Why are Democrats in danger of losing seats in 2010?

[Coexist]

How can this be possible? The Republicans have worked for years to support Corporations over citizens. They have eroded our nation’s stability for short term profits.

Republicans have made fairness a bad word.

If you’re a billionaire, you deserve it.
If you’re poor, you deserve it.

What has their ‘re-education’ campaign wrought? People who don’t benefit from Republican policies no longer just sit and nod their heads, they staple teabags to their hats and misspell signs and scream with hatred. The Democrats won't use the Republican tool of message control, fear and anger to direct those emotions where they should be channeled; the powerful Republican billionaire elites.

How can the Democratic party not create and drive home the simple message that the Republican way has brought us down as a nation.

Maybe a simple cause and effect chart could be created that would do the job?

Here Democrats, I’ll start it off for you:

Union busting – the middle class is in danger of being eliminated, wages and benefits decline, manufacturing jobs disappear; the majority of Americans get poorer.

Financial de-regulation – Near collapse of financial system, loss of pensions and savings of middle class; the majority of Americans get poorer

Environmental de-regulation – poorer air and water quality, oil spill, mine collapses; the majority of Americans sit and watch in horror.

Privatizing industry – Google Atlanta, GA’s experience with turning over their water supply, ask a soldier about KBR’s record in Iraq, talk to a victim of PA’s Kids for Cash scandal or in Polk County FL’s juvenile detention facilities. We are all poorer for these tragedies.

Making any mention of raising or imposing taxes toxic, politically – Don’t want to pay taxes, kiss your imposing military goodbye. Freedom isn’t free. Pay your taxes.

Lowering taxes to levels that will not support our nation’s needs – Bridges and levees crumbling, leaky pipes draining away our water, and antiquated sewer systems spewing untreated water into our waterways. We all face dangers and disasters.

The Greed is Good mentality means the honest hard-working people are fleeced by those who can pay for our nations best and brightest to find ways to subvert or circumvent the law. Those who save and contribute to 401Ks and buy homes get poorer.

We are Democrats. We abhor The Man crushing The People. We should be able to compose a message that allows us to gain seats, so the obstructionism isn’t a constant threat, and we don’t have to cowtow to the ‘moderates’.

We need to be able to do the people’s work, on behalf of the people, with intelligence and compassion in equal parts.

Why are Democrats in danger of losing seats in 2010?

Because our leaders sometimes seem ashamed to honor what it means to be a Democrat.

[underpants]

1. Media

the bosses of media hang out in the same country club locker rooms as the corporate chiefs

[tabasco]

21. Corporate whore media.

Combined with a weak educational system.

[bvar22]

34. So does the "Centrist" Democratic Party Leadership...

..who were more worried about "bi-partisanship" and appeasing Lieberman & The Republicans than passing good legislation.


"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for,
at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them."
--- Paul Wellstone



"By their WORKS, you will know them."

[Ardent15]

2. "We are Democrats. We abhor The Man crushing The People."

Judging from what I've seen on DU, not really.

[napi21]

3. Mainly because a lot fewer people vote in an off year, and

the Pubbies are anrgier than the Dems this year so more of them will got off their duff and vote. I wish I knew a way to motivate the Dems to take 30 mins out of their day and go to the polls, but I don't.

[IndianaJoe]

10. Because a lot of lefties, like me, are disillusioned

with the lack of sense of urgency we've seen in the Obama administration. The Repubbies didn't have the majorities we have, yet they managed to ram home their agenda on us.

I'll vote Dem, of course. But I'm not as fired up about doing it as I was a year and a half ago.

[Go2Peace]

19. Third way (centrism) is a loosing strategy.

[RKP5637]

36. +1, same here! n/t

[DJ13]

4. Because many in our party represent the same business interests as the GOP?

Our party has become GOP Lite, and theres no one to blame but the party itself if voters dont kiss their feet this November.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Because Americans are stupid.

[Coexist]

11. can't we explain it in small words??

[mitchtv]

6. because the Dems refuse to acknowledge their base

they will stab you in the back and people are getting disinterested in listening to BS. unions, Gays and others are sick and tired as are environmentalists and anti warriors

[RKP5637]

7. Why do people keep unrecing this? n/t

[Go2Peace]

20. Because it doesn't fit with the Beltway talking points.

And there are a group of people that work together on this site and attempt to knock down posts that don't fit with "messaging". I believe that is most of it. Take a look at General Disc. Presidential sometime. It is a talking point factory where the same points are floated and the submitters all rec together to puch them into the Greatest page.

[RKP5637]

37. Thanks! n/t

[AlinPA]

8. Media + Stupidity + Apathy. nt

[jpak]

9. I'm not worried

the GOP fought the Stimulus that saved us from a Great Depression and turned the economy around

the GOP defended Wall Street crooks sent us down this shithole

the GOP fought against extending unemployment benefits for millions of Americans

the GOP fought for insurance companies that drop breast cancer patients

the GOP fought regulations governing deep water oil drilling

the GOP now wants taxpayers to clean up the Gulf Coast for their GOP oil industry buddies and their stupid secessionist confederate GOP asshole governors that refused stimulus money.

not worried at all.

oh yeah

Ralph Nader is still and asshole

:D

[tekisui]

13. You'd be naive to think that we won't lose seats.

[jpak]

14. It would be equally naive to assume we will lose seats or even gain some

yup

[tekisui]

16. Huh?

We are going to lose seats, I'd wager money on that. History all but guarantees it.

[jpak]

25. Yes, Christmas will come in November for Dem Doomers

I can't wait for us to lose...er...."loose"

That'll show the Bad Obama!

:D

[Gman]

12. It's more the hope and wish of many here at DU rather than a reality

I don't think we'll lose more than 10-12 maybe 15 which would be in line with the usual losses for the party that has the WH.

[tekisui]

15. It is the nature of Americans politics.

The party change in the WH was largely to bush fucking everything up so badly. American voters have short attention spans and shorter memories. Although a lot has been done, the results aren't really being felt by average voters, yet.

The national conditions at filing date brought repug challengers that have the ability to raise the money and make a serious run in places where Dems won with marginal victories, say 55% or less. Especially those districts that split in 2008, sending a Dem to Congress but voting for Mccain.

We are going to lose seats, no doubt about it. In fact, there is practically nothing Dems can do about it at this point.

I predict a loss of 15-25 seats in the House. Once the Primaries are over, the number will be a little more solid. Around 4 seats will likely be lost in the Senate.

We'll still hold the majorities in both Houses, though.

[Coexist]

17. but that means nothing will get passed that truly means anything

and that makes me sad.

[tekisui]

18. It makes me sad, too.

But, most of the losses will be blue dogs.

[Mother Smuckers]

22. It is because an awful lot of plain folks in flyover country don't give one hoot about any of those

issues...they're too busy trying to achieve (or recover) their version of the American Dream. I know that's not good news...truth often is ugly. :shrug:

oops, typo...fixed, sorry

[Rex]

23. They won't. A lot of Chicken Littles are running around, same as before,

telling everyone the Dems are going to lose huge numbers of seats blah blah. Not happening, we are picking up seats and that just irks the crap out of some Dems (I hate to say it but they love to bet against their own party - the Goldman Sachs of the party if you will).

[spin]

24. People are beginning to realize that both parties ...

represent big corporations and not the voters who sent them to office. Democrats appear to be just as bought and paid for as Republicans.

Our society has turned into a plutocracy.

The second usage of plutocracy is a pejorative reference to a disproportionate influence the wealthy have on political process in contemporary society: for example Kevin Phillips, author and political strategist to U.S. President Richard Nixon, argues that the United States is a plutocracy in which there is a "fusion of money and government."<3>

Further evidence for the US transition to plutocracy is shown in the movie "Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore." A report leaked from citigroup in 2006 titled "Revisiting Plutonomy: The Rich Getting Richer" gives a large body of statistical evidence for the transformation to plutocracy.<4>

The influence the wealthy minority of the population has over the political arena includes campaign contributions, as well as bribing to achieve corporate objectives (exclusively profit related), refusing to support the government financially by refusing to pay taxes, threatening to move profitable industries elsewhere, and essentially any form of manipulation of the government. It can also be exerted by the owners and ad buyers of media properties which can shape public perception of political issues (see also: fourth estate).

***snip***

In the United States, campaign finance reform efforts seek to ameliorate this situation. However, campaign finance reform must successfully challenge officials who are beneficiaries of the system which allows this dynamic in the first place. This has led many reform advocates to suggest taxpayer dollars be used to replace private campaign contributions; these reforms are often called clean money or clean election reform as opposed to simply campaign finance reform which does not address the conflict of interest involved where most or all of the campaign money is from private, often for-profit sources. Critics of clean elections point out that it allows the sitting government to decide which candidates would qualify to receive tax dollars - and therefore influence who would be allowed to win - thus solving one problem by creating another problem; courts in the U.S.A. have also agreed that some "clean election" legislation has discriminated against independent or third-party candidates, and has violated the constitution. This problem can be solved by equal funding for all candidates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy

[RufusTFirefly]

26. Correct. And although it's unfair,

...people are more likely to be disillusioned by the Democratic Party's corporate-friendly policies than they are by the GOP's proud tradition of corporate ass-kissing. The reason? Everybody already assumes that the Republicans are corporate shills, and so, ironically, they get a pass on this issue. The Democratic move toward corporatism, on the other hand, is viewed by many as a snubbing of its base and a betrayal to the party's core principles.

[spin]

31. That's how I see it too ...

I remember my father who died in 1963 and he was a strong Democrat for the simple reason that the Republicans were the party of the rich. And I remember my uncle, who was a steel worker at Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation in Pittsburgh Pa and a union member and Democrat all his working life. My uncle went on numerous strikes to ensure that the workers who followed him were treated fairly and received good compensation from the company for their work.

Both of these men would not recognize the Democratic Party as it exists today. They would be disgusted. What they worked and fought for is disappearing and with it the middle class.

We need to restore the Democratic Party and through it fight to restore the Great American Experiment.

[RufusTFirefly]

32. Yes, indeed. It puts some people on the defensive to point this out...

... but the Democratic Party of today is closer to the Republican Party of my youth. Meanwhile, the angry, distended mouthpiece of the Republican Party has been taken over by a bunch of nutjobs who would've been relegated to a makeshift pamphlet table at the State Fair when I was a kid. I'm thinking of the John Birch Society. It's appalling to me how many of their brand of ideas, which even as a kid I recognized as crackpot and hateful, have gained legitimacy thanks to Fox News and its less obvious but still culpable corporate media brethren.

For the most part, I think of myself as a Roosevelt Democrat (although my ideals come closer to those of Eleanor than of Franklin). And yet while largely maintaining my views I have unwittingly been moved to the "far left" by a country that has shifted dangerously to the right.

[RKP5637]

39. Exactly!!! n/t

[HughMoran]

27. Americans want a 2 party system

In the end though, perhaps people will rub 2 brains cells together and figure out that the Republicans bring absolutely nothing to the table.

[greencharlie]

28. sorry to tell you...

some of the biggest Corporate ENABLERS are Dems... from the WH to State Senate officials...

Politicans are the problem. Period. Someday we WILL get true change, just not yet.

[Lagomorph]

29. A large portion of the profits...

...go to small investors. You take away their profits and America's small investors lose their entire nestegg, rather than just have a bad year, like that particular 1% of our taxpayers. Everybody's 401K's and IRA's evaporate and behold, America hates whoever is holding the flag when it happened. That's why Obama carried the country in 2008, Bush dropped the ball. When the ball kept rolling downhill, it rolled over Obama, not Bush.

A lot of incumbents, including Democrats, gave Bush the rope to hang us with and it's going to catch up with them. Obama can cut taxes for 95% of us, but when the states raise taxes to higher levels than Obama cut them, all those Senators and Representatives are going to pay for it.

As far as America is concerned, when you're the President, your administration starts on day one. When you're the fireman, putting out the fire is a higher priority than arresting the arsonist.

Since Obama couldn't "miracle" the economy back to health, there will continue to be fallout until most of us are fat, dumb and happily back in our comfort zones again. It's about as much his fault as it is yours, but he's the fireman, now.

[quickesst]

30. I say....

...we blame everyone except the Dem pols who can't seem to locate their spines, and refuse to list the facts without backing down at the first bark from a rethug. Thanks.
quickesst

[RufusTFirefly]

35. Dem pols have found their spines, thank you very much.

They are defending corporate friendly policies that benefit just a handful of people despite an uproar from the rank and file, who are being shafted again and again. It takes a spine to be a corporate shill in the face of vociferous resistance.

[ThomWV]

33. They aren't. Democrats may lose individual seats, but overall we will gain in both houses

There are Democrats in Congress today who will not be there next year, but there will be more Democrats in Congress next year than this.

[sendero]

40. I really..

.. doubt that, but we will just have to wait and see.

[bemildred]

38. Because the Pope is not Catholic. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

41. Because Americans LOVE Sarah Palin, and the Tea Party is a REAL GRASS ROOTS GROUNDSWELL!!!!!!!

Except, they don't, it's not...


and, as far as the OP goes, I don't believe we will.