The Iron Fist of Moral Victory

[toddaa]

I'm not a defeatist, I'm a cynic. Big difference. A defeatist is disillusioned after the outcome. A cynic, on the other hand, realizes that win or lose, we still make 6 figures less than the brainiac dipshits running this country and there is no way, outside of maybe slitting some throats on the White House lawn*, that we will ever win by voting for a bunch of rich white guys.

The Alito confirmation looks like all but a done deal. The Democratic party is once again a tattered mess. Let me rephrase that, the Democratic leadership is a mess. Come election day, it's time to stop with the idle threats and throw these bastards out of office. Will Republicans win? LOOK AT THE FUCKING HEADLINES! The Republicans have already won and we keep reelecting corporate goons like Joe Biden, who goes around yelling, "We've got to do better!" Sorry Joe, you're nothing more than a drooling blow up doll with a worn out catch phrase. The boys at MBNA need to fill your big O mouth with another load of something to spew out on Sunday morning talk shows.

Now, some of you will probably accuse me of abandoning the party. Hello? I'm abandoning the party? What the fuck do you think just happened in the Senate today? I didn't abandon the party, IT JUST DIED ON THE SENATE FLOOR. And come Nov. 2006, when all you party loyalists line up to cast your votes on rigged voting machines, you'll come back here to DU claiming another moral victory and telling me to just keep voting Democratic because as long as they have a little (D) after their name, they stand for what I stand for. Bullshit.

If this grassroots thing is ever to amount to anything more than stringing together a bunch of moral victories while our party leaders ram the iron fist of triangulation up our ass, we are going to have to execute a good old fashioned purge of those jerk offs who just decreed that corporations are the government and women are chattel. When Democratic elected officials are more afraid of their corporate masters than the common man, it's time to show them what real fear is.

In the words of our Zapatista brothers and sisters in Chiapas, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

*Is quoting Foetus lyrics still legal? Good god, I'm dating myself. Anything (VIVA!)

[kliljedahl]

1. Tell it like it is toddaa

The party has abandoned us. They've sold their souls to the corporate hegemony that really runs this country. The DLC and the RNC are one and the same anymore, and the DNC is a joke.




Keith’s Barbeque Central

[USA_1]

2. quote ...

DLC and the RNC are one and the same anymore, and the DNC is a joke.

Bingo.

And as I have written on this forum before, if the Dems stand up and applaud Bush in tonite's SOTU speech, it will guarantee a Republican victory in November's elections. With the added majority, in two more years Jeb Bush will be president and all hopes of saving America will be fucked forever.

[dogday]

3. Here here

I have always been told there is no difference between the two parties. I choose to believe the Dems had more heart. I might have to rethink that.....

[zippy890]

4. they do have more heart

just need more spine

glad I live in Mass., at least I can be proud of my senators

[kliljedahl]

5. If they had any cajones

they'd either get up & walk out,or better yet, just turn their backs & stand there. A post of mine from yesterday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2417449&mesg_id=2417449



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[kliljedahl]

14. Kick this mother

Keith’s Barbeque Central

[LiberalUprising]

6. Kick

n/t

[LeftHander]

7. K&R

Yeah.

Lets remake the party. Fresh.

Take our supporters and our leaders and form a new party. With instant representation.

[meganmonkey]

8. It comes down to this, IMO

Do people here really want to improve this country, or do they want to keep playing a game? Because we are so entrenched with the current mentality of dichotomy (2-party, black/white, right/wrong) that it is going to take many years, decades, to make any positive change on the way things are.

So are we in it for the long haul? The Dems in Washington don't seem to be. They seem to be in it for power, and to protect the status quo, and 'long-term' means about 5 years.

But look at what the neo-cons have done - not that I think playing from the neo-con rulebook is a good idea, but there is one aspect of their method that progressives need to learn from. They have been working on their plan for decades. Since the early 70s at least, some say it goes as far back as the early 60s. And look at how successful they have been at co-opting the entire system! It has become a self-perpetuating nightmare.

To fix this we need to look at the big picture. And AFAIC, the Dems have again demonstrated that they are complicit. Some Senators in safely blue states (for the most part) threw a bone to their base by vocally supporting a filibuster - likely knowing full well that it would go nowhere.

So do we really believe that we can use the framework of the Democratic Party to bring true progressive change in Washington? Or do we need to take our time and develop a whole new way (a new party, or multiple parties, a new mentality, creating coalitions, something!). If we look at successful democracies in other countries we see a very different system. To get to something like that - multiple parties, real proportional representation, we have many years of work ahead.

I fear that continuing to support and prop up the Democrats just continues to perpetuate what is wrong with our system.

[G_j]

9. and that system

is stacked against any third party. The League of Women Voters withdrew as sponsors of the presidential debates because the Rs and Ds conspired together to raise the bar on third party candidates, now they run the show. This is just one example of the hold the two party duopoly has.
I would really like to know how to begin to change this.
And we also won't get far at all without 'clean' elections.

[meganmonkey]

10. I think it will take more time and patience than anything else

And a willingness to forgo short-term 'victories' for a long term solution.

People need to recognize that even a Dem-controlled Congress and/or President does not guarantee an end to the war, or an end to poverty in the US, or a sudden committment to the Kyoto treaty, or all the things the Dems are supposed to stand for.

I would love to see multiple parties and coalitions and proportional representation. But our whole system is set up to perpetuate a 2-party duopoly, as you say, so I think it will take an extended effort at getting candidates running as independants and 3rd parties.

Which will be especially difficult in the blame-Nader world we live in...

[radio4progressives]

11. Great Rant! And SPOT THE FUCK ON!!! k&r

:kick: :hi: :applause: :yourock: :hi: :applause:

[DaveofCali]

12. Democrats continue to disappoint

12 years and Democrats still don't get it right.

And don't tell me that there's even any moral victory. It would be a "moral victory" if many Democratic senators would have standed up and filibustered even if 60 or so senators would have voted to shut them up. Democrats didn't even use a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the constitutional right of the people to know the views of any judicial candidate.

Face it, most of the Democratic Legislators BSed all of you and let you down at the last minute when it mattered most. I'm thinking now that much of the Democratic Party Legislators are frauds acting like they still care just to give the base hope.

[DaveofCali]

13. I like this quote

"Now, some of you will probably accuse me of abandoning the party. Hello? I'm abandoning the party? What the fuck do you think just happened in the Senate today? I didn't abandon the party, IT JUST DIED ON THE SENATE FLOOR. And come Nov. 2006, when all you party loyalists line up to cast your votes on rigged voting machines, you'll come back here to DU claiming another moral victory and telling me to just keep voting Democratic because as long as they have a little (D) after their name, they stand for what I stand for. Bullshit."

This is the most laughable part IMO, moral victories mean JACK. Moral Victories don't influence Americans at all, they are just consolation prizes for people who lose.

And whats even more laughable is to think that voting on rigged machines will do anything, and especially on the Democrat's last stand. I'm sorry but its hard not to be cynical (esp. about Democrats) nowadays, but the hard truth is that its not the small victories that count, its the big ones.

[mom cat]

15. Right on! We need a party that will speak for the real Majority of America

Obviously, Many in ths Democratic leadership are sold out turncoats who need the boot in the worst way.

[n2doc]

16. Damn straight

It amazes me to see folks go- we have to just get a few more dems and all of a sudden things will be hunky dory. With folks like Biden and Liberman as chairs, how would we tell the difference? Frankly I don't know what the perfect answer is, but somehow, someway we need to get these f**ers out and replace them with democrats that will fight for OUR values.