The Republicans' Big Government Social Agenda Failed!

[pamela]

They tried to slip a bunch of their authoritarian, "daddy state," social agenda items into the budget and Obama and the Dems stood strong. Congratulations, President Obama! It's so nice to have an adult leading this country.

:toast:

[msongs]

1. actually it has just been put off for a week or so nt

[dana_b]

2. there will be future votes on defunding PP, the HCR bill

and the women of D.C. did lose all funding for abortions due to this budget. Whoopee???

[napoleon_in_rags]

3. Its good to know somebody is watching out for my civil liberties.

Its not the first time in recent memory Dems have done that. Check this out:

"We believe in the world right of all men to write, send and publish news at uniform communication rates and without interference by governmental of private monopoly and that right should be protected by treaty."

Its here, in the 1944 Democratic platform.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vGkxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xU4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7161,309400&dq=1944&hl=en

The great thing was that this platform point DIRECTLY describes net neutrality 60 years before the fact, which Dems recently fought for as well. I don't want certain telecommunications favored over others...To do so requires surveillance of the communications themselves to see what to charge! But Republicans love it. This id another example of the daddy state.

[pamela]

5. Thank you, Napolean.

This is a victory for us. Not an unqualified victory, but a victory none-the-less. God, I miss the days when DU use to celebrate Democratic achievements and Republican failures.

On a side note, I'm finding the "daddy state" frame to be very effective when discussing issues with fair-minded, "small government" independents. Plus, it drives Repukes crazy. That's what I live for.

[napoleon_in_rags]

6. Its gold my friend, pure gold.

The daddy state frame, that is.

The fact is people don't like warrantless wiretapping, domestic spying, vast government spending and all the rest we got from Bush. Once Republicans took off running in 2008, and the tea party is nothing but an awkward attempt to re-brand the Republican party as supportive of civil liberties to bring them back. What we should be shaking our heads about is the failure to capitalize on this whole thing, our failure to represent the long term moral battle Democrats have been fighting since 1944 and earlier to protect the civil liberties of Americans from tyranny both governmental and corporate, to win these newly awakened people over to our good side. We are NOT the big government crowd, we ARE the crowd that represents the living spirit of the constitution of the United States of America, and we should NOT be afraid to say it out loud.

[pamela]

10. Well, we suck at messaging.

It's probably my biggest disappointment with DU. Just look at this thread. We use to be the "smart ones" but we lose the messaging battle every. single. time. We can blame it on the right-wing media but you really need to look no further than DU to see why the Democratic brand, and progressive ideals in general, have suffered so much in recent years. And I really don't understand what people think they will accomplish by tearing the party down at every turn.

I'm not thrilled with all the budget cuts but I'm absolutely thrilled that Boehner and co. failed miserably at their bullshit attempt to push through their social agenda. Plus, anytime you have a week where the Tan-man and Snidely Cantor have to share screen time with President Obama is a win for us.

[napoleon_in_rags]

15. We've got to press reset. Its become too complicated.

I was in the antique store the other day and I came upon an old picture of FDR somebody used to have on their wall. I wanted to buy it on the spot but I didn't, and I regret it now. I saw a documentary on the man on Netflix, and frankly I don't have enough space here to write how much it moved me. Here is a man born into great fortune and then crippled by his disability, who overcame to become an incredible advocate for everybody who has suffered a human weakness, the old, children, the disabled, all the rest of us. And he did it with such a clear sense of moral purpose, unabashedly appealing to our innate sense of right and wrong.

This river runs SO deep. Its right to take care of those who need it, it liberates those cared for as well as those caring. Its right to put people first, instead of the temples of ego those of great fortune have constructed around themselves. We need to remember that the fundamental argument of the Democratic party isn't about coolness or smartness or youth or money or anything else, its about moral purpose: Its attaching ourselves to a cause which is greater than ourselves. When we can remember this, and find within ourselves the willingness to personally sacrifice for it, we will once again be on the firm foundation that FDR established, and the results will flow naturally from our commitment to the cause.

[markpkessinger]

7. In case you hadn't noticed . . .

. . . the GOP won the spending debate. That's hardly cause for celebration.

[napoleon_in_rags]

16. We agreed to the tax cuts.

So if the GOP won the spending debate without targeted cuts at Dem causes, its what needed to be done, we can't go deeper into debt. If we don't like it, we needed to block the Bush tax cuts.

[K8-EEE]

9. Wow that's really interesting Napolean...

Thanks will read up on that!

[napoleon_in_rags]

17. Go ahead, the more you look into the new deal Dems the more you will like.

IMHO, they have a lot to offer to the modern discourse.

[bowens43]

4. are you kidding?

this not the time to be making record cuts to budget that will undoubtedly hurt the poor in the middle class. The pukes got what they wanted. All they had to do was insert a couple of things they knew would not get through and then remove them at the last minute to get what they actually wanted. The played the dems like a two dollar fiddle.

[kelly1mm]

8. Ohhhhh .... look at that shiney object over there! Jees! nt

[Hannah Bell]

11. yeah, great work. $38B in cuts this time, $40B in the last kabuki drama.

two years more of bush tax cuts for the superrich.

who's taking those cuts?

well, thank god it wasn't planned parenthood, let's all raise a glass.

[Pushed To The Left]

12. In the words of Randi Rhodes, the right wing wants to "make government so small that it can fit into

a woman's uterus".

[Change has come]

13. Fuck the poor! Fuck the disabled!

Go team blue!!

congrats!





We'll be here when you wake up.

[bhikkhu]

14. The real agenda was to end the recovery

set the stage for 2012, and make Obama a one-term president.

Now we can see that gutting spending on an austerity-binge is likely to cause another downturn and we'll all be ragged and angry by 2012, but the repugs likely have the spin well planned and polished already for that...it will be Obama's fault, guaranteed.