Re:  Lafayette, September 6 at 3:20 am
“Walking-on-water is not, to my knowledge, a necessary qualification for political office.”

No, but abusing the public trust is. These clowns even swear an oath to it.

=======================
“Legislatures are a reflection of the their constituencies. If one thinks our political class is a tiresome bunch of scoundrels, then one must remember who elected them.”

Yes, but when those same people who have failed the public trust are then responsible for laws that only perpetuate keeping their constituency in the dark, they are still violating the public trust .... and as experience is showing us all too well, along with a myriad of other laws.

=======================
“Does anyone understand that, in order to get elected, a candidate must subscribe to a great many different opinions/outlooks held by members of their constituency? The different hot-buttons are sometimes myriad. Often one must look like a chameleon, ready to change colours at a moment’s notice.”

That’s just peachy, but this will happen in any country where the politicians, either through acts of omission or commission, allow for the further alienation of citizens from their own government and each other. The key word in the name United States is the word “united” and it’s like a relationship; everyone has to work at it to make it work. What we have now is a dysfunctional family. The kids are acting out while the parents keep drinking and whoring, all the while cursing at their rotten kids.

=======================
“Which is why I have a very high regard for the Swiss, who have had national referendums as an integral part of their political process for over a 150 years. If citizens are able to vote down a law by a popularly demanded referendum, lawmakers think twice, thrice, a hundred times before passing one.”

The US is a couple hundred times the size of Switzerland and would have a much harder problem keeping its population of like mindedness considering all the different ethnic factions scattered over that much geography. Europe is half the size of the US and you’re suggesting how easy it would be to get a consensus on anything?

=======================
“We have given lawmakers far to much influence in the destiny of our lives and we now sense that they were bent by the corruption of Vested-Interest money and its lobbyist-monkeys.”

Finally, we agree.

=======================
“Bitching-in-a-blog will do absolutely nothing to correct that error—though, admittedly, it has a cathartic effect.”

But it does allow everyone the chance to see how much in agreement we may all be. The more alienated we might feel, the less we might be inclined to participate in the voting process. And because the legislatures have continually refused to address NOTA options, the only change that our elected officials seem to know how to enact is how to keep themselves in power at the expense of the integrity of our country. Individually, they’ll talk the good talk, but when it comes to voting strictly according to the Constitution, 95% of them will consistently vote to take your rights away, one small stab at a time. Each new law tests the waters of public reaction and sets the stage for the next level of legislative abuse.

” So that’s how Candidate Obama’s promise of health-care reform with a public option, lower drug prices, and no mandates became President Obama’s bill with exactly the opposite in all three areas - all dramatically benefiting the industry at public expense, and all of which COULD have been preserved even in the face of 100% opposition by Republicans (which of course occurred anyway) and even a few Democratic Senators, and all while Obama was piously claiming that he really shouldn’t try to influence the Senate deliberations that kept gutting any real reform (even though he had no such compunctions later on about brow-beating House progressives into supporting the worthless result of that gutting).

Not a narrative that DNC handlers would like people to understand, of course.  And they’re sufficiently adept at manipulation that a disturbing percentage of even liberal/progressive Democrats still don’t. “

Yes your right, it wasn’t courage at all, but honesty, the Dems were lying through their teeth right from the beginning..

The Democrats are exactly like the Republicans, in fact their the same party, only the names are changed, each one blames the other, and in the blaming, they made the ruin of this country possible.

GRYM—Yes. and then there’s that awful Sherrod person.  But here’s the question: what’s this ‘agenda’?  All Mr. O and the Democrats have done so far is bail out rich bankers and insurance companies, continue imperial wars in the Middle East, pass a health care bill than guarantees profits for the medical industry, and whine about how the Republicans won’t vote for their bills.  Meanwhile some televangelist has set up a hate-Islam church near Ground Zero to contrast with Muslim Cordoba House’s message of peace and reconciliation.  If Mr. O is trying to make White people look bad and ruin their chances, he’s got some catching up to do.

Disingenuousness.

There is a growing belief that the Obama administration is advancing an agenda that it cannot be fully candid about, because that agenda does not command broad support of the majority. As a result, we are habitually asked to believe that what administration appointees or supporters say is not what they really mean, or at least was taken out of context.

Justice Sotomayor did not really mean that wise Latinas make better judges than white males. Van Jones did not really mean that George W. Bush was in on 9/11, or that white youths are more likely to be mass murderers, or that whites are chronic polluters of the ghetto. Eric Holder no more meant that Americans are cowards than one of Anita Dunn’s heroes really is the mass-murdering Mao. We should not believe that the top priority of the head of NASA is to advance Islamic outreach, or that the president himself thinks that police routinely act stupidly, stereotype, or arrest innocent people on their way to get their kids some ice cream.

While the majority of Americans disagree with the progressive agenda, which represent less than 20% of the public, the majority is increasingly and rightfully angered by the political bigotry and small-minded hatred on display from the minority.

Lafayette—You’re right.  While Robinson’s article certainly deserved a little derision, the extended complaints written on this site suggest some kind of activism, but it’s non-existent.  It doesn’t make any difference whether the Democratic Party is salvageable or not if you’re not going to anything about it either way.  But it isn’t just this web site.  You see it all over the Net.  Given the anger and hatred expressed in many forums, maybe we should be just as glad people are sitting on their butts typing instead of doing something real.

BITCHING-IN-A-BLOG

I don’t understand the outrage in this forum that rails against our political class. Walking-on-water is not, to my knowledge, a necessary qualification for political office.

Legislatures are a reflection of the their constituencies. If one thinks our political class is a tiresome bunch of scoundrels, then one must remember who elected them.

Does anyone understand that, in order to get elected, a candidate must subscribe to a great many different opinions/outlooks held by members of their constituency? The different hot-buttons are sometimes myriad. Often one must look like a chameleon, ready to change colours at a moment’s notice.

I’ll bet most people are inept at getting elected so fixed in their political opinion they remain regardless of the prevailing political winds.

Which is why I have a very high regard for the Swiss, who have had national referendums as an integral part of their political process for over a 150 years. If citizens are able to vote down a law by a popularly demanded referendum, lawmakers think twice, thrice, a hundred times before passing one.

We have given lawmakers far to much influence in the destiny of our lives and we now sense that they were bent by the corruption of Vested-Interest money and its lobbyist-monkeys.

Bitching-in-a-blog will do absolutely nothing to correct that error—though, admittedly, it has a cathartic effect.

But that is about all ...

FiftyGigs said:

“Things would have been different, if the Dems would have had the courage to do what they were elected to do.”

Baloney. It isn’t about “courage”. It’s about simple political power, and (good or bad) 59 seats won’t do it against an opposition that puts ideology above the nation’s best interests.

——-

Unfortunately for the Democratic establishment apologists, that establishment itself unequivocally put the lie to that statement in their handling of so-called health-care ‘reform’ - exposing themselves to be exactly what some of us have been claiming:  corporate pawns masquerading as public servants.

Obama had tried for a year to pass this facade of reform without resorting to use of reconciliation, allegedly because he was seeking a ‘bi-partisan’ solution even though it had long become obvious that no Republican votes would be forthcoming.  But when Ted Kennedy’s seat went Republican in early 2010 there was no choice but to pass it via reconciliation - where ONLY 50 SENATE VOTES WERE REQUIRED FOR PASSAGE.

For the previous 6 months Democrats had been claiming that they easily had that many votes and that Republican filibusters were the only thing preventing passage, INCLUDING THE PUBLIC OPTION.  After use of reconciliation was opened up again in early 2010, progressive groups quickly tallied up at least 52 Democratic Senators who had expressed various forms of support for the public option (which the House had already passed), and passage looked promising (Dick Durbin even promised that if the House sent it to the Senate he’d ‘whip vigorously’ to pass it there).

Until Obama, Pelosi, and Reid collaborated to keep it off the table, under the pretext that NOW it might jeopardize final passage of the bill (even though they’d been claiming the exact opposite when bemoaning the filibuster as the real obstacle).  Not entirely surprising, since Obama had cut a deal the previous summer with the industry that no real public option would pass, even while he was still publicly supporting the idea while letting it fade away quietly (without ANY of the pressure that he exerted later in the proceedings to get the eventual bill passed) in Max Baucus’s Senate committee.

Obama had also cut a deal with Big Pharma earlier that year to preclude reimportation of prescription drugs to lower prices.  And assured insurers that purchases would be mandatory.

So that’s how Candidate Obama’s promise of health-care reform with a public option, lower drug prices, and no mandates became President Obama’s bill with exactly the opposite in all three areas - all dramatically benefiting the industry at public expense, and all of which COULD have been preserved even in the face of 100% opposition by Republicans (which of course occurred anyway) and even a few Democratic Senators, and all while Obama was piously claiming that he really shouldn’t try to influence the Senate deliberations that kept gutting any real reform (even though he had no such compunctions later on about brow-beating House progressives into supporting the worthless result of that gutting).

Not a narrative that DNC handlers would like people to understand, of course.  And they’re sufficiently adept at manipulation that a disturbing percentage of even liberal/progressive Democrats still don’t.

ITW,

To say that this the fault of the Democrats is like saying that a child is
dysfunctional because of only one parent. Where we have an abusive parent on
one side, we have an enabling parent on the other, and together they nurture (if
that’s what you want to call it) their version of a child; a sociopathic product of
sociopathic parents disguising themselves as a normal family, but with a closet
full of skeletons.

Bush41 tried to muscle NAFTA through on his watch but couldn’t quite get it
done. Clinton obligingly completed that treasonous transaction (how nice and
bipartisan) and then Clinton sacks Glass-Steagall, initiates wire-tapping, and
renegotiates the US/Paraguayan extradition treaty. Then Bush43 has a field day
with the first two and buys up a 99,000 acre estate in Paraguay over the
largest subterranean aquifer in the region, where he could, by no coincidence,
bail out in a hurry with no worries of extradition, had his plans started to fall
through while in office.

And as we are seeing all too readily, Bush43 (or Bush the Idiot) has only handed
the baton off to Obama. While everyone has been eagerly watching and trying to
make sense out of this relay race, everyone in the bleachers has had their
pockets picked by a band of hired thugs. So exactly where does this one-party-to-blame thing come into play here?

Oh yeah, so what are the Democrats waiting for permission, or a backbone? -

“We are STILL here, in this mess, because the Democrats don’t have the spine and discipline to do what needs to be done to get us OUT of this mess, and haven’t figured out how to say “We are CLEANING UP the mess the GOP got us into.  They took nearly 30 years to get us here, it’s gonna take a few years to get us out of it.”

I find it amazing that so many try to get around the obvious.

We are here, in this mess, because the Republicans got us here, trumpeting deregulation en masse, lower taxes the richer you are, and promising that smashing unions would fix our problems.

We are STILL here, in this mess, because the Democrats don’t have the spine and discipline to do what needs to be done to get us OUT of this mess, and haven’t figured out how to say “We are CLEANING UP the mess the GOP got us into.  They took nearly 30 years to get us here, it’s gonna take a few years to get us out of it.”

Robinson has it bang on the money but the RWNs here can’t STAND the ideas that a) Everything they know is wrong and b) Simple observation PROVES everything they know is wrong BECAUSE IT ALL WENT WRONG!

ER knows the GOP got us here, and the Dems need to figure out how to get us out, but the American public is too f***in’ stupid and cowardly to do what needs to be done.  The LAST time it was this bad, FDR built roads and dams and bridges and put in place the infrastructure to be ready when times got better.  Now? Nothing, by both parties.

BR549 and Anderson: Count the number of times you used the word “they” or “them” or “their” in these last two posts.

G.Anderson, September 5 at 4:56 pm

That was perfect! The only thing I would have changed was where you stated, “But that’s not leadership, that’s not what they were elected to do ....”

No, leadership “IS” what they were elected to do, only they were too busy taking care of themselves and leading themselves to the feeding trough before the house came crashing down, ..... so to speak. This really is piss poor management at its peak.

An analogy I’ve used here before, is where some trailer trash MacDonalds manager yells and screams at his help because the bathroom is so filthy and the burgers suck. The kitchen is dirty and the Health Dept is always on his ass. The point here is that he is totally inept at motivating the very employees HE himself hired and took on the job of managing. If anyone is to blame, it would be him, but we’re not likely to see any change in attitudes like that from the House and Senate, either, not as they sit smugly by, point fingers, and continue to vote according to party dictates.

We’ve gotten tired of this same old game and yet these clowns don’t know how to do it any other way. They have no conscience, no backbone, no sense of ethics and yet they manage to get up on the tube every so many years and smile and tell us more lies, with an American flag pin stuck in their lapel no less. They’d recite the Pledge of Allegiance if they could remember it, all the while looking toward the heavens with some stupid expression on their faces, as if they were on some mission from God and under divine guidance. Excuse me while I puke.

If they didn’t know how to steal, they’d be broke and on the public dole. And if I said we had 5% of politicians that actually had a spine and some testicles, each and every one of those other 95% would be thinking I was including THEM in the 5%. That’s what a sorry ass bunch of losers we have that call themselves “our LEADERS”.

The whole reason they have been having to cater to all these special interests all these years is because not one of them has been able to see the larger picture and be able to show that to the voting public. Instead, we have a shadow government keeping everything secret because the average voter apparently doesn’t have any right to know how his tax dollars are being wasted.

If these idiots spent more time finding out how much we did have in common, not only amongst ourselves, but with the rest of the people we happen to share the planet with, PERHAPS we might be able to move forward toward some common dream, but these clowns can’t manage a lemonade stand.

OK, I’m done ranting   .......... for now.

Oh really? So watch what happens when the Republicans, take back the senate an the House.

Watch how the Democrats in the spirit of Bi-Partisanship, allow the Republicans, to gut social security, without a fillibuster. Watch how they, go along with every initiative the Republicans make in the spirit of Bi-Partisanship. Watch them wring their hands, and boo hoo boo hoo, on the tube, but refuse to do anything at all.

It’s not about blaming, it’s about taking responsibity for what they were too gutless to do.

They, blew it. Even now when they should be getting their ass in gear, and trying to do something, to prevent the debacle in November, what are they doing?

Crying, and whining, and complaining about the mean nasty Republicans, and blaming the people of this country, because they were afaid to use reconcilliation…

Blaming the victim, that’s what their good at.

But that’s not leadership, that’s not what they were elected to do, and unless they take responsibility, and stop taking the easy way out, then their finished as political party.

The Democrats are too much like the Republicans, in fact their the same party, only the names are changed, each one blames the other, and in the blaming, they made the ruin of this country possible.

Just thought of this:  Here’s one way Robinson is right about the “quick fix” idea.
  The “right wing” is full of religious ideologists for whom THE answer is Armageddon.  They believe it because it’s “foretold” in Revelations—and in addition (being people of less than enough education) they rather like the idea not only because it’s “DivineWord” but also because it requires them to do nothing except say “I believe in the ....etc. etc.”
  That’s not really hard to do.  Only takes a minute. Then all you have to do is follow the given instructions, and wait to be “raptured uup.” Simple.
  All signs of decay or need of repair can be safely overlooked (such as environmental destruction) because it’s all part of the big picture of End Times
and therefore, not only do you need to do nothing, but doing something is downright evil because it will work to delay “the Second Coming” and all that.
  So in one iimportant sense Robinson is right:
There are a lot of right-winders looking for a “quick fix.”
  Resist!  Resist!  It ain’t necessarily so!

Suggestion:
One of the most destructive things likely to happen if we get another Republican administration is the loss of Social Security, not because Social Security is “insolvent” (which it isn’t) but because it is a social welfare program and “social welfare” of any kind is “socialism”, is “the nanny state”, creates “people who don’t deserve, won’t work, etc.”
This is not a fact but the ideology and mind-set of conservatism, and of most Republicans. It is ruinous for democracy and mirrors the attitudes of corporate bigshots now holding way too much power in D.C.
  Take this one vital issue.  Think and plan how ordinary people who favor Social Security could help to prevent losing it.  Plan a grassrppts information campaign beginning with basics:  What is it? How does it work? Why do we have it?  Why is it needed and by whom?  Who gets it? How can it be destroyed, and who wants to destroy it? Why?  What does this all mean to you? etc.
  Figure out how, without the help of big media, members of “liberal” organizations could create and disseminate simple, clear, accurate information through the Internet, local papers, videos, home meetings etc.  Build networks of people who will volunteer to help on this single issue—one issue at a time whether end-the-wars, support public
education, improve public health care, whatever.  Issue by issue, recruit people issue by issue.  Do the work at the grassroots level.
  As people learn they gain confidence and spread the word, especially when they get together and share and are shown methods where they can be useful.
Avenues open up that were not visible before beginning.  The Internet is an enormous benefit waiting to be used—as long as we maintain its freedom (which is also threatened, for obvious reasons). 
  It’s hard to stimulate the urge to actually begin, but after that it gets easier and more rewarding. Doing nothing, and griping on top of that, only hastens political breakdown and chaos. We ought to use what we have and take advantage of opportunities inherent in people’s present needs.
  If you criticize these thoughts, please make other constructive suggestions because we really need them badly. Think about how it can be done and what you and I and others here who are so worried about coming elections can do right here right now.
  The problem is a choice between lighting a candle and cursing the darkness.  Humans are seemingly destined to have to make this kind of choice over and over again.  Moral courage is the guts to make the right choice.

Eugene says, “But there’s no mistaking the public mood, and the truth is that it makes no sense.”

It makes no sense to even listen to Republican rhetoric, but the platitudes and acrimonious outbursts are easy to digest in a recession Republicans caused.
It makes no sense to vote Republican against your own interests but emotion comes easier than thought.

It made not sense to vote for a slow, ignorant Texan like W, but the lazy majority did it twice.

It makes no sense that so many Americans believe Obama is not Christian, but it only proves that propaganda works on lazy minds.

The rich prefer that the majority remain poorly educated, informed, and easily manipulated. That’s why education is underfunded, wages are low, and the social safety net is being shredded.

How many apologists are out there still supporting the
corpse of this system that has wedded the interests of
the moneyed elite, corporations with the very
institution that is supposed to protect us from the tyranny of the rich and powerful.

Only the intensionally blind and institutionally
enslaved still support the fantasy that the ballot box
can be used for change.

FiftyGigs, September 5 at 1:07 pm
“Baloney. It isn’t about “courage”. It’s about simple political power, and (good or bad) 59 seats won’t do it against an opposition that puts
ideology above the nation’s best interests.”

Yes, it is about courage, that much we agree on.

================
“To blame Democrats is to tacitly support Republicans.”

How did you ever arrive at that conclusion? What we have begins as a “Morton’s Fork, which later becomes a “Hobson’s Choice”; i.e., what starts
out as the lesser of two evils then becomes a take it or leave it situation as the voter has no way to express any level of dissatisfaction. None Of
The Above, or NOTA options, are only allowed in ONE state, Nevada, and that is emasculated lip service. Should the vote count for NOTAs exceed
the count of the otherwise highest vote getter, the corrupt flunky politicians get in office anyway rather than the legislature having the balls to
actually do something about the voting process or the social issues that led to the results that it had.

=================
“Instead, you blame Democrats. Curious.”

The Republicans had their chance to change things and all we saw was more sabotage to the Constitution and the population and integrity of the United States of America. They not only blew it, they lied, committed conspiracy, murder, and treason.

Now as for the Democrats, they are now having their chance, and so far, they have only further sabotaged our Constitution and our country’s reputation, lied, committed conspiracy, murder, and treason. So, what’s your point?

You and I are at a stalemate.  No use to continue arguing the same.  My attitudes and opinions are based on the necessity for maintaining sosme semblance of political health in the U.S.
  The tea party attitudes and activities are inane and counter-productive.  Whining likewise.  Fatalism, kills the spirit and lacks what Chris calls moral courage.  We have to look for what’s left and make of it what we can.
  The gates of hell are rumored to contain the fatal words “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”  I’m serious.

I knew it was all down-hill when Vice President Quayle
(George the First’s side-kick) puffed up his chest and
announced, “I stand by all the misstatements I have
made.”

“Things would have been different, if the Dems would have had the courage to do what they were elected to do.”

Baloney. It isn’t about “courage”. It’s about simple political power, and (good or bad) 59 seats won’t do it against an opposition that puts ideology above the nation’s best interests.

To blame Democrats is to tacitly support Republicans.

Why don’t you ever argue about some, a handful, even one, just one, Republican having “courage” to do the thing that 59 Democrats (and you) know is the right thing to do?

Instead, you blame Democrats. Curious.

To maintain and improve a national infrastructure that will support economic growth, the richest Americans need to pay more in taxes, because the middle class can’t.

Sometimes Eugene is brilliant beyond words.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time, both political parties work for those that want to destroy this country.

Yes, Eugene Robinson is angry, but only because the political manipulations have not succeeded, the truth has escaped.

So Robinson, who dumbed down, and drugged up the people of this country?

The Democratic party blew it, plain and simple, and there’s no weaseling out of it, no matter who you try and blame.

Things would have been different, if the Dems would have had the courage to do what they were elected to do.

I’m really tired of hearing about the media.

THE SUPREME AMERICAN IDOL

{In the punditry business, it’s considered bad form to question the essential wisdom of the American people}

Were there any “wisdom” ...

The Dumbing Down of America is almost complete. Americans have become inured to political debate, particularly the kind that brings to their attention discomforting facts. KISS is the journalistic rule. (Keep It Simple to Sell.)

The media sells more news about Paris Hilton’s drug-problem than the fundamental need for an overhaul of America’s educational system. Why? Because Paris is glamour and glamour is more interesting than reading & writing & ‘rithmetic.
(Paris is a spoiled brat, btw.)

What captures the attention of most Americans? Celebrities. We adulate them and another breed—our captains of industry who make millions ‘n billions of dollars. Wealth—the Supreme American Idol.

Americans are living a day-to-day existence. Asking them to think about the future is hopeless. Which is why they have become so manipulable by the Mass Media in general and the Boob Tube specifically.

And which is why the Supreme Court foolishly decided that Vested Corporate Interests throwing unlimited amounts of money at the Media was “freedom of speech”. Corporations did not exist in the days of our founding forefathers. But I rather suspect that they would have seen straight through the flim-flam of that decision.

Only citizens have the right to “freedom of speech”. Corporations have a right to an opinion, which they may express before Congress when this body is investigating matters that concern business.

Corporations have no right whatsoever to corrupt our Congressionals with campaign funding.

POST SCRIPTUM

We live in interesting times.

Problem is, gerard, that the resurgence of ‘the real democratic spirit’ ALREADY OCCURRED, in 2008 - in large part because of Obama’s inspiring (if calculatedly vague) rhetoric.  He asked for support for real reform, for real change, and he got it - then turned his back on it once elected and in fact actively subverted it (with the active collaboration of his Democratic Senate colleagues; the House was at least a bit more reluctant, but still went along in the end).

When the occasional progressive (not that Obama may ever have been one, but some are) DOES get elected to Congress, s/he gets immediately sucked into the establishment swamp.  We elected one in 2006, and within two months of taking office she was breaking very specific progressive campaign pledges at the behest of the Democratic leadership.

Howard Dean attempted to reform the Democratic party back in 2003, and got incredible grassroots support in that effort.  Then the establishment got Clark to run to divide the anti-war support and then bolstered Kerry’s pathetic run while quietly subverting Dean’s, preparing the ground for the MSM (who were REALLY afraid of Dean’s plan to break up the largest of them) to ride his campaign into the ground after the manufactured ‘scream’ in Iowa.

In other words, your plan revolves around the belief that reform of the Democratic party at the national level is possible, when in fact it is not - not while the DLC-inspired establishment holds sway (and their stranglehold is still absolute:  they eliminate most progressives in the primaries and then co-opt the few who clear that hurdle when the get to D.C.).  Until that changes, the national Democratic party is every bit as hopeless as the national Republicans, and any other opinion (such as the one you’re advancing) is, frankly, delusional (though probably comforting).

Democrats at the state level are often still worth supporting, to make way for some potential improvement AFTER the party at the national level has either been forced to reform or reduced to irrelevance.

Republicans give us the back of their hand, Dems give us a kick in the groin (accompanied by flowery rhetoric, of course). So, Eugene, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? BTW, you and Oboover need to get a room!

“The party” is much bigger than the boys at the top, and (with a recurrence of the real democratic spirit of “of the people by the people for the people” which is stirring now) there can be a reformation among Democrats.  The Republicans, on the other hand, are hopeless.  That’s my opinion.

Bill, thanks—but no thanks.

That’s right Mr. Robinson. All the politicians are doing is offering what the public
wants to buy—sometimes from Dems, and other times from Reps. The goods
they are buying are basically always the same: a belief in the empire, the use of
violence (wars, gun ownership, the death penalty,) worship of consumption, and a
general disregard for economic inequality. And the majority of those who hold
these beliefs end up being victims themselves.  Following the activities of the two
parties, their political campaigns and races, doesn’t amount to more than cheap
entertainment at a time when detachment from reality is very widespread.

Eugene Robinson hints at the real problem: there is no FUNDAMENTAL difference between the leadership of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

Both are firm believers in corporate welfare at home, and permanent warfare abroad. They both toss a few bones to the poor in the form of a few dependency-enhancing “welfare” programs.

It is a dirty, despicable system.

Libertarians, for whatever reason, will never get elected in the number necessary to address the problem.

Socialists and greens will just do the same thing as Republicans and Democrats, with a little different blend of theft and warfare.

We will not vote ourselves out of this mess; the problems are far too entrenched for that.

Re:  - bill, September 4 at 10:36 pm

“Once enough ordinary people understand that (edit) both the Republican and Democratic programs are (end edit) fundamentally and inevitably AGAINST their interests, they can change.”

I concur. The issue is one of integrity, and neither party has it. And I would still argue that the Republican Party, if integrity ever came back into the picture and the Constitution was first and foremost over the interests of the corporations, could then govern through the old practice of noblesse oblige, only in a modern day democratic sense. More currently, that sense would be one of responsible management by those who, for whatever reason, nature has seen to more abundantly provide for. As Peter Parker said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Nearly all of our politicians have forgotten about that last
part.

“Once enough ordinary people understand that (edit) both the Republican and Democratic programs are (end edit) fundamentally and inevitably AGAINST their interests, they can change.”

Fixed that for you.  No need for thanks.

SoTexGuy
You summed it up pretty well. Don’t think there is much that can be done until the lobbists and corporate interests are excluded, and they just got a mandate from the Supreme Court.
The bottom line is the system doesn’t work, Obama like Bush is a straw man, a salesman for those who aid for their election. The man has never had a real job, he believes in compromise, we need a Teddy Roosevelt what we got was a political Teddy Bear

I’m just guessing, but I’ll bet most people vote on the basis of long-standing notions of attaining economic stability and assuring a future for their kids.  That means jobs and the economy are on the top of their minds. Availability of good education comes in about next, and right after that, availability of health care and social security in their old age so they don’t have to depend on their children. Ending war, especially if they have someone directly in danger.
  Jobs, economic future for kids, education, health care, social security.  All issues now under extreme threat.  Therefore, through whatever channels we have and can make as individuals, we ought to concentrate on one of these, get well informed, and talk to people—in grocery lines, at meetings, on the job, wherever,asking questions to find out broadly what they know, what is their opinion, and follow with “Did you know that .....?”
  Ask whatever seems appropriate. Keep notes and summarize results at home to work for improvement in approach.
  Organize home conversations, try to get people involved in helping each other understand what is puzzling, and in the process make friends in the “each one teach one” mode.  Let them know why an issue is important to you personally—in dollars and cents, in what ways etc. 
  Sounds useless?  Nothing is useless except quarreling and allowing ignorance to reign. Or doing nothing.  Other ideas?  Do precinct work?
  “IT AIN’T OVER TILL IT’S OVEr” In fact it won’t even begin unless we begin it.
  Once enough ordinary people understand that the Republican program is fundamentally and inevitably AGAINST their interests, they can change. But they will understand most easily at the personal level—how will this effect me, how do you know, etc.? 
  You’ll never know how much you did to help, but you are sure to wonder if you should have tried.
  And don’t let age level get in the way—if that’s your problem (assuming from things said on TD from time to time). I’m sure you already know all this, but just to give us some encouragement after a lot of bumming out on this string.

Re:  Tobysgirl, September 4 at 1:23 pm

It’s what has been happening during all the elections from ‘92 on forward; those were the ones I’d at least been paying more attention to. The corporate owned media has gone through the motions of “appearing” objective, but it has all been a ruse.

“October 3, 1988:
The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates ... because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates’ organizations aim was to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades [that were] devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”

The average person on the street can’t get any straight answers because as long as he or she is still believing that the current system is working, they just won’t question the fact that the system is also denying them the information
necessary to make any intelligent decision in the booth.

It’s no different than a farmer blaming the poor quality of milk on his cows, when it was he who kept them locked inside eating the poorest quality grain instead of being able to roam the grassy fields every day. They stayed locked in because of the inconvenience of the farmer to do otherwise.

Politicians are no different; they slither and squirm at the mere thought that someone might find out the actual truth about what they’ve been doing with OUR DOLLARS. Transparency is a political virtue, not that anyone ion Washington would have even the foggiest notion of what that means.

Do you really think attempting to become “sophisticated” makes any difference, when one has been continually and intentionally left in the dark by politicians who took and then broke their oaths to serve their country and support the
Constitution? DO you think the average citizen is even aware about how many countries we have assassinated the leaders of, or how many currencies we’ve bankrupted because those countries wouldn’t buy into being raped of their resources or tow the US hegemonic party line?

It’s no wonder that ever since the League of Women Voters pulled out, that every one of the candidates that didn’t support NAFTA was basically shoved off the far end of the stage. This isn’t a stupid and uninformed citizenry problem (although their is an issue there); it’s a problem with integrity of our politicians, which of late has been two steps lower than maggot vomit.

I would say that rational voting, at least in a large election, is usually impossible.

If one reads the rational comments, then makes a connection, one might understand that the Democratic Party actually reflects, to a degree, the American voter. I have seen time after time that voters have actually been offered a genuine choice—either an independent candidate or a progressive Democrat—and they have either chosen a conservative Democrat or a Republican.

The problem with voting is that it takes some sophistication. One must listen to debates and judge the candidates on many levels, from their demeanor, to their responses to questions, to the way they portray their opposition. How can a populace which doesn’t even remember the Reagan deficits (the same people now screaming about Obama deficits) possibly approach candidates, referenda, or policy with any degree of knowledge or foresight?

Well, Mr. Robinson, you sure were correct about those awful, dirty and intolerant Tea Party protesters.

Damn those violent and abusive Tea Party members posing as peace-loving, kind, compassionate and tolerant, intellectual, liberals.

-

Tony Blair pelted with eggs and shoes at book signing

Former prime minister attacked by anti-war protesters in Dublin as he promotes memoirs

“This isn’t an “electoral wave,” it’s a temper tantrum.”

-

Why, because the majority fails to agree with you?  What an arrogant bigot you are, Mr. Robinson.

Not a single major issue proposed or passed in the last 18 months has enjoyed the support of the majority.  Not even one. 

It is you throwing a childish, petulant, tantrum, Mr. Robinson.  It must be awfully lonely being amongst the 20% of the brightest, compassionate and tolerant people America has to offer.

Perhaps of you could be a bit more condescending to the majority you’ll get your way.

Paul_GA and Taikan,

The reason people are so wanting short and quick solutions is because all of those longer term solutions they’d elected their representatives to take care of, at the very least over the last few decades, have all been ignored. We “hired” these people, who “claimed” they would deal with the relevant issues, only to find out that the money we’ve been paying them with has been used to build one huge brothel in Washington DC.

These interlopers have taken our money to build cushy little nest eggs for themselves and entire underground doomsday survival cities which aren’t for the likes of you and I. Then they continued to argue that the reason they couldn’t take care of those problems was because of some philosophic dolts in the “other party”, who were always trying to tear the country apart. We all now know it’s just part of the “same party” and that they were in collusion, or at least muffled acceptance, all along. Whether through acts of omission or commission, the outcome was always the same.

No, gentlemen, I submit that this is no different than choosing to have your house remodeled; that the behavior of the populace in wanting quick solutions that they don’t have to pay for is due totally to the fact that we’ve already paid to get the job done, countless times over, and now we’re just looking for that performance clause in the contract. After a while, people just become so tired of non-performance that they get, angry, agitated, frustrated, and start acting out. We could be talking about children, here, except that the people who believed that this system would work were and are sane individuals who have been pushed to the limit.

Our population has been willing, for decades, to address the real problems; to bite the bullet and stick it out for the long haul (well enough of it has been, anyway). The only problem was that we got fleeced by a shoddy contractor and we’re now watching as our house falls down in the slightest wind and we later learn that, after we’ve tried to take the contractor to court, the judge was the contractors uncle. The courts always side with the contractor, so to speak, and then we wonder why the homeowner reacts with an AK47 or unconsciously takes it out on his fellow commiserating citizens. Anger? Resentment, maybe? The politicians have known all along what the social consequences would be if they kept this up; it’s just that none of them had the testicles enough to do anything about it. But they are really good at finger pointing.

No, this is hardly a spoiled and lazy population issue, although it gives the appearance of that. It was our fathers and grandfathers who had put in the sweat equity for decades, but their now grown kids are being left, quite literally, homeless.

Tony Blair pelted with eggs and shoes at book signing

Tony Blair, former prime minister attacked by anti-war protesters in Dublin as he promotes memoirs.

@ taikan

You got that right, friend; that’s exactly what the majority of the populace wants, whether they vote or not—solutions that are quick, easy and painless. Such solutions are mythical, of course, particularly in these times, which I see as a time of decline for a dying empire.

Here’s the way Pulitzer-winner Eugene Robinson, an associate editor at the Washington Post, and a syndicated columnist, recently described the Tea Parties: “The overhyped Tea Party phenomenon is more about symbolism and screaming than anything else. A ‘movement’ that encompasses gun nuts, tax protesters, devotees of the gold standard, Sarah Palin, insurance company lobbyists,  ‘constitutionalists’ who have not read the Constitution, Medicare recipients who oppose government-run healthcare, crazy ‘birthers’ who claim President Obama was born in another country, a contingent of outright racists (come on, people, let’s be real) and a bunch of fat-cat professional politicians pretending to be ‘outsiders’ is not a coherent intellectual or political force.”
Mr. Robinson, a Pulitzer winner for outstanding commentary, got it far from outstandingly accurate on several counts. First, there was no screaming, but rather thoughtful speeches about taxes, debt, deficits, government waste, the nation’s founding principles, and the problem of burdening our children and grandchildren with unsustainable levels of debt and taxation.
Second, one could hardly say that the “Tea Party phenomenon” has been “overhyped,” except in a negative way by the mainstream media and by establishment politicians. Right from the start, Nancy Pelosi warned that Tea Partiers were Nazis because she saw a picture of a swastika at an event. There were a few swastikas and Hitler pictures (plus some occasional pictures of hammers and sickles and Lenin and Che), but those were anti-Nazi, anti-totalitarian and anti-Communist expressions, examples of the threat to individual liberty from overblown government and overreaching politicians.
Third, I’m no devotee of the gold standard, no devotee of Sarah Palin, not a lobbyist for an insurance company or any other capitalist enterprise, not a Medicare recipient, not an outright racist or a masquerading one, and not a fat-cat professional politician pretending to be an outsider.
On the “birther” part, but if it was me and millions of people thought I was a foreign interloper, a pinko from Kenya, I’d just produce the original long form birth certificate.
I’m not a ‘constitutionalists’ who hasn’t read the Constitution. I’ve read it and I have a pocket-size copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, courtesy of the Cato Institute, in my glove compartment.
Robinson concludes by saying that “American public opinion seems to have become an unguided Weapon of Mass Suspicion.” In fact, that’s exactly what Robinson has done in his ridiculing of the Tea Party. He’s allowed his suspicions to distort his objectivity and destroy his credibility.
The issue is that the money the American people have invested in Social Security has been squandered by the government, their 401-K money has been gambled away in high-risk insurance schemes, government mandates have forced banks to give mortgage money to millions of unqualified borrowers, Medicaid and Medicare are going bankrupt, there’s a gold-plated revolving door connecting the thieves on Wall Street with the political crooks in Washington, and now we’re supposed to hand over our healthcare to these government geniuses.
The result is that four out of five Americans now say they don’t trust the federal government to solve their problems, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey, and nearly one in three says he government is a “major threat” to their freedoms.
And the Tea Parties are the problem? Come on, Mr. Robinson, let’s be real.
Oh, by the way Eugene, Iv’e heard MSNBC will be handing out Mao caps and Che t-shirts for all of you “regulars” to wear on the air. How sweet!

Robinson is just stating the obvious when he says the American public wants quick and easy solutions that are painless.  Not only is it obvious, it also is not new. 

In the 70s, Californians passed Prop 13 limiting the amount of property taxes they pay.  But even though passage of Prop 13 guaranteed that revenues would drop, the California electorate failed to reduce its demand for state-funded services. 

In 1984, after Reagan’s tax cuts had begun to create what were then the largest non-wartime deficits in the history of the United States, Walter Mondale was honest with the American people, telling them that the only way to reduce the budget deficit was to raise taxes (i.e., partially restore the tax revenue that Reagan’s tax cuts had caused the federal government to lose).  His reward?  He was trounced in the election. 

George H.W. Bush was elected in 1988 in large part due to his pledge not to impose any “new” taxes (i.e., not to partially restore the tax revenue that Reagan’s tax cuts had caused the federal government to lose).  However, after taking office he agreed to restore some taxes in order to reduce the deficit.  His reward?  He lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. 

The American public wants government services but it doesn’t want to pay for them.  That’s not new, and it isn’t just a function of the Baby Boomers.  A so-called “pundit” such as Robinson should have been aware of that fact long before now.

Eugene, Eugene, Eugene, where did we go wrong with your education?

How many times are we going to have to show you what’s happening here? Perhaps it is WE who should be writing and getting paid for this column and YOU should be on this end trying to bring yourself up to speed.

=====================

Mr. Sheer, I hope you’re taking note note, here, because this guy just doesn’t get it. I hope you aren’t paying for this drivel. If he’s not covering up for Obama in one article, he’s blaming the people for the demise of their own country, in another.

If the American people would even be thinking about quick and painless solutions, it would only be because they have long ago given up on their politicians actually giving a crap about anything they pretend to legislate. What’s the current figure, ...... about 95% of the bills passed go basically unread. Meanwhile, the corporate lobbyists have walked all over everyone along with Gene’s buddy, Obama, is right smack in the middle of the problem.

At the rate things are going though, the rest of Obama’s citizenship history will be coming out soon and when it’s discovered he had no legal authority to sign all those legislative IEDs into existence, the process of undoing all the harm Obama has caused since he hoodwinked the American populace in 2008, can begin. As far as being hoodwinked, I should know, I was one of them; lied to by a imposter in the White House and a Congress and Senate filled with pontificating $5,000 suits and the dumb glassy-eyed looks and the intelligence of two decades worth of rear window bobble-head dolls.

The citizens of this this once fine and proud country have been looking for leadership and guidance, but have instead been forced to choke on a diet of managerial ineptitude and greed, throughout now six terms of corruption and treason. I don’t hear Mr. Robinson discussing the discord in the military ranks or why the Federal Reserve needs to be audited.

Families have allowed their sons and daughters to march off into the sunset in pursuit of some higher ideal about “freedom” and “democracy” and preserving “American interests abroad”. If they only knew the truth. They have continued to put their faith and hard earned dollars into a system that was supposed to be nurturing our society as a whole. Instead, there are enough bunker tunnels dug for the elitists and the politicians to survive whatever calamity they helped to create, enough to walk to the moon and back; just no space within them for the people who had been paying for them to be built all along.

I don’t see Mr. Robinson growing a set of testicles any time soon and actually challenging that shining star of his in the White House. Every article has him back out with the silver polish, trying to erase the tarnish of his toxic star. He continues to avoid talking about issues any any real significance. In case he hasn’t noticed from his lofty office in the clouds, this country is headed into the toilet because no one wants to talk about the truth, Robinson included ........ which leads us to the REAL problem, why has Washington been so eager to sell the soul of the their own country? No integrity.

There’s a topic for Gene; integrity. Let’s hope he can remember how to spell it long enough before forgetting why he was going to look it up.

“They’re in the market for quick and easy solutions that won’t hurt a bit.” says Mr. Robinson.(meaning the American people)
  One third of “the American people” are already hurting so bad right now that they can’t survive another “solution” for the rich at their expense.
  Another third are probably on the edge, one way or another, less than secure, less than confident, feeling they lack sound knowledge and have less, or no, access to channels offering political avenues
leading to constructive change.
  Maybe the least threatened third—the safely middle class, educated, largely city populations—
are watching all democratic institutions fail at once for lack of improvement, (plus paying for two unnecessary wars) and they are realizing how complex and deep-rooted the American tragedy is, feeling they must do something, but not knowing what. Largely conservative themselves, they are looking for how to hold on to what is left.
  None of these types are “in the market for a quick fix” or “acting like spoiled children.”
  To insult those who are being misled, or denied basic rights as human beings, or confused and frightened is to bolster their oppressors.
  What we are dealing with is an enormously rich, stiff-necked upper class dominating the government and supported by the military and its offshoots. These oligarchs care nothing at all about “the American people.”  They treat themselves as being above criticism and unreachable. 
  It appears that nobody knows how to rectify this dangerous imbalance, which demands radical changes in basic economic principles long held to be infallible if not downright sacred.

Dear Mr. Robinson.

Our Nation didn’t unite to elect Barak Obama because of the economy.

We didn’t vote for Obama because he was a black American.

Obama’s talk of hope and change did get our attention and revive some of our dreams.. but that’s not why we chose him.

America elected Mr. Obama because we so unanimously rejected Bush and the Bush years.. period.

Unlike candidate Obama, President Obama has largely embraced the policies and programs of the despicable Bush administrations..

No one has been held accountable for the horrible wars and debacles of the Neo-cons he was intended to replace. Recently, he praised Bush’s patriotism in a national address.

This amounts to a total betrayal in the view of many of the people, from both major parties and all walks of life, who supported him..Me too!

I loathe the Republicans for what they are…

Those who betray my trust and hope get an even worse appraisal.. and Mr. Obama is working to find a place in that clique.

Mr. Robinson.. if you can advise Mr. Obama.. tell him that to save the mid-terms and his Presidency.. Have Cheney and Bolton, Yoo and Bybee, Wolfowitz, Rice and Bush himself arrested!

If they have done nothing then let the courts settle the issue (the current SCOTUS won’t allow them jailed). but at least we will know what happened and that Obama kept his promise..

That’s what I think about all that.

Adios!

Is it spoiled to want decent jobs (why is Obama pushing yet another “free trade agreement” with South Korea?)? What does it mean when someone says: “Americans want things done right away?” Should we wait until two more years? Four? Until people who have lost their homes are begging for food?
Perhaps millionaires like Eugene Robinson can afford to let the Democrats in the WH and Congress (also millionaires) take their own sweet time to toss the citizens a bone. Unfortunately, many Americans needed help yesterday. I guess they’re just spoiled.

Boy, do I agree with you, Eugene.  It’s been said of
‘Boomers,’ and there are a lot of them, between
snarls and whimpers, the American Boomer is like a
child playing at adult life - and we all know the
attention span of a child and we all know children
have no sense of time (“Are we there yet?”  “Ten
minutes.”  “Okay.”)

A telling example of the mindlessness of the American
voter is the remarkable finding that Democrats lost
control of Congress in 1994 because Democrats had
passed a gun ban law (of course later repealed.) 

And then there is the theory that we have become a
people addicted to the ‘remote control.’  If
something doesn’t happen at literally the speed of
light, we’re momentarily flummoxed and then we scream
where’s-the-goddamn-remote and then we have our
temper tantrum ‘cause no one knows.

Me, I’m going to vote for the straight Libertarian ticket in November, except in races where there’s no LP candidate running—and then I’ll vote for the Democrat. I’ve gotten to where I positively despise the Repubs.

It’s heartening to see that most people here ‘get it’ far better than Eugene does.  Of course, that’s in large part because they also understand far better than he does just how completely Obama (and the rest of the Democratic establishment) sold us out after that campaign of ‘hope’, ‘change we can believe in’, and ‘and end to business as usual’.

Had they at least TRIED to reach those (and many more specific) goals we’d probably cut them a lot more slack, but instead they worked actively behind the scenes to sabotage them.  Is it any wonder that we’re completely disgusted?

Punishing the national Democratic establishment for their perfidy is entirely appropriate.  Some of us want to do so with sufficient vigor that they’ll be destroyed if they don’t shape up, and quickly.  That’s what voting Republican is about - not because in the short term it will give us better (i.e., not quite as bad) government, but because in the longer term it will open up the only real ‘hope’ for ‘change’ that exists:  removal of the main obstacle to having a real progressive alternative.

As long as that establishment can co-opt so many progressives into supporting them simply because the Republicans are even worse, we’ll continue down the path we’ve been on for at least the past 30 years (just at slightly differing rates of speed depending upon upon whether our collective government had a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ in front of its name).  Once we break that grip, we can either transfer our efforts to a more deserving organization or back to the party if it changes to qualify as that.

We were exhorted to elect Democrats in 2006, and we did so sufficiently to give them control of both Houses of Congress - but the wars and other depredations of the Bush administration continued unabated.  We were told this would change in 2008 if we elected yet more Democrats and a Democratic president, and we did so - yet STILL most of the worst abuses of the Bush administration continue and in some cases even worsen (though behind a kinder, gentler facade).  If insanity is indeed defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, it’s past time we got sane.

That’s no ‘temper tantrum’, it’s simple logic.  Not something that politicians and their cronies encourage, of course, but sometimes it’s so inescapable that even we can see it.

Short-term pain (to the point of retching in the voting booth for many of us) for longer-term gain.  It would be nice if the party would shape up sufficiently before November to avoid the former, but I’m not really holding my breath for that to happen:  they clearly believe they can go to the well yet again without standing for anything beyond “We’re better than those Republicans, so you HAVE to support us!” mantra.

I hope this time proves them disastrously wrong.

“... quick, painless solutions to long-term, structural problems ...”

as a citizen i understand things will not happen over night ... but the knife being twisted in my back is the ‘quick, painless solution” that wall street and the banks got and they are already to give out there bonuses early so they won’t have to pay tax on it if they let the tax cut for the rich are not extended ... such a double standard is hard to ignore

Unfortunately, Democrats are upset things are not going their way, they also have forgotten what we were facing under the Republicans.  Everytime, I remember things with Bush, I get angry.  I will vote and not sit back allowing the Republicans to win.  Otherwise, I will be angry with myself.

“The people have lost the confidence of the government.  Therefore, the government must dissolve the people and form a new people.”—Brecht

America only has two parties. The Hate-and-Fear Corporate Party or the Slightly Nicer Corporate Party. If Americans are upset with one Party because of its betrayals then all they can do is vote them out in favor of the other Party…who will, inevitably, betray them as well. And so the revolving door continues.

I’m not Obama’s biggest cheerleader but what cracks me up is how after 8 years of Bush incompetence and running the economy into the ground, Obama is supposed to wave a wand, kiss all owies and make it all better in two years. This is what we go through time and time again. Republicans take a dump on the country, Democrats mop it up and Republicans then complain they aren’t doing it fast enough or getting the stink out.

Sure, go ahead, re-elect the vampires that led us into this mess. That ought to teach us all a good lesson.

Wow. Is Eugene Robinson competing with Robert Gibbs and Rahm? First, Rahm calling people “f-ing ret**ds” and saying “F—the UAW,” then we get Robert Gibbs calling us “the professional left who need to be drug tested.” Now we have Eugene Robinson who, no doubt, got his marching orders from White House, calling us unwilling to sacrifice a la Chuck Todd, diagnosing us with Attention Deficit Disorder, and accusing of throwing temper tantrums.
I love how he sneaked in “fixing Social Security for future generations” (i.e., gutting it) at the end. Yeah, Eugene, I’ll be sure to vote for Democrats in November, because the WH is doing nothing and has done nothing but care for the corporations and now it wants to go after our Social Security.
What’s his point, anyway? “Remember how bad the Republicans are?” That’s the Democrat’s whole schtick this election season? Clowns. Vote third party or write-in a vote, and let the chips fall where they may. The Democrats don’t deserve our votes.

Well it’s good to see Eugene at his finest once again.

He starts out low and does the limbo.

“...This isn’t an “electoral wave,” it’s a temper tantrum…”

This illustrates exactly why I and some others despise Eugene’s smug elitist attitude. What a pompous @ss. He and his filthy ilk didn’t listen when we demanded things like employment before mandated purchases and he and his cohorts mocked our questions about constitutional authority.

Then he has the audacity to refer to us like we are children throwing tantrums.

“...the refusal of Americans to look seriously at the nation’s situation—and its prospects—is an equal-opportunity scourge…”

You’re the one constantly trying to divide your fellow citizens and whipping up BS talking points, Eugene. I was on a roof 25 years ago trying to install Solar heating panels, while you and your little party politics sunday brunch crowd whistled past the gas tank and utterly failed to even try to come up with a national energy strategy.

Well I’ve got some news for you Eugene.

I’m working every spare second I can to throw out every single incumbent elitist bitch and bastard that inhabit the swamps we call capitals. As your recent crowd of Wall Street Dems have shown, the letter after the name means nothing. Alaska here we come! (buh bye murkey, we knew ya all too well)

And I’m dedicating a tenth of the effort to you, Dear Mr. Robinson. Thanks for the motivation!

We *have* the power to change things in 2 months http://draintheswamps.com/

” . . . it’s impossible to ignore the obvious: The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats.”

The majority (50% + 1) is acting like the uninformed and ignorant fools that they are.  The Republicans and Democrats are destroying them and their children . . . and they love it.  Gimme that Old Time Religion!

Eugene ...

What do you expect them to do given the 2 options they have?  The Dems have disappointed them big time, going through the motions while catering to the big money interests at every turn.  Obama has been a dismal failure, certainly nowhere near an FDR which is what we needed, so where do they turn?  I think their willingness to put the fox back into the hen house is a warning to the Dems to get their act together or be punished.  Of course, we punish ourselves as well but ...