I'm sensing a lot of despair on the board lately. Is it the "come down" from the 2006 election

[Sapere aude]

victory?

Before the election there was a great feeling of hope that we could win. Then there was the elation that we won and now the pay back. But now there is a feeling of hopelessness I think.



Remember the words of Gandhi,

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always.
Mahatma Gandhi

[BobRossi]

1. Reality sinking in.

That the Dems that we elected are just like any other polititian and will not carryout the will of the people.

[hedgehog]

2. I think it's more the knowledge that we have to wait until 2009 to see the

last of George II!

[gasperc]

7. Bush is thwarting the will of the people, since the 2000 election

Our Party has been, mmmm, lacking in political muscle for going on a decade now. ALOT changed in 2006, we activist collectively have re-invigorated people powered politics.

Sure, I get down that Bush is defying the will of the people but this shit started in 2000 when the sons of bitches thwarted the will of the people in the 2000 election, reversed the Florida results and have been governing roughshod ever since. The progressive movement is in accession, the corportist elite conservative will fight us off with everything they've got. They have their diasterous policies to defend from the war in Iraq, to loosening subprime lending, to total denial of global climate change, it's a pot boiling over...

[KansDem]

3. Oh? And what happened to Gandhi?

On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was shot and killed while having his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan (Birla House) in New Delhi. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu radical with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan.

wikipedia

Personally, I rather see the tyrants and murders fall before I'm dead...

[Sapere aude]

5. Gandhi was killed but his words were not and they are right on.

If you look at any movement, those on the front line hardly ever get to eat the fruit of their labors. They sacrifice for those that come after them. The civil rights movement and the illegal immigrants come to mind.

[dave_p]

4. Also the reality...

That 2006 really was a poisioned chalice. How do Democrats (with their own widely differing viewpoints) make headway against an Administration that won't engage or even listen?

This was never going to be easy. The road ahead is littered with pitfalls. For everybody. (That last was me looking on the bright side)

[NV Whino]

6. No, it's the let down

from the big-talking Dems we elected.

[murielm99]

8. After looking at all the posts in this thread,

I think you are right. There is a let-down and feeling of hopelessness.

The Democrats took over in January. They are not going to solve all the problems in a few short months. And they are not going to solve all the problems in ways that will meet the approval of everyone on this board.

I have been around since Truman was President. I don't remember him, but I do remember politics beginning with Eisenhower. It seems to me that in my lifetime, whenever we throw a repuke administration out of office, it takes years to clean up the mess they have left behind. Give it time, people.

[CK_John]

9. More like frustration, Most on DU are just learning how government works, this is a good thing.

In order to get something done you need a solid policy and then the hard part, you need to convince others thru face to face efforts that change is good. All humans fear change, more than death.

People will live with the most horrible conditions before they will take any action to break the inertia toward change. They are always surprised at how easy it was after the change is made, and mostly for the better.

We are at that stage just before change happens. The terror phase, willing, but no one to push us forward.

[nevergiveup]

10. For me

the let down is the bashing of the same candidates by the same people here, over and over and over again. I realize that this is the reality of a site like this but it does get "old hat" very quickly and when you realize how long we have to go it is discouraging.

[iconocrastic]

11. "the ways of truth and love" - Is that what we are all about?

[monmouth]

12. With all of the hearings and truth coming out, it's astonishing and despairing

at how low and abused our country has suffered. Ignorance might have been bliss, but the eye-openers are scary and despairing..