I, too, confess to some degree of naïveté

[MrScorpio]

Perhaps, it's my lack of righteous indignation against the perceived crimes of our Democratic leaders, which is never in short supply around these parts. I was never much of a joiner-in of mass pity parties. I chalk that up to my iconoclastic nature.

But, believe you, me... I get the message: "We suck."

What can I say? I read the threads around here and what strikes me is just the sheer level of frustration that's being expressed. It all boils down to, "Things should be better, but they aren't." And nothing is more frustrating to people who are deftly aware of their own concerns than when they are either being ignored or disrespected.

So, I get the entire emotional panoply that's expressed from anger to resignation and from remorse to apoplexy. You guys wouldn't be human beings if you didn't care. Am I right?

Yet, to me the bottom line is this: Who would you rather have win the game?

I was just taking a mental accounting of all the GOP candidates that we're up against this Fall and I couldn't help but to notice that the Republicans have gone out of their way to double-down on all the crazy, evil and utterly stupid people who are in their party.

Of course, I'm not the only one to notice this, but the Republican Party is currently batshit crazy. And they think that Batshit crazy is a perfectly reasonable platform to both win elections and run a government.

That is what we're up against.

Pardon me, if the results out of the White House seem a little flimsy in the last eighteen months, but I couldn't help but to notice that the previous set of motherfuckers have been spending the last thirty-five years making all of our lives a living hell.

There's quite a bit of catching up to do, as we're all are wont to agree.

Look where we are now, and I'll just give you one small example. In this country, we are now throwing people in jail, taking away their homes and obstructing their prospects for employment merely on the basis of the debt that these people have incurred.

Where do you think these fucked up ideas came from?

They came from REPUBLICANS, of course.

Okay, okay, okay, I will concede to witnessing some level of Democratic leadership's endorsement of Republican assholery. But let's face facts. The God damned Republicans were allowed to get the ball rolling in the first place and we're left us with dealing with the firmly ensconced laws and policies that just can't be ignored or simply overturned by the stroke of a pen.

Yet again, we have lots of frustration welling up around these parts because, when viewed through the prism of our own particular interests, the labors of the Democrats are either wholly inadequate or just plain non-existent.

Things are being accomplished at the rate of snail, if they are bothered to be addressed at all. It's a fact that no one denies.

However, I will say to you that losing sight of the bigger picture, the coming elections, simply for the sake of our current state of lackadaisical accomplishment is nothing short of dousing ourselves with gasoline and committing self-immolation.

The Republicans are sending crazy people to beat us black and blue.

And I have to ask, what is more important? Should we continue to beat up on ourselves and just pooh-pooh the impending Republican horde?

Or should we hunker down, batten the hatches and gird our loins for the coming battle?

Yes, the Democrats are fucking up and are acting like assholes.

No question about it.

But really, whom would you rather have to deal with after the next election cycle, our fuck-ups and assholes, or theirs?

I now leave you to whip out your own rubber hoses and have at me.

En guard!

[NanceGreggs]

1. Well, now you've gone and done it ...

... being reasonable, reminding people of the big picture and all.

Beautifully stated. Really.

[pnwmom]

2. Thank you for this. Recommended. n/t

[EFerrari]

3. Demanding a government do better is not naivete.

It's simply part of being an active citizen.

The idea that Republicans would do worse is not a solution, it's a rationalization and a pretty worn out one at that.

I'm sorry if I have been cranky and critical but of all the differences of opinion I expected to have with this administration, I never expected that they would spend more time beating up on progressives than on Republicans, BushCo or criminals like BP. Now that there, that's naivete.

[tavalon]

19. Maybe that's why I'm hitting burnout just two years in

I knew the Bush administration would go out of its way to fuck us over, and gladly. I didn't think this administration was as liberal as I wanted, but Hillary Clinton wouldn't have been either. But I didn't think I'd become the whipping girl of this administration. Somehow, this hurts worse than all the fucked up shit that bastardo and his puppetmaster ever threw out.

[notesdev]

4. The players are not Democrats vs. Republicans

When you root for the Democrat and feel satisfied when he gets in... and then you get screwed the same... and it happens time and time again...

eventually you wake up to realize that the game is rigged and the outcome is always the same. The Goldmans of this world always win, and you and me always lose.

It's a game you can NEVER win as long as you vote for one of Goldman's guys and cheer because that guy has a (D) beside his name.

It's time to upend the board, start anew, and this time WE get to be the banker.

[tavalon]

21. Exactly!!!!

We're playing the wrong parts! We're the working class, they are the elites and since there are way more of us than them, we can whip their butts. But as long as they keep us distracted with the Democrats vs. Republicans game we can't coalesce the way we need to, the way we MUST!

[TreasonousBastard]

5. No rubber hoses here -- you are absolutely right...

but if any rubber hoses are handy, they might be used on those who eagerly await the loss of Democrats who are just OK, but not nearly good enough for their high standards.

[NanceGreggs]

6. Don't you know ...

... that when Democrats lose, it "teaches them a lesson"?

And if the entire country suffers the consequences, that's not important.

Yeah, okay, I'll add the :sarcasm: thingy for the emoticon impaired.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. Funny you should mention that...

Just today I was advised in no uncertain terms that eliminating DINOS, DLCers, and anyone else not up to standards is the priority.

Specifically, the symbolism of throwing out Lincoln for having the bad taste to win a primary is far more important than keeping out the troglodyte she is running against.

We have to have our principles, you see.

(And I hate that sarcasm thingy-- if they don't get it, screw 'em)

[tavalon]

23. And when the Democrats win, they teach us a lesson

I don't like what I'm learning, Nance. 98% of the time you and I are on the same page. But, to mix my metaphors, I'm just about off the Res.

[OneGrassRoot]

7. K&R :) n/t

[Bryn]

8. Why the hell can't we vote our hopes?

We've been voting our fears. This is not right.

We vote for bad democrats like DINOs/DLCers/Darlings of the corporations out of fear that the bigger monster called GOPers will take over and make our life hell again whilst many DINOs have started to make our life hell, too. This is sad, sad. What a mess!

[slay]

10. +1

you are so right - we do need to vote our hopes and i am sooooo sick of the lesser of two evils - it's not like the Dems aren't just not great - they're actually pretty damn bad! we, as human beings, deserve something better!

[moriah]

11. My hope is that more children will be given health care they need.

Lincoln has worked a very long damn time to make sure that happens, unlike her opponent.

My hope is to preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Lincoln has voted many times to keep that area of our country from being despoiled.

My hope is that if I am ever again facing a pregnancy I cannot continue, that I will be able to have a safe and legal abortion. Lincoln has dilligently protected that right of mine from attack.

My hope is that someday diseases like diabetes, Alzheimers, Parkinson's, etc, will be able to be cured. Lincoln has voted for expansion of stem-cell research to help that hope manifest.

My hope is that my LGBT brothers and sisters will not be beaten or killed because of who they love and then their attackers get a slap on the wrist like they do now. Lincoln has voted many times to make sure crime motivated by hatred of their sexual orientation will get the harsh punishment it deserves.

My hope is that our country will again welcome the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free, with open arms. Lincoln has voted for a Guest Worker program and a path to citizenship for those people who have come here like my own ancestors did so long ago.

Better?

[NuttyFluffers]

12. compliance to abuse is abdication of suffrage

you always have free will, regardless of the fixed nature of the system. greater people than us have shown the way to resistance of even more corrupt fixed games than ours. abandoning ourselves to escapist fantasies that we are powerless is a great crime to the legacy of the human spirit.

sometimes the truest resistance is to let the system unmask and show its cruelty and baseless authority once and for all. and for that it is better to face the devil that cuts you down in public for all to see than embrace the devil that stabs you in the back in private. by facing the sum of all fears the system breaks its own illusions -- and it is from clarity you can see how to take another path.

the only way to beat a broken game is to not play at all and call out the cheat. all arguments to continue playing still perpetuates loss but with the additional justification that you accepted the terms of your own abuse. that path leads to madness...

[tavalon]

25. Let the system unmask

I'm beginning to think that may be the only way. It scares me. But I don't doubt Mandela was scared from time to time.

And yes, you've named it. I'm finally going mad. I have to find some other way to make a difference.

[cliffordu]

13. What you said. K&R.

[Rhiannon12866]

14. Very well said. K&R!

:thumbsup:

[BrklynLiberal]

15. Wel said!!!

[Scuba]

16. I'll contend that this goes back to the issue...

...that both Parties are unwilling to admit the middle is far left of where they pretend it is.

[Are_grits_groceries]

17. When it gets down to brass tacks,

there is another thing people don't consider. A lot of people who are digusted pushed like hell in 2008 for the Democrats. A lot of them have been pushing for a very long time before that.

Right now, limits are being reached. People have little money, jobs, health care or hope. They have been asked to swallow compromise after compromise and told not to peep.

Then on top of that, they get dissed and mocked. About the only thing some people have left is their dignity and pocket change. When that last little bit gets stepped on and disregarded, they have been dismissed completely.

When the very people they have put so much stock in give them that attitude over and over and over, there is no real choice in sight. You have to give them repect and acknowledge their opinions in order to show them that after all their work, they do matter.

Deny that if you want. However, when people have more and more dirt shoveled on them and some of it comes from their very on, after a while it might as well be from the same shovel and dirt.

[tavalon]

18. Here's the thing MrScorpio

I'm starting to doubt that we have any control at all. Between all the vote counting shenanigans and Democrats acting like Republicans, slightly less batshit insane Republicans, but still Republicans, I'm starting to think the fix is in. I'm wondering if we aren't just part of the window dressing. We might be called the GOTV dressing for the shit salad. And they know we'll play our parts because, well, you stated it so well in your OP. What if our country has become a third world banana republic but it has a really erudite, educated, personable, President with lots of gravitas but nothing different to offer than the last 5 presidents? What if we are just a dead country, walking? What if, when we peel back the cover, the surprise ending is just like in the movie the Sixth Sense?

What if, just what if, we did something else? No, I have no clue yet what that something else is. If I did, I would scream it to the rooftops and to quite a few other sites than DU. But, damn, MrScorpio, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We've done all that they've asked of us, expected of us, demanded of us and what have we gotten? A prettier, smarter window dressing. What.The.Fuck. You know?

By the time Obama did his race speech, he had me. I worked and I worked and I walked precincts and sent money and just WORKED!!! So did you. So did so many of us here. What if all we got was a person who could keep the masses more calm? If that's all we did, then we wasted our time. No, we possibly wasted our last chance to save this country.

Maybe we need the batshit insane right up front to finally get this country up off the couch. Because the house is burning. And maybe, just maybe that warm feeling we have when we see that beautiful President and his magnificent wife and gorgeous children is actually the fucking house burning?

Do I sound like I need talking down off the ledge? Because that's how I feel. I'm scared and I'm angry and I'm befuddled and I'm frustrated and feeling just a bit hopeless (which I know is exactly what the PTB want). I made it through 8 years of Bush hell right along with you and all of DU but just two years into this new administration, I'm really close to walking away.

[donco6]

24. +1

can't say it any better.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

29. A terrific response.

One of the best, most open and honest rejoinders I have ever read here.

Sincerely, thank you for taking the time and effort to so succinctly say what many of us also feel.

[tavalon]

34. I marched with MrScorpio in DC

I felt he deserved more than a pithy reply, so while I don't agree, I felt no need to be mean. And actually, the questions are questions that need to be answered by each of us to our own satisfaction.

[Ohio Joe]

20. K&R - nt

[donco6]

22. We just killed 10 "suspected" militants with a drone.

Does any of it matter . . . really?

[chillspike]

26. Awesome, dude, totally awesome!

This post totally ROCKS!!!! YOU ROCK!!!!

Exactly, our democratic leaders are not the best they can be but are we going to hand power over to the republicans??? I'd rather see the republican party be beaten out of existence and then we can have a real two party system with 'extreme democrat" and "democrat light" as choices rather than "democrat" and "bat-shit crazy republican".

Your post should be required reading by all liberals, progressives and democrats!

Awesome, dude! Just flawless!

K&R'd!!!

[mmonk]

27. I know they are crazy.

But so is not fixing the current problems and enabling them.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

28. The "Problem". Up against "batshit crazy", mildly democratic talking points looks like ice cream.

They aren't. We're fed watered down corporate-spawned agendas posing as "leftist" change... and we should be DAMNED happy that we are getting that much!

I'm tired of the support for Pablumesque gruel. I don't need dessert right now. However, I do need real nourishment in the form of political representation from the likes of Boxer, Whitehouse, Grayson, and the ever-ridiculed Kucinich.

[Lyric]

30. My problem is that I firmly believe that if we don't take a stand and force a change

then "our fuckups" will lose the elections ANYWAY. I don't believe that caution is what the electorate is looking for right now. I think they're looking for decisive action, and if we don't provide it, the other side surely will--and god help us then, because the "decisive actions" of the right-wing are the kind that spell the end of liberty and equality in America for anyone who isn't white, well-off, male, straight, and conservative.

We all share the same goal--keep Republicans out, and get good liberal Democrats in--but there is an enormous disconnect between HOW we think that goal can and should be achieved. One side thinks that we should be cautious and avoid taking risks in order to draw in timid and/or on-the-fence voters. The other side believes that the voters are tired of timidity and WANT to see some risk-taking. I agree with the second camp, mostly because I see such strong parallels between the Progressive Era of the early 20th century--the period right before the Great Depression--and today. Ordinarily, voters are all about caution and slow progression, but when there are multiple crises all going on at once, voters get panicky and shrill--they want action, and they will punish you if you don't give it to them. In fact, they will punish inaction MUCH more harshly than actions that turn out to be mistakes.

Roosevelt recognized this political truth--and acted upon it. Even when everyone around him predicted that the nation would hate him for it, that he'd never win a second term, he acted dramatically and decisively in certain key areas. I sincerely believe that we need a Roosevelt right now. Unfortunately, unlike Roosevelt, Obama is listening to the advisors who tell him to be cautious, to move slow, to fear the wrathful vengeance of the electorate if he dares to take a risk and it fails. Roosevelt's answer to that problem was not to take one risk--it was to take TEN risks, all at once, thus ensuring that the successes would be dramatic enough to convince people to forgive him for the failures. Never has a President been so loved by the people and so hated by the wealthy as Franklin Roosevelt.

For many of us who are upset with what's going on, this is probably the essence of the problem--he needs to be more comfortable taking risks and eschewing labels. The other side will call him a socialist and criticize everything he does REGARDLESS of how cautious or careful he is. Why then does it make any sense at all to continue to be so wary of risk-taking? I mean honestly--what can the Republicans POSSIBLY say about him that they aren't ALREADY saying? What can they possibly accuse him of that he hasn't ALREADY been accused of? And this is where it REALLY gets sticky...because there really isn't a happy answer to those questions.

The most frightening possibility of all for frustrated liberals is that Obama himself honestly and truly BELIEVES that the timid, moderate, cautious point of view is the correct one--that his positioning is not about political expediency, but about his own honest values and political beliefs. Frankly, that would create a hopeless situation for liberals like me, because it's flat out WRONG. How are we supposed to support someone whose values and beliefs are not just opposite of ours, but are also the kind of political beliefs that we feel are exactly what's WRONG with the nation right now?

Voting for him just to keep the McCains and Palins out of the Oval Office doesn't quite inspire people to get to the polls. It's like the condemned prisoner who's forced to choose between hanging and a firing squad. You might prefer one death to the other, but both are still DEATH, and choosing one or the other isn't something you're going to enjoy. It's human nature that when we are presented with two shitty choices, we will seek out a way to avoid choosing either of them. I don't want that to happen. I want to find a solution that HEALS the nation--not one that just kills us less painfully. I'm sorry, but as of right now, I'm just seeing yet another Democratic President whose "plan" is to slow down the sickness rather than to take the risks necessary to heal it. He has time to change this, of course--and I sincerely hope that he does.

[MrScorpio]

31. All of your points are precise and logical

Excellent analysis.

I agree, the president should so ten somethings, while he still can.

[Atticus]

32. No rubber hoses, Mr. Scorpio. You make some very valid observations. However,----

isn't this "hunkering down" and "battening the hatches" and voting for Democrats who are "fucking up and acting like assholes" exactly how our party has shifted rightward with every such election?

I'm a lefty. I can be pragmatic and tolerant and am willing to compromise with others of good will in order to get that "some" of what we want. But, the Lincolns and Liebermans of our party are now to the right of what we used to call moderate or "Rockefeller" Republicans. Some in our party echo the Chamber of Commerce when they discuss organized labor and they vote with those who shower before work and against those who shower after work.

I don't believe politics is an interesting game; it is too vitally important to be anything less than seriously engaged. It matters when politicians lie. When the system is dominated by anything other than the best interest and well-being of working people, it is, by definition, corrupt. And, IMHO, Machiavelli was not a role model, but a cold, calculating manipulator of other people's lives
for the benefit of an elite which he deemed "entitled" to rule.

If any Democrat of four decades ago had proposed a shift to the right to where we are now, they would have been unseated in the next election and shunned by the real Democrats. But, one election at a time, one concession and compromise at a time, we have made the journey from being a party that supported labor and women and children and the poor to one which calculates how to please or, at least, pacify the Republicans before they "dance with them what brung 'em".

I certainly don't have all the answers and I absolutely share your revulsion for the Wingnuts on Steroids line-up that the GOP is pencilling in for next fall.

I agree we have to find a way to combine forces, but simply asking us to "take one for the team" AGAIN may not fly this time. We are entitled to some respect, as are you.

Let's keep talking, okay?

[MrScorpio]

33. BTW, I hoped that Halter would have won

The primary challenge was the right thing to do, regardless of that horrible outcome.

If we're going to redeem the Democratic Party, we should rinse and repeat the process until acceptable results are achieved.

But, all-in-all, we need to learn how to multi-task; elect good Dems, keep the GOP out of office and hold bad Dems to account for their fuckedupness.

I'm an optimist. I think that we're all smart enough to do this.