Anti-War Voters Lash Out at Democrats They Helped Put in Office

Source: bloomberg



Anti-War Voters Lash Out at Democrats They Helped Put in Office

By Nicholas Johnston

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- When the Democratic Party called up recently to ask Myrna Burgess for a campaign contribution, she answered with an emphatic ``no.''

``Nothing has been done as far as the war is concerned,'' said Burgess, 72, an Amtrak worker from Levittown, Pennsylvania.

More than a year after anti-war voters like Burgess helped give Democrats control of Congress, there are more troops in Iraq, lawmakers have approved almost $100 billion in new war spending and congressional approval ratings are at record lows.

Democrats now worry that their inability to make good on campaign promises to end or slow the war in Iraq will have consequences. The disaffection has already fueled at least four anti-war primary challenges to party incumbents, raising fears among some lawmakers of an intra-party fight that could drain momentum before next year's elections. ....



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a9lDtrJGGVyg&refer=politics

Primary Challenge

Already in Illinois, where congressional primaries have been moved up to Feb. 5, anti-war challengers have emerged to take on two House Democrats, Melissa Bean and Dan Lipinski. Both incumbents are expected to prevail easily, and Lipinski is in a safe Democratic seat. Bean's is one of the top Democratic seats being targeted by Republicans, however, and a primary battle could weaken her in the general election.

In Maryland, a primary opponent has criticized Democrat Albert Wynn's early support of the war, and in California, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces a primary challenge from Cindy Sheehan, an anti-war activist who lost a son in Iraq and has led protests across the country.

As primary filing deadlines approach, more anti-war candidates are likely to spring up, said Brandon Friedman, vice chairman of VoteVets.org, a group that recruits military veterans who oppose the Iraq war to run for Congress.

``The Democrats were elected in 2006 to end the war in Iraq, and that hasn't happened,'' he said. ``This frustration is going to manifest itself in a lot of different ways in the next year.''

lipinski is actually in serious trouble, in large part because mark pera has a lot of help form dfa. he is a good candidate, and is working his ass off.
bean's challenge is another story, afaik.

I hope the Left can can use its collective voice to bounce a few CorpoLackeys into the street.

We should target 3 of the WORST Congresscritters and Lieberman their asses.



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.

can't you just hear it now, "The Democratic leadership did nothing", and in the meantime, it was the Repigs who obstructed these bills to be approved.

This is exactly why I hate the Two Party system: No meaningful choice, and absolutely no pressure on candidates and elected officials to offer a meaningful choice.

And the thrust of the story seems to be that some Democratic officials are facing primary races against candidates who say they will do what the incumbents have not done.

Yes, in the general election, it could very well come down to Delmer the Democratic Do-Nothing versus Ronald the Repugnant Republican. But it's just possible that if Delmer gets a challenge in the primary, the Democratic candidate could be Annie the Activist. Are you willing to work now for a meaningful choice in November 2008?

The 2006 election in Connecticut destroyed my last illusion that primaries are meaningful. No matter who gets the most votes in the primaries and caucuses, The Party has already appointed its candidate and no amount of screaming from the rank-and-file is going to change that.

Don't do anything. Just sit back and bitch. That will surely bring about the change you're looking for. Carry on.

For whatever good it will do, I will both be voting in the Washington primary and standing for Kucinich at my district's caucus. But I'm not holding my breath.

aren't worried about their most loyal former supporters, they believe we'll vote Democratic no matter what they do.

I will not vote Republican, but I will not vote for a pro-war, neocon either. And they won't keep me away from the polls either.

If you must choose between two evils one must keep in mind that the winner will still be evil....

"The lesser of two evils is still evil. Why must I vote for evil?"

The response has invariably been, "Shut up and vote for whoever has a D after their name, or else."

Clinton is half a Bush so she gotta go...

Bring on Obama/Edwards... they are anti-Bush

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When I told the woman on the phone why, she gave me a snooty response that she wasn't interested in what I thought, and she was going to move on to other potential donors.

Gee, nice of you f@#$ing Bush-appeasering Democratic "leadership" types to FINALLY NOTICE what we've been screaming for months and months!!! :grr:

:banghead:

a person has to do something very distasteful for long range good.
No one likes to punish their child, but for their long range growth sometimes it must be done. Sometimes you just have to hunker down.

That's how I feel about the Democrats this year. I'm not giving to their campaigns. I haven't decided if I'll go out and work for them as I usually do during campaign season (not a couple of years before the election). There has to be some repercussions for their appeasement of the Bush docturne. Maybe they couldn't have passed the things they wanted to pass had they stood up, but they could have made some noise. They could have resisted. There could have been SOME actions rather than just words, then acquiecence They could have done their best. I didn't really see that. But I could be missing something. I hope so.

They dissed MoveOn when MoveOn publicly asked a legitimate question. We've seen the administration in action before. The question MoveOn asked was warranted.
Democrats didn't squabble much about warrantless wiretaps. They haven't yelled about our tax money going to war profiteers, nor have they stopped the hemorrhaging from our pockets to such organizations. The named are just a few of the disheartening things the Democrats have either ignored or half heartedly opposed, then caved.
As far as I'm concerned actions speak louder than words.
They count on us voting for them no matter what because this administration has been such a hideous mess. Well...I'm thinking about it, but it isn't a sure thing.
And I want them to know that.

Weak, incompetent, and extremely unpopular White House whose policies are loathed by comfortable majorities of the electorate. Tossing Gonzo in prison and slamming the door on torture-boy Mukey would have been easy to do and wildly popular to rally the faithful. They have done NOTHING to neuter the corruption and malevolence of *.

Sometimes a long long timeout is necessary to "Get the Point across"


A lot of activists are waiting to see what Bush or Bush lite (the 2 candidates in the Nov 2008 general election) do in keeping the slaughter going

The Dem leadership ignored their base at their own peril. I hope those that didn't reflect their constituents wishes are replaced.

J

Want to fix this? Stop everything and put Impeachment on the table!

-Hoot

demonstrators outside her home, than she is about ending a war or impeaching Cheney.

Code pink would cheer her on if she put it on the table.

-Hoot

and well they should....

Its like they are all surprised by this? What they didn't think we would get upset? They didn't think we would just sit and take it like zombies? Raising "fears of an intra-party fight" lol, they just do not seem to get it in Washington it would seem. They just never ever seem to get it.

"move on" is getting their contributions for the rest of the year, then hung up. Boy am I pissed

called me at home. The woman (I actually felt kind of sorry for her) started reading from her script. I said "excuse me, but I have to stop you right there." I then explained that I was one of those millions of hardcore Dems who worked like hell all last year to get the Dems back into the majority. I voted Dem to stop the war, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, TO STOP bUSH. PERIOD. If you stop him, that's the ballgame, and you can then stop the war. I've seen NOTHING in terms of results, and I don't believe in rewarding bad behavior.

Before she could resume with the "well, the majority in the Senate is razor-thin, and in the House it's..." I stopped her again. "You don't understand. I'm not giving ANOTHER NICKEL if there's no IMPEACHMENT. You have to STOP THE WAR, and IMPEACH THE WAR CRIMINALS. No IMPEACHMENT? NO MONEY! And that's final."

And then I hung up.

Boy, am I pissed, too.

They're not getting a dime outta me unless I start seeing results for the money I already gave. I didn't rehire them to keep on capitulating to bush and accommodating bush and bending over again and again and again. Pelosi is a grandmother, forcryingoutloud. She oughta know something about child-rearing by this late date, and about not rewarding bad behavior!!! So why is she continuing to do it anyway?

I told them I'm only buying backbone these days. Not cavemen and cavewomen.

And that's FINAL.

Oh, I forgot: the Dem Party doesn't exist to serve the voters, the voters exist to serve the career goals for Dem politicians.

We need to improve the healthcare of Democratic members of Congress: by helping them to grow spines, or be replaced by those with spines.

pissing away a mandate also has consequences.

As to those that ask where will the disenfranchised voter go, they'll stay home!

Are they working for the Bush administration? This I want to know. Because it really really looks like it.

that's how pissed I am at the leadership of the party...

I'm thinking about it.

for every month the Democrats failed to act. "We put you into power for one reason -- to end the war." She started to talk about raising the minimum wage ("not to a living wage," I pointed out) and lowering school loan rates ("if you can afford the cost of a degree") and I repeated my message: get us out of Iraq or we'll vote in people who will.

Idiots.

... would do this party and this country more good than replacing a few Bush-lackey Dems with someone with a spine.

These useless wastes of space are afraid on one thing and one thing only, losing their jobs. Time to make their fears come true.