Are we succeeding or are we Screwing the Pooch?...Jumping the Shark?

[Armstead]

By all rights, our side should be on the ascendency. We have an administration and GOP that is screwing up big time, in big ways and small ones. Missteps and scandals everywhere you turn. Massive deficit. Bd policies that are crushing Americans. Bush's approval numbers have plummeted to less than half the country. The GOP Congress has done even worse.

And on a policy level, the Corporatist Agenda is squeezing more and more Americans, and they are angry about it. And the neo-CON Agenda has weakened the position of the US, and turned the 9-11 grassfire into a potentially apocolyptic inferno.

And yet, here we sit, with no cracks apparent in the covering of ice that has enveloped the US. The Democrats are still perceived as weak and ineffectual...Some of that is the unfair result of media spin -- but a lot of it is due to our own misteps and/or timidity and lack of a coherent plan of attack....(One step forward, two steps back)

Is this just the inevitable result of being stuck in the middle of a president's second term? Is progress being made, and the above are just frustration with the inevitably slow pace of change? Is the ice melting, but just not fast enough?

Or is our side Screwing the Pooch and Jumping the Shark, and poised to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again?

I'm of mixed mind about this, bouncing between the two possibilities. How about you?

[leveymg]

1. The DLC strategy is stay quiet, hide in the cellar while the GOP self-

destructs and destroys America. Emerge once the radiation levels have returned to normal to pick up the pieces.

I don't like this strategy. No one gets out alive. At some point, the DLC are going to realize they were acting as confederates, but that'll be too late for all of us.

[Armstead]

2. How about the rest of us?

The DLC has been in the Corporate Pocket for years. They screwed the pooch when Clinton was president, by not taming this beast when we had some power.

But how about the rest of now? Is the entire spectrum of Center Left-to-Left seizing the moment the best we can, or are we blowing a golden opportunity to turn things in a more positive direction?

[leveymg]

4. As the song goes, "You know, we're all doing what we can."

Look at the growth of progressive alternative media -- DKOS, DU, Dems.com, RawStory, Scoop/UQ, etc. -- we now have a way of communicating with each other. That's a necessary but not sufficient precondition to political mobilization.

Next step is for all of us to get involved in electoral politics at some level, and to start investing our Skinny Latte money in supporting progressive think-tanks and projects.

It may take a generation, but it will happen. Hope we have enough time. . .

[acmejack]

3. To hell with the DLC!

e have the DNC, we have PDA, we have Moveon, heck, we have DU! I don't consider the DLC any type of leadership group & I wish they would take their sorry corporate asses and go away. They are of absolutely NO use to us, the do NOTHING to further the agenda of the people! They are useful convenience for the corporatist crowd, however. Play with them if you must, but be aware of what happens if you play with snakes.