What should we do to push the country to the left?

[struggle4progress]

10 votes, 2 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Post on the internet
	1 (10%)
	Whine about wadda buncha stoopit sheeple
	0 (0%)
	Become depressed that we've been sold down the river
	0 (0%)
	Write letters to the editor
	0 (0%)
	Smoke some shizzloads o'pot and listen t'musik
	1 (10%)
	Get off the grid and grow our own vegetables
	0 (0%)
	Become more involved in conventional politics
	1 (10%)
	Spend more time at the rifle range
	2 (20%)
	Agitate! Educate! Organize!
	5 (50%)
	I haz m'own frickin brilliant ideas the which I might could share if you ain't gonna be a dickhead
	0 (0%)
	2 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[ladjf]

1. Step one: We need to regain control of the public education system. Without it, there is no

hope to achieve any enlightenment which is the key to liberal thinking.

[struggle4progress]

7. Theses on Feuerbach III

The materialist doctrine that humans are products of circumstances and upbringing and that, therefore, men who change are products of new circumstances and a different upbringing, forgets that circumstances are changed by men themselves, and that it is essential to educate the educator. Necessarily, then, this doctrine divides society into two parts, one of which is placed above society ...
-- Karl Marx, 1845

This criticism, as I understand it, suggests that the effort, to reform society through education, is likely to degenerate into mere indoctrination, because requires from the beginning an artificial separation of the society into elite educators and the masses themselves, who become mere targets of education: this conflicts with the aim of empowering people to become agents of real change, and so perhaps it is more important to convince people that they themselves need to raise their own consciousness, in order to act effectively

[ladjf]

9. I don't recommend education to "reform" society, just to enlighten it. Ignorance about the World

and it's inhabitants is at the root of the American social problem. Children are being wrongly education by parents, religious leaders, politicians and corporate entities for the purpose of manipulation toward the will of those who seek to gain power by any means. Good education can help people realize what is really good or bad for life on Earth.

[struggle4progress]

13. South Africa won majority rule several years back, in a political settlement that resulted

from decades of tireless community organizing, among people who had been denied any sort of useful education, many of whom had indeed been denied most political and economic rights by a brutal minority government -- and yet somehow once a critical mass of people had learned how to analyze their experiences and use their experiences as the basis for activism, they made real progress

[freshwest]

16. And did they manage without controlling any media, as well? I'll bet it was all face to face, no?

Which is what we've arrived at, with RW owned media and the educational system split up. Also churches now sing RW tunes. So I said conventional, since we don't have any wind in the sails, as we once did. Good example, thanks.

[struggle4progress]

18. The minority government had a number of legal tools for ensuring that strong opposition views

got no standard media coverage within the country

[freshwest]

19. Did the people have the Anglicans (Desmond Tutu) organizing for them?

That, we don't seem to have on our side of the aisle, except some Methodists, etc.

[struggle4progress]

23. To me, the lesson of the South African struggle is the dispensability of leaders:

the apartheid government in South Africa regularly decapitated the anti-apartheid movement by silencing leaders (with legal instruments such as banning), imprisoning them (as in the case of Mandela), or outright killing them (as in the case of Biko)

By the late 1980s, however, there was a sufficient cultural understanding of methods useful for resistance (and of the expected governmental responses), that whenever the government shut down one avenue for anti-apartheid work, the movement would quickly exhibit another avenue: this, of course, required continual hard organizing work, but by then a very large number of people had learned how to think about the struggle productively

IMHO Tutu is a great man for many reasons, but it would be an error to think that the success of the movement depended on one person, or on a small number of people: it succeeded because it was a broad-based mass movement that pursued several strategies simultaneously

[freshwest]

28. Thanks, I was just looking for similarity to the Rev's MLK, JJ, etc. in the USA.

The apartheid regime down in South Africa was harder to deal with in some ways, if can be imagined, and there was a lot of violence on both sides. They still have significant problems yet to overcome. Few parallels, I guess, since it's a completely different system.

[struggle4progress]

35. The ANC, oldest and largest of the anti-apartheid organizations, was founded in the era

Last edited Mon Mar 25, 2013, 03:06 PM - Edit history (1)

when Gandhi was in South Africa: the ANC maintained relations with the Indian Congress associated with Gandhi, and IIRC its charter was modeled in part on that of the NAACP in the US. The movement as a whole became larger and more complicated after the 1950s: it had an international component; it had sympathizers among English liberals in South Africa, who had some parliamentary representation unavailable to the majority population; it had a military wing; it increasingly worked with various other black opposition groups (some of whom had rather different ideological stances) to craft a united front; and so on

I'm not suggesting that various individuals were unimportant, and in fact many people were important in one way or another. Mandela once said: “No white person has done more for South Africa than Trevor Huddleston.” Tutu was able to use his church position to advantage, in order to emphasize certain moral claims and to persuade the international community of the justice of an economic boycott, just as Helen Suzman was able to use her parliamentary position to advantage, in order to obtain otherwise unavailable data regarding certain government operations. But for many years, almost everyone who became prominent as a spokesman or organizer ended up "banned" or jailed or dead. The movement therefore could not progress without developing widespread popular agreement about how to interpret events and how to respond to events and how to move forward, independent of current "leaders"

[bvar22]

41. South Africa is a good example, but Venezuela is much better.

Our neighbors in Latin America have successfully wrested their countries back from the hands of the 1%. They were dominated by a completely Oligarch/Corporate owned media.
They used local organizing, education, agitation, and built a political movement to opposed the entrenched political establishment.
They have given us the Blue Print.

When the Working Class & The Poor realize WE have more in common with each other
than we have in common with the elite 1% and their employees in Washington,
then WE can have the change too.

Our neighbors in Latin America have one advantage we don't have.
They have transparent, verifiable elections,
so we will have to overcome the problem of opaque Black Box Voting and Corporate Reporting of results.


VIVA Democracy!!!
I hope we get some here soon!
WE outnumber THEM!

[Common Sense Party]

52. Regain? When did we have control of it?

And how so?

[ladjf]

57. Are you trying to make a point? If so, say what it is. nt

[Common Sense Party]

62. No. I asked a question. Feel free to answer it.

Thanks.

[Kalidurga]

2. Welcome the refugees with open arms...

Just let the Republicans keep talking the way they are talking and people will be leaving the GOP and conservative ideology in droves. Hence we will need to learn to welcome the defectors with open arms. Or not.

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Elizabeth Warren 2016

Vote for Democrats. Real Democrats.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Vote left principles rather than party or politician.

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." --John Quincy Adams

[JVS]

6. The closest thing I could find to that was "smoke shizzloads of pot and listen to music"

[struggle4progress]

36. There may sometimes be important tactical or strategic reasons to vote on grounds other than

pure principle, most especially when a pure and principled vote threatens to hand power to dangerous opponents

The clearest illustration that I know comes from the late Weimar Republic. The effort to reconstitute the German state, in the aftermath of the Kaiser's abdication during the 1918 Revolution, produced in the early Weimar years a grotesque use of rightwing German military units by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to suppress ongoing revolutionary activity. This naturally produced, in the ranks of the German Communist Party (KPD), a permanent hatred for the SPD. The Nazi gains in the July 1932 elections led to complete parliamentary deadlock; after the November elections, the SPD and KPD combined had greater combined strength than the Nazis, but were unable to work together. By March 1933, the Nazis had enough control to imprison most of their parliamentary opponents in parties such as the SPD and KPD and hence were able to pass the Enabling Act, providing dictatorial power

Of course, hindsight is perfect, but the inability of the SPD and KPD to make common cause in the early 1930s, on issues about which they agreed, seems to me a great tragedy

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

38. Sometimes, voting strategically works. Most times, it doesn't.

Usually, the KPD has been blamed for the impasse, ignoring the SPD's collusion with the industrialists and their freikorps to crush the KPD and its allies. The same applies here when the Democratic Party blames the progressives for their intransigence ignoring their own part in spurring it.

[struggle4progress]

39. I have no idea how to craft hard-and-fast rules in this regard. Nor am I adequately informed,

about the 1918 Revolution or the delicate and convoluted politics of the Weimar Republic, to be able to assign an definitive blame for the collapse of Weimar and the dreadful consequences of that collapse. I merely say that ethical conduct, in the political sphere, must involve a careful assessment of the possible outcomes of one's acts, and that proceeding in a purely ideological manner may produce uninformed and unrealistic assessments

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

42. Fine. But, what are the possible outcomes of ones acts?

In the case of a single voter voting his/her principles over party or politician?

In my case, I have voted in 22 federal elections over the years. In not one case would the way I voted have changed the outcome. In 19 of those elections I voted for the Democratic candidate, in 3 I voted third party. In no case did my vote change the outcome. i.e., Nixon won despite my vote for the Peace & Freedom Party candidate (Benjamin Spock). If I had chosen to vote against my principles, and vote for Humphrey, Nixon still would have won. And, so it has gone for all the rest of the federal elections I voted in. Reagan won despite my vote for Carter. Obama won despite my votes for the Green candidates.

[woo me with science]

44. +10000 And rally for important causes across party lines.

Last edited Tue Mar 26, 2013, 12:39 AM - Edit history (1)

There are many predatory policies favored by the one percent being implemented now, that both Republicans and Democrats across the country abhor. Assaults on our civil liberties and on our social safety nets are good examples.

But instead of uniting to oppose them, we save our vehement opposition only for when the other party is in office.

The two parties have become primarily a mechanism by which the one percent control us and prevent us from uniting to oppose their predatory agenda. It is time to recognize that and operate on principle, instead.

[MrSlayer]

5. I don't think there is anything that CAN be done.

Not anymore, it's too late. The owners control both parties and there will never again be any major legislation that benefits the People over them. Labor has been crushed, education is going to for-profit charters that teach nonsense, Wall Street can loot with impunity, outsourcing and downsizing continue unabated. They're coming for social security and Medicare and they're going to get them. The post office is going away.

I say it often and I'll say it again.

The bad guys won and the people that are most affected by their policies voted for it overwhelmingly. The strategy was decades in the making but the Reagan landslides allowed it to be fully implemented. That was the real turning point. That was when the Democrats gave up their FDR stylings a and became third way corporate sellouts.

There is no one with any real power to represent us anymore. That's the ugly truth.

[struggle4progress]

8. The analysis, that our situation is hopeless, seems to me an analysis one ought never adopt,

for two reasons: first because accepting the view, that we cannot effect any change, will never produce any change; and second because we never know what the results of our own efforts will be, so that we might still have an ethical obligation to attempt reforms, if we ourselves have no good cause to think that we will see the fruits of our labor

The very moment we thought we were lost, the dungeon shook and the chains fell off

[MrSlayer]

11. Well it's a steep hill to climb. A vertical hill.

Occupy was probably the last, best hope. It was catching on with the mainstream in spite of the negative media coverage and then it was shut down with brutal violence. The owners played their police card.

The Democratic leaders do not want liberals, they want third way scummers, Reaganites. The game is so rigged against people that will fight the corporatists that it's practically impossible to raise the money to compete.

I hate to be the grim reaper, I really do but hope is the denial of reality.

[struggle4progress]

12. Every time and place presents its own onerous tasks

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
Thomas Paine
23 December 1776

Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
Frederick Douglass
3 August 1857

[LeftInTX]

14. Inspiring

Times are tough, but others have overcome

[struggle4progress]

21. Sadly, not all of those examples were immediate wins: in some cases, there were terrible setbacks

that lasted a long long time

[MrSlayer]

49. That's great but the rules are different now.

We didn't have fully bought and owned government like we do now, there were some actual advocates for the People back then.

WE did not learn from history but THEY (the owners) did. They know how to shut down every avenue for progress now. The old techniques of protest and public appeal can no longer work. Those things are terribly misrepresented in the corporate owned media to sway public opinion against them and forceably shut down with violence. They've rigged the voting system with blatant gerrymandering and limitless campaign money. It's to the point where, with few exceptions, the ONLY people you can vote for in either party are owner approved candidates that will vote the way the owners want them to.

This is why things that the public approves of by vast majorities cannot be made into law.

I admire your spirit but the truth is the truth. It's over for us. There are no countries, only multinational corporations. And they don't give fuck one about any of us.

[bvar22]

45. "The Democratic leaders do not want liberals"

The Democratic "Leaders" would rather have a Pro-Corporate Republican holding a seat in Congress or The Senate
that a bonafide FDR Democrat.

Nowhere has the proof of this been more evident or visible than in the Arkansas Democratic Primary of 2010.

The Progressive Grass Roots did everything they were asked to "Give Obama Progressives to Work with in Congress so he can get his Liberal Agenda passed!"

Organized LABOR and the Grass Roots had a popular Pro-LABOR/Pro HealthCare
popular Democratic Primary challenger with a track record of WINNING elections,
an up & running political machine, popular local support, and BIG financial backing to replace DINO Blanche Lincoln in the Arkansas Democratic Primary 2010.

Our biggest enemy turned out to be NOT The Republicans or Conservatives,
but the Obama White House!!!
The President bestowed and Oval Office Endorsement on The Witch who Killed the Public Option,
and sent the Big Blue Dog (Bill Clinton) back to Arkansas to campaign and raise funds for old Blanche. The smiling face of President Obama endorsing Blanche Lincoln played round the clock on Arkansas TV.

After Blanche managed the Primary win, White HOuse "Spokesmen" added insult to injury bu ridiculing the Grass Roots and Organized Labor for supporting a Pro-LABOR challenger.
It will be a long time before LABOR and the Grass Roots in Arkansas forget the betrayal of 2010, and very few of those spurned and insulted by the White House (the activist base) turned out to support DINO Lincoln in the General Election.
The Republicans took that Senate seat.


"The Arkansas primary fight illuminates some unpleasant though vital truths about the Democratic establishment "

"So what did the Democratic Party establishment do when a Senator who allegedly impedes their agenda faced a primary challenger who would be more supportive of that agenda? They engaged in full-scale efforts to support Blanche Lincoln. Bill Clinton traveled to Arkansas to urge loyal Democrats to vote for her, bashing liberal groups for good measure. Obama recorded an ad for Lincoln which, among other things, were used to tell African-American primary voters that they should vote for her because she works for their interests. The entire Party infrastructure lent its support and resources to Lincoln — a Senator who supposedly prevents Democrats from doing all sorts of Wonderful, Progressive Things which they so wish they could do but just don’t have the votes for.

<snip>

What happened in this race also gives the lie to the insufferable excuse we’ve been hearing for the last 18 months from countless Obama defenders: namely, if the Senate doesn’t have 60 votes to pass good legislation, it’s not Obama’s fault because he has no leverage over these conservative Senators. It was always obvious what an absurd joke that claim was; the very idea of The Impotent, Helpless President, presiding over a vast government and party apparatus, was laughable. But now, in light of Arkansas, nobody should ever be willing to utter that again with a straight face. Back when Lincoln was threatening to filibuster health care if it included a public option, the White House could obviously have said to her: if you don’t support a public option, not only will we not support your re-election bid, but we’ll support a primary challenger against you. Obama’s support for Lincoln did not merely help; it was arguably decisive, as The Washington Post documented today:"

<much more>

http://www.salon.com/2010/06/10/lincoln_6/

Ed Schultz on Obama support for Lincoln in Arkansas Democratic Primary
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/ed-schultz-if-it-wasnt-labor-barack-obama-


As far as I'm concerned,
the National Democratic Party has [font size=3]Absolutely NO Business[/font]
interfering in local Democratic Primaries!




You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[MrSlayer]

50. Preaching to the choir.

I'm right there with you. This administration is more Reagan than Reagan. The right should love them.

[woo me with science]

63. +1

[HiPointDem]

15. +1. Everything changes eventually. You have to do what you have to do, & when things look

most dire and all avenues for change blocked, you can at least educate (& I don't mean in formal institutions) young people so they won't be as stupid as you were at the starting line.

People can recognize the truth of their conditions, and our so-called 'leaders' are doing their part to make that truth more obvious every day.

[struggle4progress]

20. Once enough people begin to examine their own misconceptions about how things work,

and begin to try different things, and begin to discuss what they have learned with others, useful analyzes and ideas about how to proceed next can spread

[HiPointDem]

22. yes. and when your own life takes an unexpected turn, or the life of someone you know does,

that examination often begins.

[struggle4progress]

24. I once had a friend who carefully tracked attitudes of striking workers at a particular facility

in the 1980s. Most started off as Reaganites, expecting the local municipal government and their state representatives to help them win the strike; they jumped through the hoops and got their tickets punched -- and didn't get what they expected

By the end, many were grumbling about Reagan's wars in Central America and wondering why the US couldn't have universal health care like Cuba

[HiPointDem]

26. why did they expect the local and state governments to help them win a strike? that doesn't

seem logical for reaganites.

[struggle4progress]

27. They were good hardworking people who believed that their elected leaders would share

their sense of what was fair. They weren't stupid, but they were naive about some of the people they'd voted for, and how the system worked. They hadn't really ever been subjected to non-mainstream views: their views were cobbled together from what they saw on TV or heard on the radio or read in the papers, and theses sources can be pretty meagre in small-town America

I think the exact quote on Cuba was along the lines of, "I'm not a Communist or nuthin, but I don't understand why we can't all have health care like they do in Cuba"

It takes time for people to change their minds: you can't really push them too hard

[HiPointDem]

30. ok, that makes sense. they were good & hardworking, unlike those 'others' reagan was talking

about.

but they were union members on strike; after patco, how could they think reagan or his equivalent at the state level would be sympathetic?

but i take your point. i know the type; i'm from a small used-to-be union town. decent people, hard-working (less so now that most of the union jobs are gone and a lot of the jobs, period), all-american ideals, but that's why they were so easy to con.

[struggle4progress]

40. Good hardworking people may still be low-information voters

[PufPuf23]

10. Vote for Democrats that are Social Democrats not Neo-Liberal Democrats

Get involved.

Make joining the military or being member of a conservative religion or otherwise a fascist stooge socially unpopular and a reason to be shunned in your community and family.

Live a life style that favors community, friends, and environment over corporations and wealth-captured government to every degree possible.

The hippies were right about most things and most liked to bath and a special someone to love contrary to popular image.

"Barefoot conducts his seminars on his houseboat in Sausalito. It costs a hundred dollars to find out why we are on this Earth. You also get a sandwich, but I wasn't hungry that day. John Lennon had just been killed and I think I know why we are on this Earth: it's to find out that what you love the most will be taken from you, probably due to an error in high places rather than by design."

Philip K Dick, opening paragraph to The Transmigration of Timothy Archer.

What is wrong about this paragraph is that in my bitter age I would switch the position of error and design.

PKD was an optimist, I guess I am a pragmatic realist about life.

[bvar22]

47. For that strategy to work, it must be implemented in local Democratic Primaries.

Be prepared to get Bitch Slapped by the National Party Leaders
who don't take kindly to "Social Democrats", Liberals, Organized LABOR, or the Grass Roots challenging their Corporate Dominance.

SEE: Arkansas Democratic Primary (Senate), 2010

White House support for DINO Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas Democratic Primary
http://www.salon.com/2010/06/10/lincoln_6/

Ed Schultz on Obama support for Lincoln in Arkansas Primary
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/ed-schultz-if-it-wasnt-labor-barack-obama-



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[PufPuf23]

53. That was a bitter and unrealistic post on my part, alas.

You are one of my top 10 favorite posters at DU and respect your positivity and willingness to share.

You are 100% correct.

We are way past tipping points in a multiverse of dimensions.

Even in so-called "liberal" areas Rotary and CofC Democratic Party candidates run amuck.

[bvar22]

54. I'm not THAT positive, or optomistic.

I believe that the Working Class has ZERO effective representation in our modern Democratic Party, and life for most Americans will get much worse before it get any better. I certainly won't live to see it. The RICH will continue to live lives of conspicuous excess and luxury that the Monarchs of the Middle Ages couldn't even imagine as we enter a new Gilded Age on Steroids,
all by design,
and with the active endorsement and participation of the leadership of both dominant Political Parties.

The only rays of hope I see come from our neighbors in Latin America who have wrested their governments back from the hands of the 1%.
Of course, these reforms are demonized by the leadership of BOTH Political parties,
and our foreign policy and Media continues to support the few remaining Right Wing, Death Squad, Police States no matter WHO sits in the Oval Office, or which Political Party holds majorities in Congress.

Bitterness, Rage, and Hopelessness is an appropriate response from ANY Democrat who can remember what the Democratic Party used to be, should be,
and can be. There is plenty of popular support for the traditional Working Class values of the OLD Democratic Party. All we lack is a leader willing to pick up that sword and LEAD.

There were times in late 2008 when I believed that Obama might be that guy,
but that hope was smashed on Day One when I saw a photo of him with his arm around his new Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel.

I wish you well.
I fear we are now only feeling the outer bands of the coming storms.




You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[Populist_Prole]

17. Let working class social conservatives hang themselves by supporting conservatives

Of course I mean "hang" figuratively. The stupid southern strategy/rural culture war waged by the GOP is the ONLY thing that is standing in the way of the 99 percent telling the 1 percent to jump in a lake. Until the "God & Guns" crowd feel the heat from the right; and know it's from the right, it aint going to happen I'm afraid.

I don't mean to sound elitist; hell I'm a working stiff that's disillusioned as hell at my peer's continual ignorance, or barking up the wrong tree. Tough love.

[Hamlette]

25. Gain control of state legislatures in 2020

State legislatures re-do the electoral map after each census, which is every 10 years.

The reason the GOP was so active, and thus successful, in 2010 was so they could gerrymander each state where they gained control.

Unless the lines are more fair, we will never win back the house of representatives. Which means those tea party idiots will control us all.

Then when we do gain control of both Congress we pass some nationwide voting rules which include drawing the lines more fairly nation wide. In my state, Utah, Salt Lake City is upwards of half the population and much more liberal than the rest of the state but the way it has been gerrymandered, Salt Lake is never represented. One third of our state voted for Obama in 2008 yet we have no representation in Congress (Jim Mattheson is the bluest of blue dogs. He doesn't represent us.)

[Freddie]

32. ^^^^this^^^^

Take back the states. My district (suburban Philly) is an example. Our state rep, a Repug, has been in office for decades. I know him personally, he's a nice guy, no RWNJ, and his office is great at helping constituents on a personal level. I admit I used to split my ticket to vote for him before I knew better. Despite his "nice guy" stuff he's a reliable vote for everything his party wants, but most people don't look that closely and just see what a charming and reasonable fellow he is. Every 2 years he has symbolic opposition but he gets re-elected no matter how blue the rest of the district votes.

[bluestate10]

58. Don't wait until 2020. We need to gain ground during the 2014 midterms then regain

more state seats during the 2016 election, then completely retake Legislatures during the 2020 election. The arc of events is on our side. Our biggest risk is that some on our side will "Nader" us during the 2016 election and set the country back another decade. Republicans have nothing on their side except lying to win office, candidates running from the democratic side need to call the bullshit of the republican opponents and use research and facts to show them for who they are. Our side should expect a violent backlash from the tea party and other extremists, but we must fight them every step of the way and not back down.

[jambo101]

29. What should we do to push the country to the left?

Just sit back and watch the pathetic righties become more psychotic on their alternate reality crazy train.,they'll be lucky to even have a political party come election..

[Generation_Why]

31. Have vigorous debates about holding a door open for someone.

And basically making any molehill subject into a mountain.

[graham4anything]

33. Stop voting for 3rd parties like Ron Paul/Perot/Nader/George Wallace and only vote democratic

One needs decades of continuous rule.
Fracture/protest votes/not realizing how important ONE vote is, so it should not be wasted

Imagine if there never was Ike/Reagan/Ford/41/43/Jeb how much better it would have been had Adlai and the others not elected would made the world.

[woo me with science]

46. One needs decades of continuous "rule." A vote from graham4anything for "RULE."

At least you are honest about what you promote.

And, of course, keeping people tied to the two corporate parties is the first step to ensure that we are RULED!

[bvar22]

48. I caught that too.

It is blatant.
If I didn't know he was serious,
I would have mistaken that post for bad satire,
but it isn't.

Yes, it is funny,
but it is also scary.
Somebody actually believes in blind faith fealty to a Political Party no matter WHAT.




You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[woo me with science]

55. Blind fealty to political party

is central in all the propaganda of the one percent.

Their goal is to keep us divided, battling each other, and taking turns circling the wagons around our party when it is taking its turn implementing the corporate agenda.

Their greatest fear is that we will wake up and unite against predatory policies that harm all of us.

[bvar22]

56. Other countries have tried...

...blind, unquestioned obedience to (the "rule" of) Political Figures.
That has always ended badly.

Those countries that have placed Principles and Values
above Party and People have done much better historically.

[woo me with science]

59. That's why I always make a point of mocking

the wording of propaganda that attempts to rhapsodize and deify politicians. Sometimes it seems trivial, and people get upset that you are raining on the "good feelings" of a puffy post....but when you have the very same people repeatedly posting adulatory, even deifying nonsense like this:

That Obama-Clinton Chemistry (They Glory In One Another's Radiance)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=thread&address=10022271797&info=1#edits

(Of note, the poster ended up changing the title and deleting all his angry responses to my laughter.)

and

"They stayed delighted . . . he loved them, as only Obama can do"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022558033

and

"A Glimpse of What Destiny Looks Like"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002434428

and

"President Obama has issued a proclamation..." (like a King)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022109516

...it becomes important to deflate the puffery. There are very creepy authoritarian forces operating in this country right now, and many disturbing bids to trade our American democratic concept of holding our elected public servants accountable, for a blind loyalty to and adoration of a Dear Leader.

It's important to keep reminding Americans that elected public servants are SERVANTS who work for, and are supposed to represent, us.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. lift with our legs, not with our back. nt

[woo me with science]

37. Refuse to play the partisan game. Become the 99 percent

and protest massively, irrespective of party, to get corporate money out of our elections and government, and seize our representation back.

The big ugly secret on DU is that Republicans across the country are not the same as corporate Republicans in government, just as Democrats across the country are not the same as the corporate, Third Way Democrats currently controlling our party.

Our government, both parties, was purchased by the one percent, and 99 percent of us have been disenfranchised.

That doesn't mean that Democrats have to agree with Republican philosophy. It just means that we should realize that they are as frustrated and angry as we are with the way things are going, because they are not being represented either. What is being represented now in the halls of Congress and the White House is corporate interests, period.

Just as our politicians lie to us about wanting to protect public education and the social safety nets and unions and the environment, their politicians lie to them about wanting to stand for small government, limited government interference in private lives, and the defense of civil liberties.

Nobody is being represented. We are all being played, and we are all fed with lies about each other to keep us fighting each other instead of the ones who are doing this to all of us.

If we could agree on just one thing....that our representation has been stolen from ALL of us by the corruption of money in the system....we could join together as the 99 percent to demand our representation back. When elections are for the people again, and corporations are not allowed to select our candidates, we can have a real fight in the public square about Democratic versus Republican philosophy. And real Democrats will win.

Right now, we don't get any choice at all. We get two candidates pushing essentially the same agenda, by and for the one percent.

[Initech]

43. Just let the Republicans keep talking.

So far in the last week they've offended:

Disabled war veterans: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2564808

Fox News:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2557667

Endangered species:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2553176

The jobless:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2547367

Women's rights:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2546568

Need I say more?

[MFM008]

51. the vegetable thing sounds viable tho

[tabbycat31]

60. Put your own name on the ballot

In politics, there's a farm system the same way there is in professional sports. When looking for state legislative candidates, often the first names that come up are mayors, council members, and county government officials. Often these races have no opposition. In my own town, 4 Republicans ran for mayor last year but no Democrats (they tried to draft me, but I turned it down on the basis of being on the road for half the year hence unable to govern).

Get involved with your local Democratic party and make sure there is not a race like the above mentioned mayor's race. The last thing we need anywhere is Republicans running unopposed.

[Jamaal510]

61. America can start by stop sending Republicans to Congress

and stop electing them as governors. As it is right now, moderates are extinct in the GOP. A vote for them is a vote for regressiveness.