My Heart Cries For My Democratic Party

[HardWorkingDem]

I hope late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning I find the conventional wisdom predictions for the election are incorrect and the results aren't as bad as we think they are going to be. Yes, as some well studied people have pointed out, mid-term elections for a first term president's party during bad economic times are hard on the respective president's party, I hope the young and people of color voters will come to our party's rescue again and create a miracle.

It is so hard for me to believe the edge of the abyss we appear to be standing upon, just a mere two years out from a historic election.

It fills me with dread when I watch the evening news programs and watch the political shows and read the in depth articles and see how our party is losing to the likes of Angle, Gingrich, Palin, Boehner, Bachmann and a whole host of extreme people who should not be receiving ten percent of any vote.

To think that our number one Senator, Russ Feingold, our stalwart, the epitome of what it means to be a tough, principle filled liberal Democrat, is fighting for his political life, breaks my heart and makes me ask, how did we get here? What happened? And how can this country be on the verge of turning the wheels of the vehicle back into the hands of the same people who put us in the ditch in the first place?

To think that in 2008 so many of us were thinking along the lines of a "permanent Democratic majority" and now we must most likely comes to terms with the thought of a "Speaker of the House Boehner." (On one happy note, it will most likely be a good election for political comedians, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert and SNL).

Certainly, in the long run, though, I do think our Party will prevail. I believe that our diversity will eventually be our strongest ally and that if our party really does become a party of the people, with the peoples' interest at heart, then our party will come back quickly and stronger than ever before. However, I do believe if Obama and his Washington cohorts fall to the trap of the belief of a need to move back to the "middle," then we will be out in the wilderness longer than necessary.

Still, it makes my heart sad to think of our euphoria back in 2008 on this election eve of 2010.

[nevergiveup]

1. It is called a an "economic depression".

We are in the midst of one. All bets are off on all common sense politics when so many people are hurting economically. People vote their pocket books on election day. The good news is that there are still important house and senate seats in play if only we GOTV. Two days can be an eternity in politics. Call everyone you know and keep the faith.

[still_one]

6. The economy was doing well when Clinton left office, yet in 2000 people obviously didn't care about

that. Even though Gore was the winner, the fact remains it was far closer than it should have been for a good economy. They sure weren't voting in large numbers their pocket books in 2000, it was too close

It is a cop out to blame all our wows on the economy. The unfortunate truth is that since 2000 the country has been moving to the right

Now in 2010 it looks like it is more than just moving to the right, it looks like it is moving to the extreme right

[tavalon]

11. You're missing an important peice here

I don't understand why it is common wisdom that the vote must be close to be stolen. Now that the media is complicit, and the exit polls are gone and pre election polls can lie with impunity, the ability of computers (Diebold, etc.) is able to change one or one million votes. Ain't no thing, really. And yet, this myth that it has to be close to be stolen continues on.

We've all seen in the last month that whatever Democratic enthusiasm gap there was is gone, long gone. In fact, the Democrats are almost as revved up as they were in 2008 and this is a midterm, a traditionally poor voter turnout time. So, either we win or Diebold does. Those are the only two scenarios that make any sense any more. 2 months ago, I could have bought the media spin - hell, I was thinking about blowing it off. I got over it and so did everyone else, as far as I can tell. So, which is lying, the MSM or my eyes?

[still_one]

12. I agree. My point was you can't just blame the economy for our wows. Heck, the misrepresentations

24/7 by the media is infuriating

For example, almost everyday I hear on bloomberg how Obama wants to increase your taxes, when the truth is he wants to leave the tax breaks in for up to 250K, and for amounts above 250K it will be taxed at the rate it was before, but instead of stating what it actually involves, it trys to leave the impression that EVERYONE will pay higher taxes

I hear all kinds of misrepresentations everyday

bloomberg used to be a relatively fair station, but they have joined the rest of the MSM for sometime now

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

14. It used to be the case that only close elections were stolen

Reason being that they were easy to explain away when the late polls or the exit polls didn't match the "official" results, it was all within the "margin of error" and anyone who insisted it was stolen was dismissed as a tinfoil hatter (see Ohio 2004).

But this year's South Carolina primary seems to indicate that they have dropped the pretense altogether, and since that was a likely blatant theft that went unchallenged by the state Democratic party, it's not much of a stretch to say that other similar scenarios could follow. The dirty tricks used by the DLC against the Democratic candidate in the Arkansas primary (such as opening only 2 polling places out of 40 in the candidate's home county) also fit this new pattern of blatant theft.

I don't believe for a second that Russ Feingold would be in any danger of losing Wisconsin, if the entire state voted on paper ballots.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. ...

:hug:

[wundermaus]

3. reminds me of a song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipc1DWfJhg4

[oldtime dfl_er]

4. The stupidly optimistic part of me

really hopes that this election -- should the Repukes do as well as it's being said they will -- will be what it takes to make Democrats strong. Bill Clinton turned into the brilliant and legendary President he was, mostly after the Repukes tried to impeach him, shut down Congress, and intended to destroy him. It's really really sad that one faction of our nation is hellbent on destruction, even as the other faction is working to bring us back from the brink. As Ed Schultz said the other day, this new crop of Repukes is going to DC with one goal only and that is the destruction of the Obama presidency.

We can't let that happen.

[snot]

5. It is called, propaganda works.

[still_one]

7. and add the lack of critical thinkers that want to be fed misinformation without questioning /nt

[jzodda]

8. At least we still have the White House

so they won't be able to make any real changes as long as Obama is willing to FIGHT them and not work with them!

I'm sad that so many Dems sound like tea party people. I mean that guy in West Virgina (the gov-name escapes me) in that ad shooting at stuff? I am sad that the west wing was not more aggressive this year in fighting back. I believe our people were not as aggressive as they should have been. Its felt like going to a gun fight armed with a knife.

My bigger fear is 2012 and some tea party nut like Palin winning the election. The damage the tea party could do is disastrous and frankly many of them make GW Bush seem like a liberal.

[Scruffy1]

9. Most of what said her is true-bur consider this

How many criminals from the Bush regime have been prosecuted. Let's see Tim Griffin running for Congress. Ken Blackwell-in a cushy think tank job. Wolfowitz-retired rich. Cheney-got a new heart. Turd Blossom-waxing fat. These are just a few of them that apparently have immunity. If you don't have the guts to finish what you start they will come back and kick your ass. Ask penniless members of the Anti-War Committee to vote D after fucking Fitzgerald-who could only find one low level crook in all of Washington-sends FBI agents to steal their phones and computers.

Think how the average man or woman who lost their home to the biggest fraud in US history feels about it when they see the Banksters getting record bonuses. They got bailed out-we got sold out. Or be in my situation where at retirement nearly all of my life savings is tied up in my house which has dropped in value by 50%, due to the biggest fraud ever perpetrated.

Think about the health care reform bill that was hijacked by big pharma and the health insurance companies and we settled for small change. Besides no one understands the damn thing. Obama's a brilliant lawyer, but we are just working people.

Think about the 99ers and their plight. They might not know much about senatorial BS but they know they've been screwed by someone.

No more Rethugs than normal will vote, but they will win because the broke and discouraged populace just won't show up because the Democratic Party hasn't given them enough reason to care.

[tavalon]

10. I don't suppose you're really asking for advice

but well, I would recommend stepping away from the TV and either doing some get out the vote work or just relax. Thing is, the media is trying to influence the election with their lies and if the Diebold election stealing software is working, they'll get what they want and no amount of our worrying will help. If it's not in place, then we are going to pull off a huge coupe. It didn't seem like it a month ago when our own leaders were castigating us (shitty GOTV, if you ask me) but because the other side has shown itself to be batshit crazy, the only place there is an enthusiasm gap is with the talking heads on the TeeVee.

So Tuesday is either schadenfreude or proof that the game is rigged and we can all take our marbles home. I'm hoping for number one but I've known about the problems with black box voting for long enough to know that the media are either clueless or complicit.

[BeFree]

13. Yeah, tavalon

You've nailed it. Either the wingers get smoked out, or the game is rigged.

[HardWorkingDem]

15. Hope you are right....

I'm really hoping that traditional polling is missing how young and other people are no longer tied to land lines, however, what bothers me about that is polling is so scientific that it probably takes that into account.

And I hope that many people of color are really revved up and the traditional media just isn't catching them.


Anyway, hopefully when we wake up on Wed the results won't be too bad and we won't have to consider a Speaker Boehner. (Though on the bright side of that, he probably won't be speaker long because when the media really focuses on that fresh face they dirt might really turn up.)

[mstinamotorcity]

16. Don't worry I don't think it going to be as bad

as all that.I remember do you????http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlBOv8m_Xa8

[gulliver]

17. My Heart Cries for the Republican Party

They can't take 2006 and 2008 away from us. Also, worst case this Tuesday, we will still have the Presidency. I'm at peace with us losing the House. That way the Republicans will be expected to actually legislate instead of just play dead weight. Republican leaders tend to be idiots lately. They will most likely immediately overreach, rage, and get spit all over themselves just in time for a 2012 sweep for the Dems. Obama may be able to back them into a corner and force them to show up to another debate--where he will proceed to toss them around like rag dolls like last time.

There's a name for the psychological effect we are experiencing on the Republican side, "extinction burst." The Republican government style and, particularly their fear and anger mongering failed to produce an election win 2008. The Republican voters got their fear and anger cues in 2008 just like usual, but because Bush had so ruined Republican credibility, there was no election reward following their voting response. Instead of making Republican voters less likely to respond to fear and anger cues, however, extinction burst made them more likely to respond to those cues. That's a theory anyway. Why not?

My Heart Cries for Republican voters. You have to be seriously hooked on bad brain chemicals to keep going back to the Republican well after what Bush and GOP leadership in Congress did to this country.