For the Backbone Wing of the Democratic Party

[democrank]

The double-crossers in the Bush administration must be confronted with every ounce of gumption we have. We must reject the lukewarm pandering by many leaders in our own party and demand they start listening. We should tell them....Call a halt to your asinine ankle-grabbing, start standing up for basic Democratic Party principles, or we`ll give you not one more penny or one more vote.

This hideous mess created by Mr. George Bush and abetted by a majority in our government requires immediate action by citizens unwilling to abide our plunging into a hell-hole. Don`t wait for the media. Don`t wait for socially responsible corporations. Don`t wait for a cue from party leaders. If you design your activism around those choices, here`s what you`ll get: A detailed map of Aruba brought to you by a pill that can make you lose thirty pounds in ten days and after the break a Democratic leader will talk about cooperating with his friend across the aisle. It`s total BS. Every bit of it.

The Bush administration has altered nearly every institution. They`ve bent all the rules. They`ve killed and maimed thousands of people. They`ve led us toward national financial ruin. They`ve sullied our reputation and they must be stopped. We don`t have to wait for some dictum to emerge from the DLC. We don`t have to sit on our hands while millionaire image makers mull over data from a couple dozen focus groups. We don`t have to tune into CNN`s Inside Politics to see which Republican talking points we have to respond to in the next news cycle. We can come up with our own plan and get to work.

Poor Andrea Mitchell got man-handled today. Big story. Everyone`s livid. Here she is standing in a land we`ve ignored like a hated stepchild, with tens of thousands of starving, brutalized people and the big story is Our Own Andrea. Think about that. If the big honchos in this country can`t understand why catastrophic suffering is more important than an occasional shark attack, if they can`t understand why guys strapped to a waterboard is a bigger story than how many times John Kerry goes to church, then we must take matters into our own hands. Grab a pencil, a magic marker, your keyboard, a telephone. Put up a sign. Buy a bumpersticker. Tell a friend. Send a SOS to an international news agency. Kick it up a notch.

[nankerphelge]

1. Nope sorry...

our party's leadership has identified a much more important issue than all those you mention. Namely, there may be some naked ladies in some video games for adults.

[aspberger]

2. that's some good white-hot prose

thank you

[mitchtv]

3. "Let a thousand freeway bloggers bloom"

I wander the streets at dawn looking for an angry poster.

[Broken_Hero]

4. True true...

I wish people would do it, but its a hard one to pull off. I have attended democratic club meetings in my county (Mcdonald) and its pretty much, well, a small circle of people who are to afraid of confrontation, or lack money to push any agenda, or push any idea. This county is strictly red, the election numbers here were 7000 plus for bush, 1500 or so for kerry. Its a lot harder than it looks, but we need more people to step up and voice reason. My wife and I do that, but by god, sometimes i do fear that we will face retribution for standing up, honestly i do expect it to happen eventaully. You dont' discredit a whole county without pissing of someone who has a temper...

[shance]

5. Absolutely. however, I believe we are responsible to be their backbone

and it's up to us to be their army ready to defend them and stand by them in all fights.

I believe we as citizens have fallen short in protecting our greatest leaders. Because of not protecting our best leaders and showing outrage at the abuse inflicted on them by the right wing, not to mention the heart breaking murders of our best, we now have very, very few willing to step up to the bat and be real leaders. We still have a few, but we need more. We need to vote out the majority that reside in Congress today. They are not doing their job and they are abusing us and their privilege in the process.

I believe there is valuable information we can learn from 1968 and all of the sixties. We need to take back our leaders JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X and others and show them what we are made of. They sacrificed their lives for us and for a better world. It amazes and saddens me how little our great leaders are discussed. Of course, this is not by accident really.

If we are going to succeed we have to look at what we've done wrong, and how we can do it better.

We have to ensure our good leaders that we are behind them and we have to also vote out both Republican and Democratic leaders that are pursuing a fascist agenda. I think its safe to say we may now use that word.

Seems to me we should differentiate not between Republican and Democrat leaders, as much as we must separate the good, trustworthy leaders from the weak, easily bought, bad leaders and support those that support a healthy, sane, fair agenda accordingly.

In the end, we must defend our leaders and send a message to Right wing extremists that they have killed one too many of our leaders. We're not going to take it any more.

I think we need to defend good leaders like they are our first born children.

To have good leaders, Americans have got to get up off the couch and the computer and we have to engage in the process more with other citizens. We have to get others engaged. There is nothing more important to Americans than our government and yet it is what receives the least amount of care, now because those abusing power want it that way. IN ADDITION, good leaders know they need to earn our trust, support and loyalty, and don't insult us with poetic, meaningless words that are consistently betrayed by backstabbing actions. They are doing the best they can and it shows.