Why the hell do I have to belong to a party that is incapable of learning

[Jackpine Radical]

about Lucy and the football?

The Dems open the game with Public Option, already a compromised position. The Republicans demur. Then the Dems mumble about co-ops and maybe just privatizing everything. The Republicans reward Milquetoast the Democrat with kick in the teeth in the forms of lies about death panels asd screams af socialism. Their little puppets start carrying guns around.

Jesus, our politicians are acting like the last 8 years never happened, like the Clinton impeachment never happened, like the Gingrich Contract on America was just a bad dream. They act like they've never seen a Republican operate before, like they get a memory wipe every time the Republicans screw them.

What the hell do they think Republicans are, anyway? Can't they remember anything about the past? I mean, there's a history here, folks.

What of Nixon--not just Watergate, but back in the 40's when he won election over Helen Gahagan Douglas by lying about her? What about McCarthy and his Commie List? What about the Dies Committee? What about the attempted coup against FDR? The Republico-corporate Nazi sympathizers like Prescott Bush? The last good Republican was Lincoln, and the right-wingers shot him. (There's no more reason to buy a JW Booth single-assassin theory than there is to buy the Oswald myth.)

Monkeys know enough to avoid snakes. Dogs learn on one trial to avoid scorpions. What is it about Republicans that the left just can't seem to get through its head?

[valerief]

1. Bribes appeal to all parties. nt

[CoffeeCat]

2. Do you actually believe the Dems want reform???

The Dems are in bed with the corporations--namely big insurance. Just like the Republicans are.

This is no accident. This isn't the Democrats being weak or victims of the big-bad Republicans.

We control the House, Senate and the White House. There is no reason that we can't pass healthcare. NONE.
There are no obstacles. They don't want it!

The reason it's not being done is because the insurance companies have all ready told our political
leaders that there will be no meaningful healthcare reform.

Our government is bought and paid for and there is no longer a two-party system. It's one government,
kow towing to the corporations--who then fill the campaign coffers of the politicians who gave them
what they wanted.

How can anyone think that anything else is happening? This is going on in front of us, right now
in technicolor!

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Excellent.

[Craftsman]

5. Exactly

[redqueen]

11. "The Dems"... yes, they're all the same, those Dems!

[Jackpine Radical]

12. I wouldn't ever claim that.

It's just that the progressives don't seem to swing much weight, even though they're much closer to "the base." Compare the relative influence of progressives in the Dem party to the power of right-wingers among the Republicans. The right wing sets the Republican agenda. The progressives are at most nuisances to the power center of the Democratic party.

Who's got the most power--Rahm, Baucus, Nelson & Reid, or Feingold, Frank, Kucinich and Dean?

[Orsino]

4. Let's not gloss over that "compromised" opening gambit.

That single-payer was never on the table tells us that Democratic leaders are not as innocent as Charlie Brown, your monkeys or your dogs. They are players in a very dirty game, and most of them are plenty dirty.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. It's kinda like I told my neighbor when he asked me why I bother to vote.

I said that the Democrats are 75% sold out, but the Republicans are 100% sold out, and I was voting for the 25% difference.

I think I got the numbers wrong. It's more like 95 versus 100.

I'm sure glad I didn't vote Republican. If I have, the government would have probably given the treasury away to the banks, we'd still be escalating our military presence somewhere in the Middle East, unemployment would be in double digits, and we would have no prospect in sight for universal health care.

[Orsino]

7. I might try to dispute those numbers...

...but not with much confidence. Whatever that difference is, it's small enough that far too many citizens are discouraged from voting, and from activism in general.

[el_bryanto]

8. While aggreeing with some of the other comments, it does appear that they are done

with reaching out to Republicans; it doen't work. Or so Salon is reporting --> http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/08/19/dems_alone/index.html

Bryant

[Arkana]

9. Go join the Green Party--they're politically viable.

Oh, wait...

[redqueen]

10. Why the hell are you incapable of realizing that all Dems are not the same?

It's not that "the party" can't learn... it's that many in this party are on the take just like all republicans.

It's up to the constituents to change things. Real change starts from the bottom and goes up.