Some predict voter apathy in 2010, so I'm predicting a PROGRESSIVE REVOLUTION.

[Union Yes]

Nope I don't own a crystal ball. Nor am I clairvoyant.

But before anyone laughs at my OP header, please consider..

The GOP, and the DLC aren't doing themselves any favors.

First, the GOP.

The party of NO. The party of HATE.

The GOP is turning itself off to the voting public. The voting public is growing tired of the GOP.
Fiscal recklessness.
Endless debt.
Endless war fought by the poor.
Misogyny and the GOP's fear of independent women.
Right Wing religious fundamentalism.
Homophobia.
Anti-health care reform.
Pro-Free Trade.
Pro-kill the middle class.
Pro-Serf.
Pro-serf wage.
Anti-union.

The people have had enough of the GOP. HATE no longer sells the GOP to the voting masses, the way it used to sell. Eternal warpiggery no longer sells to the voting masses. Tax cuts ONLY for the super wealthy no longer sells to the voting masses. Resulting fiscal recklessness no longer sells to the voters.

Killing the middle class and creating mass poverty and homelessness no longer sells to the voting masses. It's having the exact opposite effect.

Populist outrage. May it be the sword that the GOP falls on.

The GOP has done nothing to reach out to the voting masses. The GOP is fueling populist outrage instead of reaching out for populist support.

The party of NO, the party of HATE can no longer sell itself to the voting public. The swing voter. The 'centrist'. The unaffiliated voter.

The GOP is reaching out to the Teabagger, the religious fundamentalist, the superwealthy elite, the wealthiest 10%.

Further turning off the swing voter. Further distancing themselves from populist outrage. Clinging to an aging and waning demographic of people filled with hatred, for everything. The Teabagger.

Personally, I think the GOP is making itself vulnerable in almost every state except the reddest of red states. Remember NY-23rd. A DEMOCRAT won it for the first time in over 100 years. NY-23rd was a GOP stronghold. A safe district. Then it got Teabagged.

Turned off by Right Wing fundo-wackiness, NY 23rd voters elected a DEMOCRAT!

............................................................................................

The DLC hasn't done itself any favors either.

The corporate owned wing of the Dem party seems to be going out of it's way to turn itself off from the voting masses.
Eternal war.
Deficit spending for war.
Opposition to a PO or Single Payer. Anti-HC reform.
Anti-union.
Anti-EFCA.
Pro-"Free" Trade.

Fueling anti-DLC populist and progressive outrage. Progressives among the ranks are utterly disgusted with the policies of the DLC. NAFTA, The Afghan War, killing HC reform are catching up with the DLC.

Please ask yourself, would you want to be a DLC'er nowadays and have to face off against a Pro-PO/SP, anti-war, FAIR trade progressive in a Dem party primary?

If I were a DLC candidate or incumbent, I'd start fearing the upcoming Dem primaries.
.............................................................................................

Jobs and job creation vs unemployment will bring out the voters in 2010. So will populist outrage. Anger at outsourcing, "Free" Trade, lack of health care reform, eternal war will ALL bring out the voters in 2010.

WANTED: A political party with the brains to reach out to populist outrage. Candidates with the spine to campaign on HC reform. A PO OR Single Payer. Ending these disastrous wars. Reforming "Free" Trade.

Still think a progressive can't win?

They can and will if they reach out to the people.

The GOP and the DLC are making themselves almost unelectable. Their fundraising is drying up. They're turning off the voters. The swing voters etc.

If progressives get-out-the-vote, 2010 can be the year that the people take back their government.

Get-out-the-vote, it's how we win elections.

Please get active and get involved in your state's upcoming primary. Encourage other progressives to vote. If you must, drag them to the polls on primary day.

Get behind and support your progressive candidates. Remember what's at stake. Our future. Our livelihoods. Our civil liberties. Our nation.

:patriot:

:rant:

[napi21]

1. I hope you're right. I wish I could believe that! I don't.

Liberals don't have Shrub to be pissed off at anymore. They may be upset with OBama for a variety of things, but not enough to get off their ass and go to the polls! It happens all the time in off year elections, and I just don't see any diff. this year!

[cali]

2. I think it's a fantasy. A nice one, but still...

Independents swing between the repubs and the dems, and its independents who make or break elections.

[Laelth]

13. The idea that independents are the key to winning elections ...

... is a MYTH that has been killing the Democratic Party for years. The myth would be true if 100% of eligible voters voted in every election, but they don't. Fewer than 50% of Americans will vote in the 2010 mid-terms.

As the Republicans have shown, the way to win elections when there's a 50% turn-out is to mobilize your base. The Party needs to fight for its base's values, give them something to cheer about, smear the opposition (not flatter them), fight for legislation that the base wants, get the base excited, and that, in sum, will get the base out to vote.

Instead, we have a Party that prefers to appeal to independents (who don't give a darn because they have few core political values--that's why they're independents. They just want to be on the "winning team"). Instead of trying to appeal to its base, the Democratic Party is pissing us off, mightily.

It's a losing strategy, and the results will probably prove me right.

:dem:

-Laelth

[ima_sinnic]

3. recc'd---b/c of the DLC & its influence I am now a registered Independent for the 1st time

I am making it a mission to support true progressives with $$ in any primaries I know about.
I will also be working to expose DINOs. I hate the DLC and fake "democrat" blue dogs with every cell of my being--they are more insidious and unprincipled than repukes because they exploit the reputation of the Democratic Party to win votes, posing as something they're not, then violate the voters' trust by doing just what repukes do: consistently vote in the interests of the wealthy and their corporate sponsors and against the interests of We The People. They are con artist cockroaches that need to be squashed.

[change_notfinetuning]

5. I couldn't agree more and I especially like your subtlety. n/t

[change_notfinetuning]

4. No thanks. I'll sit this one out. I have voted in every election since 1972. I

have worked for a number of candidates. I've even voted in a local election that was decided by one vote. The right person won. If my wife and I hadn't voted, our candidate would have lost, so I know the difference one vote can make. Let me point out that that candidate rewarded her voters by keeping her promises from the campaign, and made a real difference.

Voting reminds me of Charlie Brown kicking the football, and I'm tired of running up to kick the football with the Democratic Party doing the holding. They've pulled it away too many times and I end up on my back every time. I wouldn't vote for a Republican, but I'm tired of the current roster of all-talk, back-stabbing Democrats (there are a few I would vote for, but very few) and their bullshit. In 2006, the American people voted to get us out of Iraq. It's now 2010, with a full year of Democratic majorities in Congress and a Democrat in the White House, and we're just getting deeper and deeper into the quicksand of dumb wars and ill-advised, increased military spending. Lack of transparency. Increased number and influence of lobbyists. Unimproved baby steps on jobs and foreclosures. Health care deform. Acting more like Republicans. Hope down the toilet. Change you can forget about. And business as usual. If you want to defend them, I've got a used Rahm Emanuel tutu to sell you. At least you'll be dressed for all the spinning you'll be doing.

In one short year, the thrill of victory turned into the agony of deceit. So I'll be sitting this one out. But don't worry. I'll revisit my decision at some time in the future. Maybe the Democrats will do something to improve my attitude, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[WonderGrunion]

6. What have you done other than vote?

You get the candidate you want on the ticket by attending every local monthly meeting year after year after year. To use a sports analogy, November is the world series. Primaries and working for the candidate, those are the playoffs. You don't get to those points without winning games during regular season and recruiting the best players. That part of the game is going to every monthly meeting, becoming part of the system and then you can actually influence the game.

The DLC has attended every local party meeting since they were founded. They are prepared to play the long game to win their agenda. That's why they are in a position to pick the candidates with the (D) by their name.

[change_notfinetuning]

15. I got the candidate I wanted and he won. Then he was apparently kidnaped

and replaced with his evil twin, Benedict Obama. And to those who say it was obvious he was not a true progressive, consider it from my perspective. As a Chicagoan, I was aware of his career before he was parachuted onto the national scene at the 2004 Democratic convention. I thought he was toning it down to get elected, and unless he were elected, what good could he do?

Were there some things I heard and saw during the campaign that caused me to hold my nose? Yes, but having seen other candidates lose by stating views that were ripe for Republican attacks, I overlooked what I thought were strategic moves, rather than an indication of an actual move to the center. The important thing was to get those independents, and get elected. Those who didn't know him as well as us locals could have rightly seen this as being too centrist, but I felt I had a pretty good handle on the real Barack Obama. That being said, I had no idea that his first act would be to appoint that slimeball Rahm Emanuel as Chief-of-Staff, followed by those other loser appointments. And now, one year later, the Thrill of Victory has turned into the Agony of Deceit.

And to answer your question, I have worked on a number of Democratic candidates' GOTV efforts dating back to 1972, besides contributing money, sending letters to the editor, etc. I'm sure I could have done more, but my real choices will never have a chance in the USA. Not without better education.

I have also run for Congress against a crooked incumbent who was thrown under the bus two years later. The Republicans, themselves, got rid of him before the next primary. When I ran against him, the local PBS station, for the first time ever, refused to hold a candidate forum for my district. The local daily, a nutjob newspaper, concluded that I was not a serious candidate because I had not raised enough money. That crook is now a lobbyist making miillions of dollars.

[ima_sinnic]

7. might be better to vote 3rd party or write in a name

I have a fantasy that voters will revolt and actually give wins to 3rd-party candidates, if enough voters can escape the "vote for 3rd party = vote for republican" fear-mongering meme. At the least, a rather strong vote for a 3rd-party alternative sends a message--but, as we see by the DLC Nader haters, they pretend not to "get it"--they ignore the voters' preferences at their own peril, however.

If things don't improve, I'll be voting 3rd party or writing in Dean or Kucinich.

[Enthusiast]

8. Recommended.

A Repiglican talking head on TV the other day said Repiglicans would exploit the anti Democrat sentiment. Hell, there is more anti Repiglican sentiment out there than anti Democrat.

Wake up people!

[tmyers09]

9. Here are a few candidates worth supporting:

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is a candidate for Ohio's open Senate seat, and a real progressive up against the establishment-backed Lee Fisher. Brunner and Sherrod Brown would be an amazing team of Senators.

http://jenniferbrunner.com/index.php

Marcy Winograd is another great candidate. She is running against incumbent Jane Harman in the race for California's 36th Congressional District.

http://www.winogradforcongress.com/index.php

Now for a few more candidates I admittedly don't know a whole lot about, but from what I've seen, are worth supporting.

Doug Tudor, a candidate for the open seat in Florida's 12th Congressional District.

http://teamtudor.org/index.asp

Rob Miller, a candidate in South Carolina's 2nd Congressional District. He's up against none other than Joe "You Lie!" Wilson, who has recevied donations across the country due to his infamous outburst.

http://www.robmillerforcongress.com/wordpress/

Please feel free to add to this list everybody!

[depakid]

10. Sure would be easier if the Democrats could draw a stark contrast on the issues you cite

[DisgustedInMN]

11. I agree ...

.. with almost everything you had to say, with one notable exception. Unfortunately their fundraising isn't drying up, they are being funded by corporate "personhood" instead of We the People. Without campaign finance reform, meaning public ONLY financing, our politicians will always be for sale.

[old mark]

12. I HOPE that Coakley's poor campaign and poor showing in MASS

will wake Democrats up from their pleasant dreams. Candidates have to WORK to be elected, have to actually campaign and get out the voters and actually get of the couch on that day and VOTE for DEMOCRATS!!!!

If we think we will get our people elected because we are right about the issues, we will wake up to a GOP controlled Senate and many long years of NO, NO, NO!

I hope Coakley can still win, and people will learn from her errors anyway.

mark

[lunatica]

14. I always vote because my vote also counts against candidates

And because it gives me the right to complain or feel I've been part of something good. Even when I suspect my vote isn't counted.

[dysfunctional press]

16. "They can and will if they reach out to the people."

the people are all watching television.

and in illinois, the primary is three weeks from now, while the general selection is almost 10 months away.

THAT'S fucked up.