There have been a lot of posts expressing disappointment with the Dems lately.

[white_wolf]

Mine included. A lot of people have posted doubts about whether they should stay with the democratic party or go third-party. I'm not going to give advice on that matter one way or the other, instead I'm going to tell you how the Democrats can stop people from leaving them and actually help this country.

First kick all the DLC, Blue Dog, pragmatic centrists, etc. out of the party. There already is a party for right-wing corporatist like that. Its called the Republican Party. Go to it, if you are interested in cutting medi-care. SS, continuing wars of capitalism and imperialism,continuing torture, supporting the rich instead of the working class. If those values are yours then just leave and go join the Republicans. If you are anti-choice, anti-gay marriage, if you think the vaunted "free-market' and tax cuts for the rich, can fix our economy just leave.

We need people in office who support: expanding medi-care for all and abolishing our for-profit insurance industry. It is immoral and wrong. Who knows perhaps future generations will see it as our "peculiar institution", we need people who support a living-wage for all workers, a free university education for anyone who wants it, raise taxes on the wealthy back to Eisenhower levels, rebuild our crumbing infrastructure, end the wars and torture, end the MIC, we need a maximum wage law so that no CEO can make more than 200 times his lowest paid employee, nationalization of the banking industry so we won't have another collapse like the current one, nationalization of the oil and energy industry.

This is how the democratic party can keep the Left from leaving them in droves. Oh, and for the record this is me being moderate, if you want to see radical I can do that too.

[Scuba]

1. That's a good start. I'll add...

increasing the minimum wage...

progressive taxation...

end the wars...

prosecute white collar crime

[white_wolf]

2. Good additons though I do have ending wars and raising taxes on my list.

Increasing minimum wage and prosecuting white collar crimes are good ideas.

[patrice]

5. prosecuting, please!, not "persecuting". nt

[socialist_n_TN]

30. Also the "living wage" provision would cover

that too.

[SDuderstadt]

3. You need to take a...

math lesson, dude.

[daleanime]

7. Afraid that you lose me there....

what were you questioning?:shrug:

[white_wolf]

10. Another pointless post from you.

I'm not surprised. Come back when you have something substantial to say.

[SDuderstadt]

12. Dude...

What percentage of the party do you think we should "purge"?

Then, do the math and show me how we win elections.

[dionysus]

14. why SDuderstadt, maybe math just isn't their game. i know, how about an outrage contest?

[white_wolf]

16. How about we are actually offering real solutions

whereas you all seem to be doing nothing but supporting the hard right turn this country is taking. Sorry, we have a right to be outraged at the way this country is going and at the right-wing DLC corporatist moderates who are turning the democrats into nothing but a nice version of the Republicans.

[SDuderstadt]

17. Your "solutions" mean nothing if...

Democrats don't win elections.

And, it's "Democrats", not "democrats".

[white_wolf]

18. The way we are winning now means nothing.

We are not helping the working class, we are in the pockets of big business, of course maybe that's okay with you, but its not with me or anyone else on the Left.

[SDuderstadt]

19. It's not okay with me...

dude, but your hyperbole and naivete don't help.

[defendandprotect]

24. The party has been infiltrated by Koch Bros .... that's the bottom line -- over 20 year period!!

[Name removed]

50. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PassingFair]

4. We may not be able to "kick them out", but we can damn well STOP putting them IN CHARGE!

[Tippy]

8. Got that right.......

[defendandprotect]

26. You can't "kick out" a Koch Bros. cancer active in party over 20 years now -- !!

[Tippy]

6. K&R....It would be nice if we had a major progressive news service

[izquierdista]

13. There are several

Democracy Now, The Real News, TYT, and I'll even include the evening lineup on MSNBC -- but leave off PBS, they've capitulated to the dark side. It's not that the news services don't exist, it's the amount of promotion they get. Fox and the right wing have money pouring in by the buckets, that's how Limbaugh can be paid tens of millions, while Mike Malloy begs for $100 sponsors. People have to seek out progressive news, actively look for it since little of it is on basic cable packages. But conservative slanted "news" is given away for free and pumped up to appear to be the consensus position on things.

If the Fairness Doctrine came back, it might push news organizations to be more like BBC or Al Jazeera, which would be a significant improvement over the current situation, but there is no resuscitating that cadaver. No, news is no longer a public service that the networks perform to keep their license, news is paid for by advertising, and advertisers are a conservative bunch. They want NO stories on BP's malfeasance (lest they get in the cross-hairs someday), NO rocking the health insurance scam gravy train, NO cut back on sales of military hardware and services to the U.S. government, and NO consumer protection (corporate -- yes, consumer -- hell no).

The only way you are going to see progressive news is to fund journalists independently and treat them similar to tenured faculty at research universities. Why do you think the right is out to defund PBS, even though they have already co-opted it?

[Tippy]

44. Srrry I din't make myself clear....should have said rich progressive new service

When Ted Turner started CNN they leaned Dem, but not like FOX & CNN today...

[daleanime]

9. Very nice start.

:applause:

[RZM]

11. So your answer is a much smaller Democratic party

That certainly would do the job of transforming the Democratic party into a progressive one, but in essence, you really are arguing for third party, because many of the people you want to kick out would not want to join the Republicans. All this is really about is who gets to keep the name if the Dem party splits. You say the left and the centrists would say themselves. It all depends on which faction is larger, I guess.

[Rex]

15. Lately? Try all the time 24/7.

Not a day goes by here that a Dem doesn't get bashed.

[bvar22]

20. The Republican Party is not "The Problem".

The problem is Republicans masquerading as DEMOCRATS.

"I've seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the Fair Deal, and says he really doesn't believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don't want a phony Democrat. If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign."
---President Harry Truman

QED:2010





The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[FLPanhandle]

21. That leaving the party, going third party, or not voting worked real well in 2000

That tactic sure helped the country and moved it left. :sarcasm:

[white_wolf]

23. First of all don't start the F Nader stuff again.

Secondly we all did get out and vote in 2008. We got a Democratic president and Congress and that hasn't moved the country left at all.

[SDuderstadt]

25. How about...

2010?

Funny how you left that out.

[defendandprotect]

28. True .. actually, Obama/Dems moved further to the right ...

GOP was deestroyed and Obama raised it from the ashes --

while taking the Koch Bros. DLC/Rahm Emmanuel into the White House with him!





"Bipartisanship is another name for one party rule"

[kath]

49. "GOP was destroyed and Obama raised it from the ashes" - that's what disgusts me the most about

Obama. The GOP should have been in the fokkin' wilderness for DECADES after all the massive failures of teh Boosh years. But all of Obama's "reaching across the aisle" HORSESHIT made Republican "ideas" have some credibility - so poof, Republicans were respectable again (plus,in typical fashion, Congressional Dems continued to be spineless and/or corporatist) and the 2010 election debacle happened.

What also makes me furious beyond words is that the so-called "Democrats" and President stood back and gave NO significant support to the Wisconsin movement. These are no Democrats.

[FLPanhandle]

32. Firstly, you were the one who mentioned going Third Party

Secondly, who the hell thought Obama was a progressive in the first place?

I sure didn't. Look back at this place during the primaries, he was branded as being the same as the Clinton's. It was only after the nomination that people loaded him up with all these expectations of liberalism that he never had.

Obama never was and will never be a progressive. If you thought otherwise, then welcome to the real world.

If you want a progressive, then work to get one nominated in the primaries. Getting all hissy about it now and not voting is just going to make things worse, not better.

Whatever. You just go with your emotional stomping of feet and "I'm taking my ball and going home" approach. See how that helps.

[PassingFair]

45. Right...he was "branded the same as the Clinton's"...

Puhlease.


The 2008 primaries were CONTENTIOUS!

McCain never came out with ANYTHING
the Clinton camp hadn't tried first.

:rofl:

And you're in Florida!

[defendandprotect]

43. kr

[defendandprotect]

27. Interesting that you ignore Diebold computers, GOP fascist rally, and Supremes ...

to point a finger at Nader????


"You can't wake up a man pretending to be asleep" --

[FLPanhandle]

36. You ignore Nader...

and point a finger at "Diebold computers, GOP fascist rally, and Supremes"????

How about we just say they all had a part in helping to get Bush into the presidency?

[defendandprotect]

37. Try this -- Gore Won, including in Florida no matter how the votes are counted ...

therefore from beginning to end your nonsense re Nader is just that -- nonsense.

You were given the scapegoating of Nader to keep you from seeing the lack of

protest by the Democrats not only to the specific steal going down --

but as a way of ignoring the long standing computer scam which began in late 1960's.


W's "win" was based on a 537 vote lie -- while 300,000 "Democrats" in Florida voted for W --

Yet, you want to insist that those 537 votes had Nader voters fingerprints on them --


:rofl:

[FLPanhandle]

39. 537 votes for Nader?

Try over 97,000. :rofl:

[defendandprotect]

40. vs 300,000 Democrats voting for W -- and Gore winning ... you're on ignore ...

and for the one rule I follow -- disingenuousness --

Bye --

[SDuderstadt]

41. LOL!

D&P has nearly everyone on "ignore".

[FLPanhandle]

42. Cool.

I think this is the first time I've made an ignore list.

I'm no longer a virgin!

[Brianboru]

29. It DID move the country left. It took a Bush to help elect 0bama

The problem is 0bama has done everything Bush did. 0bama didn't close Gitmo. obama started two new wars, and didn't end any. obama extended the Bush tax cuts.

What's the difference? We need a new party.

[dflprincess]

46. Because the election fraud in both 2000 and 2004 and the Democrats' refusal to confront it

had nothing to do with Bush being president. :sarcasm:

[defendandprotect]

22. Unfortunately, think we now have a Koch Bros. Democratic Party ....

Can we pick it up -- shake the cancer from it and walk off?

Don't think so -- we have too much contamination of the party and its candidates!!

And ALL of this needs to be discussed here at DU --

even if it requires rule changes --

[kath]

48. yes, it does need to be discussed here at DU.

I hope that it soon will be. DU needs to admint how drastically the Dem Party has changed for the worse.

[William769]

31. "First kick all the DLC, Blue Dog, pragmatic centrists, etc. out of the party."

Wouldn't we have to start with the President?

[white_wolf]

33. If he isn't willing to fight for the working class in this country then so be it.

The DLC isn't doing us any good and I'm tired of them.

[socialist_n_TN]

34. I agree with you 1000%. Start with the FDR

(who was a MODERATE) Economic Bill of Rights as the base and minimum program for the Democratic Party and go from there. If you don't like that historic platform, then you're not much of a Democrat anyway.

As to the centrist "Third Party" then have at it. In a three way race, the progressive polistions would win anyway. Although I don't think that that would happen. What WOULD happen is that DINOs would have to choose the "lesser of two evils".

So centrists, who would you vote for? Palin or Dean? Bachmann or Kuchinich? Romney or Sherrod Brown?

[white_wolf]

35. Good point.

Ha I've often joked that in my ideal party FDR types would be the more conservative wing. Anyone to the right of FDR is usually too reactionary for me. Oh, and I'm betting at least some of the centrists here would be for Bachman over Kuchinich seeing as how at least a few of them seem to hate the man.

[uponit7771]

52. People who post shit OPs like this ignore or are unaware of FACTS constantly, good post.

[BOG PERSON]

38. maybe modern bourgeois-democracy

is supposed to make people feel small and apathetic about big issues, so that they focus their energy on the identity politics of the postmodern society. that way the domination of capital is left unexamined and unchallenged

[Wilms]

47. ^

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

53. +2

[WhiteTara]

51. How do yo propose to do this?