The reasons we the people of the party are frustrated, feeling left out....

It's been a deliberate planned move to make the progressives of the party inconsequential. It has gone on for years. The people who pulled it off are the ones you see on TV who are careful and cautious in their speech and don't have a clue how to debate the "party of no" Republicans.

The GOP has had a plan for years. Talk louder, be fearless, be on the attack...and don't worry about how what they say sounds. Say it loud enough, be positive enough...and people will believe it.

Democratic leaders have had a plan as well. Be cautious, don't make waves, don't be too offensive to the other party or they might stop our agenda. Hey, that worked until we got such a control of congress and the White House. Now it is just a big joke.

From an article by John Nichols in 2000.

Behind the takeover

We have heard the story before, but we should be taking it more seriously now. We see the ones who are inner circle folks, the ones who are out of the circle...way out. We need to remember.



Jesse Jackson said ""We have all these progressive Democrats here ready to fight on issues of economic and social justice, Democrats who know these are the winning issues and who know that when we fail to run on them we lose," said Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., Democrat of Illinois. "But, in the leadership positions of the party, we have the DLC trying to pull us in an entirely different direction."

He was right. The little people had no chance against the corporations. Their goal was to end dependency on unions and minorities. They did it well.



They are doing the same thing now on the health care plans. They will probably do it on charter schools, massive changes to Social Security and Medicare, and policies that benefit not the people but the big guys with the money.

In 2004 Jamal Simmons, who is becoming a centrist spokesperson on TV more often now....announced the coming changes.

It's time to pass torch, younger Dems say



They were worried about what the GOP might think of their agenda. Even then we were allowing the right wing of both parties to set the agenda. Anyone who pointed it out was soon on the way out of party leadership.

Actually things got so bad with all the pushy progressives being so loud that the NY SUN had an article called Centrist Democrats Ponder How To Counter Netroots

They were/are so afraid of the netroots/grassroots that they had to "ponder" how to get us out of the picture. Interesting phrasing. From 2006



Now wasn't that nice? To call us grotesque denizens of the bar scene from Star Wars.

Seriously, we should not be surprised that we who are against the wars continuing, who are pro public health care plans, who are adamant that Social Security will be fine, that people who plan torture should be investigated, that gays don't deserve the DADT policy, that women should have the right to control every aspect of their health decisions......we are the ones who are being ignored.

The agenda was set long ago.

.

A thread about Rahm. It got misplaced. I could send you a copy.

I have written much about him, and when he and the other Chicago folks were picked for the inner circle....I felt like I was not a part of the party. Still trying, though. Maybe someday.

The point is that "power" can arise in various ways: it can be created by organization, whether bought by corporate dollars or constructed by voluntary grassroots organizations

It is a mistake to expect real reforms to flow from the top down -- because a thousand filters constantly determine who actually fills slots at the top and what views are held by those who ascend to those levels. The hard work of demanding reforms, and of indicating the nature of those reforms, must be worked out from below

I am still seething though at how the man who did so much for the grassroots organizing, going to all 50 states....was summarily dismissed from national party leadership.

I agree that real reform must come from the bottom up. That is what many Conservadems don't want....and it is what Obama needs us to do.

If I could recommend this more emphatically I would have the writing prowess to begin a novel.

The usual will have to suffice.

If those same centrists continue the same shenanigans here they have been of late, no "classic" Dems will be able to stand it.

One by one I read as progressive heros are first denigrated, then laughed at, then vilified by Centrists (DLC, NEW WAY, Blue Dog, Cult of personality worshipers it makes no difference which brand) in an attempt to purify the party of any dissent - no matter how corporate or against the law the centrist care to take policy. (the irony is that they claim the classic Dems are the ones attempting purification.)

It is happening Here, Now. The newest Villain of the day is Rachel Maddow who I have been told "lies about Obama Because she dislikes him." A point clarified by another in the same thread as "holding a gay grudge" Lots Of AGREEMENT AS WELL!!:puke: Turley has been completely derided for his views and I believe will no longer ever be mentioned again except to call him a hack. Feingold will last maybe one more week and DK well, he dies hard around here but not through lack of attempts to marginalize him.

I believe that soon, the centrist goals will be beyond the core parties abilities to reign them in no matter how little they represent most democrats.

I for one really don't like this huge forced shift of a party I was a member of for twenty five years so far to the right that Nixon would appear leftist in comparrison. Unfortunately the cash wins, and labor, working poor, minorities, civil libertarians and gay people (that have their hands full already with a fight against well funded religious bigots) can never compete with the corporate buy out of my once proud party.

As far as truth goes, we can speak it for now, but I guarantee that paid operatives will pounce until all truth is marginalized. Even when we speak for 2 thirds of the population like with health care. They will appear as if by magick to defend against "unfair attacks on Obama."
What is happening with Rachel should tell you what happens if truth is spoken regarding equality.

I couldn't even believe the shit I read today about her.

Er, ah, sorry about the rant. been a tough day for me. How you been doing?

(spelling edit - prolly missed more but I'm tired)

You said a lot of good things and worded it well. :hi:

I'm such a Maddow fan I didn';t even realize that lately, she has been a target here on DU.

Well, is her putting her head in the saned and pretending that Obama is doing the right thing going to save us?

I got derided two days ago from someone on DU who said my statements that our nation has spent 9 trillion bucks (For the Bailouts) are incorrect. Then I did some research on my hard drive, and found that this statement came from "CNN Money" in December. And today, Naomi Klein puts the figure at a whopping 11.5 trillion dollars (The video was posted in Political videos today.)

Having President Obama go ahead and allow the Wall Street crowd to become a privileged fiefdom on the backs and through the meagre resources of the working class is nothing less than a sham. (And it is something that Richard Nixon would not have done.) But the RW had been so Nazi like that Obama's personality mesmerizes, as he seems like such a softie. Yet when you analyze what is going on, the Nazis are gone, so the Hard Right Centrists owned by the Corproations are now Worshipped by so many Democrats. Worshipped.

Nonetheless Obama's economic policies (Spun by his economic appointees) are going to prove very hard on the middle incomed, and hardest of all on the poor.

As far as I can tell, the values of the Serious Moderates amount to perpetual electioneering and perpetual surrender, which has now resulted in perpetual war and perpetual war criminality.

---

and wondered where the hell I was.. Rachel, Keith, Jon & Stephen are STILL the only regular representatives we have on the air.. They get an occasional boost from Schuster and (from CNN) Rick Sanchez.. but it's still pretty damn lonely out there.. and the network frames remain relentlessly right wing. The animus against Turly really surprised me. None of the clips I've seen, nothing I've heard him say on the air rises to NEARLY the trangressions implied by the florid rhetoric I've seen here.

We are under attack in a way we never were before the election.

We are for sure. Under attack that is.

Aint that the truth.

I have been a D since the late 60's and can not understand my fellow D's attacking liberals or progressives in the same way as the right does.

a few days ago ridiculing Gandhi. And it wasn't the first I've seen.

It IS happening here, NOW, and no one who can even see the left side of center is exempt.

I'll second your rant.

being compared to Pigboy Rush. Two sides of the same rusty coin was one comment. I couldn't believe it and went back outside to work some more. Rachel gets trashed here and I can't believe some of the nastiness that is posted here.

Rant away! :hi:

Nominated.

"The GOP has had a plan for years. Talk louder, be fearless, be on the attack...and don't worry about how what they say sounds. Say it loud enough, be positive enough...and people will believe it."


THEY LIE!!!!!

And we need to do it every time they spin or lie.

:kick:

They have set the agenda, our leaders follow it.

....from one who came of age politically in the 1960s.

This is a terrific thread.

1995 quote from Al From....about unions and Jesse Jackson.



This should let us know that their group was never about party, but about corporate ideology.

DLC = pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers - perfect analogy. And sadly, President Obama is acting a lot like he's a pod person who replaced Candidate Obama. And most definitely Community Organizer Obama and State Senator Obama.

The Democratic Party would have died, and deservedly so, after the DLC lead the gung ho cheerleading on the "Patriot" Act and the Iraq war vote. Howard Dean saved this fucking party, and now those pieces of shit are trying to undo everything he did. And if they get away with it, there won't be another revival this time. :evilfrown:

the title of many threads on DU - about almost every subject

to BOTH Finance and Defense.

He has caved. Otherwise he'd replace all those warmongering generals who Dubya loved so much. :thumbsdown:

But he never caves to Democrats. Why is that?

who control the voting machines...plus the Lobbyists and Financiers and the Vast Military/Media/Industrial Complex who control all of it...

No "Tinfoil" needed these days to say this...because so many of have lived through "life experience of this that we could write our own history books and have enough "footnotes" to make folks sweat in awe.

Comment later.

Great as usual MF.

And for what it's worth, I still like Rachel and Professor Turley.

:kick:

Just like the republican party disappeared. Reactionary radicals took control of the republican party pulling it into positions and behavior that stalwarts of the gop thirty years ago wouldn't recognize.

Meanwhile, the moderate and conservative members of the Democratic party have commandeered the train and pulled it even to the right of the center track.

Corporations have won. In the days of the old monopolies, we had company towns. America has become a company country.

Which has given rise to the "not as bad", "bi-partisan", "practical politics", "patience", "chess-game", apologists for the status quo.

:pals: :hi:

Gore was DLC or not is irrelevant. HE IS A MODEL CITIZEN OF THE WORLD AND A PATRICIAN WHO CARES ABOUT OUR COUNTRY AND THE PLANET EARTH. What other choice would have been more likely for dems in 2000 than the sitting Vice President? This alone depletes the value of the argument. No one had to go to a dark room to select Al Gore.

Remember Mark Penn said that is why he lost.. Some think that is why he was sort of left hanging without much party support in the recount.

I did not demean Al Gore. You need to read more carefully. The DLC has demeaned Gore and Dean and many other of our good party folks.

that he decided not to run this time. He knew the party central wouldn't support him.

Dean called them the Republican wing of the party, he was pushed along out of the door.

They do not tolerate criticism.

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

What's happening w this country, with the police against the people?

Who's business is it, (certainly not our government) to ordain marriage???


I need not say this, but I am straight, just so everyone who is staight or gay knows, how everyone else is feeling about this.

It's not our government's place to legislate love, or religious ceremonies.

They need to get the fuck out of our personal business and religious beliefs.

Separation of Church and State, remember that one?????????????????????

I admire Gore, and the party let him down.

The article was written in the year 2000, and I wish people would read first.

thought they could do the right thing with that strategy. Gore may have been one of those. But shortly after the Clinton election, the neocon movement just used their good intentions to roll over them. The roll over continued until the ones who started out caring just stared caving. Then the corporate opportunists in the party started taking over when they saw the money to be made.

Trouble it that it was mostly white Southern men who founded this to appeal to the Southern frame of mind.

I often wondered how Lieberman got to be VP...it made sense after learning all this.

It's a dysfunctional distribution problem inherent to unregulated capitalism.

K&R

Total agreement here.

I think we can win however. If we form our own DLC equivalent. We don't get to elect the DLC or set it's agenda.

The money interests should not get to elect or set our groups agendas either. Start the board with Dean, Dodd, Kucinich, Gore and a few others who have what it really takes to lead. Lets grab Turley, Maddow, Micheal Moore and Krugman. Add in H2OMan, Mad Floridian and a few big bloggers. Then lets see what that think tank can make. Let's see who would donate their time and money to invest in filling in the ranks and replacing the Off the Table, Dry Powder politicians.

Boomer, I am one of the status quo. I have been Left of Left for years. Just because someone is a certain age doesn't make one a Centrist.

As for the younger generation, it's about time you start to fight. Young women have had to fight for nothing...it was given to you.

You'll run into the same frustrations that I have with the Dems. As far as I am concerned, we are targeting the wrong group. We need to go after the CEOs of the Corporations who are funding the Dems. THEY ARE THE PROBLEM. After all the Dems are just doing what they've been told to do by those giving them MONEY. Remember, follow the money.

Pick a bank....boycott it. Go viral on what it has done. I'd pick Chase....just because it's David Rockefeller's baby.

Pick an Insurance Company....AIG (of course).

Pick Monsanto....they're killing us and the environment.

These are the Targets...our representatives and elections are simply DISTRACTIONS.

Now the question is: how do we get the bastards out of power? We can't buy them off or co-opt them. I was hoping that groups like ActBlue might be able to help us get some new Progressive candidates on the slate. Is that a good route to take? Through ActBlue or some other groups?

I feel like I've been yelling til I'm blue in the face, but my Senator and my Representative, both Democrats, are not listening. Their ears are tuned to the vocal frequencies only of those who control the dollars electronically flowing into their coffers. In many cases they've had the Divine Right of Re-election conferred upon them by the party leadership. Being in "safe" seats, they're in until they choose to retire, or scandal turns them out.

The response to this thread has been encouraging. It is inspiring to hear the words of so many who support what you are saying in the OP. We must continue to expose the flaws in the centrist arguments. Every time we get the chance we must be as eloquent as we can in defending our positions. There are still many, many DU'ers who will listen to a well-presented argument. Keep up the good work.

Recommended.

:hi:

There's a secret master plan that is yet to unfold that we are waiting for.

:hide:

}(

America, a plutocracy, will never have universal healthcare like the rest of the would. Insurance Co., drug co. CEO's need their huge bonuses for their expensive call girls, planes, cars, mansions, etc., while the poor/middle class get nothing. Most will have to die a terrible death while the rich die an easy death. Something has to be done. I am so tired of the damned lies. I am beginning to think that Nader was right after all. Sometimes I wish I should never have bothered to have voted. Never let anyone tell you America is a democracy, it is a plutocracy, only for the damned extremely rich, to Hell with the poor/middleclass. They will throw us a few crumbs while laughing. They "all" have healthcare, fantastic retirement.

We're not active enough --

We're not raising enough hell--

And they're quite confident that we aren't going to, either!!!

If we want change we need to fight for it -- !!!

We need to end campaign fund BRIBERY -- get IRV voting --

Create Plan B --

The Progressive. I find it extremely insightful, and Nichols, it seems he had some foresight of the problems progressives would run into as they try to get their voices heard. very interesting articles.
How to Push Obama by John Nichols read it! read it! read it!

here's just a small excerpt:

Since both *parties* are imploding, why not do what everyone says can't be done...and do it? Start a third party with the progressives already in power. We could form a huge grass roots movement, choose a candidate to challenge Obama (if he doesn't shape up, which doesn't look promising) refuse to take part in the IA primary..refuse to get behind any of the ÇM schtick - stop funding Obama. The Naderites, Indies and Greens would have to unite behind on person along with the dems and repugs who are sick of this s*** and tired of war.

I kept saying before the IA primary that people should stand in the corner for Kucinich, not for Obama. If people stand in a progressive corner, the CM will have to cover it and a true progressive peace candidate could win the IA primary.

The time for a peace candidate is upon us. And it's not Obama or a repug.

We can do this. We have to do this. Rachel and Keith can lead the way and I'm saddened to think that dems are marginalizing them. But I know dems who are so blinded by Obama-Light that they can't see; and god forbid they admit they made a mistake.

Let's all write Rachel and Keith and give them lots of kudos.

That's MY rant for the night! :-)

All the truths of party carefully laid out here have been clearly shown to be fully applicable to this presidential administration as well.

Too late to K&R, but I've bookmarked this for later reference.

And wholly truthful, unfortunately.