Do the American people understand or realize...

[neoblues]

I wanted to ask... Do a majority of the American people understand or realize, that in Congress, the Democratic Party... is effectively excluded from any real participation...

Congressional Democrats:

• Opinions are shut out, the Republican majority works in lockstep which makes Democrat's votes all but irrelevant.


• Are unable to even propose legislation, the Republicans would prevent it from being considered.


• Can't even call for investigations, even when the need is obvious, because Republicans totally control such committees and spitefully refuse to allow Democrats any power.


• Don't even have the power to schedule a conference room without Republican approval!

Broken Promises: The Death of Deliberative Democracy "A Congressional Report on the Unprecedented Erosion of the Democratic Process in the 108th Congress", a 147-page report, by the Democratic staff of the House Rules Committee.

I myself can't say I am thoroughly familiar with all the things that Democrats in Congress are allowed to or prevented from doing, but clearly the Republicans are abusing their power and the rules of Congress to the effect of marginalizing Democrat's role in running our country far beyond what's best for the people (see the report above). Republicans have prevented Democrats from representing their constituents which is a large percentage of the American people! Consequently, Democrats should not be blamed for anything this government does; they weren't allowed any meaningful input and often were excluded altogether--until it was time for them to cast their "token" votes.

Of course, then the Republicans arrange bills specifically to force Democrats into awkward positions that makes them choose to support things they don't want to and vote against things they would support. All just to make them look incompetent or give the appearance Democrats are "obstructionists". All this just to make it appear Democrats are actually participating... and they are, but they aren't able to do anything meaningful, much less actually implement anything being called for by actual majorities of the public. In truth, from the perspective of a Real American, what's going on is just a sad, pathetic and embarrassing farce. Given this confusion, I ask this question.

Poll Question: Does the general public really understand or fully realize... just how completely Republicans have abusively undermined and excluded Democrats from any meaningful participation in Our Very Own Congress?

:bluebox:

[Jed Dilligan]

1. Wait, hold on

Democrat? Republican? Which one is Bush again?

[ixion]

2. dem exclusion is only the beginning... there are a host

of others beyond that -- libertarians and greens and so on -- who have no voice at all. :-(

[jarnocan]

3. OK now I'm really looking forward

to going to a ball game and drinking beer. I don't want to think about this. But I will again -tomorrow. Thanks- important article

Consider that Russ Holt's HR550 / Verified voting bill hasn't been passed, what hope do we have?

[longship]

4. Only one probable correct answer here.

It *cannot* be lower than 20%. There's that many good progressive liberals around who just so happen to pay attention to things. We can pretty well figure this out by the number of hard core lunatics who still actually think ChimpCo is doing a good job. I place this at about 1/4, and probably less. There's more Democrats than Repugs in this country, even these days. So the number of clued in Dems like us folks has got to be more than 1/4, maybe as high as 1/3. To be generous, let's call it 1/4, though.

Is it more than 40%? I sincerely doubt it. The news media has really, really screwed up this country. Where bullshit celebrity stories take precedence over any and all news of any import. Where virtually all stories of *any* import are presented with some phoney "we present *both* sides to the story" bias--as if all truths needed to be balanced by some warped reality. A lot of people who are not drinking the Repug kool-aid are still drinking the media kool-aid.

No, it can't be much higher than 40%, if it is even close to that mark. People in the USA are generally complacent about learning things. If it wasn't for the about 1/4 of us who *do* pay attention (and have a brain) this country would be in much worse trouble than we are. Scary thought, that.

[Totallybushed]

5. I think they understand it perfectly.

That's why there's going to be a sweep in November, if we can just get the Dem politicians to stand up and be counted, to state where they stand, and how they differ from the Republicans. To stop being wishy-washy trying to appeal to the "moderate" or "independent". People vote for people who say where they stand, if they agree with them. And they tend not to vote for people who are inconsistent, or who refuse to state their positions. They figure they are dishonest.

Democratic ideas will win. we've got to believe that.

[leftofthedial]

6. if it is any more complicated than the rules for American Idol

the AMerican people don't understand it

or particularly care that they don't