GOP Coddles/Grovels Before Its Base. Dems Treats Base Like Lepers.

[TheMastersNemesis]

Don't understand why Obama & Dems leadership go out of their way to savage the base that put them in office. As long as they are so vicious to the Dem base a lot of voters will sit it out. Warren and Sanders represent polices that promote social and economic justice. Either you are solidly behind workers and unions or you are not. In too many ways Obama's policies and initiatives are lukewarm in too many ways. At times he seems to play no more than lip service to the interests of unions and workers.

It is not that he has done nothing for workers. It is that there seems to be a lack of enthusiasm. I do not understand why there is such disdain for progressives who are actually the center of where the country seems to be. I am sick of this half ass garbage.

[onecaliberal]

1. +1000000

My sentiment exactly!

[Scuba]

6. + another

[daleanime]

2. K&R.....

[Thinkingabout]

3. I get the same from the ones posting for unions and workers, so perhaps it has gone both ways.

This thread is an example of some treating other Democrats like lepers. It needs to stop, we have candidates and we have opinions of who should be elected, it may not be the same choice but this is the reasons why we have elections. There will be a winner and who ever the nominee is we need to get behind them. The GOP has its own problem, they have the TP and would love to see the DNC splintered, why are allowing them to control our party. I am a union member, I am a worker and I also have my choice when I vote. Telling me I am not a Democrat will not work for me, I don't accuse others of not being a Democrat because they do not back my choice.

[True Blue Door]

4. A lot of the disdain comes from the habit of some progressives

of punishing their friends with ultra-critical attention rather than rewarding them with greater support.

It's been kind of kept under control, but you can actually see a few folks on the left having to restrain themselves from going into some sort of puritanical frenzy when they saw Bernie Sanders had a gun control position they disagreed with.

And that's Bernie Sanders.

I understand completely why even thoroughly progressive, honorable people in the Party are afraid to be friendly with the left. And it's not like nobody explains this - it just never listens, and never wants to hear even constructive criticism back from the people it criticizes.

It has a mob mentality.

[BrotherIvan]

5. I don't know why so many Democrats

still can't figure out why he turns his back on the working people who elected him. Look at his donor list and the 1.4 BILLION dollars he raised in 2012. The lightbulb should go on then.

And now, we are talking about a candidate having to raise over 2 BILLION dollars in order to be competitive. And yet some are arguing that things will be magically different and that when in office, she'll unleash her inner liberal and fight for social justice!

[CharlotteVale]

7. k&r

[bvar22]

8. He is certainly turning his back on the Working Class Base....

...with Pushing NAFTA on Steroids.
...but that is just the last of a long list of grievances.

Truth is.....Obama and the current leadership have No Love for Organized LABOR.
We felt the White House full fury in Arkansas when we ran a Pro-LABOR Democrat
against Blanche Lincoln in 2010.
Guess who saved the woman who wrecked the Public Option.



The Arkansas Democratic Primary of 2010 was a heart breaking eye opener for the Grass Roots and Organized LABOR. We were given a Look Behind the Curtain,
and it wasn't very pretty.

[font size=3]We did EVERYTHING right in Arkansas in 2010.
We did EXACTLY what the White House asked us to do to "give the President Progressives in Congress that would work with him."[/font]

We organized and supported Democratic Lt Governor Bill Halter, the Pro-LABOR/ Pro-Health Care challenger to DINO Obstructionist Blanche Lincoln's Senate seat.
Halter was:

* Polling BETTER against the Republicans in the General,

*was popular in Arkansas in his OWN right,

*had an Up & Running Political machine,

* had a track record of winning elections (Lt. Governor)

*Had the full backing of Organized LABOR and The Grass Roots activists

*was handing Blanche her Anti-LABOR ass

...and we were WINNING!

Guess what happened.

The White House stepped in at the last minute to save Blanche's failing primary campaign with an Oval Office Endorsement of The Wicked Witch that Wrecked the Obama Agenda who was actually campaigning at that time as the one who had killed the Public Option!!!

Adding insult to injury, the White House sent Bill Clinton back to Arkansas on a state-wide Campaign/Fund Raising Tour for Blanche,
focusing on the areas with high Black Populations, and bashing Organized LABOR and "Liberals" at every opportunity.

For those of us who had worked hard to give President Obama Progressive Democrats who would work with him, it was especially difficult to watch his smiling Oval Office Endorsement for DINO Blanche Lincoln which played 24/7 on Arkansas TV the week before the runoff Primary election.

White House steps in to rescue Lincoln’s Primary Campaign in Arkansas

"So what did the Democratic Party establishment do when a Senator who allegedly impedes their agenda faced a primary challenger who would be more supportive of that agenda? They engaged in full-scale efforts to support Blanche Lincoln.

* Bill Clinton traveled to Arkansas to urge loyal Democrats to vote for her, bashing liberal groups for good measure.

*Obama recorded an ad for Lincoln which, among other things, were used to tell African-American primary voters that they should vote for her because she works for their interests.

*The entire Party infrastructure lent its support and resources to Lincoln — a Senator who supposedly prevents Democrats from doing all sorts of Wonderful, Progressive Things which they so wish they could do but just don’t have the votes for.

<snip>

What happened in this race also gives the lie to the insufferable excuse we’ve been hearing for the last 18 months from countless Obama defenders: namely, if the Senate doesn’t have 60 votes to pass good legislation, it’s not Obama’s fault because he has no leverage over these conservative Senators. It was always obvious what an absurd joke that claim was; the very idea of The Impotent, Helpless President, presiding over a vast government and party apparatus, was laughable. But now, in light of Arkansas, nobody should ever be willing to utter that again with a straight face.

Back when Lincoln was threatening to filibuster health care if it included a public option, the White House could obviously have said to her: if you don’t support a public option, not only will we not support your re-election bid, but we’ll support a primary challenger against you. Obama’s support for Lincoln did not merely help; it was arguably decisive, as The Washington Post documented today:"

<much more>

http://www.salon.com/2010/06/10/lincoln_6/

After the White House and Party Leadership had spent a truck full of money torpedoing the Primary challenge of a Pro-LABOR Democrat for Lincoln's Senate seat, the Party support for Lincoln evaporated for the General Election, and as EVERYBODY had predicted, Lincoln lost badly giving that Senate seat to a Republican virtually uncontested in the General Election.

Don't you find it "interesting" that the Party Establishment and conservative Power Brokers would spend all that money in a Democratic Primary to make sure that their candidate won, and then leave Their Winner dangling without support in the General Election?

Many Grass Roots Activists working for a better government concluded that the current Democratic Party Leadership preferred to GIVE this Senate Seat to a Big Business Republican rather than taking the risk that a Pro-LABOR Democrat might win it, and it was difficult to argue with them.
This was greatly reinforced by the Insults & Ridicule to LABOR & The Grass Roots from the White House after their Primary "victory" over Organized LABOR & the Grass Roots in the Arkansas Democratic Primary.

When the supporters of Pro-LABOR Lt Gov Bill Halter asked the White House WHY they had chosen to throw their full support behind Lincoln at the last minute, rescuing her failing campaign, the only answer was ridicule and insults.

Ed Schultz sums up my feeling perfectly in the following clip.
http://crooksandliars.com/heather/ed-schultz-if-it-wasnt-labor-barack-obama-
(Please watch the above video)

So what did the White House gain by Beating Down Labor and the Grass Roots in the Arkansas Democratic Primary?
We don't know.
The White House has never responded to our questions with an explanation, only insults.
To date, the White House has refused to answer our questions,
or issue an apology for their taunts and ridicule of Organized LABOR and the Grass Roots in the Arkansas Democratic Primary.

[daredtowork]

9. There was a DU post that "explains" people who think the base aren't the base

Which means there are a lot of people who have been disenfranchised since the Democrats triangulated toward the center-right, but do get some lip-service every time an election rolls about.