Sometimes, I have to wonder if anyone in the Democratic party understands politics.
It looks like the vote to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will be postponed. Why? Because Democrats are afraid to be called “Tax Hikers”.
This is sad.
You ARE tax hikers. You’re going to raise taxes on the top three percent. Don’t run from it. Embrace it. It’s easy. Say:
“Yes, we are tax hikers and we’re damn proud of it. If you are making $250,000, you are making much more than the average worker in this country. This country is hurting. I don’t know whether you noticed or even care but your neighbors are out of work and losing their houses. You said you don’t want deficits. So, pay up. Don’t be selfish. Yeah, you heard me. You’re selfish. And greedy. We give and we give and we give so you can have paved roads and air traffic controllers and law enforcement and teachers for your servants. Shut up and fork over your share. Stuff your Ayn Rand. So you’ll actually feel the expense of that private school or this year’s must-have Hermes bag. Cry me a fricking river.”
This is not hard. Shame them, mock them, call them what they are. The country is waiting for you to start soaking the rich so they experience some of the sacrifice that everyone else is suffering.
And stop cowering. It’s pathetic.
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
“”We are going to raise taxes on the people who bought our souls.”
See, wasn’t that easy?
Fuck.
Just forget it.
I couldn’t agree more….but their real peeps wouldn’t like it it seems ….
And stop cowering
if only…but I don’t think they can even grasp the concept
Their real peeps are a.) funding the GOP this election cycle and b.) not going to vote for them anyway.
Sometimes I just want to throttle the Democrats. They’re no good at politics.
Except the Clintons, and the ones who want control have to chart to keep them down,
“cheat”
Indeed, The Dems seemingly would rather go down serving up the top .999 % every whim than function as a real political party and ( gasp!) stay in office …From 2006 a worry for the base has been: will the Dems some how snatch defeat from victory?? … now they might finally get their wish.
You have to wonder why they bothered trying to win majorities in 2006 in the first place. They probably could have gotten Obama elected and continued the Bush agenda anyway. It seems that was their goal.
You have to wonder why they bothered trying to win majorities in 2006 in the first place
for the better parking spots? …also to prove to the top .9999% they could be counted on to deliver the up serfs as well as the GOP? …I’m guessing
The Democrats expected to lose in 2006 pretty much they always do – with a platform of “We’re 2% less evil!” and “We din’t suck as bad as the Republicans.”
The Democrats misunderestimated old G-Dubya. He had devoted his life to failing at everything and if it hadn’t been for his daddy’s money he would have succeeded. It turned out that there were a whole lot more people quietly waiting out his presidency than anyone realized.
Rahmbo was one of the Village idiots who said the the Democrats shouldn’t use the war as an issue because the GOPers would use it against them. But guess what?
The voters were “unserious” people who hated the war too.
The Democrats won in the 2006 election despite Rahm, not because of him.
Nancy P. and Harry R. were outraged and offended by the results of the election and so they set out to prove that NOBODY sucks as much as the Democrats.
It’s a bad idea to run on ending the war if you’re not going to end the war. It tends to make the electorate vote your ass out 4 years later. Especially when the war’s still going on.
This is another aspect of the Rahm Emmanuel 50-state strategy. Democrats from red districts are holding up the tax hikes. Boehner knows that if the issue is forced, there are Dems who will either vote against it or want to vote against it. The Senate can’t pass it with the make up of Senators and the House would be left holding the bag and the members in the most danger of losing will definietely lose.
It ends up being an apparent failure of liberalism. The party that expouses liberal values instead constantly falls short. Identified-as-liberal Obots call the Stimulus and Obamacare great achievements when most of the country think they were worthless.
The Republicans have effectively tied the Democrats in DC and their high spending and low results legislation as liberal government. As much as Pelosi boats about the amount of legislation paased, a stimulus and HCR bill filibustered by Republicans would have been a better selling point this election season.
Rahm Emanuel hated the 50-state strategy. That was Howard Dean’s idea, and it’s history now.
Good point. Rahm just wants liberals to shut up.
Yep, that’s pretty much it. LOL
Know what? Let the country have the Republicans. I’m dead serious. Let them enact every stupid, hard hearted, selfish, greedy policy they want. Let them boot women back to the kitchen, let teenagers die from self abortions. Let the homeless grow and clog the streets. Let the chauffeured limos of the elite roll over them. Let’s all get dirt poor and stop buying stuff and become complete ignoramuses. Let the Christians be more equal than everybody else.
Give it to them. Give them the whole damn country.
And let them usher in the conservative paradise that Glenn Beck and Grover Norquist want.
It’s the only way Americans will get the point. Nothing else seems to be getting through to them.
When the Republicans take over, don’t oppose them. Surrender.
Let’s see how long it lasts.
Yup. It look as if the path to self-destruction is the one the electorate has chosen. Not that the Dems have provided a clear path in the opposite direction. But I guess that’s what happens when a party sells its soul, refuses to stand up for liberal ideals, allows the opposition to take the word “progress’ and make it obscene. And when you install a fraud in the WH.
So, get thee to the middle ages, where the Church and feudal barons run the show, rape the countryside and tell you how lucky you are to be a serf.
Bow your head and stay on you knees, while the privileged play the Star Spangled Banner. Feel your heart quiver with pride, while your sons are driven to war and your daughters become commodities.
Brave New World? No, we’ve been here before.
Fools.
Passive resistence.
Tempting.
The public voted for an Obama which doesn’t exist.
We don’t know the real Obama, but we were sold a brand image, not a living, governing candidate. The governing Obama is a corporatist shill and tool.
Shepard Fariey said he could not create another Hope poster for Obama as he did for the campaign..when he had hope that Obama would bring about the changed Fairey hoped for.
He’ll still support Obama, but now will hope he’ll get a clue on how to govern. And govern to create the change people voted for. Good luck with that, Shepard.
Obama conned the public, or was sold by his handlers as something he wasn’t. And he is not doing well with the whole presidentin’ thing, nor does he seem happy in his assigned role.
But he keeps grinding away at implementing the corporatist agenda. Ack.
Alas, the people really did think they were getting real change, real progams to help them. They believed Obama would be very different from BushCo — and he’s not.
Most are angry because they’re not getting what they were sold, what they thought they were buying.
The Tea Partiers are mostly dyed in the wool Repubs, but some sympathizers are those who are hurting from the Bush/Obama polices and they’re unaware they will be hurt by Tea Party candidates’ policies, which are Repub policies on steroids and rightward.
The young people brought out to vote for Obama probably have little knowledge of what Democratic principles really are (or were), so they don’t have real institutionl memory to fall back on. They’ll either stay home or vote for someone else. A few will still hope for an Obama “change” to back to what they thought he was.
VastLeft has begun using the term “true left” to refer to people who still hold principles of the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party or even further to the left. The True Left will probably vote very selectively, for Dems if those Dems support their principles, for thrid party, for NOTA*.
I urge all to vote, even if to write in NOTA or leftist third parties; get numbers on the board. Make sure the politicians know what they’re missing when they diss us and refuse to listen us or work on our agendas.
LibbyLiberal wrote an intersting piece over at Corrente, about treating these current New Dems as one would a rigged game: The only way to win is to walk away.
If we refuse to play their rigged game, will they start to try to win us back with real actions? Well, if they say so, remember Obama luvs him some St. Ronnie, and Trust But Verify.
(Kinda like the rigged stock market….)
I covered the Shepard Fairey story in my morning roundup, which was all about walking away btw.
I saw that after I’d written this comment and got to your good stuff. And I should have given a h/t to Susie Madrak, which is where I came across the Fairey tale.
Your illustration is gorgeous, a thing of joy to view, btw.
This “let’em take over” idea is what Mike Malloy has been saying too. I’m really starting to think this may be the only thing that wakes the American electorate up. Seriously.
Absolutely right! The democrat leadership will never learn a lesson unless they’re given one.
RD, the problem voters have, as clearly shown by the polls, is that we have one party, the voters don’t like that two headed monster. The Rs keep moving to the right, and the Ds follow them. In order to get rid of the DINOs, we need to allow the country to move in the far right direction, and they will either prove we’re wrong, or that we’re right. One way or another the problem of one party system will resolve through the election of more GOP candidates.
The problem is that it wouldn’t last long, but once again we’d be so desperate we’d be willing to elect anyone to get away from it. As long as the Dems refuse to act like a real, responsible party and is perfectly okay with installing stooges to take the freebie precipitated by 4 or 8 years of Repub control, we’re going to be stuck on this merry-go-round.
And “are” perfectly okay, wth? Lol
Let the Christians be more equal than everybody else.
Give it to them. Give them the whole damn country.
********
As the economic stagnation continues and the transfer ow wealth to the 1%’ers continues; that is going to be then end result. Since
Reagan, the many of the people most hurt by Rethug policies will continue to vote against their self interest. The Dems have now exposed themselves to be just part of the Kabuki for the Corps., so at the present time their really is no effective vote for “change”.
I keep saying the wealthy need to step up and do something to save our country. As a kid this was drummed into me, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?” I’ve been saying for awhile now that it is the patriotic thing for the wealthy to step up and pay a little more tax and take the pledge to, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!” I think we should be shouting this from the roof tops. Those Repubs are always saying they are the patriotic ones. You know they wear those lapel pins and all. Stick this in their face. We should spread the word!
“It’s the economy, stupid!” The rest of the half-ass corporatocrat policies aside, the economy is the main driver of this election. Voters know that the government has done NOTHING to help average people in the 10 years of BushBama and that’s it. The logical response to this situation is “Fuck ’em all and Kick the bums out!”.
We Haven’t Hit Bottom Yet
Bob Herbert had another sentient day. When a person is hungry and/or homeless, they don’t have the time to worry about wedge issues.
The election of Obama destroyed an opportunity to put away the RR revolution which needs to come to a conclusion. The Rs need to take over congress and finish their job. Hoover ended the conservative path that the country had been in for several years. It’s time the voters figure out that the RR path is destructive to the middle class.
I was actually very surprised the other day to read this from The New Republic of all places
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/howard-dean-kill-the-senate-bill/
Of course Chait also concludes that letting the cuts expire would be political suicide for the Ds (while a policy win)
Dunno where my post went.
I was shocked to read this wisdom in New republic of all places
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/77904/democrats-decide-political-suicide
Of course, it being a DLC mouthpiece, they think that, while a wise policy, would also be political suicide for the Ds.
The Dems aren’t planning a tax cut–just extending the Bush cuts. And it isn’t an unaffordable policy. If people don’t start spending more money soon, we are going to see deflation, which is hard to stop once it starts. Even Bernanke is worried about it.
As for the DLC, Obama IS DLC and always was.
RD, you’re assuming that the Dems are just being cowardly. They aren’t. Don’t you recall Dick Durbin saying that it was people on Social Security, for crying out loud, who were going to have to sacrifice for the “greater good”? The Dems only care about having cushy jobs that pay well for *them*, and continuing a policy of global colonialism and war profiteering. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that they actually care about the people who elected them–they don’t, and neither do the Repubs. They care more about supporting corrupt governments and building roads in Afghanistan than they do about what’s happening here in this country.
People do what they want to do. If they don’t do something, it’s because they really don’t want to do it, not that they are being prevented from doing it.
I disagree (to some extent). Campaign contributions don’t mean squat if you’re out if power. And it is power, not money, that motivates people. Do you think for one second that Barney Frank or the other powerful committee chairmen want to lose their positions and go lower in the hierarchy? Heck no. If you have an agenda and an ideology, you lose your ability to promote it when the Congress changes hands. You can’t respond to what you might see as emergencies and the party in charge gets to make the rules that may make you look even more incompetent than you look now. Pretty soon, there’s no reason to vote Democrat at all. When you’re out of power, you’re useless and when you’re in power, you’re cowardly.
Not a good recipe for party longevity.
If I were the Democrats, if at least make an effort of looking energetic. This capitulation sh#% just doesn’t cut it. And as far ad I know, voters, not bankers still determine the election.
Personally, I dont worry about political ads so much anymore. I can go an entire election season without seeing any. And I don’t watch MSM news because it’s all untrustworthy. I think what voters really want to see is results. And as much as I appreciate the Big Dawg’s message that Democrats saved us from a Depression with the stimulus bill, it was a smaller bill than needed. The American people have a right to be skeptical if Democrats collapse at the slightest pressure, thereby increasing the likelihood that more people will lose their jobs, houses and retirements. The Democrats need to try harder. Much harder. The enthusiasm gap is widening.
I’d say that the “pretty soon” has become now. Money does equal power to these people. Barney Frank might have a hard time finding a job outside of Congress, but how many of those who leave voluntarily, like Chris Dodd, will end up working for lobbyists, continuing to do very well for themselves?
I think most of those Dems who truly wanted to make a difference have already left or are leaving. Byron Dorgan is the perfect example of someone who tried to make good on the pledge to allow drugs to be imported, in order to make prices more competitive, and he was voted down by his own party.
Everything you say makes sense if you believe that the Dems are at all politically savvy. The fact that they were all suckered into believing that HCR–which forced people to buy a product from the companies they hated–would prove popular once it passed, shows how totally out-of-touch they are with reality. That isn’t to say that, here and there, a few worthwhile Dems don’t exist, but, as a party, they simply can’t be depended on.
Honk honk!
once they caved into Stupakistan they completely lost me …
I think there are plenty of Ds who look at elective office as a poorly paid internship on the way to the real money. Obama, for example.
I’ll repeat what I’ve said a few times: I’m liberal, why on earth would I ever vote for a Democrat?
I rather like a simple platform that Dan PS came up with:
1. Medicare for All
2. End the wars
3. Soak the rich.
Not bad for 9 words. Maybe other points could be added, but this is short and very sweet.
well paying jobs for every one