Vote Democratic for the amusement factor

[tavalon]

I'll admit that as I first watched the House and Senate Dems set about pretending they still weren't really in charge even though they were, I was angry. But finally, it just became pathetically amusing. Not when they were actively hurting us, but when they were just chasing their tails ineffectively, it was somewhat amusing. I look back to the time of Bush and there wasn't any amusement, just fear and loathing. I don't want to go back to the fear and loathing. I want to stick with the wry (and yes, sometimes bitter) amusement of the last two years.

So let's vote in a super majority in the House and Senate. It will be an absolute riot when they still try to pretend they aren't in charge. And maybe, just maybe, they'll be embarrassed into actually behaving like the majority. That might make things interesting.

[tavalon]

1. So, I've got 4 votes in 4 minutes - Good

No comments - concerning.

[ibegurpard]

2. well, there is that...

[FirstLight]

3. you have a point...

And the main thing in your OP that got me was "...I look back to the time of Bush and there wasn't any amusement, just fear and loathing. I don't want to go back to the fear and loathing."

exactly! :scared:

I may not like the current IN-actions of the majority and their trying to constantly be 'fair' and letting the GOP gut all the major legislation or block important votes...but at least i know the Rethugs aren't in power. That is a NO RETURN ticket, man. If the Rethugs gain any form of control again, we are in for darker days in this country than we have ever seen, they will be handing power to freaks and warmongers and those who would happily watch the rest of us 'little people' starve to death because we aren't 'motivated' enough to pull ourselves up.
no thank you!

Regardless of the angst in our Dem leadership, there is NO reason to allow the rethugs back in power, it is detrimental to us ALL

[femrap]

4. Since I am

a true cynic, I enjoy ridiculing them....gives me some cheap laughs.

When W was prez, I waffled between Anger and Despair. Now I'm finally at Acceptance....the system is rigged...it is corrupt. And the Middle Class is now the Former Middle Class.

But I always vote...just so I can complain.

[tavalon]

5. I have that rule too

No votey, no complainy.

[TBF]

7. It is the system femrap -

no doubt about it. Capitalism is not going to inspire many to do the right thing when it's against their economic interests. So here we are.

[femrap]

17. I hope Marx was right....

capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. As I look around, he may be right.

[TBF]

6. LOL - I have had that feeling myself.

That Obama et al were throwing the election so they could argue they are blocked from doing anything. It's tough when you have the majority and still want to pass regressive legislation to keep your campaign coffers happy.

[bobbolink]

8. I am not amused at the cuts to poor people.

THAT would be really sick.

[tavalon]

11. That falls under when they were actively hurting us

I thought I made it clear that I was only amused when they weren't actively hurting us.

[bobbolink]

12. The problem is the "US" and "THEM". We GET that if it doesn't affect others, and is just us,

then it is STILL amusing.

We aren't considered related to the rest of you... we are the black (and unnecessary) sheep.

[tavalon]

13. ?

I'm a bleeding heart liberal. Hell, socialist. I'm confused by what you said.

[bobbolink]

14. What is confusing?

[tavalon]

18. "We aren't considered related to the rest of you"

I don't understand who you are speaking to in that context. Elaborate a bit if you would.

[bobbolink]

23. It is only when *you* feel hurt by something.

If it doesn't affect *you*, then it is amusing.

We have lost any sense of unity, yet we poor folk are expected to be "unified" with the rest of you over the vote.

We're still here. You can remember us or not.

Clarification... I typed *you* because I mean "you" in the generic sense. Our language is lacking in that respect.

I don't know whether that applies to you personally or not, but I think if you think of yourself as one of us, and reread your OP, you can see how it can be dismissive of us, and therefore offensive.

[uppityperson]

29. Oh, I am amused by things that affect *me* all the time.

being put on ignore for taking someone to task for nasty posts, for instance. That amuses me.

[tavalon]

31. Okay, look, long term, they've made it clear they they don't care

about the little guys any more than the Republicans. But they want to pretend they do and so they aren't always as overtly destructive (notice all the qualifiers because this team has been destructive many times over and there have been times when I've wondered if they even realize they aren't the Bush administration anymore) but we still haven't placed the structure in place for viable third and fourth options so I had to come up with a way that I could vote for these less dangerous asshats and still look in the mirror. This is my convoluted solution. I call it, for short, voting to spite them. But I decided today to try to put an amusing spin on it since spiteful wins no support.

This administration is doing next to nothing to help you and they're supposed to be the good guys. The other team will work even more actively to hurt you because they are bad people. There is no third option in national politics at this juncture. That's a fact. Voting the lesser evils back in will give us a few more years down here at the grassroots level to get something viable up and running.

Sitting it out and giving the bird to the Democrats (who so richly deserve it at this point) will give the more evil guys a chance to fuck us over even more vigorously and the space we need to work for a true "third way" will be obliterated and that's another fact. It galls me to no end that Rahm and his team of know it alls get to ignore and even mock people like me because we have no where else to go and I can't teach them the lesson they so richly deserve. But I can and I will mock them and maybe they will hear me and maybe they won't.

[glitch]

9. I like the way you think. Ornery.

Like me. :evilgrin:

[tavalon]

10. I love that!

I was just asking my spouse if I was a disillusioned optimist or just a pessimist. You got back to me before he did. Perfect. I am an ornery cuss.

[bvar22]

15. We can't POSSIBLY get this through the Senate!

We ONLY have 91 votes.
The Obstructionist Republicans are blocking EVERYTHING!!! :cry:

[tavalon]

19. Exactly my point

And perhaps at that point, they just won't have the gall to pull the three card monty anymore. Mayhaps they will, mayhaps not. Could be interesting or at least very mockable.

[Recursion]

22. Republicans were rarely the problem this Congress

The issue was that the Democratic caucus includes people much more conservative than most of us on this board.

That's what we have to work with. You want to have a more liberal Senate Democratic caucus? Go colonize South Dakota.

[bvar22]

24. There are ways.

Bush the Lesser got almost everything he wanted with narrower majorities.

"Strong and successful presidents (meaning those who get what they want - whether that happens to be good for the country or not) do not accept "the best deal on the table". They take out their carpentry tools and the build the goddam piece of furniture themselves. Strong and successful presidents do not get dictated to by the political environment. They reshape the environment into one that is conducive to their political aspirations."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/17

"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

[Recursion]

25. Not really

Bush the Lesser got almost everything he wanted

Not really.

He got the tax cuts and the Iraq war. Pretty much everything after that got blocked (immigration reform, social security reform) or turned by Democrats into something the base hated (NCLB, Medicare Part D).

[bvar22]

26. NonSense.

The ONLY thing that got turned back was his attempt to kill Social Security.
The Democrats are now going to do that.

[Recursion]

27. And immigration reform

And, like I said, NCLB and Medicare Part D got co-opted by Democrats into something the GOP rank and file hated. Sound familiar?

[bvar22]

28. Co-Opted?

Co-Opted?
Like The Democrats GOT SOMETHING out of the legislation?
There was NO "Co-Opting".
There was only the Blue Dog DINOs who were MORE than HAPPY to go along with Bush.

Where are the Democrats who LOVE Medicare Part D?
That wasn't something FOR The Democrats.
That WAS simply another Give Away to Big Pharm that the "Centrist" Democrats were more than happy to give to Bush and their BIG Donors.

The same with NCLB.
It was the first step toward busting the Teacher's Unions.
The Obama Administration is currently working on advancing the Bush Plan for the Privatization of Education.
As above, the "Centrist" Democrats were MORE than happy to oblige.

[Ignis]

38. We only have 99 Democrats and 1 Bernie Sanders--our hands are tied!

:rofl:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Nah. Let them try their act on Comedy Central and see if the lobbyists will pay them then.

[BeFree]

20. Fear and loathing vs comfortably numb

Or as you put it: mildly amused.

Hmmmm, which one, given the choices.............

I pick fear and loathing heaped high on the republicants. Can I pick that?

[tavalon]

21. We can all pick what will best allow us to sleep at night and look in the mirror in the morning

Seems to me.

[Ramulux]

30. I think it will be even funnier

Watching the media lose their shit if the dems do much better than expected. Their world will start to crumble around them, and the people at Fox News' heads will explode. I'll vote dem just so i can see people like Chris Matthews and Bill O-Reilly be shown to be the horrible analysts they are.

[tavalon]

32. That will be a happy little bonus, I totally agree

[awoke_in_2003]

33. "they'll be embarrassed into actually behaving like the majority"

I will eat my Stetson if that ever happens.

[tavalon]

35. A girl can dream, can't she

In the meantime, I'm working grassroots to upend the system.

[lonestarnot]

34. I was hoping you would close with something more along the lines of calling a jackal a jackel for

the sake of the obstructionist party of No.

[4_TN_TITANS]

36. under Bush "there wasn't any amusement"?

Good Lord, we had some tremendous laughs at his expense! I almost died laughing at the photoshop posts that popped up after he tried to exit thru that locked door in China. Bush was every comedian's dream, the gift that never stopped putting food on it's family.

[tavalon]

37. Yes, by they were tinged with a sound that seemed, well, close to insanity

Way too close.