Is it me or is our party turning even more right

[mmonk]

while we work on efforts to reverse course?

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Your perception is correct

The national Democratic Party is now where the Republicans were back in the 60s, and continues to drift further right.

[NavyDavy]

2. speak for yourself.....please

[mmonk]

8. It was a question.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. A question was asked and answered

And I happen to agree with the answer.

[Atman]

3. No, not our party...just our party leaders.

It's the money. The dudes on the other side of the aisle are gettin' all the cake. "We" want in.

.

[Red Zelda]

4. Yet, the public is more left

countdown to a real revolution begins.

[Captain Hilts]

5. No, no it isn't. It's trying to use the traditional approaches to dealing with a more Right Wing WH

And these methods aren't working.

[Sherman A1]

6. Has been for years

[zanne]

10. Too many Democratic "Libertarians"...

We have alot of them up here in NH. Being a Libertarian means you don't have to define your agenda, you can be conservative on most issues and still call yourself a Democrat, you can call Social Security and Medicare a "handout", and you never have to say you're sorry because you never said you were a liberal. And you really, really want to legalize pot. And own as many guns as you want. And fight laws that would make you wear a motorcycle helmet and a seatbelt. I could go on and on. I've never run into one "Democratic" Libertarian who really was.:grr:

[H2O Man]

7. I think there

is a growing divide, between the people who are at the grass roots level, and who suffer the consequences of the Bush-Cheney crimes, and the minority of wealthy democrats who are totally out-of-touch with the grass roots, and who enjoy socializing with the Bush-Cheneyites and discussing how their bank accounts are growing.

[donco6]

14. I'm a "wealthy" Dem.

And I don't see myself as "out-of-touch" with grass roots, and I certainly can't see myself socializing with a Bush-Cheneyite. At least, not without a Rosie/Hasselbeck moment.

[H2O Man]

17. So?

[donco6]

20. What do you mean, "so"?

You implied that there's a divide between "real" Dems and "wealthy" Dems. That I'm on the wrong side of the aisle. And it's not true.

[H2O Man]

21. No.

You did. I said there was a specific minority of democrats who are wealthy, and who hang with the Bush-Cheneyites. I really wasn't thinking of you.

[GreenArrow]

9. not you.

.

[Mandate My Ass]

11. I used to feel right at home in the Democratic party

Now I'm a fringe lefty wallflower, big time. :-(

[move_on]

12. the party

I think the party needs more of a Reagan (dem)/jfk reputation, right now it has the rep as a big government spending and weak defense rep.

[dave_p]

13. I think it's you

The party was always like this, except in FDR's day. He's the exception, not his more bipartisan successors.

If you look at foreign policy, continuity's been the rule since 1945, or maybe 1947-48. Eisenhower and Kennedy each inherited an incipient Vietnam involvement from their opponents, and added to it. Carter's NSA initiated the support for the Afghan jihad that flowered under Reagan, giving us aQ. Bush 41 passed the Somalia debacle to Clinton without complaint. Clinton & Bush 43 carried on Poppy's sanctions, killing hundreds of thousands more Iraqis. And Cuba's been embargoed for nearly half a century while far more murderous regimes enjoyed lavish US support.

If you look at the record of US official pursuit of world domination, the exception since Truman isn't a Democrat, it's Nixon: he ended one vicious war and accepted opposing countries' right to existence and strategic interests of their own. Since then it's been pretty much downhill all the way to PNAC's vision of unrivalled hegemony at all costs.

It's people like you who've seen through some of the bipartisan fog. The party needs to be dragged along. There are signs that it's moving. What we mustn't do is give up or ease the pressure.

[mmonk]

22. I seem to be hitting more brick walls lately.

Righwing justices, the IWR, the constitution, torture, currently the Sibel situation, etc.

[dave_p]

25. You & everybody

Downhill all the way means it gets to the point that people won't take it anymore. We're getting there.

[riverwalker]

15. left turning right=going in circles

and nothing changes

[Beelzebud]

16. Republican Lite

[TygrBright]

19. It is inevitable that the Party will have some internal trauma...

...as the moderates who formerly ID'd as GOPpie flee the smoking shell of what used to be "their" Party. They look over at us and say (figuratively,) "Well, they're a little 'extreme' but they're better than the kooks who've fouled up the GOP, suppose I just ankle on over to the Dems and oh-so-tactfully-but-firmly give them a shove in the right direction for now... just until the GOP gets its act together again." And they are welcomed with open arms by the troglodyte wing of the Democratic Party.

And instead of focusing all this nice new togetherness and kumbayah encouragement in the place where it could do some GOOD (like fighting corruption, reining in out-of-control government spying on its own citizens, and stopping the blowing of vast wads of money on a bloated "Homeland Security" bureaucracy that's ALMOST as effective as FEMA,) our esteemed Congresscritters say to themselves "oooooooh, MODERATES!! In OUR Party!!! Better do some stupid-as kowtowing to *&Co.!"

Box of rocks? Smarter than your average Congresscritter of any persuasion.

resignedly,
Bright

[MadHound]

23. Not just turning right, but also turning more corporate

Things like doing what's best for the people have become increasingly unfashionable. Now the Dems pay much more attention to the wishes of their corporate masters, and the rest of us can rot.

The party has been headed this direction for years, sad to say.

[Az]

24. The politicians are disconnected from the people

Money is the means by which elections are won. Lip service to ideals is given to keep the party in line and then Corporations are courted to get the real money and the real means to win. Thus in order to keep the money flowing the system ever shifts in favor of Corporations and ever away from We The People.

Since the people have no alternative they have few choices. Delude themselves that the politicians work for them and continue supporting unquestioningly. Realize that they do not have influence and drop out of politics entirely. Or join a third party that cannot make a difference because the two Corporate owned parties have frozen any other parties out.

[MistressOverdone]

26. I really don't think so

both parties have always been rather moderate. The right has zoomed to the right, and I see a reaction to that on the left. But the DLC is pretty much where it has been all along, in my view.

[Larry Ogg]

27. If you could in your mind forget about the words Democrat & Republican

and start calling them what they really are, put all the conservatives on the right side of the isle and all the liberals on the left side of the isle, the problem becomes quite apparent. Our two party system could possibly then look something like this, 85 to 90 percent conservative verses 15 to 10 percent liberal. I’m not actually sure what the split would be as I am just speculating for the purpose of example, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this speculation was close to the actual truth. This could explain in part as to why so little is being done in congress, and why the democratic majority seems to be complacent with the whims of the right. You ask, “Is the party turning even more right or is just you?” I ask, who hand picks, promotes and finances their campaigns, controls the media and the voter’s perception of the candidates and their views on what is right and wrong for this country before the poles are even open…