When will the Left learn?

[BeachBuckeye]

I know many of my listeners think I speak too often about how lame the is when it comes to keeping our leadership in line. They don’t fear us at all. They eagerly grab the millions of dollars we contribute to them for their election campaigns and then give us a hearty “fuck you” when we ask them to truly represent us on Capitol Hill. They don’t give the proverbial rat’s ass about what we think because we don’t put any bite behind our bark. We’re paper tigers and they know it and go on their merry way bowing down to those who they are really afraid of, the special interest groups and their lobbying efforts.

Oh sure, we have a few groups that exert pressure on our elected Democratic legislators but not enough to really bring them into line. Its water off of a duck’s back. They know we’ll moan and bitch about their actions in congress on this issue or that but, ultimately, we’ll come back and support them again or, more importantly, do nothing to get them voted out of office. Yes, we get them elected and then turn them loose to do whatever they damned well please guided by big money special interest groups and we do very little to bring them to our way of thinking. How nice for them.

Meanwhile, the Right’s media machine, think tanks and such are cranking out massive propaganda campaigns 24/7 while the Left sits idly by and says “aw shucks, we can’t do anything about it because people on the Left don’t follow radio big shots like Limbaugh and his friends the way the Right does. I call BULLSHIT!! BULLSHIT!! We have no influencial think tank with the clout of the Heritage Foundation. WHY NOT!! Again we hear the excuse that folks on the Left “think for themselves” and are not influenced in the same manner as are the zombies on the left. Again I call BULLSHIT! Simply not true. I’m tired of the fucking excuses coming from the Left that we can’t do this or we can’t do that because we’re different than the Right. We could do EVERYTHING the Right does with the same results if we would only get off our asses and make the same sacrifices they have made. If we would only direct our efforts in the right direction instead of jumping off cliffs like we have been doing while they get their people to march in a straight line toward a common goal.

Health Care? What a laugh! Baucus, Reid, Pelosi and yes, Obama should be ashamed of what has happened to their original goals. Or, perhaps I should say OUR goals. You see, you and I didn’t make deals with big Pharma and the Health care industry the way they did. We wanted what is right not what would get us re-elected. We were actually thinking of a good bill that would be good for our fellow citizens. They never considered their fellow citizens. Baucus, Pelosi and Reid are a disgrace to the Democratic Party and a huge disappointment to those who spent time and money to get them elected. Even President Obama is a big disappointment to me on this issue. He has barely made a whimper as important parts of the proposed legislation were removed one by one along the way. His power to use the “Bully Pulpit” has not been effectively used at all. I am profoundly disappointed in him for his lack of action on Health Care legislation. This bill is an empty sack and anyone who studies it in detail will soon realize that they have accomplished nearly nothing with it.

All of this has happened because we have no clout. We have no media machine to counter that from the Right. We have made some token efforts but have never come up with the backing necessary to have a successful program. Until the Left gets serious about overcoming this deficit we will continue to have our asses handed to us like we did on this pitiful healthcare bill.

I have had to suspend my broadcast operations because of lack of funding so, as you can easily tell, I am particularly burned on this subject. We did The Guy James Show for 7 years paying for most of it out of pocket but when the few who did support us fell by the wayside we have had to shut down the studio for now. What a shame that another Liberal voice has been silenced by apathy.

[Mari333]

1. knr good rant!!!

ignore those wearing presidential kneepads who unrec.

:)

[ixion]

2. second that

k/r :applause:

[Jamastiene]

3. K&R

[Warpy]

4. I've found that lefties, on the whole, respond better to print

than to speechmaking, including that on talk radio.

Your rant will probably reach a much wider audience than Guy James ever did.

Anyone who thought Obama was going to be left on any issue was not paying attention to his voting record.

[BeachBuckeye]

6. You are way off!

"Your rant will probably reach a much wider audience than Guy James ever did"

If you are talking about numbers I'm afraid you are far off the mark.

[BeachBuckeye]

8. By what type of measure?

What causes you to think Lefties respond better to print? I believe that belief is part of our problem. I doubt its true but it has been used as an effective excuse for a couple of decades.

[golddigger]

5. K&R

[NewEngland4Obama]

7. Because Democrats don't need someone to tell us how to

think. The PUBS are sheeple who follow Rush & Bill O'Reilly

[BeachBuckeye]

9. I'm not talking about telling someone what to think

I'm talking about giving people the truth about issues and not allowing rumors and misinformation to guide people's thinking.

[Hannah Bell]

24. it's not a question of "telling people how to think". it's a question of countering the

arguments & "facts" of the right, which have become mainstream common sense through sheer repetition.

[LWolf]

10. I am so sorry to hear that,

and so sorry that my own support fell by the wayside.

My circumstances have changed drastically since my earlier years at DU. I'm struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck these days, and when the time the show was airing changed, I was no longer able to tune in.

Still, I've thought of you often, Guy, and hoped you were hanging in there.

:hug:

[FrenchieCat]

11. You're right, the Left is too lazy to do much more than rant on

Internet Boards. We sit and watch and argue about our own.....
call each other names, and in essense do nothing more.

We swallow everything that we are fed by the Corporate Media,
and we react to unsourced news story like they are the Bible,
while ignoring good things that this Administration has done,
and in fact trusting the fucked up news media more than this administration,
although the administration's record is actually better at honesty,
than the media has been over the years.

In the meantime we disrespect the folks that could get us somewhere,
treat them with contempt and use incinerary vitriol just cause we can...
and instead of getting ahead of them, not with demands but with organization,
to pave the way for them being able to enact some common sense laws,
we come back to the Internet and lament how everything is lost,
and hell, at the end of the day, it appears that
the only thing important is being right, fuck getting anything actually done,
incremental as it might be....because of course, victories and success lead to more of the same,
while defeat only breeds defeat, and for whatever reason,
so many of us are pining for defeat, till it ain't even funny!

When those freepers showed up at the townhalls, and the media covered them like bees would honey,
and I didn't hear or see any opposing voices; I knew then that we were fucked...
Here we all were waiting for Obama to come to the rescue; to part the seas and guide the way....
when he had told us long ago that we were the ones that we were waiting for.

Guess we learn nothing at all, except for the fact that liberals are easy to manipulate,
and in the end, aren't really that much different from the other side. We also talk in bumper sticker soundbytes, and boil everything down to some simplistic all or nothing black or white ideal....especially if we don't get our way exactly as we demand.

Many have said at this site that they are disappointed with Barack Obama.
I personally am disappointed by the lot of them.
They thought in voting for Obama that they had voted for a Black George Bush,
who was going to pound his fist on the table, knock some heads, kick some ass,
and just bulldog his way through like he was an emperor or some shit.

He said it would take hard work, that the climb would be steep, and that there would be setback.
But hell da fuck naw...we demanded this shit yesterday, so now, we're mad; like that really means something considering that in the end, we get the government that we deserve....and these days, I'm even wondering if we even deserve what we have; cause seems we were only truly unified and more effective when we had that asshole Bush in office.

[Skidmore]

12. Thank you, Frenchiecat. Please make this a separate thread.

It deserves to be out there. I'm sick of the pile-on and the laying of everything bad on this one man with disregard for the fact that governance is made up of many parts and the most important part is that of the citizen. The task of the citizen is to do more than whine but to participate. Ranting is not participating. Political theatre is not participating. It is just tantruming. Our little group here tries to do what we can locally and in the state to bump ideas and feedback up the chain.

Really, post this as it's own thread.

[saracat]

14. Oh yes DO continue to absolve Obama for little effort in protecting our rights or Democratic Ideals

and bash those who have worked tirelessly to see our democratic ideals accomplished. Surely it is the fault of the many candidates , activists and volunteers. They should do more:sarcasm:.Are we to expect nothing from the President we elected?

[Skidmore]

16. Huh?

What the heck does that stinking heap supposed to accomplish? The primaries are over. I remember quite a few from the primaries who started the teardown before the governance started. You think you are going to accomplish what by continually tantrumming? I said no such thing. How dare you impugn the motives of anyone who calls you on the BS as being less invested in change or democratic ideals? THis is what the Rs have done for years. So you need to go there too?

[saracat]

20. Ah but the stincking heap by the poster previous demeaning the efforts of all activist is

accomplishing anything? Please. I am merely expressing the anger I feel when many ofthe hardworking activista are demeaned by those who simply don't agree with them.

[Hannah Bell]

25. the hard work is *all* up to us, apparently. & it's eternal, with no payoff.

shut up & roll that rock up the hill.

[saracat]

13. Many of us have done a hell of a lot more than just vote. Many of us on the left have run for office

and jeopardized our families incomes to do so. Some of us have managed and worked for various campaigns at less than minimum wage. We have spent countless hours volunteering and promoting Democratic issues. We deserve a president who fights for our issues and doesn't take sides against us. We deserve a president who supports reproductive choice and doesn't promote the use of HIS Justice Dept to protect torture. We deserve a president who actively protects the rights of the people and sees to our needs. We don't deserver a president who deflects the responsibility to us. Why on earth would we have elected him if not to do the job?If we could do it ourselves we wouldn't have needed him.And yet you suggest exactly that.
As far as electing a"Black George Bush" your words, not mine, we were not expecting any such thing. But when you endorse such massive delegation of duties, by putting the responsibility entirely on the shoulders of the people, you seem to be asking for a Bush clone as he "delegated" most of his presidency.

[Better Today]

15. +1

[JoeyT]

22. I'm not sure there's any policy that would be too indefensible for some.

As long as it's "our side" that does it, that is.

It's best to just let them have their little "All the left does is sit on its ass!" tantrum. No need to point out how hard most of us worked to get the current president elected. It doesn't do any good anyway.

[AuntPatsy]

17. recommending this particular message...

[bvar22]

26. You really should change YOUR rant to the First Person.

Every place you used "We", please change it to "I".

You don't speak for me.

[varelse]

18. All this happens because we can't match their spending power

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/health-care-reform/2009/07/health_care_continues_its_inte.html

We can't even come close.

[TorchTheWitch]

23. exactly why the Dem party embraced corporatism

knowing fully well that to do so meant abandoning party principles and throwing the people under the bus.

That should have been the point where Dems refused to accept such a significant abandonment and either removed that mission from the party or left the party and created another that represented the party principles. And because Dems did neither is why we are at where we are today where there is no party that represents the average working person, which is MOST people in the country.

[EFerrari]

19. I recommend this OP although I'm not at all sure what you're seeing is apathy.

The meltdown hit a lot of us very hard and we can't compete with TARP.

I'm sorry to hear you're off the air.

[amborin]

21. K&R