bUSH APPROVAL RATING at 26% - -- (cnn) ha ha, bush, you asshole.

[Karenca]

(just now on- CNN -

Lowest for any pres. 'cept nixon.

Finally!

[pat_k]

1. . . .and they aren't impeaching why??

They suffer from "battered Democrats syndrome."

Their survival is at stake.

We can save them.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1159484&mesg_id=1159484">Impeachment is the Cure

[Karenca]

2. yeah -- 'battered dem syndrome"

That's what it must be.

He's going to sail - and then he's gonna build that humungous Pres. Library honoring himself.
It's a strange world.....it really is.

[pat_k]

4. Unless we can save them from themselves.

Dems can overcome their disabling condition, but clearly they need some help. Going after them for their failure to impeach is intervention, not attack.

If establishment Dems could just put aside their irrational fears about how "they" (the fascists) would react and finally do what duty demands, they could finally escape their "absusers."

And they would come out of it strong and connected to their power. The lesson -- that they must stand and fight if they want to survive -- would serve them, and the nation, for a long time to come.

[firefox_fan]

20. Hard to see how they 're going to prevent major defacing

events at that library...

[DrDan]

7. why? it is obvious

congress approval is lower . . .

[corkhead]

19. We as a society like to blame the victim

[pat_k]

24. It's about saving the victim, not blaming them. . .

"Tough love" is not attack. It is not blame. It is an attempt to rescue someone from the horrible consequences they don't get on the right path.

Whatever the reason for their failure, it is destroying them.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1159484">Impeachment is the cure.

It's a win-win-win. If we can wake them up to the fact that they must impeach Bush and Cheney, we'll be rescuing the Constitution, our self-esteem as Americans, and the Democratic Party. No a bad days work, we can do it.

[rhiannon55]

8. When people are repeatedly battered,

they often develop a syndrome called "learned helplessness," and they forget that they have the power to stop the battering. I think our Democratic reps need emergency counseling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

[pat_k]

21. Yep. They WANT to be saved (even if they don't know it)

Learned helplessness and http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/a_a_learning.htm">anticipatory-avoidance learning are certainly at work.

I tend to think the latter is a bigger factor. Their behavior looks more like a phobia.

Phobias reinforce themselves because the person successfully avoids the feared consequences (no matter how irrational or vague) by avoiding the feared situation or object.

They tell themselves terrible_thing_X will happen if we bold_action_Y

They avoid bold_action_Y like the plague

They lose respect for being weak and unprincipled. More Americans give up on them. But they tell themselves

"Whew, at least terrible_thing_X didn't happen. Good thing we didn't bold_action_Y!"

Phobias tend to generalize. Soon anything that looks remotely like a bold_action_Y strikes fear in their hearts. There is circularity to it. Generalized fear prompts avoidance. Invoking terrible_thing_X or terrible_thing_Y or terrible_thing_Z is really just a way to rationalize the avoidance.

Whatever the cause -- impeachophobia, battered Democrats syndrome, or something else -- they are in dire straits. They are self-destructing. Emergency intervention is required. We don't need to know the "real" cause to know "the Cure."

Related:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/pat_k/23">Impeachophobia, 5-Apr-07

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/pat_k/8">We're Doomed! Doomed I Tell You! (An Impeachment Intervention), 12-Nov-06

[wryter2000]

3. Too high

It needs to go below 20%

[Karenca]

5. 16% - and I'll feel right about it. nm

[ThomWV]

13. I was going to say, somewhere about 17% with IMPEACHMENT and I'd feel safe

Because I figure about 17% of the population are accepting of murderous idiots being in charge anyway and I can live with that. What I can't live with is the murderous idiots in charge, and even worse than that, living with the knowledge that those same murderous idiots believe that they themselves are above the law.

[Canuckistanian]

15. 17? That's even cutting into the backwash

Even the "true believers" would have to start doubting Bunnypants.

[Karenca]

16. 16, 17 - it's all good.

26 - betcha poppa's crying. and laura must be so proud of her man, another asshole she is.
They all deserve to feel shame.

[MuseRider]

6. Something about the way

you said that..."ha ha, bush, you asshole" just made me smile. Thanks. He is.

[Karenca]

9. Uh huh! when I see him, all i can think is "you stupid asshole". Unlike other

presidents I disliked -- when I would just turn the channel and think "ughh, no, him again".
IRL, I don't know such assholes like bush, and he's the president. Surreal -- it's so surreal.

[MuseRider]

12. Harkens back to Reagan

for me. I never thought I would see the end of that horrible man but it is so much worse now.

Anyway, the way you put it gave me a moment of smiling so I still thank you. I am not really sure why but it really did. :hi:

[malaise]

10. Bring out the champagne

let's celebrate
:party: :party: :applause: :toast: :toast: :party: :applause: :party:

[Karenca]

11. Love your sig

:thumbsup:

[TahitiNut]

14. Down, down, down, down .... to HELL with them!

Latest polls included:

date app(chg)

ARG 6/21 27(-4)
Newsweek 6/19 26(-2)
Gallup 6/14 32(--)
NBC/WSJ 6/11 29(-6)
Quinnipiac 6/11 28(-7)
Fox 6/06 34(--)
AP/Ipsos 6/06 32(-3)
Gallup 6/03 32(-1)
Pew 6/03 29(-6)

http://www.pollkatz.homestead.com/

EVERY (unbiased) poll is down.

[Karenca]

23. those numbers are great! too bad this isn't nov, 2004.

eh, they would have stolen the election anyway.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

17. Hilarious.

I think the immigration bill is chipping away at the base.

[ClayZ]

18. K and R

[BlueStater]

22. He's now lower than Carter ever got

That must make Jimmy happy.

[npincus]

25. and lower than POPPY... har har har

[pat_k]

27. and being "worse than Carter" will peel off a few percent more

. . .of his ever dwindling "base."

If the Dems finally do what their oath demands and impeach Bush and Cheney, it won't just be Dems who are dancing in the streets. There will be plenty of angry Republicans -- many of them from the segment that Stanley Greenberg likes to call the "Fuck-You Boys" and "Fuck-You Old Men," who revel in "get 'em, get 'em" politics. We may not like having them "on board" but at least it will distract them from scapegoating their usual targets (e.g., black, brown, female, or simply poor).

[Enrique]

26. imagine if he becomes less popular than Cheney

:rofl:

[Karenca]

28. What's cheney's ratings now?

5?