I’ve never met a Republican I thought wasn’t either a self-centered asshole or just totally disconnected from reality harboring a masturbation fantasy about an American that hearkened to ‘Little House on the Praiie’
or some dumbed down frontier version thereof.

Politics is a lot like old Country & Western music.  In C&W they take a cliche and apply a twist to it and then put it to a tune that cowboys and cowgals can dance to.

Here’s an example for politics.  Take the sayings, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.”  and, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” 

Combine them and what comes out is, “The only change we got was change itself.” The twist is that change does mean change anymore, it means an ever so slight variation on a right-wing theme. 

If you hate gays, want to kill abortionists, support limiting other’s rights, hate the poor and downtrodden, this is not meant for you.  You are already there.  Now get back the pocket.

(One guy from Kentucky told me once that the best thing you can do for someone who is down is kick ‘em.  Gives ‘im some incentive to get up.)

In 1948, Truman wanted to pass Universal Health Insurance and tie it in with Social Security.  It was defeated by a Republican Congress.

Today on C_SPAN, some guy named Pollack from something like the American Family Services took questions about the Health Insurance Bill.  In defense of the bill he said it was originally Republican bill.  (A great bill for working and wealthy.)  As far as I can see, our excellent health care system is excellent for Dick Cheney.

I talked recently with my aging relatives about health insurance.  They all have stories of their doctors prescribing some kind of whacko remedy or something very risky.  One Brother-in-law said it’s like they’re trying to kill us.

I said, and why not?  You’ve exhausted your savings and 70 years of free Air in this great land of the ours.  Time to call it a life and get underground, you selfish bastard.

George Bush had vision.  Remember, he wanted to provide universal, government health care.  What difference does it make that he was referring to Iraq?  B. Obama told us all, straight out, Americans are not ready for Single payer, universal health care.  (I think he means we have to thin the herd a little more here.)

The Stimulus bill was weak not only because it was too small but also it was mainly a Republican bill with about 40% in tax cuts. Shovel ready tax cuts.

So the changes are miniscule.  They seem to indicate that if you go to left, you’ll actually move to the right. 

Like a circle, it goes round and round.  They fear that a with a true progressive Congress, the centrifugal force of Single Payer, Ending Wars, an FDR like jobs bill, energy sanity would take us right off the rails.

I suggest a new book to start the Psyops war on the future of America.  I base the title on a book by A. Athos and R. Pascale called the “The Art of Japanese Management”.  My book will be entitled, “The Art of Slavery”.

I think a good ad man could sell that to our American bimbos, blowzas, and bozos.

I was talking with a person at work that I beleive
typifies everything that is wrong with
self-professed liberals.

Her view on politics seems to be shaped by and framed by high school class president campaigns where everything is kept “civil”, nothing resembling name-calling is permitted and everyone looks the other way when the rich kid candidate holds a big backyard soiree the Sunday before the election. And never mentioning the posters showing your candidate as chimpanzee having sex with a toy poodle are taken down quietly by teachers after being seen by every student in the school.

The right plays for keeps and takes no prisoners
and does not do no friendly handshakes after the
campaigns end. They, like big game hunters, want
trophies of their victories to crow over and will
get one if they win. It’s not enough to defeat your
opponent if you’re a rightist. You have to destroy
him.

Face it, politics has always been a symbolic form
of warfare. Unfortunately with the latest evolution
of politics republicans act as if it were something
much closer to actual warfare and seem fond of the
whole slash and burn, salt the fields approach.

The other side has not only not been civil. It has
been engaged in war against non-conservatives that
suggests the war that Hitler proclaimed against the
Soviets. He demanded complete annihilation of
everyone in the country and every institution that
supported the Soviet government. He declared them
to be “untermensch” and undeserving of any normal
human compassion. This is what we the non-
conservatives are truly up against.

What shows how desperately frightening must be the Republican alternative when one votes for Democrats because one’s functioning brain is still able to discern between the lesser of two monsters.

Didn’t Cheney say ‘f*^$k you’? to most everybody? It worked out for him.. he’s still doing it and saying it..

My mom would’ve washed out my mouth for saying something like that.. but it’s not such a big deal anymore.. may even be a positive career move.

Just one more (small) way things have gone to crud in the last couple of decades.

Adios!

Here’s more proof that our government is a failure and freedom is an illusion:

Arguably, the two most principled members of Congress are Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. They are on opposite sides of the aisle, but have come together to work on a few basic issues.

1) Ending the wars (Peace)
2) Auditing the Federal Reserve (Transparency in banking)
3) Repealing the Patriot Act (Restoring civil liberties)

These are three very basic issues which most Americans can agree on. But yet they are both treated like ugly stepchildren by their respective parties, and portrayed as extremists or wackos by the news media. As a result, they have gained very little ground on these three very basic issues. So, I ask you again, does it really matter if Republicans or Democrats are elected?

Liberals vote Democrat out of fear of Republicans.

Yes, liberals stink of fear. Thus, making it easier to herd and control them. Liberals build their own cages, as do conservatives, and the government is more than happy to facilitate them. So, bark from your cages, and vote out the evil doers, for it is yourself that is the creator of evil. Freedom, in this country, is an illusion. If you want proof, try to buy a Happy Meal in San Francisco. It is those who know what is best for us, that must rise, and save us from ourselves.

David J. Cyr

I’ve heard that same analogy made about LGBTQ. “Gay Democrats are like abused spouses that return to their attackers.” But I guess it can apply to all progressives. It can also apply to true freedom minded people that vote for the GOP. When people start to realize that the government is about control, and nothing else, then maybe they will stop voting. “You can choose your Master, but you can’t choose to not be a slave.”

DavidByron

“Mr. Obama is a good man.”

I think he scores badly even as a psychopath.”

If he really was a psychopath he would be a Republican.

Now that everybody knows what is wrong, how many suggestions might we collect for cleaning up the mess? (mdgr offers one idea.  I’ve suggested others much less comprehensive than his. The field is wide open.) Specifically:
  How to get rid of the farce of corporations buying elections?
  How to help people realize we have to stop killing other people for energy, for their differences from us, or because we are afraid.(directly related to what was once called “jobs for peace.”)
  How to get rid of the Patriot Act and its insane promotion of fear, repression, black operations and torture.
  How to support a campaign for accurate public media, freedom of air waves etc.
  How to stop the take-over of public education by private enterprises.
  One small suggestion:

There’s always talk of the Beltway Bubble of Washington DC, how office holders are separated from the daily lives of their constituents and lose touch with everyday life.

Where there’s smoke there’s fire and I bet the average American couldn’t even imagine the lives that these bastards lead.  With our charge card.

I think the bubble effect is more like the experiment where people are placed in a tank of luke warm water.  They stay in the tank for a few hours and are tested periodically by psychologists.

The result is that the people in the tank in the luke warm water start to go crazy or show signs of mental deterioration.

For Congress it’s more like they have their asses wiped and are treated like children as long as they go along.  As a result they return to a bizarre form of infantilism in full grown suits.

Booze and drugs get some.  Sex and crime get other.  Most become ensconced in their cribs and do not want to leave.  Witness Congressman from MA Joe Early’s exit in the 90s.  He never showed up for a vote and ran up a debt at the track.  A slovenly fat man, he went out screaming, “You dirty rats!”  from the House floor.  Speaker of the House Foley walked away.

I want to see some good old video tapes of the Republicans now that they are in power.  Show them kissing ass and shoveling money in brown paper bags. That is, if the MSM dares.

MDGR: You owe me no apology—none of us here are spiritual, emotional or intellectual giants—but THANKS!! for the courtesy.

    Mr.Sirota’s reaction expresses the exact necessary reality Americans who still possess human moral values need to embrace. The “hook” is apologist dialogue that tries to rationalize the actions of political thugs. The system, despite the occassional “good guy/woman” is totally corrupt. It’s rigged, hurts more than it helps and for all practical purpose irrelevant to the American future. BIG B at least acknowledged the serious consequence of GCC. It’s a new World.

    Many POSTERS at TRUTHDIG try to have their political cake and eat it too. So: Is American politics and the Nation under complete control of wealthy elite corporate fascists or not? Is there really no difference between Dims and Rethugs? Are all three branches of American Government corrupt? Did our President, who we handed the greatest political mandate for change in decades, knowingly betray us or is he an inept failure void of fight and political judgement? What does your gut say? What does the social/financial/cultural collapse going on all around you say? Sirota is correct. Fuck them! THEY are not US—and THEY and the moral corruption THEY knowingly embrace represents an open evil destroying us ALL.

      Is that the reality or not? Rationalize it. Apologize for it. Call for a new Third Party (because your voice is denied actual representation) or continue your DENIAL. Split the hair any way you want. But, the Boehner thug machine runs 24/7.

      I can’t believe the “Third Party” I described below isn’t immediately recognizable. It appears in news items on this site continually. Until WE (as yet still undefined) are as organized and rock solid politically WE don’t stand a chance. You want “Left”. These guys are “Left”. You want fight? These guys fight. (By the way MDGR I’m not directing all this at you specifically. You’re correct in your call—as are many others here—for organization. The Group I’ve described just happens to have all the major attributes necessary to throw a political punch. And, I think they’d be a willing ally.)

    Ride or whine Ladies and Gentlemen.

    “Tell the truth—whose been foolin’ you—”

“Liberals vote Democrat out of fear of Republicans. “
********

And with good reason!

Here’s another painfully apparent fact:

Only 6% of voters (or less), 5 million people, changed their minds from 2008 and voted Republican. The Democrats definitely lost because their base didn’t turn out. This year was not a “throw the bums out” moment from the vaunted independent centrists, but indeed a “stop shitting on me” moment from the base.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1110/5_million_swing_voters.html

But still those jackasses insist the Democrats run to the right.

“Every scientist or social worker who has ever studied women who suffer physical abuse or worked with them, will tell you that you cannot appease an abuser.  No matter what you do they will ALWAYS return to abuse.”

That’s not true and the metaphor is a very poor one.  Liberals vote Democrat out of fear of Republicans.

I have been saying it for years, why would anybody vote for a dimmocrat that backs a conservative agenda, when they can just vote for a real repug instead?

Liberals are very sedate most of time, only coming out at times of great national upheaval to save the rest of the nation from itself. But the last three times we tried, we were given Carter, Clinton and Barry, who by all measures were/are pro-corporate republican moderates. The battered woman analogy shared by some posts here is apt when talking about many of the democratic faithful. Oh, our man talks a nice game, but then he beats the shit out of us, blames us for making him do it, then tells us he’s sorry, and really does love us, and he’ll do better by us next time, and why the fuck isn’t dinner on the table?

Well, in 2010, there was no dinner forthcoming. If Barry and his ilk want to go off and play with their corporate slut, let ‘em. This time, there will not even be a cold meatloaf waiting for you when you get home.

Our only hope is that the congressional progressive caucus (of which has just over 70 members) pulls it’s votes and support for all things democratic, and forms their own cohilition. If it combined it’s forces with those of local and nation green party people, they would accomplice one of two things, they could form a viable and vibrant new LIBERAL party, or they could drag the rest of the old guard dimmos back to their roots as the party of the american working class. Perhaps they could both.

Remember, while we dilly-dally, the oil and natural gas that we built our modern civilization with is begining to dwindle. The earth is still warming up, world population continues grow at an alarming rate. If we don’t make radical changes very soon, it won’t matter. All the green tech and good intentions in the world won’t stop us from the downward spiral of de-evolution that we find ourselves in.

The function of the major political parties is to capture, absorb and neutralize the political impulses of the lower orders in service to and to the advantage of the ruling class.

When the Republicans failed to capture and absorb rightist impulses, talk radio and the Tea Parties were born.  These tensions and fractures have not been repaired.  Unless something changes, the deterioration will continue.

Similarly, in recent years, the Democratic Party has been increasingly unable to capture and absorb leftish and liberal impulses, although the situation is not quite as far advanced.  The ritual flapping and blathering of conservative Democratic pundits is an attempt to call strays back to the flock, but it is less and less effective.  The danger (as with the Right) is that important political forces will escape the control of the established parties, with unpredictable consequences.  Sirota’s anger is a harbinger of serious trouble.

The incipient breakdown of both parties is part of a larger picture of ruling-class failure.  The recent financial debacle is yet another symptom, as are the numerous failed military adventures and foreign-policy gaffes we have observed.  The end is not yet in sight.

“Mr. Obama is a good man.”

I think he scores badly even as a psychopath.

Hooray for David Sirota!

He helped elect a Democratic Senator in Montana.  That should be counted as a miracle.

These jamokes are for small government.  My question is:  Why are they running for Government office?  Are they destroyers? Wreckers?

But to paraphrase the words of a 60s popular song, “The Mule Skinner’s Blues”

If you don’t like your job,

Then go fuck, fuck, fuck yourself.

In otra mots, don’t run. Don’t seek office.  Save the money.  Open an insurance company.  Move back in with your mother.  Do something, but most of all Shut up.

Harry S was proven right.  The voters chose Republicans over a Democrats posing as a Republicans.

It really doesn’t take much to ‘unnerstan’ that.

QUOTE: (of a woman in (D) state of denial):

“Every scientist or social worker who has ever studied women who suffer physical abuse or worked with them, will tell you that you cannot appease an abuser.  No matter what you do they will ALWAYS return to abuse.
And the Republican party is made up of such irrational abusers.”
________________

For well over 40 years, liberal “progressives” have been afflicted with a complex similar to Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS), of which there are 4 stages (Denial, Guilt, Enlightenment, and Responsibility).

Liberals should justifiably be full of guilt, because they won’t vote for what they say they want, nor vote against what they say they do not want.

I haven’t met a liberal yet that has honestly advanced beyond the stage of Denial, and justifiably into the second stage of Guilt for their Battered Democrat Syndrome.

What happened reflects what I’ve said here many times: The Democratic Party (of which I am a member) has been tone-deaf for 40 years and scared of its own shadow for the last 16.

Every scientist or social worker who has ever studied women who suffer physical abuse or worked with them, will tell you that you cannot appease an abuser.  No matter what you do they will ALWAYS return to abuse.

And the Republican party is made up of such irrational abusers.

QUOTE:
“David Sirota Tells Conservative Democrats to Go Fuck Themselves”
___________________
NOTE:

There are no Democrats who are not conservative.

A person can be progressive **OR** they can be a Democrat **BUT** they can’t possibly be both at the same time.

Lafayette - Thanks for your thoughtful comments. With regard to the nature of the Democrats:

Indeed, THE problem with Democrats is that they lack a simple, concentrated “elevator pitch” that embodies what they stand for. Republicans win elections with the insanely simple: “I believe in lowering taxes and shrinking government.” (this year they added “Let’s take our country back!”.....from whom, who knows?)Of course, it’s an utter and total lie, but it wins votes. Democrats, on the other hand seem to want to solve all the world’s problems and are incapable of articulating solutions to difficult problems with twaddle. But twaddle sells…

What has happened is exactly what I and many others predicted. Prez Barry spent his first two years in office pushing a vanilla platform to customers that demanded chocolate. Now the customers are pissed. Some gutless loyal customers continued to stand there, dissappointed to get vanilla. Now they say that maybe they wanted vanilla after all, but some chocolate might be nice, way out in the future, if it’s not too much trouble.
Unfortunately, Barry’s other customers have thrown their vanilla in the trash, and went home, either giving up on getting chocolate all together, or just reaching into the fridge, grabbing the Hershey’s syrup, and thinking about just making their own chocolate.

Remember, the lesser of two evils is still evil.
And vanilla is a poor-assed substitute for chocolate.

This blindly visceral hostility to anything but one’s own, is the only reason that the Reps did so well. That fuck me, fuck you, kind of negotiation, which is no more enlightened than ghetto face offs,is why it has been difficult or even impossible to implement real and unified change. God bless America.

NEGATIVE VOTING

GA: They are out of touch with reality.

Your reality is not mine. The above presumes that we, the people, voted For the Republicans not Against the Democrats. Which is wrongheaded, the reverse is true—the people voted Against the Democrats, not For the Republicans.

Try to understand this simple electoral nuance called Negative Voting.

Meaning, from here to 2012, as the economy improves, the Dems have to get their act together—rather than the three-ring circus that they typically show.

Cohesiveness in a party requires a common progressive mentality, the specifics of which are detailed, clearly understood and easily communicated to the people. Not mindless sound-bites that tend to defame one’s opponent. Which simply takes voters for idiots. We are not idiots.

The facts, ma’am, just the facts; KISS = Keep It Simple to Sell, but factually on target in terms of:
* Health Care (about how it is bleeding the national budget and keeping American uncompetitive)
* Marginal and capital gains taxation (about how low rates pander to the greed in all of us, but particularly those in Top Management and Finance).
* Infrastructural renewal (about how America must move massively to renewable energy sources and even nuclear energy in order to unshackle itself from dependence upon foreign oil).
* Reformation of its Educational System such that our children obtain the sorts of talents and skills that makes them “Labor-market ready” for decent jobs at a decent wage ... in a world that is shifting from brawn-workers to brain-workers.
* And a few other talking points that make for a Cogent Party Platform that people across the country can believe in.

DS: Go fuck yourself

A curious bit of wisdom, that. Of course, David is pissed-off like so many of us.

What he says about the Dems was somewhat predictable. The party is a cacophony of sounds at worst and a rainbow of colours at best. Meaning that it is an undisciplined group of Left-of-Center progressives.

The calamity, to my mind, was foreseen when the party did not have the gumption to tell Martha Coakley (then running to assume Kennedy’s seat in Masachusetts) that it was not a good idea – given high unemployment – to spend Christmas in the Caribbean. She then lost the election as did the Dems lose subsequently their SuperMajority in the Senate. Which changed there the entire political calculus. The Health Care Public Option became a dead-duck.

If Dems cannot see at a national level what is happening at the local level, particularly in crucial elections, then they do not deserve to win elections. The Republicans were waging war with a simple, arithmetic strategy in mind: There were a great many Dems who rode the coattails of Obama into office on razor-thin margins. This means that, to retain their seats, they needed artful campaign management.

I am not privy to the Dem campaign management techniques, but I suspect the Dems were running on a wing and a prayer, hoping for the best … against hope in a midterm election year replete with high unemployment – which some call the Double Whammy for incumbents. But, if there was any “campaign management” from Washington, it was definitely light-fingered.

Barack should not look so glum, he’s Head Honcho of the party and he should have known that the Republicans, unlike the Dems, have more party discipline and all sing of the same hymn sheet.

Even if that hymn sheet consists of nonsense, which was certainly the case. The Promise to America was claptrap and any party that wrote it deserved sanction.

But, such is politics in an America that has become politically volatile. Mind this message, Dems:
•  The campaign in 2012 is not lost beforehand. But a concerted strategy is needed as well as good execution of an electoral game plan.
•  Don’t worry about the economy, it’ll be fine. It takes four to five years to recover from the sort of deep recession we’ve had. In 2012, it’s time will be up. But the Dems should have known that dismal fact. Any economist would have told them and I’ll bet Christine Romer did tell Obama before she left.

But, by then, the dice had been rolled …. and this ill fated flight had already taken off.

My Point: Obama had an idea around which people could place their minds: Hope. He had to keep up the hope, despite the mid-term doldrums. Meaning that he should have spent more time out in the field “reaching out” to his party’s membership. Particularly amongst the young, who are a bunch of spoiled brats, but vote nonetheless. Except when they don’t and this time they did not.

And then fuck the goat you rode in on.

That’s right, when you shit on people they tend to get upset with you..

The odd thing is that even after the election the Dems seem to think they can continue to manipulate people into believing that something else happened.

They are out of touch with reality.

I LOVED Sirota’s article!

D. Sirota’s anger is more than justifiable. If only the voters, who continue to
believe that our debates and elections are democratic to begin with, could understand what he is saying. To keep on discussing the predictable activities of these two parties is useless. The coin has now landed on the other side but it’s the same old coin. There is indeed hardly anything interesting left to discuss, unless you consider Washington’s political squabbles and gossip something worthwhile. At this point, analyzing the political scene is to validate the closed circle of insiders and business outsiders that government has become -the rest of us don’t count. So what’s the point of attending a party where we’re not welcome?  But we can always keep on pretending and, like kids, hoping that one of these days we’ll be invited to the party.

QUOTE: mdgr asks, “Are you talking about the Greens, which in the state of Washington had a website that could have been done better by a five year old, and which had no Senate candidate even though Murray (who voted for Justice Roberts) was up for election?”
_____________________

The Greens aren’t capable of living way far down low to the “progressives” standards, because the Greens have principled politics. They have negligible resources and therefore very few candidates for two reasons:

1) The Green Party and Green candidates do not accept corporate money. That’s about the only thing that’s easy about being Green, because the corporations that pre-determine election results have absolutely no interest in selecting candidates to be “elected” who stand in opposition to the corporate state.

2) The Green Party champions positions that hardly any Americans support.

How many Americans have voted to end wars of aggression and occupation?

How many Americans have voted for Single-Payer Medicare for All?

How many Americans have voted for immediate responsible climate change mitigation energy and transportation policies?

Answer: Approximately 1% of those who participate in elections are willing to vote for peace, justice, and survival of species (including the currently unsustainable Human one).

When fascist nations allow elections it’s because the people are fascists.

The system is beyond repair from my perspective of
being one of the non-moneyed, non-influential
citizens unfortunate enough not to live in western
or northern Europe.

Because the American electorate has proven
(probably fatally) that they are not remotely
qualified to vote (or tie their shoes for that
matter).

Until Americans wakeup and smell the coffee and
realize that socialism/communism equals true
democracy and capitalism equals serfdom we can
expect a very nasty decade in the making.

Redhorse,

Are you talking about Native America something??

If so, know that I am sympathetic with that. And you may also be referring to the Hopi prophecies, which I would not presume to dismiss. If so, I would expect you to be reticent in speaking of this openly on TD, and I would also wish to respect that. If this is the case, please accept my apologies for my earlier tone.

I still think—and I say this gently—that you may be overstepping in terms of more immediate expectations. This century will be a long one, and it will not be the Native Americans who inherit it. Assuming we survive at all, it will be Human Beings. I capitalize that term because, in fact, it deserves that.

But that assumes that there was no “error” in the telling. I myself am not a follower of the Hopi tradition, and he possibility of error always exists. Moreover, if the Tea Party wins the Presidency in 2012, some very dangerous people will have been given the nuclear football.

Here, I believe that we are talking about a strong probability of a resulting thermonuclear war. It could lead to “On the Beach,” not “Mad Max.” It wouldn’t just involve fission, but also fusion. It might very well not just close the book on homo sapiens but on any further evolution of our species.

I don’t mind talking about these things openly—I seem to have been born and bred for that\, as it were—and it is for this reason that I think a viable and potent third party is imperative at this time. Frankly, I don’t give a damned as to what happens to it in ten or fifteen years nor do I ultimately believe in political solutions to the kinds of problems that we are facing as a planet.

But we need an answer NOW to the narrative being spun by the Tea Party and by far right groups.

As for the future and your long term vision—even to the language to which you refer, which would have to be that of the heart—I would not presume to disagree.

My roots are not Hopi, however. That said, perhaps they derive from the same place. After all, they’re from deep inside my bones.

From the paths of the hub, not, as it were, the periphery.

Once again, assuming I have guessed correctly, please accept my heartfelt apology.

Redhorse—

And it is invisible.

Are you talking about the Greens, which in the state of Washington had a website that could have been done better by a five year old, and which had no Senate candidate even though Murray (who voted for Justice Roberts) was up for election?

Are you talking about that other party that has stupidly expropriated the word “Democrat” in its title, this conflating it with the collaborator party of Vichy?

Whatever it is, you better get a better publicist. It may be well known on Alpha Centuri but all your protestations to the contrary, it won’t get more traction than Lyndon LaRouche.

But perhaps you’re perhaps talking about the latter. Or maybe it’s Scientology.

Do tell, the suspense is almost killing us.

My sentiments exactly—but without the fucking fucking! Thanks anyway.

P.S. Seems to me I remember a lot of very un-sage political advice here on TD like “Don’t vote!” “Vote for the Repugs.” “Don’t vote lesser of two evils!” etc. etc. Maybe okay from the conscientious point of view.  But as spite?  I don’t think so. And in practical terms it may have been counterproductive.  However—the two bigger deals were Lack of courageous follow-through on promised actions, plus the coup de grace, floods of corporate money to reaction. Between these last two, it’s hard to tell the chieken from the egg.

Mr. Obama is a good man.  He is decent to his family and I believe he has a deep and sincere love of this Nation.  He’s probably a better man than you or I.  But, he is clearly not the man to stand up to corporate America and their various representatives; he doesn’t know how to fight with people who are his intractable enemies.  Money should not flow to their districts, but it did.  Red districts shared in the stimulus while they pissed on Mr. Obama because of it.  Mitch McConnell, a really low form of life treats him like dirt; Mr Obama wants to meet with him, to maybe make him see reason. He should cut off Kentucky ad Arizona and Wyoming and every other red state in every way he can. Cut them off from the money they insist he should not spend.  That is how they come to respect a President. Will we see that?  No.  He’s too nice a guy, an idealist in the face or really crappy people.  If it doesn’t change, It won’t be pretty.

MDGR: An organized “third party” already exists. It is politically organized Nationally, is finacially self-supporting, has its own press and its own Congresspeople in office. It’s progressive/far left, pro human rights, labor, family and education. It’s willing to fight for its principals and regularly puts thousands of protestors in the streets. Both the Rethugs and the Dims are afraid of it and it has Federal Legislation that protects it from the Gerrymander. By the end of this century its population, politics and language will gain complete control of the American political landscape and total domination of American Culture. It already has International political, financial and arms support and maintains a separate “black market” economy within the present American economic system. Its come up the hard way and it isn’t going to back down. It’s core strength is its clarity about and personal experience in surviving the collapse of corrupt political systems. Its first allegiance is to freedom, its people and the land itself. It’s united and it doesn’t whine.

    Extend a hand in friendship and it will respond.

    I’M WITH YOU SIROTA!! They’re irrelevant thugs. FUCK’EM ONE AND ALL!!

Sirota is right. You’ve got to express your passion politically, otherwise, as Ralph Nader says, what are you voting for? The essence of corporatism is to be corporate. The essence of small d democrat is to be yourself.

Post-Coitus:

“Another Meme for Our Times”

Many of the Blue Dogs are now gone. Good riddance, actually. The Dems nominally just moved to the left, but Harry Reid, as it were, still reflects the Democratic Party’s quintessential soul.

Which puts remaining progressives in a somewhat awkward position. Obama is making-nice with Republicans (now more than ever), and there have got to be a lot of progressive legislators who are yet serving who feel more than a bit betrayed.

Being a Democrat didn’t help Feingold very much. Nor Grayson, just to name two progressives whom I rather liked.

Of course, Kucinich has made a career out of trying to save Vichy’‘s (the D’s) soul, but his “principled” positions, in that light, seemed increasingly histrionic and self-conscious.

The Dems were seriously wounded on Tuesday, however, and there are a number of us who would like that wound to be mortal.

The R’s are what they are, and the Tea Party could be a very threatening presence in 2012. But to paraphrase Chris Hedges, it is not they who are the enemy—as much as that party of collaborators and passive-aggressive robots (e.g., Nancy Pelosi with her botox face and endless emotionless disconnect).

It is the D’s who are our chief impediment, the remaining progressive caucus notwithstanding.

My guess also is that the economy will continue to unravel exponentially. Moreover, Israel will almost certainly attack Iran very soon (by December, possibly, and Netanyahu as already served notice to Obama of that date). America will be dragged in, and the consequences are all too predictable and unavoidable.

Thus it is that an identity-crisis looms probably early next year for the progressive caucus. Will it stay and do nothing, or will it bolt—keeping its just-won Congressional seats, however—while declaring itself fully independent of the DNC.

Given the political winds, I think there’s rather more incentive to leave than to stay.

If that should happen, I see the distinct possibility of a viable and prodigious third party of lefties and indies emerging almost overnight.

You can scoff, but changes happened virtually “overnight” in the Soviet Union, Germany and even in Rome (allowing for a relative “snail’s pace” in the “speed of time and emergence of novelty” two millennia ago).

My point is not that such a third party is probable, but that it is possible, and if it were to happen, it could be historic.

Money would almost certainly follow as well, since lacking any real opponents, there is a real possibility that the Tea Party could win the Executive Branch in 2012. People like Warren Buffet, Soros and Bill Gates have to know that—they may be capitalists, but they have also managed to survive in our Darwinian world.  Not even they would relish Sarah Palin’s being given the nuclear access codes.

This perfect storm could be utilized to the advantage of progressives. There will be those who will make utterances whose intent is to demoralize us. But I think there is a brass ring showing.

All I am saying is that when the time is right (I am guessing it would be in the late winter, early spring), some of us may wish to come together and move this meme out into the world.

Which of us has community organizing skills? Which of us could build a formidable website? Which of us knows Wiki and SEO enough to begin getting this meme coming up in search engines? Which of us wants to take the initiative of Facebook?

The immediate goal would be to cajole as many progressives in Congress to declare themselves as independents.

The next stage would be to use that repudiation of the Dems to dramatize the enormous vacuum that has just been created.

The third stage would be to leverage that vacuum to give birth to a third party that would actually reflect the agenda and principles of these progressive Senators and Representatives.

My guess is that with the support of this caucus, it could be HUGE.

Sirota is so good. Thank god he posts here. 

Hedges is so cynical that nothing is any good, but not a word against the Tea Party because… they’re allowed to have their opinion?  But everyone else sucks.

Feingold is gone.  He is gone.  That says everything.  I want to hear a good, old fashioned progressive who believes that the angry old ones just plain suck.  They do.  They suck.  Palin sucks.  McConnell sucks.  Boehner sucks.

David Sirota’s tirade brings to mind Patrick Tillman’s(Pat Tillman’s father)summation of his carefully argued (he’s a lawyer) letter in response to the General who conducted the Army’s 3rd “investigation” into his son’s death:

“In sum:  Fuck you, and yours.”

(This letter is posted at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.../pat-tillmans-father-to-ar_n_680128.html)

Ironically, his letter actually led to yet another round of the Army investigating itself and a sham Democratic Congressional “investigation.”

If you would like to learn more, I’d suggest watching the documentary “The Tillman Story.”  Or if you’re more literate, try reading Mary Tillman’s “Boots on the Ground by Dusk” or Jon Krakauer’s “Where Men Win Glory” (paperback edition has 50 more pages). 

Or take a look at “The [Untold] Tillman Story” posted at http://www.feralfirefighter.blogspot.com to learn about how President Obama and the Democratic Congress continued the Army and Bush administration cover-up to protect Gen. Stanley McChrystal.