On Democrats

[tyrannosaurus vex]

For 40 years, Democrats have been accused of being weak. For 40 years, people on the Left have defended them, saying "weak" is just a word the Right uses to make somebody feel bad (Republicans, after all, are basically just grown-up playground bullies). I'm a person on the Left, for the most part. And I have also defended Democrats as people who mean well but whose hands are perpetually tied by the Establishment. If they are in power, the GOP somehow manages to paint them as runaway Socialists; if they are out of power, their pleas for reason, compassion, and restraint are always met with the overbearing nature of Republican politics, and always lose in the end. But I've stood up for the Democrats as the sane alternative to the GOP's short-sighted policies on military action, the environment, national security, and pretty much anything else they go full-steam-ahead crazy about, which is everything. The Democratic Party saved the country from the Great Depression with the New Dea; progressives enacted the Civil Rights Act; they have hunted down and strangled discrimination, bigotry, intolerance, and ignorance for the better part of a century. They're the good guys, right?

Well, as we have seen over the past decade, it turns out that Democrats really are pussies. They won't fight for anybody, they won't stand up for anything, they won't put their foot down on any issue, they won't say anything at all unequivicolly, and in this election year, it's all too clear that what motivates Democrats is political posturing and empty, vain gestures of Progress. They are all so consumed with looking and sounding like somebody you'd vote for, that they never actually become somebody you'd vote for. They are wholly a Washington institution, even if it's a small-time Democrat running for a local office. They are good at talking big and at acting on nothing at all. "Disconnected" and "out of touch" doesn't come anywhere close to describing these people.

Take the BP oil spill. The Democrats got so worked up talking about how awful it was and what an enormous disaster it was going to be, when their cleanup efforts ended up preventing most of the damage, they looked like political opportunists rather than an effective government ably dealing with a disaster. Along the way we got Obama with his sleeves rolled up and talking about "kicking ass," which makes him look stupid (as if anybody believes Obama talks that way other than when whatever clown advising him tells him to), and it emphasizes a basic problem with Democrats: they're heavily invested in focus groups and political calculations, to the point that they completely miss huge opportunities to improve their reputations and solidify public support for their platform.

The "Ground Zero Mosque" is another example of the political ineptitude of the Democratic machine. Most of them run for the hills when this subject is brought up because they've heard about public opinion polls. On a gut level, they know that denying people a place to worship is wrong in this country, but God forbid they say so. They see Republicans gaining traction in polls because of their vitriol and bigotry and ignorance, so what do Democrats do? Follow the GOP. Yeah, smart move, morons. Make yourselves more like the people you are theoretically opposed to, and in the process make it all to obvious that not only are you being disingenuous, but you're unoriginal and desperate, too. You think people are going to vote for that? What people want to see is a healthy debate on the principles of this issue. If you would come out and say "No,  America is about freedom, and that includes freedom of Religion for everyone, even if some people are offended," and say it forcefully and maybe even a little condescendingly, like the whole squabble over whether or not to build the Islamic Center in Manhattan is beneath the level America expects of its national discourse, people would at least know where you stand. That's something at least somebody can vote for.

Hitching a ride on whatever fad seems to be pushing polls around is exactly why nobody is going to show up this November to defend you. Why defend a party that just rolls over for the GOP anyway? Why bother taking time off work to vote for you, when you won't return the favor and vote for us on the floors of Congress? In fact, if I do make it to a poll this November, there's a good chance I'm going to vote Repulican, because that's what I'll get in the end anyway. Every progressive idea that rolls into Congress comes out like a Borg soldier after the GOP is done with it - its soul sucked out and replaced with the Status Quo, dressed with so many patched-on amendments and compromises that there's nothing left of the original idea but the outrage it causes among the Republican base.

So no, Mr. Obama, I will not be "pledging to vote" this November. I hope the Democrats suffer a defeat so drastic that they finally fire the idiots they have advising them, ever single one of the PR people, and whoever else is standing between the Democrats and getting with the fucking program. America is under serious seige from so-called "Conservatives" who want to completely redefine the nature of what it means to be an American, and you people are so terrible at opposing them, you're making them look good.

[Jenne]

I hope you send this out to the Democrats in power.  White House on down.

[Juana]

^ IAWTC


I don't think I can bring myself to vote Republican, but I sure as hell know what you mean. I think it's got something to do with the Civil Right act, though, that LBJ signed. He knew he was going to cost the Democrats the South if he signed and he did it anyway, and Democrats have been very aware of that ever since. The older ones, anyway, if perhaps in not so many words. I don't think the younger ones have any idea.

[the last yatto]

fuck republicans, vote pirate party

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Pirate_Party
they may be shit at public speaking, but i like their policy

[BabylonHoruv]

If I can find some good solid small government republican candidates I am seriously considering voting for them.  The parts of the parties that have always appealed to me is that the Dems are for good governance (civil rights, helping the poor, environmental regulations, labor rights, etc) and the Repubs are for small government.  Of course neither party is really in favor of what they say they are, the Repubs expand government power at every opportunity if it's doing something bad and the Dems seem incapable of governing well without twisting it into a pile of shit.  However, if the whole thing is going down the shithole, which looks likely to me with the way they have handled the economy, I'd prefer it goes down the tubes as a mockery of small government than a mockery of good government.  I've always voted either Dem or 3rd party in the past, but that really might be changing soon.

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

1)Republicans mess shit up
2)people get sick of them
3)People elect Democrats
4)Democrats are horribly incompetent and dont fix anything
5)people get sick of them
6)people elect Republicans
5)go to step 1

Repeat until country collapses.

[BabylonHoruv]

1)Republicans mess shit up
2)people get sick of them
3)People elect Democrats
4)Democrats are horribly incompetent and dont fix anything
5)people get sick of them
6)people elect Republicans
5)go to step 1

Repeat until country collapses.

Democrats mess things up too.  Nafta would be the best example of this.

[Thurnez Isa]

What you American's haven't been voting Noodle Dictatorship Party?
I'm very disappointed in all you.

[Kai]

The "GOP are bullies, Dems are pussies" argument is completely missing the point. There's no real dichotomy here, neither group cares about anything except manipulating opinion so power remains in the hands of those who currently hold it. It's a mirage, an illusion, the whole "us vs. them" of US (and maybe global) politics.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

The "GOP are bullies, Dems are pussies" argument is completely missing the point. There's no real dichotomy here, neither group cares about anything except manipulating opinion so power remains in the hands of those who currently hold it. It's a mirage, an illusion, the whole "us vs. them" of US (and maybe global) politics.

I wasn't making the "GOP are bullies, Dems are pussies" argument, I was just stating that if the Democrats want to impress people, copying the GOP isn't how to do it.

Also: Washington politics is not 100% owned by the Ruling Class. Every time there's an election, there are  young starry-eyed people who get elected and go to Washington with a mind to change it. Really, the only thing that stops them from succeeding is that they're all crazies who will never agree on anything so there's no chance for a consensus among people interested in change.

But Congress does have real power, like the President does have real power, and those institutions are as accessible to a determined public as they have ever been. The whole "We're screwed because the Ruling Class is so powerful and they've rigged the game against us" argument is a cop-out. They can rig whatever they want to rig, for as long as they want to keep it rigged; they don't win until we give up hope of ever taking the government back.

As for Democrats, my OP here was strictly aimed at the Democrats themselves, as if they are interested in anything other than losing in November. But to pretend there is not some level of real animosity between Democrats and Republicans is a bit tin-foil-hat for me; just watching the imbeciles in the government scramble and react to each other makes it pretty clear that if there's a Master Plan, it was written by a kindergartener. The momentum of national politics is just so strong that both sides keep acting like they're reading a script. It doesn't mean there's actually a script.

[Doktor Howl]

Burn it down.  Burn it all down.

[Jenne]

Burn it down.  Burn it all down.

I'm hearing this more and more.  From the person I'm married to, no less.  Who, when I met him, called himself a "Revolutionary."  Sigh.

[Doktor Howl]

Burn it down.  Burn it all down.

I'm hearing this more and more.  From the person I'm married to, no less.  Who, when I met him, called himself a "Revolutionary."  Sigh.

Well, I've fucking had it.  This country DEMANDED this shit, so give it to them.  Let the fucking yahoos drag it through the shit for a while.

[Jenne]

Burn it down.  Burn it all down.

I'm hearing this more and more.  From the person I'm married to, no less.  Who, when I met him, called himself a "Revolutionary."  Sigh.

Well, I've fucking had it.  This country DEMANDED this shit, so give it to them.  Let the fucking yahoos drag it through the shit for a while.

That's exactly what he said on Friday.  Shocked the shit outta me, but I think he's like you, fed up and tired of it all.  Or maybe he's just figuring he's survived the apolocalypse of his own country, he can handle the break down of this one, too.