And to think the Democratic Party was like this before...

[AZ Progressive]

We damn need this party to be like this again and reclaim its legacy!

[Trajan]

1. So fucking true ... thanks

[roguevalley]

13. All my presidents! I remember completely.

[Omaha Steve]

2. K&R!

[BrotherIvan]

3. Yes, we need it now

[geek tragedy]

4. Back when the Democrats supported apartheid

for black people and concentration camps for Japanese-Americans?

And lied us into the Viet Nam war?


People need to remember how things actually were.

[brentspeak]

7. I'm alive right to know how today's New Democrats

(the Clintons, Obama, Mark Warner, Debbie Wasserman-Schutz, etc.) are aggressively working with Republicans to make the middle class poorer.

[YoungDemCA]

9. +1. All of the OP's examples are speeches from politicians

Guess what, Obama and both Clintons give inspiring speeches too.

Why do the Democrats* in the OP get a pass on their actual records-which were quite complicated, and had positive AND negative outcomes, depending on the issues, circumstances, and historical, political, economic, and social conditions of the time?

This isn't history, this is historical fiction. Or better yet, romanticizing the past.



*And it couldn't have anything to do with race or gender. No, even dare suggesting that would be "divisive" or "offensive." Well, I find this OP divisive and offensive, because it's being used to criticize contemporary Democrats for not being "tough" or 'strong" enough. For not standing up for "the American people". Assuming that FDR, Truman, JFK, and LBJ were all "principled" Saints, of course. Come on.

[zeemike]

19. I would ask why Obama gets a pass on his actual record?

Gitmo still open for business, the surveillance state is still surveilling us, He continued the Bush tax cuts for billionaires, continued the state of permanent war, and basically the Bush policies, appointed Wall Street to government positions of power, and on and on.

We see only what we want to see...and blow off the rest with excuses.

[AZ Progressive]

23. So you endorse the wet noodle Democrats of nowadays?

Look what wet noodle / spineless Democratic politics has done, it has let Republicans and their corporate buddies take control of the political direction in America for the last 40 years!!!

The social advances are nice but they seem like mere tokens compared to the ship that is sinking.

[geek tragedy]

26. "The social advances are nice but"

Nice dismissal of civil rights. Typical for the faux populist people who define populism as excluding the civil rights of women, blacks, Latinos, and GLBT Americans.

BTW your history is off. McGovern/Carter/Mondale/Dukakis were plenty liberal and got their asses kicked, hard.

[woo me with science]

27. Nonsense corporate talking points. Neoliberals are a menace to disadvantaged groups.

and every REAL progressive who is NOT pushing predatory, looting corporate policy down our throats ACTUALLY supports civil rights rather than cravenly using these important issues as a wedge to force people to vote for policies that will economically eviscerate them.

Third Way claims to care especially about civil rights are beyond ludicrous. The record is clear that predatory corporatism harms all of us, but it ravages disadvantaged groups most of all. Never in history has concentrating the wealth and power of a nation in the hands of a tiny, greedy elite led to greater empowerment of marginalized groups. NEVER in the past, and certainly not now:

Women Facing Globalization: The Impact Of Neo-liberal Globalization On The Economic, Social And Cultural Rights Of Women
http://www.awid.org/Library/Women-Facing-Globalization-The-impact-of-neo-liberal-globalization-on-the-economic-social-and-cultural-rights-of-women

Neoliberalism’s Deleterious Effects on Women
https://genderandsocs13.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/neoliberalisms-deleterious-effects-on-women/

NEOLIBERALISM THRHOUGH THE EYES OF WOMEN
http://focusweb.org/publications/2001/neoliberalism-through-the-eyes-of-women.html

Racial Aspects of Economy are Significant for White House to Address
http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/07/28/racial-aspects-of-economy-are-significant-for-white-house-to-address

The Astonishing Collapse of Black and Latino Household Wealth
http://www.alternet.org/economy/black-and-latino-household-wealth-has-collapsed

The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide
http://iasp.brandeis.edu/pdfs/Author/shapiro-thomas-m/racialwealthgapbrief.pdf

Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2011/07/SDT-Wealth-Report_7-26-11_FINAL.pdf

The truth is that women and minorities can't afford more corporatism and are already dying because of it. The effects of *continued* corporate warfare on this nation and other nations will be a disaster for all human beings, but *especially* women and minorities.

It's all a viciously cynical rhetorical game, and the corporate propaganda doesn't fly anymore. The Third Way will not protect values of racial *or* gender equality by supporting candidates whose policies are dismantling the very economic and democratic systems that make it possible for women and minorities to be empowered. They certainly won't do it with policies like Obama's and Hillary's that protect bankers, starve schools and communities, grow exploitative industries including private prisons, and militarize the hell out of police in marginalized communities.

If people think things are bad now, just wait until we see the status of women and minorities in this country when we are all working for Third World wages, Hillary's trade agreements have ramped up corporate power and the ability of predatory corporations to override our democratic laws and protections, and dissent in the new corporate America has been crushed.

[font size=4]Bernie Sanders is a real representative of the people, not a corporate predator funded by Wall Street and mouthing progressive words. It's about time. [/font size]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026586792

[F4lconF16]

32. +a million nt

[RiverLover]

5. Thank you, AZ Progressive! Profound thanks!

[Doctor_J]

6. The current president welcomes their hatred too

He's speaking of liberals when he says that though

[Hoppy]

8. Nah, I'd rather vote for Hillary. Its easier.

[Drunken Irishman]

10. That Democratic Party had a lot of flaws.

It's easy to gloss over it - but that Democratic Party was dominated by racist southerners who voted against the Civil Rights Act, forced FDR to abandon his pledge to ban lynching, lied us into one of the worst wars in our nation's history and kicked off the Cold War...it wasn't perfect. Like any party, it had some major, major flaws.

[YoungDemCA]

11. +1000

Well said.

[AZ Progressive]

12. But at least it had a backbone and fought for the working class, cared about the poor...

embraced liberalism, kept the rich from getting too rich, etc....

So why can't we have both social liberalism and economic progressivism?

You honestly like the way things are today? Yes we are making good social progress, but we are doing so in a sinking ship economically.

[cascadiance]

31. And to think that southern democrats, even racists, had voted for those like FDR before...

I think many of them, despite not having progressive principles for people's civil rights, understood in those days that corporate friendly politicians weren't working for them, where FDR was.

That is why I think someone like Bernie emphasizing the populist issues that we all share views on, is where he wins the White House...

I'm sure the corporate media will try to drum up as much division as they can on civil rights amongst other things, but we need to steer the direction towards discussion of people's fundamental rights to not be subjected to the economic slavery that the wealthy have shackled us with for so long. We need to beat back these corporate attempts to divide us so that we can at least work together to throw out the corporate thieves that are the cancer destroying this nation.

Later on, when that is accomplished, we can hopefully put in place things like public campaign financing and instant runoff voting, and a constitutional amendment affirming that each citizen has the RIGHT to vote, then we can perhaps get to a point where we can have some less divisive conversations on the social issues that there still might be differences on, and try to resolve those differences in a more sane fashion than how we are put at odds with each other today.

I'd like to think we could get back to an America where we can be proud of all Americans we live near, and not just those that are "on our side".

This is by no means any kind of effort to scale back our movements' efforts to continue battling for more needed social reforms. We just need to do it in a more intelligent fashion. Perhaps if we can, we can get "the other side" to think more about what they want and be more rational than they have been, when they're pushed that direction by folks like Limbaugh that try to fuel this division.

[certainot]

14. it is very easy to explain a rightward shift in the democratic party

if you completely ignore the fact 1000 think tank scripted and coordinated radio stations have been dominating the national discourse with their fascist hatefilled buzz and taking free potshots at your reps and ideals for 25 years , it's completely understandable.

the recordbreaking partisanship that started in the early nineties exactly corresponds to the formation of the rw radio PSYOPS monopoly the republicans were allowed to create after reagan killed the fairness doctrine in 1987. the media and democratic party swayed rightward also.

until stoprush started going after limbaugh 2 years ago there was NO organized effort by the left to do ANYTHING about the right's best weapon.

if the left wants to push democrats left and win supermajorities in 2016 all they have to do is expand stoprush to all rw radio blowhards and their stations, and protest the 90+ universities that endorse 1/4 of the loudest rw radio stations until they pull their sports mascots off the team limbaugh megaphone. many of those stations would have to change format or go broke. the republicans would lose their most important advantage- much better than money and for the most part free for the last 25 years.

with direct challenge to rw radio as opposed to ignoring it, media and pols would get very careful about repeating the rw bullshit and the alternate reality that all that rw money will be trying to reinforce will dissolve.

otherwise it's back to the same old shit- GOTV and raising money and hoping for a liberal god (who will be trashed while the left looks the other way). good luck with that america.

[Beartracks]

15. Wellsaid, certainot. n/t

[nikto]

22. Good explanation

[C Moon]

16. It's a shame there's no video of Woodrow Wilson, I think he was brilliant.

[totodeinhere]

17. Wilson also was a racist. However in fairness to him a lot of people were racists back then.

But come to think of it a lot of people are racists now as well.

[C Moon]

20. Wow! I didn't know that. I'll look into it, but already my opinion of him has changed.

[1939]

33. Back in the 50s

Woodrow Wilson was considered to be the second coming of Thomas Jefferson and he was quite an intellectual..

Since then, it has been discovered that many of the worst federal segregation measures were passed during his admin plus the total squelching of socialism in the US. Wilson also lied us into WWI (which might have ended in a peace of exhaustion if the US hadn't gotten involved). Wilson was a proponent of gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean and Central America. Wilson (and his eminence gris, Col House) perfected the security state with the first major assault on freedom of speech and the press.

[C Moon]

34. Well, I knew all that, but it didn't bother me. Just kidding.

Thanks for the insight.
I didn't know all these things about him.

[1939]

35. Yup

When I was in college, the history profs used to mentally masturbate just thinking about Woodrow Wilson.

[hfojvt]

18. well this speech, unlike the others

sorta happened in my adult lifetime

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022085948

[nikto]

21. Bernie Sanders is STILL like that, and he isn't even a Democrat...

yet.

[polichick]

29. Yes, not everyone has sold his soul.

[99Forever]

30. But as of tomorrow, it will be yet!

And We the People will be headed towards taking back our nation from the corporate scum that has infested the halls of our democracy.




Ready for Bernie!

[nikto]

36. Don't forget The Banking Scum, too

[MaggieD]

25. Nah, none of them would have passed....

... The current purity tests either.

[fadedrose]

28. We need to reclaim our freedom of speech

It somehow got lost