Let Me Say Four Words That Will Give Everyone Here REAL Hope

[ChoppinBroccoli]

President Sherrod Brown 2016.

No, he hasn't made any overtures to this effect, but a Sherrod Brown candidacy would have me more excited than any candidate in recent memory. I was a pretty ardent Howard Dean supporter in 2004, but I believe in Sherrod Brown so much that I would even go the extra mile and work for his campaign.

He's MY Senator, and he's my FAVORITE Senator in Washington (and it has very little to do with the fact that he's from my hometown and has cursory ties to my family--my dad worked with his mom briefly, and I think my dad even met him once years ago).

I know that some of you might be frustrated at the idea of muddling through the next 4 years with a Democratic President who is further to the right than we all expected (or the unspeakable alternative), but I'm telling you, just weather the storm, because if this thing happens in 2016, you're going to remember what it's like to have a President who actually fights for liberal causes again.

But again, it's just in the "I hope" stages right now (although if you really examine it, who else would be better qualified to run in 2016?)

[Kaleva]

1. Where you a member of the Kerry/Edwards forum? Your name rings a bell.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

7. I Was On That Forum Years Ago

Not sure if it was under this name, though. I remember being completely devastated after that election and not being able to post on the "new" forum (whatever its name was changed to after the election was over) for quite some time. I had completely lost my fire. It probably took me a good 5 days or better to recover from the deep depression I fell into after that election. I was so certain that Kerry would win that I didn't even allow myself to consider the possibility that he wouldn't. I lost a lot of faith in the American people after that.

[Kaleva]

12. There was a ChoppinBroccoli so that must have been you!

Such a name stands out! LOL! The only other person here at DU that I remember being at the Kerry forum is benEzra. I believe the new forum's name was Common Ground Common Sense and there were several who had a similar experience as you did after the election was over. One person said she was bedridden for several days afterwards.

[brooklynite]

2. Nothing against Sherrod, but...

...I'm starting out with Brian Schweitzer. I think it'll help to point out the Democratic Party's spread into the once Red west.

[hfojvt]

21. Schweitzer? Isn't he a blue dog?

I know he spoke at the KDP a few years back, although I didn't go to the speech (it's a $100 ticket).

[tularetom]

3. Damn it I thought you were gonna say,"Cheney has been arrested"

[rhett o rick]

11. Damn that'd been good. nm

[dionysus]

4. i like sherrod, but we have to stop thinking a president will fix all this shit.

say what you will about obama either way, we had both houses, the presidency, and all it takes is a handful of blue dogs to fuck shit up.

in a scenario were republicans will fillibuster a bill saying that the sky is blue when it's daytime and there are no clouds, the presidency just isn't enough.

thumbs up on brown though.

[MrMickeysMom]

16. Meanwhile... we have to fix us to fix the US, no?

We collectively have to decide that the only tool besides a public library and an internet forum is to engage in organizing information and have a massive turn out for all local elections on up to presidential. Someone has to be the leader at the local level. Think of it... if there were a clutch of people who demanded and helped this engagement locally, it wouldn't take long to drastically change the election outcome.

We have to turn off the ability to be affected by "marketing".... everything I see people do (or not do) to make me want to scream seems to be marketed very successfully

We have to inform ourselves and we have to be very, very intimidating, starting with this.

I don't know if it will or how long it will take to work, but we have to change.

[dionysus]

18. we have to change things from the local level upwards. the repukes have spent a long time

taking over shit from school boards, to city councils,mayor, governor, state senate and so on.

they were at it so long some people view "liberal" and "entitlement" as slurs, when the dictionary definiton suffices.

aside from office holding, conservatives have been waging an idealogical war while dems try to fight a political one.

unfortunately, i don't think this can be solved in just one election cycle.

[Bryn]

5. Don't know much about Sherrod Brown, but I would avoid 1% type of a politican

No more "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%"

‎"Virtually all U.S. senators, and most of the representatives in the House, are members of the top 1 percent when they arrive, are kept in office by money from the top 1 percent, and know that if they serve the top 1 percent well they will be rewarded by the top 1 percent when they leave office. By and large, the key executive-branch policymakers on trade and economic policy also come from the top 1 percent. When pharmaceutical companies receive a trillion-dollar gift—through legislation prohibiting the government, the largest buyer of drugs, from bargaining over price—it should not come as cause for wonder. It should not make jaws drop that a tax bill cannot emerge from Congress unless big tax cuts are put in place for the wealthy. Given the power of the top 1 percent, this is the way you would expect the system to work." ~ Joseph E. Stiglitz

Obama has been wined and dined by the Wall Street raising 2.4 millions for his presidential campaign recently. Can't trust a politician like that ever again.

[dionysus]

9. the two choices are to try and reform the system from within, from the ground up, or burn the house

to the ground and hope we can build it better from ashes. the consequences from the latter are more than we can imagine.

[Dept of Beer]

6. That's three words and a number.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

8. Yeah, But It Could Be Lots Of Other Things Too

If you spell out the number (two thousand sixteen), it would be six words.

Then again, if you're like Scrabble, and don't accept proper names as words, it's one word, a name, and a number. Then again, Brown is actually a word, so Scrabble would have to accept it, which would make it two words, a name, and a number.

Oh, this is just getting so confusing! I think I'll just stick with my "four words" line.

[Tx4obama]

10. Alan Grayson 2016 :) n/t

[ChoppinBroccoli]

13. Not That I'm Necessarily Against That Idea..........

..............Lord knows I really like Alan Grayson. But the fact of the matter is that he's out of political office right now (gaps in your political employment are generally considered "red flags" by the voting public--and I don't think he had a whole lot of experience on the national scene to begin with, which is another black mark against him). Plus, the right is going to try to brand him as "crazy" and a loudmouth, and they'll have ample soundbytes to use to do just that. I mean, let's face it, if they can turn people against Howard Dean simply because he made a funny noise at a rally of his supporters, what could they do to smear Grayson's name?

I think if Grayson can get back into government in some form or another, by 2016 he might make a good running mate. I just think his resume is a little too light right now, and I think it will be way too easy for the RW'ers to paint him as a nut that people should be afraid of.

[kenny blankenship]

14. If he's that good, why wait? We need a leader RIGHT NOW.

What will be left in 2016? Will it be worth bothering about?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

17. Yes, it will be worth bothering about.

It might look as though there won't be anything left then...

But there will.

We will always need strong, smart leaders. Always.

I really like Sherrod Brown, too.

[cilla4progress]

15. Hell 2016...

2012! :dem:

[hfojvt]

22. I think his senate seat is up in 2012

at least I am getting letters asking for money.

So if he ran in the primary, he'd be giving up his Senate seat. I'd like to see somebody do it, but I can understand if they don't.

[alp227]

19. wonder if Americans will wake up by 2015 after electing a hardcore Teabagger in 2012? n/t

[OhioChick]

20. Sherrod is one of the few "good guys" left n/t

[HughBeaumont]

23. GMTA.

That is, if he really wants it. And I do believe he could make real change if he wasn't compromised to begin with.

Who'd WANT the presidency at this point? You get the job, only to be told by Corporate America "UNlearn and UNthink what you THOUGHT you would do before coming in here, because THIS is how it's gonna be done. UNDERSTAND?"

Hyperbole?

Seen even an INCH of progressive agenda being enacted in the past 30 years?

This is why I'd never take that job, because there'd be no way I'd even put up with that. I'd call their bluff and say "Door's right there. Press is right there. You tell America I don't run things. Go ahead. Waiting. Thought so. Enjoy your immediate tax increase. WHO'S your daddy?"

The general cancer is hyper-corporate capitalism, which plagues everything it touches, including politics.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

24. The Problem With That.................

..............is that PRESIDENTS who bite the hand that feeds them end up having memorials and Jr. High Schools named for them, and sometimes get their own commemorative coins. Ask John F. Kennedy what happens when you square off with the people who think they own the White House. Being President is a nice gig, but it's not worth dying for.