Every once in a while, I realize there was one good thing from Al Gore being robbed of the POTUS ...

[marble falls]

Last edited Sat Sep 25, 2021, 03:00 PM - Edit history (2)

If there was one good thing that happened out of Al Gore being robbed of the POTUS, it was Skinner, EarlG and elad getting together and starting this thing.

It is a tribute and an amazement how well it's held together and works so well.

Edit:

thankyou miss smartypants for the rightous kick in my dummypants:

It's "Skinner, EarlG and elad"

I keep doing that. I've had more interaction with Skinner and EarlG than elad. It's too easy not to know how important elad is. This is at least the fourth or fifth time!!


that actually underlines how good the work is that elad does: if he screwed up, we'd all know his name well.

[Greybnk48]

1. I wish I had found DU then!

Thanks goodness I found this place in Dec. 2004, and never looked back.

Thank you to Skinner, EarlG, and Elon, for creating this amazing site!

[niyad]

2. Thank you, Skinner, EarlG and Elad.

[KS Toronado]

3. Yes, thanks Skinner, EarlG & Elon for this great place for Socialists to meet

and exchange ideas. Time we proudly use the Socialist title proudly since repugs paint it as a negative.

[NurseJackie]

24. This is a place for DEMOCRATS to meet.

Time we proudly use the Socialist title proudly since repugs paint it as a negative.

NO! Absolutely NOT!

This is a place for DEMOCRATS to meet. Democrats are not socialists. I'm not a socialist. I reject socialism.

[soldierant]

33. Really?

You reject Social Security? You reject Medicare?

[Hav]

34. That's not socialism (n/t)

[soldierant]

35. They are socialistic policies. They are what socialism really is.

It is not the bogeyman the right would have you believe.

The Political Compass

[KS Toronado]

64. Appears we think a lot alike

Wish as a party, we would start attacking reQublicOns on their misuse of the term, or at least educate voters
that it's not the bogeyman. Check out my #63 response below.

[soldierant]

65. Yes, thanks.

I don't know whether you checked out my link ... but the aspect of governments we have seen which have called themselves "socialist" (which many were not) was never the socialiosm, but the authoritarianism. Authoritarianism can certainly exist with socialism (or communism) and the result is ugly AF. But it doesn't have to. There's more to politics than left and right.

[KS Toronado]

70. No I hadn't but I did check it out, re: Political Compass

Bookmarked it and even took the test, I was in lower left hand box.

[soldierant]

73. I am there too.

[NurseJackie]

72. If you're explaining... you're losing. Best to stick with being a Democrat...

... instead of trying to get everyone else to embrace being a Socialist. It's never going to happen.

[Hortensis]

39. Democrats support and vote for Democrats and the Democratic Party.

Seems to me that's all that's needed for a working community, regardless of other ideals some might hold for a someday future.

The TOS do clearly state, though, "Democratic Underground is an online community for politically liberal people who understand the importance of working together to elect more Democrats..."

That would disallow all who disagree with that last, whether socialists or anarcho-transhumanists.

)Yeah, looked that one up, still don't know just what it means, except they emphatically don't qualify for this community. )

[murielm99]

43. Yup,

this is the Democratic Underground, not the socialist underground.

I am not a socialist.

[question everything]

45. You may want to get the correct names, first

[Solomon]

61. Ha ha. You know better than to try and make a statement like that on DU!

[KS Toronado]

63. Yea, I actually did know better.......

I had Democrats typed in and then changed it before posting. reQublicOns use the words socialism/socialist
when referring to any Democrat and paint it as something very bad for America. I've always wondered how
many people on our side of the aisle were as scared of that word as repugs believe people should should be.
With only 2 "I'm not a socialist" responses, believe we're well aware of what it really means. Kudos for being
able to look past the smoke & mirrors.

[ancianita]

4. A grateful AMEN to this!

[sagetea]

5. AHO!

I saw their signs at the inauguration in 2001, lurked for years then joined lost password re-joined, changed my name, then stayed who I am for years...this is the first place I read every morning, skim the headlines, it's just been an infuriating, calming, emotional, joyous, journey! I love everyone here!

I have a funny story about DU! Back in 2004, we were poor, but things were looking up, my husband and I just bought our first house, in Idaho, (cheap land) we had just moved in when there was a knock at the front door, my husband looked out the window and saw two 'suits' FBI, he looked at me and said, "What the Fuck have you done now?" ( I put a big white sheet on our balcony "Kerry for President" he thought it would get us killed or robbed) I was on DU when he asked, I looked up at him and said "I'm just reading DU!" He said "Get Off now!" I did then we answered the door, they started asking us questions about a neighbor applying for a post in the W. administration, we couldn't answer as we just moved in and didn't know anybody. They thanked us and left. Neighbor didn't get the position.

The heartbreak about Gore, then Dean, then Kerry....it would have been way too much to handle if there were no DU. I am grateful and blessed for this one site, I've learned so much from DU's patrons, DU has given me hope when I couldn't find any, bravery when I was scared, and laughter when crying the ugly cry. And I rarely post! I read though...all the time!

Hell, EarlG, gave me a chance on the MIR Team when I only had 700 replies! He took a chance on me back in 2017, and made me feel like I was something...somebody!

AHO

sage

[marble falls]

7. Kerry was even more maadening than Gore and gore was the worst up to Kerry. We lett the GOP ...

... get away with too much. I really think that was opened the door to 45: we were too polite to fraudsters and 45 thought we'd just brush it off again.

[sagetea]

9. Oh Gawd Yes!!

Just seeing how they 'Swift Boated' him. How they treated his honor, his service! It was horrible!

sage

[marble falls]

12. The hard part for me was I am ex Navy and I know what Kerry did as a swift boat commander ...

... and I know that even less than in other services (and all services take it very seriously), the USN does not hand the Silver Star like candy or politically. Kerry earned it doing brown water service and that service had about 25% casualties at some points of the war.

When I was in (as a bubblehead), river boats were always looking for crew.

[Grasswire2]

19. It wasn't just swiftboating that kept Kerry from POTUS.

There actually was hinky vote-shifting in Ohio. Karl Rove.

The election was STOLEN from Kerry via computers that were counting votes and connected to the Internet.

[marble falls]

21. The election was stolen using any means the twisted souless brains of the RW ...

could imagine.

[electric_blue68]

30. Oh, yeah ... I remember That 🤬

[Tree Lady]

23. I agree my first time really getting involved

Was Kerry campaign and I gave it my all doing registration, out of state walking door to door trips, etc. I thought surely everyone would see how bad Bush was. I joined here in 2004 while working on campaign.

I cried and cried when he lost. I was upset when Trump won beyond upset but didn't cry. By then I knew how easy it was to lie to a certain part of America and get them to vote your way.

The day after the vote when we all came here and said our real names. For many years after if I googled my name that post on DU would come up.

[NurseJackie]

26. Stop it.

We lett the GOP ...
... get away with too much.

The Democrats did no such thing. We didn't "lett" the GOP do any such thing. We fought hard.

[usaf-vet]

58. And it better stop NOW! It can't get much worst then the Trump WH. At 74 I don't think I will....

.... see a better reason to say enough, ENOUGH! Time for people to go to jail. Starting with 45 and his spawn and ending with passing McTurtle back to Kentucky with the message this POS belongs to you.

[maynard]

47. Saw that sign too!

Wrote down the info and logged on. Loved this site ever since it was casually held up in front of the camera.

[calimary]

48. I LOVE this place!

It’s been my refuge and shelter-from-the-storm since early bush/cheney.

I went searching for someplace-anyplace to commiserate and find some sense of solidarity with others as upset as I was about Gore’s being robbed of the Presidency. Discovered a site called “Resident Bush”. (“AHA! Somebody else who agrees with me that Bush didn’t win legitimately!”)

And I glanced at the left-hand margin where other sites were listed (“if you like this, you may also like these”). I noticed something called “Democratic Underground” and clicked over into it to take a look.

And I’ve never looked back!

[WheelWalker]

6. Damn straight, Skippy!

[SergeStorms]

8. It's what's kept me semi-sane.

Otherwise I'd be our living in the woods, eating tree bark and sand.

[marble falls]

10. You're right. For years it's been changing me and giving me hope. It's kept me off the high side ...

... of the curves politics have thrown us.

[jaxexpat]

11. Okay. I'll go for that.

But I like to think that the founders of DU would happily exchange their site's current success for Al Gore's January 2001 inauguration, which was what the peo0ple of the country wanted as well.

Yay, democracy!

[Grasswire2]

20. Think how different our lives would be had Gore become POTUS. nt

[hibbing]

13. This place has been an oasis for me n/t

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

14. Here here!!!

It's my first stop in the morning and my last stop at night. It's a dose of sanity in a swirling muck of craziness.

[calimary]

49. Yep. Mine too.

[secondwind]

15. Hear, hear....

DU is my go-to safe place….

[NurseJackie]

16. All things considered... I'd rather still have the WTC Twin Towers and 3000 people still alive...

All things considered... I'd rather still have the WTC Twin Towers and 3000 people still alive.

[marble falls]

17. Unfortunately, that's not what happened. I'll take what I can have, DU.

[Mickju]

18. Not to mention major progress in fighting climate change.

[George II]

29. Having grown up in NYC and actually watched it going up slowly over several years.....

I went to high school and college nearby from 1963-1972 (construction began in August 1966). Then after going out in the working world, I was there dozens of times visiting the many Engineering and Architecture firms in those two buildings.

When I first saw the skyline about a year after it was attacked it was a stunning void for me. Nothing personal to anyone, but I'd give anything to have those buildings, and lives, instead of DU.

[BannonsLiver]

38. +10000 Jackie.

This was not well thought out.

[calimary]

50. Awwwwww.

[Raine]

57. Me too.. 😔 nt

[Martin Eden]

60. GW Bush was an unmitigated disaster

9/11, Afghanistan & Iraq, rolling back environmental protections, judicial appointments, trickle-down on steroids, the Great Recession...

But especially the wars of occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq. The campaign of lies to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq should have gotten Bush & Cheney impeached. It was a war crime sparking upwards of a million deaths, and the carnage continues.

[George II]

22. Nothing personal toward those guys, but I think we'd have been better off w/President Gore.

[NurseJackie]

27. I think it's fine to be appreciative of having DU... but to frame it as a "silver lining"

I think it's fine to be appreciative of having DU... but to frame it as some sort of grand "silver lining" to all that we've lost and all that we've suffered through, well, I think it's a bit of an undeserved exaggeration. That's all I'm saying.

[George II]

32. I'm sure not many New Yorkers would feel that way, either.

[BannonsLiver]

37. Yes. I agree. The silver lining framing is ludicrous IMO.

[AllaN01Bear]

25. i found du after the gore v shrub debachle as well and been insane on it ever since.

du helps me keep my insanity going . i dont want to go sane .




/revision/latest?cb=20090729102006

[Aristus]

28. Twenty years I would not have survived with sanity intact without DU!

[littlemissmartypants]

31. Yes!! Thank you Skinner, EarlG and Elad!! I love DU! ❤

[marble falls]

40. Thanks.

[littlemissmartypants]

42. ❤ nt

[BannonsLiver]

36. Yeah

I mean we got 9/11 and at least one war that should never have happened, and of course W crashed the economy in 2008, but hey, we’ve got this.

[marble falls]

41. So, no DU, no Sept 11? I don't think one has anything to with the other ...

... I mean, were we given a choice I don't know about???

[George II]

44. September 11 as it transpired wouldn't have happened had Al Gore been elected President.

The war in Iraq wouldn't have happened had Al Gore been elected President.

The war in Afghanistan wouldn't have happened had Al Gore been elected President.

The climate crisis as it is today wouldn't have happened had Al Gore been elected President.

[appalachiablue]

46. DU the oasis, excellent forum. It has a 'soc. prog.' forum:

https://democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1024

[Pepsidog]

51. Wish I had known about it back then.DU has been a lifesaver since "W".

[Skittles]

52. I feel like they saved me

I remember the despair I felt when the SC appointed their favorite guy to the presidency (I knew Dubya ran for governor as prep for the White House) ....I desperately wondered if there were others who knew how outrageous and dangerous that was and was relieved to find DU......how right we were then, and how right we are now.

[proud patriot]

53. as do I

[Skittles]

55. I remember how life just went on, ho hum....as if it was normal

honestly, I now see that act as the first time the GOP saw how much they could get away with using dirty tricks to manipulate the results of an election

[proud patriot]

68. Yup the brook brother's riot

using bullying intimidation tactics .. stop counting the votes was the slogan ...

clearly oppossed toDemocracy back then too...

[Knicks007]

54. that's a silver lining

to probably the biggest, most consequential turning point in American history since RFK's assassination at the time. And then you know who came into the picture.

[kskiska]

56. I signed up on the first day

when I saw the banner.

[PatrickforB]

59. Yes, DU is a good place to get news, talk about issues and sometimes argue.

Interesting discussion up-thread on socialism vs being a Democrat. Social Security and Medicare could be considered socialist policies, but the label has become quite pejorative.

It is really better to talk policy than politics. The party of lies, stupidity, treason and death has shown a sad mastery of jingoism, and has become quite sophisticated in pounding on talking points so much people vote a certain way or believe a certain way.

For example, we can talk about tax policy. I have repeatedly pointed out on here that individual taxpayers contribute around 86% of the federal government's tax revenue while corporations only pay in around 6.8%. Go back only 45 or 50 years, and this ratio was closer to 45:35.

This is, of course, unsustainable, because our government, that we pay taxes to run, and is supposedly a government of, by and for us, the people, should be using our taxes for programs and services that materially benefit Americans and their families. You can fill in the blank on what those services might be.

The problem is that our system has imposed the profit motive on a number of services that ought to be publicly funded, because they benefit everybody, and because the private sector cannot or will not provide them at the levels needed. Health care is like this.

But Hayek and Milton Friedman and the rest of the Chicago School economists got Ronald Reagan to lead the charge for 'supply side' economics, rather than the Keynesian model the government ran with since the Great Depression and the New Deal. Briefly stated, supply-side economics holds that:

If we cut taxes for corporations, they will create so many new jobs that the corporate tax revenue shortfall will be more than made up by payroll tax deductions from the new workers.

But think that through a minute. What the actual effect of this policy is, is to systematically transfer billions, even trillions of dollars from the public treasury directly into the pockets of shareholders, executives, corporate profits, and billionaires. Over $32 trillion has been taken out of circulation by billionaires, in fact, and put in offshore tax havens like the Caymans.

Yeah, I know policy is boring, and politics is more fun. But policies affect me. They affect you and your families. Think about what happened in Flint, MI. The policy there is that the governor can declare a city in fanancial trouble insolvent, and can replace its elected officials with their own people. This happened in Flint, and the Republican appointees decided to save money in a tight budget by rerouting city water through lead pipes. That is policy, people, and we all know what happened when it was imposed on the people of Flint.

They say the devil is in the details. But let's add to that sentence, and say, "The devil is in the details of policies foisted off on us, complete with well-funded corporate propaganda campaigns and political slogans."

Look at the GOP: "Murika ain't nebber goan go sosh-a-list!" Like it or not, they have gotten some serious mileage out of that.

[Budi]

62. DU was great & timely Because Al Gore Lost????

Is the Iraq War OK too now?

My, how messaging has changed.

DU is great & timely in spite of the Bush/Gore debacle, not because of it.

[marble falls]

66. What are you responding to???

[LetMyPeopleVote]

67. Due to Gore's loss, we have Citizens United, the gutting of the VRA and the possible loss of Roe

This is in addition to the unjustified invasion of Iraq

[marble falls]

69. You think those are postive results of Gore getting robbed???????

[LetMyPeopleVote]

71. Yes and the fact that you do not amuses me

I have been volunteering on voter protection efforts for a very long time including going to Florida as part of the Kerry Edwards voter protection team. W got to appoint two justices to the SCOTUS (Roberts and Alito) who were far more conservative than Rehnquist and O'Connor. Roberts had a s history of hating the Voting Rights Act and the Shelby County case was consistent with Roberts long held views that the Voting Rights Act had to be gutted. Citizens Unites was also a very radical decision that needed Alito's vote.

Clearly the invasion of Iraq would not had happen under Gore.

Again many of the issues we are facing today arose in part due to the election of W. I have never forgiven Nader, Moore, Sarandon or Maher for their efforts to help elect W.