My First Post

[TheModernTerrorist]

I've trolled this site since 2002, finally registering on it some years after, and I'm finally making my first post.

:applause:

Now that we got that out of the way, I've got some issues. This isn't specifically aimed at DU or anything in particular, but I think we, as a party, as citizens, are getting off-track. While we've been thrown into the continuous campaign cycle with our favorite candidates (who in my opinion shouldn't even be running right now) we're forgetting the bigger issue. Let's drop this blame game we're playing with our elected officials, because it gets nothing accomplished. Let's stop trying to convince others on who spoiled what election and do something productive for once.
Anyone reading or posting on this site forms the base of our party. We've all got our pet issues, we've got our candidates, but more importantly, we share some common ideals. We all want an honest, successful government that works for US, not special interests, not money, not other nations, US, the PEOPLE, and as citizens, we're part of the LARGEST FOCUS GROUP IN THE COUNTRY. Yes, I said it, the citizenry is the LARGEST FOCUS GROUP IN THE COUNTRY! Fuck Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, WE are more powerful than they are, and we need to start acting like it.

Rather than the constant in-fighting, we need to act like a focus group and bring the real important issues to the forefront. If we raise our voices over issues like healthcare, outsourcing.... hell, a progressive tax that doesn't screw the bottom 50% of us out of opportunities we desperately need, WE will set the agenda. If we treated the larger issues in this country the way we treat gas prices, we'd have some real change right about now.

* Whether you think Gore lost or Nader spoiled it
* Whether you want Gore-bama Clark-wards-ton to win/lose the primary
* Whether you think 9/11 was an inside job or not

Whatever your views are on the controversial topic of the day, we can ALL still focus on those ideals we have in common, those things that bond us as a party and as a nation. If we don't start working together and simply let Michael Moore or Keith Olbermann or whomever we choose be our speaker, we have NO voice.


Example:
Here in Michigan, we're in a bit of a budget crisis (that's an understatement). For those who don't know, our former Republican legislature slashed our Small Business Tax, which I believe was the second most competitive in the Midwest, if not the nation. That left a huge gap in our state budget that our Governor Jennifer Granholm and our new legislature has been trying to fill. One of the ideas proposed has been an increase in taxes. NOW, obviously "raising taxes" has so many negative connotations with it that people throw a fit, and a group of people have banded together to fight any tax increase.

Why isn't there any mention of a progressive tax, that increases slightly the further up you go in income? Seems like most of the nations that top all these world-wide lists for literacy, educational quality, standard of living, healthcare... most, if not all of them, have some sort of progressive tax. Currently, Michigan funds it's schools primarily through its increased sales tax, which disproportionately hurts the poor, as it takes more of their income as a percentage away from them than those of higher socioeconomic status. If enough Michiganders, and indeed enough citizens, were educated about all the simple things that we know to be true; that the poor are hurting, that humans are supposed to be compassionate, that regardless of political party we ALL want honest, open government, we can lay the seeds to begin to facilitate real change in this country.

We all know someone who isn't aware of what the real issues are around them, and we, as the base of our party, should be reaching out and educating, one by one, that just because Mr. Republican promises to cut your taxes does NOT mean that it's going to help you any, and in fact it may hurt you more than you could imagine.
We all need to be active players in this. We all need to work together and RAISE HELL about the real issues, regardless of who is in charge, regardless of how competent our party is, regardless of whatever guns, bombs, or religion they force down our throat. Do you think the Civil Rights Movement would have lasted more than 5 minutes without some unifying cause? Let's stop fighting over these very very specific ideas that the candidates may or may not support, because our core principles, as a party, as PEOPLE, are beginning to fall apart.

Thank you.

[uppityperson]

1. I would say welcome to posting, but your ID says you have over 500 posts already

Search shows me you have started topics also. Odd.

[fryguy]

2. could be the first time he/she started a topice

just a thought

[uppityperson]

3. My 1st thought too until I seached. Odd. Oh well.

[Alamom]

6. I thought search returned this to be the first OP in this forum. Welcome to starting an OP, TMT.

"Magnificent Restaint" :hi:












edgr

[TheModernTerrorist]

9. I did?

hmmm.... maybe I did and forgot. Sleep does that to me. :shrug:

[JNelson6563]

4. Welcome TMT!

I'm from MI too! :hi:

Good post!

Julie

[GeorgeGist]

5. No ...Thank You.

K & R.

I know progressives also need a willing AND worthy AND able leader to unite us. Reading between-the-lines drawn at DU, makes clear we haven't created one. Maybe tomorrow?

[Breeze54]

7. You made 512 posts in less than 24 hours???

:wtf:

You're a better poster than I am!

I guess you're making up for lost time?? :shrug:

[Sweet Freedom]

8. Probably the first time the OP has started a thread while

the others were responses to existing threads.

[AtomicKitten]

10. John Q. Public has been rendered irrelevant in the process.

But it will take more than making noise to elicit change. It will taking the fielding and running of candidates that reflect POVs more palatable across the board. The * hiss * centrist route was meant to snag as many as possible without doing the hard work of listening to all factions. When that simple but important inclusiveness is common practice, perhaps the "factions" will behave less strident and more approachable; the cycles of neglect and vitriol perpetuating each other.

[TheModernTerrorist]

11. ok, but you're missing the point

we'll never have those candidates until we start acting like a party of unity and actually start fighting and carrying the attitude of "fuck you all this dumb, meaningless stuff you're trying to do, THIS is the real issue". I don't want to sit around and wait for my candidate-of-choice to give me the sound byte I'm looking for, because thats all we're gonna get for the time being. If WE'RE not doing the work, then we're dead on arrival.

[calimary]

12. Truly. And TMT - welcome to the posting of threads! Good first one!

I just look at what's going on and marvel how the bad guys seem so determined NEVER EVER to defy or betray their base. All we hear about is how they strengthen their base, pander to their base, play to their base, build upon their base, listen to their base, pay attention to their base, etc. With the republi-CONS, it's ALL about their damned base (which perhaps we should start referring to as their al Qaeda. After all, doesn't al qaeda mean "the base"?). And it makes me wonder WHY OUR PEOPLE DON'T DO THAT. WHY??? Seems to me people like us, here, and others in the progressive movement, ARE the Democrats' base. WHY DO THEY FIND US SO OBJECTIONABLE????? WHY DO THEY KEEP SHOVING US OVER ONTO "IGNORE"? WHY DO THEY TURN THEIR BACKS ON US AND GO PANDER TO SOMEBODY ELSE WHO MAY NOT REALLY WANT TO JOIN THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE??? We're the ones who consistently bring them to the dance. Once they get there, they fall all over themselves ignoring us and pandering to the so-called middle.

So incredibly frustrating to me. Just ONCE, I'd like to see our Democrats pander to US - the ones who brought them to the dance, the ones who gave til it hurt, the ones who worked our tails off all last year, the ones who put other matters like family and home and other personal obligations to the side while we focused on Job One. WE are their base. WE are their power. WE are the matrix from which their ore comes. WE are the tree from which their leaves and flowers and fruits spring. WE are the fertile field from which their seeds sprout. But the way they "respond" to our expressed wants and needs, you'd think we were chopped liver.

It does make me wonder why the hell I worked so hard. No wonder their polls are down. In fact, I've begun to point that out when I call my reps (note the handy TOLL FREE Capitol Hill switchboard numbers in my sig line below for your convenience).

Might be good to remind them of this, too.

Dear Representative Fill-In-The-Blank-Here:

You serve at OUR pleasure. We elected you last November, and made you part of the MAJORITY in BOTH Houses of Congress because you promised to take care of business. So far, you may have taken care of a few relatively minor matters, but not the big stuff. Curiously enough, not the stuff we actually sent you to Washington to do. Okay, it's fine to deal with fine-print-type items such as those in your "First Hundred Hours" agenda. But you've lost sight of the big picture. The big picture means STOPPING THE DAMNED WAR. PERIOD. How much more clear could we be? And don't give me this crap about how you don't have the votes. That's surrendering your muscle before even trying to flex it!

We also sent you into the majority to demand - AND IMPOSE - accountability on the bush administration and everyone in it who had no supervision, no oversight, no serious questioning or examinations or challenges whatsoever throughout the last six-and-a-half years of free passes. WE SENT YOU TO POWER TO END THAT, ONCE AND FOR ALL.

However, you have diddled around and squandered the public's good will mainly on misfires. You covered a few little things while the really important, overriding, hugely-consequential matters got short shrift. And now, you're refusing to do anything about a rogue executive run completely amok. No wonder people are pissed and you don't look so great anymore, and your job approval numbers suck. That's because it's widely perceived that you are NOT doing your jobs!!!

John F. Kennedy once extolled the virtue of doing things that really mattered - "because they are hard." You win nothing by stooping to grab only what you can reach from the lowest branches. You earn no respect or admiration, and you certainly win no converts. In Kennedy's day, the hard thing to do was to send a man to the moon and return him safely to the earth by the end of the decade. In THESE days, OUR days, it's bringing full accountability and respect for the rule of law to an executive branch gone mad. WHERE in ANY of our founding documents or the writings of our founders themselves does it say any of this should be attempted if it's easy, or expedient, or just so long as you think you have enough votes? If our founders focused only on what was easy, or what was most fleetingly popular, we'd all still be speaking with British accents.

Unfortunately, bush gained a lot of clout, admiration, begrudging concessions, and mileage out of doing what he wanted to do ANYWAY, whether he thought he'd have the votes or not. And the fact that he did was proof that having guts, correct OR wrong, fair or unfair, trumps everything else anymore.

It's PAST time to GO FOR IT. Barbara Boxer recently chastised an uppity, arrogant Oklahoma senator (james inhofe) that "elections have consequences." Well, they will again in a year and a half. And if you guys don't do what we sent you to do, you'll find out what kind of consequences elections can have, once again.