It is a comon expression that one sees on the faces of "liberal" bloggers and op-ed writers on internet web sites as we view the talking heads in the expensive suits on the mainstream media dismissing us and demanding a move to the centrist viewpoint. It's like kenneling the watchdogs because a few foxes and skunks have been removed from the chicken house. We dis-elected enough right-wingers from the House of Representatives to give the Democrats a narrow edge and dislodged a few Senators so that there wiould be a fighting chance in the Senate and we are dismissed with a pat on the head and a "Good boy" and told that, despite our efforts, our agenda will be ignored in Congress for the next two years. We have made a start on the job ahead but there are still many thieves in the counting house and we have much work left to do.
Many Neo-Con sympathizers remain in the Senate and both Houses are still rife with the Old Guard who exercize earmarks on a whim and this corruption will continue until they are rooted out. It will take two more elections to clean the culprits out of the Senate and we will still be afflicted by Good Ole Joe Lieberman while there are many good people like Ned Lamont who are still on the outside looking in. Nancy Pelosi made a good start on the popular agenda with her declaration of The First Hundred Hours but they must not stop there Count the numbers of the Executive Orders and Presidential Signing Statements that must be countermanded. Add the reform of the "reforms" that have taken place in the last six years and you will find a veritable blizzard of work that must be done to restore our individual rights under the Constitution.
Once again we are being bombarded with cries for "bipartisanship" as the Republicans realize that we have disabled their rubber stamp. They should get the same "bipartisanship" that we were given as fulfillment of the Bush campaign promises. If it works for them, it should work almost as well for us. So long as our children are in Iraq, so long as our rights as free Americans are being stolen, so long as our tax money is being diverted from its intended purpose to the pockets of the big multi-national corporations, so long as our good jobs remain in overseas factories and technology labs, and so long as The People's House is walled off from the public so that the Business of The People can be conducted in secret, our work is far from done.
Candidates for President are gearing up for the run in 2008. So must we be gearing up to counteract the campaigns, not only of the Republicans like John McCain and Rudy Giuliani but also of some of the go-along-to-get-along Democrat "centrists" who have spent six years selling out the people and voting in lockstep with this adminstration in order to further their own ambitions. There is still time to convene a meeting of the "splinter parties" to find those issues on which we can coalesce and find common cause to gain the strength to become a real factor in the choice of our next President. We demonstrated strength in the elections of 2004 and have grown stronger in the last two years as our demands were heard and our influence felt as we worked behind the Democrats in this election. If we can gather together, finding our common ground and casting aside our differences, we can be influential in taking back our country in a peaceful manner in 2008.
Only by founding a real "party of the people" can we not only affect but possibly make major choices in the selection of our next adminstration. Without it, we can look forward to another pat on the head and another "Good Boy" as we are put back in the kennel with our foreheads wrinkled in dismay and our mouths wide open, saying "Wha-a-a-at?!?!"
The author is a very "with-it" old lady who aspires to bring a bit of truth, justice, and commom sense to a nation that has lost touch with its humanity in the search for societal "perfection".
can they prohibit Republicans from using hearing rooms?
Can they pull the plug on the microphone, turn off the lights, and walk out if Republicans try to speak?
Can they forbid Republicans from using the filibuster?
Can they undo the gerrymandered "redistricting" that favors Republicans?
I haven't forgotten all the lovely "bipartisanship" the Republicans showed the Democrats who were so collegial as to concede to them twice in Presidential elections that the Democrats had actually won.
If the Democrats don't show the same fierce determination to use their majority to control Congress, they'll just be shills for the Republicans who give no quarter and take no prisoners.
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Mark E. Smith (20 articles, 28 quicklinks, 68 diaries, 812 comments)
on Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 2:59:04 PM
Some of have suspected for a very long time that many of the Dems were merely "shills for the Republicans" to begin with. The "leftist media" are whining that the Dmes have to "work to the middle" but we know that they went far to right of the middle a long time ago. All the more reason why we need a true "Party of the People".
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Mary Pitt (60 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 159 comments)
on Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 3:27:38 PM
Well It seems we may have been had! Ya think! The new and the old democrats think we will accept what crumbs they throw us. That we cannot or will not build a party of true progressives in the next two years.We must accept the DC shuffle without protest. If we can do it to the repugs ,lets do it to this gang of opportunists.We are just the tax payers and voters. Remember we have no choices, left. Or do we?
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cluelessfl (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 184 comments)
on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 6:22:35 PM
If someone with clout like, maybe, Move On, would call a conference of all the minor parties and get them to find common ground and to band together in order to restore the nation that way the founders envisioned. There is, briefly, the Veterans Party, the Green Party, the Independent Party, and even the Neither Party as well as others who are basically Liberal and in favor of breaking the two-party grip on Washington. If our country really means more than the quibbling over the negligible amount of power of any one of them, their massed votes could give either party a run for their money. We tried working with the Dems but if they give us the cold shoulder for our efforts.........
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Mary Pitt (60 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 159 comments)
on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 7:51:50 PM
Mary, are we not setting up a false dichotomy. Could not the conservatives in Nebraska and such places who ran on so called moderate stance to be elected could have said the same thing? "Now that the moderates have put the Democrats in power, they tells us to go lie down. They are not moving to the middle." To govern and be eleced in '08, it will take diplomacy. Without compromise among themselves, the Democrats will not be re-elected. We will need to decide where and on what we compromise and what we will not compromise.
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pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 940 comments)
on Friday, November 17, 2006 at 8:39:50 AM
On many issues, we may find that the original "conservatives" have turned from the Republican Party as it has been pushed further right by the Neo-Cons. I suspect that they have swallowed hard and voted for the Dems in order to change the policies. We could find common ground on fiscal conservatism while agreeing to disagree on things like welfare and Medicare, leaving that for the legislators to work out. I spent what would be a lifetime for most as a Republican, leaving only when the ultra-right began to take over and I know what matters to them. If you have listened to Pat Buchanan recently, you may have found that he is more on our side than on the side of Bush and ,to me, he is emblematic of the Old Right.
Security, financial and strategic, and the provisions of the Constitution as to civil rights is important to them, too. I feel that they would welcome a "populist" movement at this time.
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Mary Pitt (60 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 159 comments)
on Friday, November 17, 2006 at 9:14:11 AM
