I think I am done with politics.... there is no way in the world you or I can influence our elected

[ORDagnabbit]

leaders..

Senators??? once you vote them in they dont listen to you for 5 and half years and we cant remove them from office

seriously without millions of dollars behind your name why even try.


go to hell Reid you are the worst example of a senate "leader" I have ever had the misfortune to follow.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

1. You Can Try. The Key Is To Not Throw Tantrums When You Don't Get Your Way.

Senators have many people they represent. Thinking they should constantly bow to the pressures and desires of the fringes is unreasonable.

In this case, I would've love to have seen Joe booted. It didn't happen. Life will go on though.

[Lost-in-FL]

4. That's why I am glad DUer aren't running the country. nt

[rurallib]

2. I pretty much agree with you

scares me to think how the 58 members of the democratic party will cower in fear before the 40 republicans.
Jesus on burnt toast I wish they'd make Feingold majority leader.

[midnight]

15. That is a great solution.

[pat_k]

24. Consider this. . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4486232&mesg_id=4488254

[truedelphi]

3. I certainly understand how you feel. Politics does test one's patience.

Beyond the point of endurance, it would seem.

[RandomKoolzip]

5. The real issue here is that "representation" of liberalism in government is

nominal while representation of conservatism is literal. Half of the country does not have political representation in government, while the other half has their every whim catered to.

[KoKo]

7. ....and in the Mainstream Media.......

the Right is courted and catered to. The left is still off on the internet...but fortunately creating their alternate media. We have to hope "the powers that be" doesn't decide to pull the plug on our only outlet for expression of our views.

[Democrats_win]

6. I don't know--8 years of GOP heartlessness and incompetence tempers my feelings toward DEMS.

Of course I knew that bush and his cronies were nothing but crooks.

[ORDagnabbit]

9. true but I think my feelings echo the daily kos on this one...

Asked what it would mean if Lieberman kept his chairmanship, one Senate Democratic aide said bluntly: "The left has been foiled again. They can rant and rage but they still do not put the fear into folks to actually change their votes. Their influence would be in question."
I hope this puts to rest the notion that this is all some master stroke of kumbayah, of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.

This is about telling you that you mean nothing. That democracy is a nice word, but it should never threaten the entitlement of the most exclusive club in the world.

No matter what Joe Lieberman does, the people who are protecting him hate you much more than they hate him.

---
There's that. But there's also disdain for the American electorate that voted in overwhelming numbers for change from the discredited Bush/McCain/Lieberman policies. But in a city known for tone-deafness, there clearly isn't a more tone-deaf group than the Senate Dems.

I'm done with Reid as Senate leader.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/18/124718/47/261/662825

[begin_within]

8. And Pelosi had so many opportunities to put impeachment on the table, but said

[bdamomma]

17. that was her solution to everthing the election

[LatteLibertine]

10. To the OP, sometimes I feel like you do

The financial market bailout package was opposed by 100:1 by the citizens of the United States yet it was passed. Of course we can all see where the money is going.

I intend to keep trying and today I believe the will of the most wealthy few will win out 99% of the time.

[ORDagnabbit]

12. the time is coming where we eat the rich. n/t

[pat_k]

26. Leverage people-power and you've got resources that match hundreds of millions. . .

. . .in corporate lobbyist muscle.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4486232&mesg_id=4488254

[Lex]

11. You don't always get your way.

We won on November 4th and my voice was heard then. Everything else is not necessarily going to go my way but I don't give up.

[OwnedByFerrets]

28. I'm not advocating that anyone give up, but what did we win on

November 4th. I thought we had won a huge victory in Nov of '06, but what has come from that but disappointment? A few crumbs thrown our way? I can think of little substantial.

[anndash]

13. Me, too

I had hope before today. Now it's all gone. Clinton's baggage being aired all over again, torturers won't be prosecuted and now Joe the Traitor is rewarded and is still heading the Homeland Security Committee after saying it's okay to question whether Obama is a Marxist. This is too surreal for me. I'm finished. Even lost my enthusiasm for the inauguration now.

[Greyhound]

14. They view us as a shepherd views her flock, noisy, smelly, stupid,

and inconvenient, but providing them with the means to live. After the biannual shearing they can be ignored until the next time.

All sheep share a common destiny.

[LynneSin]

16. don't let the door hit you on the ass

:eyes:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. The problem with politics is that it's run by politicians. An unsavory lot at best.

"When politics enter government, nothing resulting there from in the way of crimes and infamies is then incredible. It actually enables one to accept and believe the impossible."

"History has tried to teach us that we can't have good government under politicians.  Now, to go and stick one at the very head of government couldn’t be wise."

Mark Twain

[Gold Metal Flake]

19. LiberDems. Enjoy your war. Enjoy your extinctions. Enjoy your poverty.

Enjoy your poisoned environment. Enjoy more birth defects and cancer. Enjoy your lack of freedom. Enjoy your restricted access to the courts. Enjoy your opaque government. Enjoy your enslavement. Enjoy the lies.

[xen]

20. More of the Same,its A shame

It is disappointing to me As a African America,as well as all his other supporters who voted for real change,to see how OBama can keep Lieberman on,Someone who savaged him during this election to the 11 th hour.
looks like Obama would even put someone who tried to kill him on his team,and he would probably turn his back to give them a good target,in the name of on Non Partisanship.

The criminals of this Bush,admin and their abettors,are all going to walk free,and non held accountable for any of their actions. I bet the Repugs are saying We know we got a fool,
while their minions of hate Continue,to fan the flames of hate,from the phony so called christian god loving evil right wing haters and their evil supremacist counterparts,still plot to off him as soon as they can
It is getting clearer to me now,that we really don't have a real opposition party in America .
The only area that he,Obama is most firm on,and I believe he wont bend and inch,is in defending Israel no matter what the consequences,negative or not is to the US,or what the fallout might mean to the rest of the universe.
Obama seems to aiding and adding to his own misery,failures,and downfall already, and he is not even in yet.
I think we are in for a very uncomfortable time.
I had so much hope on Nov 4 when the results came in that Obama had won.I really thought we were in for real change.Bummer

[Karenina]

21. If Hillary now gets the nod...

:hide:

[otohara]

25. Welcome to DU

and I'm feeling the same disappointment today, as you.

[pat_k]

22. 10 citizen lobbyists per district = $300,000,000

There's a reason that corporations hire lobbyists. There is no more powerful means of influence than one-on-one, personal, back and forth, exchange.

Think about it. Even just 10 full-time "professional" citizen lobbyists per congressional district is worth 300 million bucks of "professional" corporate lobbyist muscle. That is, 435 x 10 people @ $70,000 a year (which is a very conservative estimate of what a corporate lobbyist makes).

The impeachophobia of the 110th Congress is a crystallization of the destructive and growing gap between "insider" groupthink and "outsider" reality. If Members of Congress do resist to the bitter end, their dereliction would stand as the ultimate example of WHY it is so crucial for more of us to get in there and challenge them -- and to do it "up close and personal."

Calls, faxes, letters are all powerful means of demonstrating numbers, but there is NO SUBSTITUTE for face-to-face meetings where you can elicit their irrational rationalizations for inaction, and challenge, and challenge again, and elicit, and challenge in back and forth exchange. There is no substitution for persistent follow and the sort of continuity that enables connections to be built.

The powerful resistance we are up against is leading people to employ "people-power" in a different, more direct, and I believe more effective, way. It is a shift that has the potential to transform politics as we know it.

When resistance is so powerful; and inexplicable; it can be almost impossible to "keep hope alive." But that's what we need each other for. When our own reserves are drained, we must look to others to renew our sense of hope. And there are ALWAYS others out there telling the truth and fighting the good fights.(When I hit a low last week, I happened to come across "Granny D goes to Washington" on PBS. Couldn't have asked for a better kick in the ass.)

[TexasObserver]

23. Heard it! 1968. 1972. 1980. 1984. 1988. 1996. 2000. 2004.

It's so fresh!

[Odin2005]

27. Are the purists throwing tantrums again?

:eyes:

[hfojvt]

29. there is a way but only in large numbers

When places like MoveOn, DU, DKos, DFA and PDA can mobilize people and dollars enough to challenge and incumbent and win then we will have much more influence. Hillary blamed MoveOn type people for her primary loss, so the question becomes how much influence we can have for 2010.