I Am Really Beginning To Think It Is Hopeless After All. But I Still Cannot Give Up.

[TheMastersNemesis]

The GOP are like a bunch of termites in a foundation. They seem to be undermining everything. They are throwing so much garbage out it is hard to keep up with. Whether its Walker in Wisconsin opening up farmland to foreign companies, business managers in Michigan, voter ID, electoral college fixing, closing planned parenthood, screwing women's rights, etc, they are still pushing the agenda.

The slide that began with Reagan continues. And unless it is stopped dead in its tracks the country will crash.

I believe Obama has to be like Harry Truman or FDR and trash these GOP leaders by name if necessary. Instead Obama seems to supposedly playing this mythical chess game. Keep playing with these snakes and you will get really bit.

If the Democrats even play with the idea of cutting Medicare and Social Security they will completely confuse voters. 2014 will be worse than 2010 was. We lost 2010 because Obama and the Dems allowed the GOP to define the landscape.

We would be better coming out swinging and just have the all out fight. Call Boner a lying asshole if you have to.
Even LBJ would have been using his baseball bat by now.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Really, what else can one do?

Hopeless or not, we gotta keep on fighting.

[snooper2]

2. Is this a general catch all thread?

[closeupready]

3. "Hopeless" in reference to what?

??

[RKP5637]

4. We each have to help in our small or large way. Giving up does not help. Many small 'helps'

can add up to a very large force.

[Journeyman]

5. Oh, my. I've had that belief since 1973. And yet I get up each day, move forward. . .

and here I am, 40 years older with some of the problems from then resolved.

[Blue4Texas]

6. We can't negotiate with bullies

We have to find a way to get what we need outside that framework

[AnotherMcIntosh]

7. You say "Obama has to be like Harry Truman or FDR". When is this happy event going to occur?

[TheMastersNemesis]

8. Probably Never. That Is What Is ---

most discouraging. And everything will deteriorate because as long as nothing is being done the GOP is winning by attrition. We all know what happens when you do not repair a car when problems arise. Eventually it quits.

For all intents in purposes the GOP will make Obama a one term president in that there will be no government until he is out of office.
They just won't pass anything for 4 years and create crisis after crisis. And if they win in 2014 they will just destroy more of the country.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

9. Somehow, I don't think that it is all the GOP's fault. Somehow I think that FDR and Truman

would not have agreed to a bailout for the banksters, to giving a free pass to war ciminals while perpetuating endless wars, and to being involved with trying to get the Republicans to accept a Grand Bargain that would reduce safety nets for the less-than-rich.

Who appointed the anti-Social Security members of the Cat-Food Commission?

It's all the GPO's fault? I'm not buying it.

You are right, however. The answer is "Never."

[TheMastersNemesis]

10. Obama's Appointment Certainly Are Problematic.

He is pretty much an old moderate Republican.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

12. I don't know what "moderate Republican" means, although it has been said many times.

Eisenhower was a moderate Republican.

There's no way that he would have stripped this country's assets and transferred them to the banksters and international corporations so that the populace would be permanent debtors to the banksters and the international corporations.

There's no way that he would have adopted a permanent survelliance system worse than what existed in Russia and East Germany.

There's no way that he would have let openly-admitted war criminals walk around free, rich, and happy.

What is a moderate Republican? Is that someone who acts on behalf of the rich and international super-rich but doesn't snarl like Dick Cheney? Is it someone who acts on behalf of the rich and international super-rich to the detriment of America as a whole but doesn't smirk while being totally clueless like Bush-43?

I don't know what a "moderate Republican" is. I still don't.

[TheMastersNemesis]

13. Actually Eisenhower Would Have Been A Liberal Democrat By Today's Standards

He supported the minimum wage and unions in his campaign platform. Supported the cold war against the Soviet union. And a strong and reasonably funded military. But he also supported a limited to moderate domestic agenda. Supported moderate taxes and there was a 91% tax rate above $1 million. On health care Eisenhower supported a mix of nonprofit and for profit insurance.

A lefty in the 50's would have supported a guaranteed floor level income. Liberals supported a larger domestic agenda like child care for workers, fully paid universal health care.

Today's Democrats "blue dogs" are more like old conservative Republicans in that they are more pro business and lukewarm towards labor unions. They support very limited regulation. They support low tax rates for business.

Today's ultra right wing is reactionary and supports limited rights on speech and assembly. In effect they do not believe women should vote. They support have no regulation on business and a free market wage structure like existed in 1900. They also favor outlawing unions. They also support a marriage of business and government. And on the domestic programs they support charities and churches taking care of all those problems through donations. No tax money for domestic. Health care is a privilege for individuals who can afford it. If you cannot afford health care you go to the church or Salvation Army clinic. The core of the new GOP supports corporate ownership of the commons and infrastructure. And they support virtually all federal authority except defense be sent back to state control.

These are just a few things where the different political divisions might be different.

[JoePhilly]

11. Why don't you start a Progressive Prez 2016 group here on DU?

Obama is going to be the President until 2016. And I'm not sure how Obama calling Boehner an asshole will move forward a more liberal agenda.

If you want a different outcome in the future, shouldn't you start to find an acceptably liberal candidate for 2016 NOW, and not wait and be so disappointed again in 2016 and beyond?

With all of the folks here on DU who are so terribly disappointed in Obama, some of whom have been very disappointed starting just days after he was first elected (if not sooner), I'm surprised that not one of them has started such a group.

A group in which they could begin to discuss and vet better liberals who could be candidates in 2016.

Time is running out. The candidates will start to announce their intent in the not too distant future.

Will the disappointed folks spend their time trying to find this candidate ... or will they spend that time lamenting Obama's Presidency, day in, and day out, here on DU.

I guess we'll see.