The Democrat Party - A "left behind" story in the making?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

There are a few heroes in both houses of Congress, a very few. There are a few more that understand several issues, but not all. Unfortunately, between the blue canine SOBs starting with Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emanual, a significant minority of the Democrats still don't get it.

It strikes me that the Democratic Party, after seven years, still doesn't understand the nature of the beast they face. It is not that rovian Bushistas lie, cheat and steal, it is that they do so as a routine. It is not that Bush/Cheney are making a broad, well-targeted attack on the Democrats' Iraq-Iran policies, it is that too many Democrats are willing to concede ground to them. Let us be blunt about the biggest domestic enemy our country has ever faced. The Red Scare in the early decades of the last century are nothing compared to this. The second wave, with Joe McCarthy at the helm, was not as dangerous to our nation's future. NO, the unholy alliance between the Dobsons and other evangelicals and the AIPAC-styled neocons poses a far greater risk for our nation. When JE Hoover was in charge of finding commies and socialists (Before he was promoted to lead the FBI) his actions caused the deportation of 10,000 persons. When Bush/CHeney act, we risk a global war.

There are some success stories - Henry Waxman and Pat Leahy are pursuing GonzoGate with subpeonas and a decent game plan. McNulty's resignation and the granting of Immunity to Monica Goodling are just two small steps in lifting the cover of a widespread illegal effort to subvert and control the DOJ around the country.
There are even some Democrats who recognize Iraq to be the quagmire of quagmires, with Iran to follow shortly. Nancy Pelosi has done an admirable job herding cats and keeping the Dems in some semblance of order, even though the steps they have taken are about as timid as a two year old tottering along side the crib.
There are even investigations into NIH, NASA, EPA and other disasterous clusterfucks.

The one thing that is missing is someone to connect the dots. Not one Democratic candidate for president has bothered to do so. Not one consgresscritter has put it all together. And not one senator has pointed out just how evil, craven and powerhungry the Rovian GOP has been.

Simply put, Bush/Cheney have deliberately targetted and attacked every single governmental office, commission and department. They have replaced professionals with religious warriors. They have replaced the heads of all military branches and military academies with Fundie warriors who really believe in the End of Times and Rapture. They have infected every scientific office, agency, and department with anti-science types who actively retreat from real science. They have taken passable social agencies and destroyed them from within, with faith based initiates and worse.

Every single aspect of government has been targetted and tainted by this cabal. Yet, All too often, either out of fear, expediency or ignorance, our Democratic party members in office continue to give the GOP a pass.

What is so strange is that the American people have woken up a hell of a lot sooner than Congress. The 28% support for Bush is probably inflated, and most ikely closer to 20-23%. Most Americans realize that having a gay married couple next door does nothing to harm society. Most citizens realize that our falling science programs post a far greater risk to our way of life than the islamofascists that RUsh and Sean promote as the enemy. And, many people are coming to grips with the idea that our international policie are actually the cause of much of the mess we find ourselves in. WE ARE THE PROBLEM, and the use and abuse of our military is not a solution.

Why are the American people so far ahead of Congress on so many issues? Why is Congress being left behind? Why hasn't Congress recognized and reported on the broad, deep and devastating attack on our government - by the very people who swore an oath to uphold it?
In other worse, What the hell is wrong with Congress?

[radfringe]

1. What the hell is wrong with Congress?

priorities are screwed up..

1st priority: get elected and get re-elected

2nd priority: get party into power and stay in power
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last priority: doing what's right for the people and country

CNN had an interesting poll last evening, asking if people thought the Dems had abandoned the people's reasons for putting them into power..

80% said yes

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. 80%? wow.

if that doesn't wake up the dead in the Democratic Party, I don't know what will. IF they can wake up.


I must admit, though, that I have this strange feeling of amusement as the GOP begins to eat its young as they realize that 28% will not get them re-elected to dog catcher.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Congress is NOT our leadership

WE are the leadership.

Congress is the legislative body of our functionaries.

Once we get that through our heads, we will be far better off.

We can not, should not, and need not think of congresspeople (by which I include Senators) as being our leaders. We send them to Washington to write laws and figure out administrative quandaries.

The REAL leaders of the Democratic Party today are a broad panel: Rahm Emmanuel, Steny Hoyer, Dennis Kucinich, Henry Waxman, Howard Dean, Tom Mahon, Bill Clinton, and probably five or six others whose names I have I neglected. Only about half are in government service. There are also extrapolitical leaders like Al Gore, Keith Olbermann, Leo DiCaprio, Jesse Jackson, Cheri Honkala (of the low-profile but highly effective Kensington Welfare Rights Union in Philadelphia), and maybe a dozen or so others. There are hundreds of more highly focused issues-oriented leaders within the Women's movement, Civil Rights, Environmentalism, Poverty, Gay Rights, and so on.

In short, there is an entire web of leadership. And while there are conflicts within that web, to be sure, it is still part of a progressivizing movement. But Congress is not that leadership. The Congress is the delegation of professional legal and administrative troubleshooters. It has a few leaders, but it isn't a body of leadership.

There is nothing wrong with Congress except that we are not demanding enough high-quality "face time". This is why I regularly mock the "TRAITORS! WHORES!" (and "blue canine SOBs") threads. Anyone who posts on DU and does not even try to keep in touch with his or her representatives has no business whining. Instead, they (WE!) should pick up the phone or find the e-mail address of their political functionaries, say hello, and press their case.

Democracy demands that we all be leaders.

So, what the hell is the matter with US? Only that we have forgotten where we really are in the "chain of command"!

Remember that old Three Stooges scene, where Curly is squinting and crying "Moe! Larry! I can't see! I can't see!"

To which Moe replied "So open yer eyes, ya knucklehead!"

It may seem that I'm oversimplifying the process of democratic leadership. Perhaps I am. But people are far more likely to angrily post on-line than to collect their thoughts and try to contact their reps. If we did that first, we would find that they were a whole lot more responsive than we thought, and have a better-functioning republic.

When we do that, THEN we will see who the real deadwood is, and we can perfunctorily vote them out. Our own inaction will hurt us far worse than the DLC, or Ralph Nader, or the Gay Islamofascist Unwed Mothers from France.

--p!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. PW, it is hard to argue with many of your points.

that said, we do not have control over our congresscritters. I write, I call, and I am lucky that my senators are Durbin and Obama. My congresscritter is Jackson.

the problem is that much of the Democratic party is under the thumb of K street. AIPAC. Big Pharma. Big Finance. Big Oil.
Little ole you and me just don't get on the radar screen, at least not in comparison.

If I were in congress, and I had you on Line 2, and the AARP lobbyist on 3, and AIPAC or big Pharma on 4, ready to drop a 250 large into my campaign, from 10 "separate" donors), no offense, but I suspect that you would be shuffled off to some aide.

[sweettater]

4. First time article poster, hope I did this right

Seems to connect the dots. Article is rather long but answers many questions.


The Kissinger Connection

By Patrick Foy

05/12/07 "Top Drawer" -- - You may have noticed that George Tenet prefers to talk about the aftermath of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, to wit, the U.S. occupation and the Iraqi insurgency. He admits that the CIA did get some things wrong—such as certifying the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when, in fact, those weapons and stockpiles had been destroyed years before, under UN supervision. In the next breath, Tenet takes pride that the CIA began warning the Administration early on about the insurgency. He deeply regrets that the White House, the National Security Council, and the Pentagon were not interested, and ignored the warnings.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17689.htm

[mediaman007]

5. To a lesser extent, they are also beholding to corporate America...

It is the only possible explanation for the lack of action.

[leftchick]

6. the answer is pretty simple

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[annabanana]

7. First they have to get over one HUGE psychological hurdle. .

The enormity of the crime that this cabal has visited upon the body politic has all the strength and resilience of The Big Lie. A person who would never contemplate doing something this awful has a hard time imagining the breadth of evil that would.

(Especially when the perpetrators smile in their face and make small talk while stabbing the electorate in the back)

[melody]

9. And the alternative is?

I know plenty of people who'll be using this rhetoric to make a case for the "new Republicans".
Better the deeply flawed party I know than the party that has continually screwed over everyone. As
for a "third party" or "independent" tactics, puhlease. We live on the Planet of the
Apes. It's an Aristotelian choice between the best of the two strongest factions. Third party tactics only weaken the better alternatives, to which the more open minded people will flock.

Until we get serious about drawing boundaries for these sociopathic bastards, we have to do the best we can with what we have.

[mmonk]

11. Representative democracy.

[melody]

12. That's only possible with an educated, aware population

We've had decades of "conservative" politics targeted to destroy the infrastructure of the
US. Once we've uprooted the enemy from within, maybe we can start thinking like rational
humans again.

[mmonk]

14. I'm aware.

I just gave the alternative and let it be.

[5X]

10. One member of the DemocratIC party gets it.

Of course, so many dismiss him.
The Kooch.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. he does get it. so do dean, durbin, leahy, waxman,

a handful of others. but not enough. not yet.

Not only did 9/11 offer the GOP an opportunity to reverse their fading popularity, take on new war powers, spy on US citizens without supervision, but it also removed the spine from too many Democrats in office.

[camero]

15. Same time same channel

They're in the same class. They have the same interests. All this talk about cleaning up gov't and making a voice for the people is just that. Talk.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. and what do we mere humans do about it?

I'd like some ideas. mine tend towards a quiet revolution

[camero]

17. Like your idea

Mine involves a nationwide strike with the goal being the resignation of all the congresscritters and the admin. Clean house and start over. A better idea might be a write-in campaign. Just pick somebody and write the name in. What will they do when there are no votes for any of the established candidates? Just pick any Joe Schmoe.