I haven't given up yet, but I'm getting close to the edge.

[Elwood P Dowd]

Obama's first year reminds me of Clinton and his NAFTA sellout in 1993. Then there was the GATT sellout in 1994 and the Telecommunications Bill and on and on we go. I realize many DUers worship Clinton, but he did far more damage to the party and to the country than most want to admit. We keep electing what we hope is the new FDR or JFK, and what we get is republican lite. Sad isn't it.

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[ddeclue]

1. I remember how angry I was about NAFTA.. I wrote a letter to Robert Reich

one of my first acts of political activism. I think I still have the namby pamby response letter in a box somewhere.

[Juche]

2. Reform takes time

It took 100 years to get child labor abolished on the federal level.

This may involve working on issues on a state by state level. Trying to get single payer passed on a state level is important.

So are primaries from the left on state and federal levels.

More funding for message organizations to get left wing perspectives out

Point is, this is a lifetime goal. The movement conservatives took decades to take over the country.


But look where we are compared to 2000:


We do control both houses of congress. The control is imperfect, but we have it

We have the white house. Not with a perfect progressive, but we have it.

We have MSNBC functioning as a counterpoint to Fox News

We have various online communities to discuss ideas, brainstorm and get the message out

Single payer is taken more seriously as a political issue

Despite what the teabaggers say, the true public rage isn't directed at socialists, but usually at irresponsible capitalists. They're the ones that almost collapsed the global economy and who deny people medical care. That is why people are mad at dems, because they won't stand up to the irresponsible capitalists.


So its not perfect. But I think we are moving in the right direction. But its going to take time and it'll be a million small steps, thousands of medium steps and a few giant leaps that'll get us closer to where we want to be.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. It's not so much that reforms are slow as that harmful legislation

is pushed through so quickly.

We can't get single payer health care, but we can get NAFTA, the Telecommunications Act, Welfare "Reform," the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, the bankruptcy bill, and a bunch of other abominations pushed through in record time and either proposed or not seriously resisted by Democrats.

That's been a consistent pattern. The bad stuff passes overwhelmingly, and the DLC shills tell us that Dems had to vote for it "because it was going to pass anyway."

The good stuff? "You have to be patient. You have to realize what's politically feasible."

Yeah, right.

How come the bad stuff is ALWAYS politically feasible?

[Juche]

4. Fair enough

I have no comeback other than the fact that bad stuff happens easier because conservatives and corporations want the bad stuff. And they have more money, organization and discipline than those who want the good stuff.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. And the Dems have continually failed to contest them

despite pleas from constituents (especially in the case of the Iraq War Resolution).

[gateley]

5. Good post! Thanks! nt

[Tailormyst]

14. That is where I differ with you

You say it's a slow march to fix everything that is broken, but when I look, I see them marching in the opposite direction of where we want to go. If I saw them moving, even slowly, towards the goal line I would be in the stands cheering them on. That is not what I see and it breaks my heart.

[Lost4words]

18. It angers me that in the "I CAN" country, we cant seem to.

with every 2 steps forward we go 3 steps backward.

and it dosent matter who is in office, the wealthy and powerful always win.

[Tailormyst]

19. that is the truth

[Winterblues]

20. How does all that fit in the 24 hour news cycle?

Americans seem very impatient. They want what they want and they want it NOW.....Wisdom is not the same thing as intelligence.

[slampoet]

25. Why should i have to live in a shithole for 100 years? That's child abuse to kids I can't afford to

even have in the first place (Unless i move elsewhere.)


I have skills and am young enough to MOVE and i only have a few years left to do so.

I spent most of my youth working against this and now i am fed up.

Canada pay? DOUBLE what i get in the USA for the same job. England pays 1.5 times more, Ireland is broke but they still pay more than US firms for my skills.

[bobbolink]

6. I agree with you, but I can't understand why liberals keep leaving out that twisted Welfare Deform

and the women and children who were harmed.

WHY are they forgotten???

We don't even know what happened to them.

How many ended up homeless?

How many died?

WHY ARE THEY FORGOTTEN?

[HillbillyBob]

7. So true, then there was DOMA and DADT and I as an

AIDs patient landed homeless, I won't even go into what I have been through since I have already posted about it. and I dont have any living friends anymore because they ARE all dead because the previous rpig bullshit about keeping
the insurance sharks profit takin while those like me died in droves.

I am 30 fucking years into suviving hiv, yes I have had help, but I had to scream and carry one and act like a reall asshole to do so.
The nice queers all fucking died and we buried them and who remembers us?

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. I have lost two friends because they didn't have health insurance.

Three others have lost their jobs and homes because India and China pay engineers one-tenth what we pay them here. Engineers who worked their way through college for 5-6 years are now working at Lowes and Radio Shack making peanuts and living in dumps. My neighbor's kid was an excellent carpenter. His construction company fired him so they could hire a Mexican making $8.00 an hour with no benefits. He is now back living with his parents and doing odd jobs when he can find them.

[HillbillyBob]

9. I can well relate. I seen it happen to others, but experienced plenty.

I was a US Navy trained Air Traffic Controller.
I got outed, then because of runnyrayguns policies could not get a civilian job. I have a now outdated electronics degree,
I was an electrician too, but had to work washing dishes because of my Admin Under Honorable Conditions Discharge.

My partner is a trained Army intell specialist who speaks about 8 languages, but is working as a lowly programmer because his professional programming jobs, one after another went overseas to India now making slightly more than pnuts, but has to help support his mom who was a pro with a credit company whose job and retirement that she worked for almost 40 yrs for went away when some big corpse bought out the company.

I even got fired from shit jobs when I was suspected of being gay. Im no stereotyped flamer either. In the construction jobs it was because I did not act like a dog when a woman walked by the site or make crude comments and did not have a wife or girl friend.
I was lucky to make 8$ an hr in a non union state.
I qualified as a licensed electrician but could not get any of the previous bastards I worked for to vouch for me, I did do a good job, showed up on time, sober, respectful etc.
I ran a service truck 2 yrs in when others were still barely able to install light switches, I also did intricate control work such as the controls for industrial processes and even drawbridges.
Now I can't work due to my hiv, seizures, heart probs, etc.
When I did have insurance they dumped me when I got sick, but mostly i lived under bridges 2 different times for almost 2 yrs each time with no insurance, getting sicker and sicker, working some part time jobs at restaurants.

I am also a trained art and antique restorer in museum quality restoration but I cannot take the chemicals, they trigger grand mal seizures. I would like to start a new shop, to do small jobs, but I cannot even scrape up the necessary to put up a small shed and buy materials.
The kind of thing I do or did can't be done out under a shade tree.
I had to spend a lot of time chasing bad checks.

Then theres the fact that even if I could manage it I would lose medicaid coverage and ADAP fillin funding which I might lose anyway.
My meds are so expensive that I can't even cover the deductibles without the help forget buying the meds they are more than out entire household income

I think one of the first things we really need to work on is ending the campaign bribery and get a public funding system in place and no private or corpse money at all in the campaigns, Fairness Doctrine back in place too.

[bobbolink]

22. My heart goes out to you...... I can imagine that it is very hard to survive

in the face of all of that! :hug:

The only thing you have going that I don't is that you have a community of activists behind you, and a lot of progressives who will take action on your behalf.

I don't have that.

But, that doesn't take away from your suffering.... it just means you are less alone, and know your worth more.

"The nice queers all fucking died and we buried them and who remembers us?"

Actually, I do. One in particular, I have a picture of me with him, and when our symphony performed Corliagno's First, I took that framed picture with me. I had it with me during the lecture before the concert, and the lecturer brought the sheet music of the concerto with him, and pointed out to us the names penned in different parts of the friends of Corliagno who had died of AIDS. Later, the lecturer asked about my picture, and kindly listened while I told him all about Palani Kahala. I'm in tears, thinking about him, and about this incident.

So, yes, there are those of us who will ALWAYS remember. :cry:

I misspelled his name...its Corigliano. Here is the description of his First Symphony:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=2470&name_role1=1&bcorder=1&comp_id=52500

[closeupready]

13. They are forgotten because even your Dem Senators are multi-millionaires.

Many of the House members, too. THEY DON'T CARE. They only care about their own stock portfolios (i.e., Feinstein) and cushy industry jobs post-term. Sellouts.

For all these reasons, the women and children who were impacted by NAFTA and Welfare Deform were FORGOTTEN. And it completely sucks. :mad:

[bobbolink]

23. So, you don't think it has anything at all to do with the fact that so-called

"progressives" don't see it as a serious issue??

:wtf:

[closeupready]

27. I think that it is a VERY important issue. But so is seaching for non-fossil fuel energy sources.

Neither issues gets much air time not because they aren't important issues but because the rich and powerful, also known as our Congressional representatives, don't care as long as they are personally comfortable with their standing in society and life.

[bobbolink]

28. Well, you are living in a different country than I am, then.

YOUR issue has Al Gore, mine has nobody.

YOUR issue gets lots of media coverage, mine gets little.

YOUR issue gets lots of time on Air America, mine isn't touched.

YOUR issue has big organizations working on it, mine has a few small grass-roots people.

YOUR issue has lots of threads on DU...mine gets little, along with much trolling.

And on and on and on and on....

Oh, and thank you so much for the deep show of compassion for peoples' lives.

Very much appreciated.

[closeupready]

31. I'm not sure how this happened, but you are either misreading my post, or I am being unclear

I am saying that they don't care because they are elitists, and they should care.

[proudohioan]

17. Yeah, Welfare Deform; don't even get me started on that....

That corrupt program is designed to keep big business fat and happy and keep the poor even poorer.
And make the politicians look good.

I often wonder about those who reached their 60 month lifetime cap in this recession; hell, I have a college degree and I can't even find a fucken job (that pays even CLOSE to a living wage), how in the HELL are these women supposed to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" when they were given training in salad bar prep and burger flipping as an alternative to life on public assistance.

I worked for 7 years for a large Colorado county Department of Human Services. I was truly disgusted by the corruption that I witnessed in the Welfare Deform program.

Welfare Deform? You hit that nail squarely on the head!

[bobbolink]

24. SOMEBODY needs to "get started"! Look how it is left out of all discussion

Of Clinton!

Yet, when we get angry at this sort of ignorance, then we're just brushed off as "too angry".

Well, I read about Malcolm X and his anger and I know I'm in very good company!

So, please... GET STARTED!

[proudohioan]

30. I AM angry and would LOVE to get started......

my problem is that I simply don't know where to begin.

:shrug:

t.

[bobbolink]

32. Glad to hear from you....there are some ideas circulating...

Wanna hear some?

Feel free to PM me!

Thanks! :hi:

[seabeyond]

10. for a dem, clinton really did hurt us in a big way and long reaching.

one of the reasons i couldnt go with hillary, though i heard the same in obama.

then i had to back clinton cause the asshole repugs going after him for a blow job. pissed me off having to defend the man

for a dem...

[Lost4words]

21. And then not a work for Gore and the election, where was Bill?

his silence was deafening.

[tekisui]

12. I damn near the edge. I wanted a leader.

[BeFree]

15. Yeah

My votes aren't even counted anymore. It's all up to some damn machine. What's the use?

[Lost4words]

16. OMG ! their gonna kick you butt for that

my friend Harvey told me to look beyond the surface and to use my god given mind to search for truth.

I have said the very same thing and my backside is still sore.

Hero worship is very dangerous and there seems to be much of that here. Always suspect authority, no matter who they are.

L4W

[galileoreloaded]

26. Worse actually, as we had little evidence of the failures of globalism.

now we see what did happen and can happen and go whistling past the graveyard. Cool huh.

[OneBlueSky]

29. many of us feel the same as you, Elwood . . .

especially those of us who've been doing politics for decades, who've gone through everyone from LBJ to GWB, and everyone in between . . . there comes a point when you realize that no matter who we send to Washington, nothing much is ever going to change . . . as soon as the corporate/government oligarchy gets their clutches into the newcomer, it's all over but the shouting . . .

Obama's election brought people hope, and he hasn't delivered . . . in fact, on the major issues, it's been pretty much more of the same . . . people, myself included, are asking "What can we do to actually initiate change in this country?" . . . and right now, the answer seems to be "Nothing." . . .