Beyond Betrayal
The Republicans always declare to the world what they are going to do in the future: they announced that gay marriage was going to be one of the main targets of the 2004 campaign; that they would accuse the Democrats of being weak on national defense; that so-called family values would be extolled and that Democrats were basically anti-christian and godless secularists; and now that the Dems will be responsible for "losing" Iraq if we "pull out" of Iraq. These are but a few of the many topics they make known that they will be attacking on and yet the Dems never, ever seem to be ready for what everyone knows is coming. What does it take for any element of the Party to wake up and be prepared to defend their principles, which time and again they are either ashamed of or feel they must apologize for? Fear of being called names for sticking to their principles and intelligently fighting for and defending their views seem to be bizarre or alien notions.
It's like a football game where one side takes their huddle facing outward and reveals what play they are going to run so that everyone in the stadium and the opposing team know what they are about to do and yet they still score a touchdown! How and why does this happen over and over again? In other words, who really has the courage of their convictions?
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"American Dream Initiative Chair
Al From
DLC Founder and CEO"
OK, I'LL ASK: HOW CAN YOU HAVE A CEO IF SOMETHING ISN'T A PROFIT-MAKING COMPANY?
riiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggght.
"What does it take for any element of the Party to wake up and be prepared to defend their principles, which time and again they are either ashamed of or feel they must apologize for?
Fear of being called names for sticking to their principles and intelligently fighting for and defending their views seem to be bizarre or alien notions."
OK, NITTY GRITTY TRUTH TIME:
D I N Os are the true problem.
D L C are D I N Os
PASSIVE AGRESSIVE BLOCKING ACTIONS BY THE BLUE DOG AND DLC ARE KEEPING THE WILL OF THE REAL DNC PARTY FROM ACTION THAT THEIR CONSTITUENTS DEMANDED IN THIS PAST ELECTION..
EVERY damn DINO DLC member should be removed from any political office.
IT'S A DAMN BUSINESS ON TOP OF THE BACKS OF THE TRUE DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS - THEY ARE MAKING MONEY
OFF OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS.....
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=253833&subid=166&kaid=126
They are a direct threat to our country.
Governor Tom Vilsack
Iowa
DLC Chair
State Rep. Jennifer Mann
Pennsylvania
DLC State Legislative Advisory Board Chair
U.S. Sen. Tom Carper
Delaware
DLC Vice Chair
Mayor Michael B. Coleman
Columbus, Ohio
[B]DLC Local Elected Officials Network Chair
U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York[/B]
American Dream Initiative Chair
Al From
DLC Founder and CEO
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar
Colorado
State House Speaker
Andrew Romanoff
Colorado
U.S. Rep. John Salazar
Colorado
City Council President
Rosemary Rodriguez
Denver, Colorado
U.S. Rep. Mark Udall
Colorado
Dr. Walter Earl Fluker
Founder, Vision Quest
U.S. Rep Artur Davis
Alabama
Mayor John Hickenlooper
Denver, Colorado
I am curious Mr. Belzer. What exactly ARE democratic principles?
Richard, I think you've got the mistaken impression that the Dems and Repugs are different. They're not; they have the same corporate masters, support the same corporate initiatives, and live, party, and work together. At best, the current Dem party is ineffective at countering the Republican party because the Dems are forced to pretend that they don't have the same goals and mores (and greed and corruption and class interests) as the wingnuts.
As for "the politness trap": No kidding. Nonviolence wouldn't have gotten anyone very far against the Nazis. In much the same way, politeness and civility are translated and used by the wingnuts as weakness; politeness or civility have no use when there is no conversation. The Repugs don't have a dialogue with us, they're rolling over us. We fight back or we lose, and if we lose, we lose everything.
"In other words, who really has the courage of their convictions?"
Ah, President George W. Bush is my answer. Than you would just call him "stubborn" wouldn't you?
One man's "courage of their convictions," is another mans stubbornness. Ha ha ha. Ain't life funny like that. SELECTIVE MORALITY.
Courage in convictions is meritorious.
Having the proper convictions and sensibilities is a whole different story and that's where Dubya falls short.
Richard Belzer says "... yet the Dems never, ever seem to be ready for what everyone knows is coming. What does it take for any element of the Party to wake up and be prepared to defend their principles, which time and again they are either ashamed of or feel they must apologize for?"
Your question is valid and profound. Placing the Democratic party and its members in the context of Will Rogers' comments helps to clarify. So does the identification of who the conservatives and democrats are. The partisan components of our government are for all intents and purposes, a two party system, the democrats and conservatives, blue and red, or Democrats and Republicans.
Conservatism exists in various degrees but that camp has more cohesiveness in its membership and ideology. They have their differences but their common denominator is characterized more by similarities than diversity.
Democrats are too diverse to function as a cohesive party and often oppose each other. Coalitions are formed but are weakly bonded.
A flippant way, to describe the democratic party is anyone who is not conservative or Republican. That's a simplistic outlook because there are conservatives in the democratic camp and the existence of independents, libertarians and other small parties is ignored.
IMO, the biggest mistake made by Democrats in the past several decades is allowing the conservatives to broadly paint the entire party as liberals. That was a maliciously assigned and unfair characterization. In compensation, liberals, centrists and progressives erect boundaries between each other causing more rifts.
On top of that, conservatives are better funded, democrats with less and that decides too many elections.
The two party system inherent in our political system precludes, prohibits and discourages the formation of other parties that have reasonable chances of success in elections. Two political parties cannot adequately address the individual and collective interests of 300 million people, businesses, organizations and institutions in America. Until that changes, compatible and incompatible liberals, progressives, centrists, are forced to be in the same party.
Why does anyone get excited about the Democrats? This was (is) a party that brought you JFK (Bay of Pigs and Cuban embargo - yeah, sure you get Ike in that), Cuban missile crisis(thank your lucky stars that the commander of one of the USSR submarines did not obey orders), Korea, Vietnam, bombs over Serbia, (in the old days) slavery, Wilsonian "democracy", ad infinitum, ad nauseum. (I make no brief for the republicans outside of some Lincoln-ism). Neither the Dems or Reps "granted" anyone civil rights or equal rights or workers' rights. People fought for those. If you want to stop these damn fools, Dems and Reps alike, you will have to fight for it.
I lack the capacity to side with either of the two evils. There is no lesser of. One may make temporary alliances but if such alliances go beyond temporary you're going to need Daniel Webster for your attorney.
Gee, I haven't seen "Party" capitalized and treated with such reverence since the Soviet Union collapsed. Nice touch.
Richard, no one expected the Spanish Inquisition either.
they pander to hispanics,they will not stand up for the consumer,who is being ripped off bye big business....AND THEY WILL NOT IMPEACH..probably cause there corporate masters will not allow it......thank god for cat lovers
the key for rational, enlightened thinker to remember when fighting the narrow-minded, bigoted and self-righteous megalo-morons who claim WAR! against anything with a shadow that doesn't crap bundles of one hundred dollar bills is to remember "the harder they come, the harder they fall". inertia is a bitch.
One should critically look at the make up of the Dems in Congress. Most were elected late '80s and during the 90's. Most are 'blue dogs' and 90% are DLCs. This majority of Dems have Repub-like ideas, which they say are centrist views. This is why they can not articulate a real stand against the Repubs. Those Dems elected before the mid-80s sing a different tune, but they are in a minority. The talking heads we hear daily are all DLCs or 'blue dogs'. They don't speak for the Dems' grassroots.
The government is not operating in the best interest of its citizenry.
The fundamental flaw is the lobbying and contribution factor. People will do just about anything for money.
They'll even turn their back on their fellow man. Kill. Cheat. Pretend to care while stabbing you in the back.
I'm constantly amazed at the naivte' of otherwise intelligent people when it comes to facing the realization that ALL of these fancy Senators and Congressman and what have you are bought and paid for and have no intention of fixing anything or "making it better" for us.
And you being an actor I would think you would understand this better than anyone.
They are all actors too. That's all.
I mean let's really think about this. What have they done in the last 20 years?
Raised the minimum wage? Once?
These people get paid to gridlock. To spin the wheels. Look busy. Blow alot of patriotic hot air.
We don't want to face this because once you take that leap you either revolt or shut up and sit down and take it. I know I have made my choice. I'm shutting up and sitting down. Doesn't mean I don't know it's wrong.
I feel bad for America but I can't fix her. The ones who can won't. There's no money in it.
They don't call the Baby Boomers the Me generation for nothing and our sad generation of leadership is living down to that title quite well. You can't expect people who are serving themselves hand over fist to take a stand against anything that might be against their self-interest. Baby Boomer conservatism is a front for unbridled greed disguised as patriotism and morality and Baby Boomer liberalism talks loud, does nothing, and dips their snouts in the same trough. Why do they do this? Because they can. That's my generation. You can bet that as the military bases go up from one end of Iraq to the other and we construct the biggest American embassy in the world everyone, Damnacrat and Reshrublican alike, are gettin' good and greasy over it. Expect nothing and you will not be disappointed.
You expect Democrats to stand by principles on issues of global significance like war? Are you kidding? John Kerry doesn't even have the balls to condemn the police for using an electronic torture device on a man because he challenged Kerry's lack of political balls.
This is my Senator, and I'm ashamed that he would lie low and wait for polls to tell him what his reaction is. This ridiculous man was our great hope against Bush. Shame on us.
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