House and Senate. Yes, there are a lot of useless, bought out dems on the hill, but there are quite a few hard working members of congress who are on our side. People like Barbara Lee, Lyn Woolsey, Donna Edwards, Peter Welch.

The constant refrain that all dems (except for the chosen 3 or 4) are our enemies or useless is just bullshit.

[hobbit709]

1. My days of idolatry are long gone.

[Javaman]

23. mine too.

It's an exercise in futility.

[mfcorey1]

2. Preaaaach!!

[seabeyond]

3. what you show is du likes the four that spoke out.

the most recognized congress people

[Le Taz Hot]

4. So, to summarize,

ALL of DU "idolizes" Sanders, Kucinich, Weiner and Grayson and ALL of DU disparages ALL other Dem members." Well, I'm glad we can all finally agree on these things. :rofl:

[cali]

7. did the word "tends' escape your eagle eye?

[Le Taz Hot]

13. No but mitigating

descriptors such as "some DUers" or "a few DUers" or "a group of DUers" seem to be missing which, of course, was my point. Whoooshhh!!!!

[Demit]

5. Why not spotlight what the people you named have done?

Instead of harping on what other people here don't do?

[Fumesucker]

6. Lead, follow or get out of the way..

There are damn few congresscritters leading in the direction a big segment of DU wants to go and there are entirely too many who won't get out of the way..

[cali]

9. there are more leading than we tend to recognize or acknowledge

they may not be in the media as much, but they're there. And I'm glad they are.

[Fumesucker]

12. And we're getting our asses whipped in the media..

Because the most dangerous place in the world to be is between a Republican and a microphone.

[Nye Bevan]

8. A lot of the better ones just quietly do a great job, like my guy Jim Himes,

who has never (to my knowledge) tweeted his penis to a college girl, but does a great job for his constituents and the country.

[cali]

10. that's my point exactly.

[Demit]

27. It's an argumentative point. Why start a thread to castigate ppl who don't do what you want?

Why not just start a thread that speaks positively about what you want to speak positively about?

Unless the point is to start an argument by attempting to put unnamed Duers on the defensive.

[sabrina 1]

29. She was a woman, not a 'girl'.

As far as what your congressman does in his personal life, we don't know, nor should we.

But you better hope that Andrew Breitbart doesn't decide to target him or you can be sure there is something exposed which he would prefer was not in the public forum. Which is true of almost everyone.

So long as he doesn't step on any big toes, like SC Justice, Clarence Thomas, he should be fine as far as keeping his personal life private.

[Nye Bevan]

31. You yourself referred to her as a "college girl" in this post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1290208&mesg_id=1290208

[sabrina 1]

33. I wasn't aware of how old she was at that point. She had just

come into the picture, and since Breitbart was only interested in underage girls, being that they had initiated their vile whisper campaign and were trying to find something to make their fantasies come true, I at that time assumed she was probably in her first year of college or Breitbart would not have been interested in her. He was not looking for women, he was looking for girls.

[Marrah_G]

11. I don't idolize any of them

[mmonk]

14. Neither do I.

I agree with them. But that is considered idolatry outside accepted messaging because they speak their mind.

[pipi_k]

25. Me neither. I don't idolize any politician. n/t

[KharmaTrain]

15. A Sad Misunderstanding Of How The System Plays...

The idols are all well and good as voices in a large discussion of issues but as effective legislators they're miserable failures and for a big reason...our Constitution is based on compromise and bipartisanship...words that these days are looked at with disdain from both sides of the political sandbox. It's always interesting to see how the idol worship game works around here as today's idol can easily be tomorrow's bus food. Just depends on whose ox is gored.

The dream of some third party or far left politician sweeping in and "showing us how its done" is the stuff dreams are made of. In reality it would be an even worse political mess than what we're seeing now. Unless the third party came in with its own majorities in both houses, it'd face major gridlock on all ends that have always been a reason third party governors tend to have tough times. The "dream liberal" or whatever would also have to be swept into power by 250 or so of his/her best friends in the House and 60 in the Senate or else face gridlock as well.

We definitely need to support the "hard working" members you describe...many that are rarely heard or seen but do their best work behind the closed doors and working within the system. This is what the netroots was doing 6 years ago and we saw a major shift in the House in '06 but haven't really seen since. Too many people fell in love with a "hope"...it's time to get back to the grassroots.

Cheers...

[Fumesucker]

16. Most of us here have been paying attention to politics long enough to know..

That "compromise" and "bipartisanship" only rear their heads when Democrats hold the upper hand, when Republicans rule it's my way or the highway.

Advancing your agenda to the public in the media is also part of politician's job descriptions, most of the Dem politicians fail miserably at it.

[madokie]

18. Until we do something about the ownership of our so called free press

we have no chance of ever changing anything. That job needs to begin, should have already been done, The republicons through the republicon owned, (MIC,) press controls what goes on and have for quiet some time now. It began in earnest with the ouster of tricky dick. That was when the pukes decided that they needed to start buying up and controling the press if they ever expected to get any of their agenda passed. This has been a conscience effort by a few to deceive the masses. That to this old vet is Treason.

[KharmaTrain]

19. The Problem Is It's A "Game"...

...and you are right, the Democrats fail miersably at it. Or should we frame it a different way...that rushpublicans are always on their "game"...always in campaign mode. When they were power that game is played to fleece the treasury and we saw what 6 years of their one party reign of terror did and continues to do. Since then they've played the opposition game to totally derail any Democratic initiative and to divide and polarize creating the dysfunction we're stuck with now.

Unfortunately the framing in the media is so inept that the right wing talking point is now the point of reference. One would think that all the rushpublican evils of the past two years would energize and boost Democrats but we're seeing the opposite. Frustrating and maddening...and unless those frames are broken and fast we're in for a very dismal time...

[Fumesucker]

21. The Republicans aren't afraid to draw stark contrasts in blunt language.. Even when telling lies..

The Democrats on the other hand have truth on their side far more often than not and yet they constantly try to play nice with the Republicans and constantly get slapped right across the cheeks with it.

At some point you have to start wondering if Democrats are really as consistently incompetent as they seem or whether there's a more sinister explanation.

[KharmaTrain]

22. Governing Vs. Campaigning...

That's the best way I can describe the differences in the parties now. The rushpublicans are in constant campaign mode cause they're name isn't on the front door. Everything is now stuck to this administration..."Obamacare", Obama's economy and so on...and many on this side take that framing as well. It's all about politics as a bumper sticker slogan and talking point. Remember, the rushpublicans hate government...so the more dysfucntional it is the better they look.

The Democrats...or some...are still trying to govern...get something done. Many know that as long as the economy tanks, they're the ones on the hook and thus as things get worse the more they hop from one position to another...willing to cut this or propose that in hopes to make the polls and corporate media happy. Madenning and so self destructive!

Call it a catch 22...but its one of the Democrats making now. And we're the big losers...unless you can wrte those $2,300 checks

[mojowork_n]

17. Hey, there's a whole posse and they have a name:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Progressive_Caucus

Bernie Sanders is the only member from the Senate, but there are
quite a few -- almost 80 -- in Da House.

[Pholus]

20. And others have their own idols. Welcome to politics. nt

[RegieRocker]

24. Critters huh? Hmmmm.....better than repug skunks.

[joeybee12]

26. Not really...Barbara Lee gets a lot of worship here...and rightfully so...

The others are just more vocal and out there so they can more media play and we get more to post.

[treestar]

28. DU will idolize anyone who can afford to make a single statement

One particularly hilarious day, it was the governor of Maryland.

Someone will go on TV, say something cool and somebody on DU will say they should be President.

[ThomWV]

30. The word you were looking for was "Respect" and its not bullshit at all

Its appreciation for the very few who stand up for us. If that seems like bullshit to you, then so be it, but some of us see it as the sort of thing that brings out even these small signs of support in us.

[socialshockwave]

32. In the boards I post in a lot

DU seems to idolize anyone who is NOT President Obama. Then the other half idolizes JUST President Obama.