You're Not Going To Like This, But Listen Anyway

You're Not Going To Like This, But Listen Anyway.
by Stephen Daugherty , Daily KOS
Fri Nov 27, 2009 at 06:04:50 PM PST

If you're thinking of staying home, you're thinking of making a mistake. Right now, the Republicans are making the next election a referendum on Democrats' current performance. Performance they are deliberately dampening.

I know we want results. I want results. I know we're angry at people in our party. But two years is not enough, apparently, to convince Republicans out there to give up.

We've gotten soft, complacent, maybe not on the issues, but maybe on what it takes to keep our power against the aggressive assault of a rival party that thrives on their opposition to us.

There's no use trying to reason this out. Republicans have chucked reason out the window. They're not trying the altogether impossible task of trying to win on the merits.

They've been twisting the American people up emotionally, trying to get everybody back to thinking in their intuitive terms of liberals as the bad guys, the folks who aren't in Washington to solve problems, but to spend taxpayers money and burden them with more costs.

I am not suggesting we fight fire with fire here. I am suggesting that our job from the last two elections is not over, and we've got a public that is disillusioned from where they were with us in the last two elections.

Our trouble, really, is that we're not going to get the chance to change the policy we need to change, if the Republican turn up in strong enough numbers and we don't. We need to match their stubbornness, not expect that they'll see the light.

If you're gay, if you're battling for healthcare reform, if you're trying to battle to see our intelligence and defense apparatus saved from the legacy of Bush, I guarantee you that failing to show up and failing to push people to vote against the Republicans will be a failing strategy in 2010.

I know you people want reasons. I know you people want a simple relationship of reward to action. I do, too. But we can't start the process of purifying the party, of enforcing the party will just yet, if we're facing the challenge we are in 2010.

The Republicans are trying to work this out in a line of circular reason, pointing to their wins as evidence that the country hasn't turned against them. They are trying to completely bypass any responsibility for their continued obstruction, for the failures they've never been repentant about.

They are trying to force you to give up first. Maybe you got good reasons to give up yourself, bitter disappointments. I know. I'm mad as hell we're not doing better. But if we decide we have the luxury of giving up here, things only get worse, because the Republicans have made this nothing less than a fight to escape the legacy of this last decade, The Decade from Hell.

This is about more than just our individual agendas, this is about the ability of liberalism and progressive politics to overcome the Republican's frenzied, fanatical opposition to any departure from the status quo. We're not in a polite philosophical battle here right now, we are in a very nasty fight for the future of this country, for the ability of our politics to triumph over theirs.

Yes, people are disappointed. They need to remember why they're feeling like hell, what party brought it about, and understand that any vote against a Democrat this coming election could grease the skids on the return to the very politics that put us in this terrible position.

We need them to perceive the truth about what's happening in Washington, and we need to understand it ourselves: The Republicans are united in their efforts to stall our legislation, and they are doing their best to leave us empty-handed coming into the next elections, including on healthcare.

We need people to understand that going back to divided government will not free us from gridlocked government.

We need those numbers on that link to go up. We need to realize that the big fight out there is still with the Republicans, and if we fail to win it, then no other fight, not for gay rights, not for healthcare, not for a foreign policy that make sense will get any easier.

We need to win the fights that let us win the other fights first. It's a bitter compromise, but the alternative may be a bitter defeat. America does not need another decade in the Wilderness. The Republicans do.

Bush Recession likely came to an end

More and more economist are concluding that the greatest economic debacle since the Great Depression, the Bush Recession, likely already ended. At least in macro-economic terms. Obviously in the micro economic level, with unemployment high, consumer spending slow and many small business struggling, the Bush recession is alive and well.

However, the U.S. economy is like a big tanker on the sea, it cannot make sharp V turns. The first step in recovering from an economic debacle is to stop the free fall of the economy and that was already accomplished months ago.

The next step is to start the big U turn of the economy, and this is the process we are experiencing now and what the economists refer when they say the recession is likely over.

After the U turn is complete, the next step is to start growing again and at a sustainable rate. But for this we need jobs. So, it is not accident that President Obama next big item on the agenda is to stimulate the creation of more jobs.

This mess started on February 2001 when George W. Bush became president. The recovery started on February 2009 when Obama became president. So, even though we all would like for things to magically happen, remember we did not get into this mess overnight and therefore we will not get out of it overnight.

To Catholic Bishops:

What are you planning to do? Oppose health coverage that will save the
lives of millions who are already born, because you are obssessed with
those who aren't even being born yet?

Why don't you concentrate your efforts in educating women and giving
financial support to women so they CHOOSE not to have an abortion?

Why dont you understand that women have the right to choose what they
think is best for their bodies and not being forced to something they
don't want?

Why do you prefer going back to the dark ages where women who take
that decision ended up bleeding with clothe hangers inside them?

Why not keeping the women who make that decision under medical care so
they can live?

Why do you call yourselves 'pro-life' but appear not to care if some
women live?

What's Wrong witn GOP Victories in NJ and VA?

Well, to start any GOP victory is wrong for me because it just means more obstruction to change and a step backwards for progress.

But what is really troubling about the GOP performance in VA and NJ is that GOP candidates were successful in singing a mermaid song to convince a group of independents that tea baggers, birthers, deathers, nativists, the Sara Palins, Limbaughs and Becks has nothing to do with them. They were successful in making voters in VA and NJ think that these extreme elements of the conservative movement have nothing to do and DO NOT represent the Republican Party.

By voting Republican these independents apparently think they are getting mainstream elected officials that actually care for the poor, workers, middle class, women and disabled. They apparently think that these GOP governors will cooperate to help the unemployed and bring health care reform to their states. By voting Republican these independents think that a Republican in office is better for them under the Obama administration than a Democrat.

What I see is the usual political game where if you don't like Democrats, then you vote Republican and viceversa.

The People still do not realize that it is not really about voting for Republicans or Democrats, but for which philosophy toward people is best for them.

Conservatives believe that poor people are a necessary evil who exist only to serve the upper class and corporations. Conservatives do not really believe in a middle class. Conservatives believe that only rich people deserve the wealth and the rest of us deserve only enough to survive, so we can keep working for the least possible compensation, and beware of complaining.

On the other hand Liberals and Progressives believe in a strong middle class. We believe that poor people deserve help to hopefully lift them up to middle class. We believe that being rich is OK as long as it is done in a socially, environmentally and ethically, responsible manner.

So, this is where the Progressive movement have failed. We have failed in educating people, in helping them understand that elections is not really a matter of political party, but which philosophy and ideology can help them best.

At the end the choice is between the Conservative ideology or Progressive ideology.

We have seen that Conservative means hail the rich and corporations at the expense of the rest of the people; means poisoned air/water/soil; means warmongering, hate, racism, homophobia, torture, murders; means Sarah Palin, Tea Baggers, Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck.

Progressive ideology means social justice, equality, civil rights, defend the constitution; means healthcare for all, higher education for all, good jobs with good benefits; means diplomacy, respect and admiration globally; means green economy, clean environment and safe food.

The choice is obvious; but by looking at the election results tonight in NJ and VA it is still about how the game is played. Ideology does not matter, only who sings the best song.

We have a lot of work to do!