Don't mislabel Common Sense and Common Decency as "far left" or "the fringe of the base"

[Armstead]

Many of the well-heeled shirt-and-tie "experts" in the Washington bubble use phrases like "too far left" and "the political fringe" and "political purists" and "the base" to denigrate and twist liberal progressive policies and messages that are actually very "centrist" in the true sense of the word.....Too many DUers parrot those claims.

That's the kind of decayed, stagnant labeling that is always used to prevent actual progress.

Positions like saving Social Security and protecting beneficiaries are not "too far left" ...Nor are many other progressive populist positions on the fringes.

MOST people (excluding people like the Kochs and their brainwashed followers of the ultra right wing) believe in progressive principles like protections of consumers and workers, and they also believe that concentrations of corporate power are dangerous.

But those basic shared beliefs have been excluded from the political dialogue by this chuckle headed manipulation that equates basic fair play and decency with "too far left."

It's bad enough when it is done by the GOP, the right wing, Faux news and by Big Corporate mouthpieces.

Its terrible when Democratic politicians, strategists and those of us in the rank-and-file do it. It is especially destructive when so-called liberals and "pragmatic" progressives echo the message that has been cooked up for many years in Koch think tanks.

That is undermining basic principles that are simply basic mainstream common sense and common decency. We should not be assisting the other side in perpetuating this Big Lie.

[forestpath]

1. K&R

[haikugal]

2. K&R!!!!

Well said, Thanks.

[kentuck]

3. As when 90% of the people support a policy....

..and they refuse to even take a vote on it. As if it is a "far left" attack on the 2nd Amendment?

[Armstead]

4. "But,but,but we have to placate that 10 percent"

[kentuck]

5. And that is about what the Republican Party is representing these days...

Yet, they continue to block and get their way. That's the way our system works...

[woo me with science]

6. AMEN. Common sense and decency.

Last edited Thu Apr 11, 2013, 07:41 AM - Edit history (5)

are irrelevant on corporate balance sheets. Common sense and decency are the first things sacrificed when corporations purchase governments and are given control over human lives. They are assaulting seniors now, because there is a pot of money there to be had.

Huge, huge K&R

Under corporate government and corporate morality, all the necessities of life, and human lives themselves, are revalued and their futures decided in terms of their ability to further enrich the profit mongers who now own us. Food? Call in Monsanto. Education? That's a big enchilada. Prisons? A source of slave labor. In the ledgers of corporatists, human dignity has no place. We are human "resources," entries on a ledger somewhere, and when we are no longer profitable to them, we are liabilities to be crossed out. That's where seniors stand right now.

We have seen unprecedented viciousness and ugliness on DU this week. A human outcry of defense for seniors who already struggle to afford food, shelter, and basic medical care has been mocked, howled and sneered at, and scathingly dismissed as "hissy fits" and "poutrage." The mask of the corporate Third Way, the insistent claiming to care about the same values and principles as traditional Democrats, has dropped. This is the soul, the value system, of corporatism: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022632517

The ugly rhetoric of corporate FOX News, in which the poor are a parasitic infestation rather than human beings to be honored and treated with dignity, has come to DU, and it is no accident that that attitude comes from the same reliable defenders of every single corporate outrage coming out of our party.

The soul of our nation is at stake. The soul of our party is at stake.

Are we still the party of human decency? THIS is the economy in which we are being lectured that Social Security must be attacked:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2640706

...Obama explicitly campaigned on opposing Social Security cuts -- and he just endorsed them (AGAIN)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022019860

Obama's Promises on Social Security: His OWN WORDS
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022031544

Why is Social Security Under Attack from Obama, when it ADDS NOTHING to the deficit???
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022065493

*************************************************

Bernie Sanders: Chained CPI: An Economic and Moral Disaster
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022381690

Guess what? Chained CPI is the bright idea of Third Way, the (Corporate) Dem "policy shop."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022021626

wall street pulls the strings: social security under attack in february
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022155427

Two-thirds of Americans are against touching Social Security
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022050249

Robert Reich "we should be cutting military spending & Corporate welfare"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022045904

***************************************************

Top 1% get 121% of income gains since 2009 (100% of new income + 21% from your old income)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022384139

The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022246632

Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under ‘Anti-Business’ Obama
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014372334

Obama Orders Pay Raise For Congress
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022095402

"Struggling to make ends meet" on $174K a year?? Really Nancy???
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022392954

Incomes Flat in Recovery, but Not for the 1%
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014400736

U.S. corporate profits stronger than ever, workers' wages fallen to lowest-ever share of GDP (CNN)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021922334

Obama to use pension funds of ordinary Americans to pay for bank mortgage settlements
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002205218

Wall Street Soars with Wealth as Wages Stagnate, Jobs Remain in a Slump
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12526154

"Recovery" in US is lifting corporate profits, but not adding jobs
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014414149

U.S. Income Inequality Now Worse Than Many Latin American Countries
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022268073

****************************************************

Ranks of working poor increasing
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022200197

Inequality Rages as Dwindling Wages Lock Millions in Poverty
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022198286

The Middle Class In America Is Being Wiped Out – Here Are 60 Facts That Prove It
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022144851

Child poverty rates increase unabated
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022268450

40 Percent of Americans Now Make Less than 1968 Minimum Wage
http://www.democraticunderground.com/111631016

US poverty on track to reach 46-year high; suburbs, underemployed workers, children hit hard
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002998131

The Economy is "Recovering" By Creating More Low-Wage Jobs... Increasingly Filled By Graduates
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022602162

What Recovery? Across America, People in Distressed Cities and Small Towns Face Economic Catastrophe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022545596

Real wages decline; literally no one notices
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11172387

Wages for bottom 90% declined 1.2% during 2009-2011 recovery, top 1% income grew 8.2%
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022271466

Three Minimum Wage Jobs Needed To Afford Two-Bedroom Apartment
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022578738

Wages have fallen to a record low as a share of America’s gross domestic product.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022183930

Inequality Rages as Dwindling Wages Lock Millions in Poverty
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022198286

Poverty, hunger among retirees increasing
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002748342

Common sense and decency. Thank you for this OP.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

50. I've seen posters which advertise sessions on teaching "free enterprise" believers how...

....to make "moral" arguments for their agenda.

IMO, if they HAVE to make "moral arguments" for their selfish, greed-driven agendas then said agenda must be IMMORAL -- if they must create PROPAGANDA to get the public to swallow the "free enterprise" system - then it is dishonest, disingenuous, destructive, and parasitic and has no place in a humane or decent society.

If it needs propaganda to prop it up - then it needs to be torn down.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

54. Yes, I have noticed that right-wingers tend to claim that they're "for the poor"

They're against the minimum wage, because it hurts the poor.
They're against public education, because it hurts the poor.
They're against universal health care, because it's a moral hazard for the poor.
They're against urban rail transit, because the poor prefer buses.
They're against any regulations on business, because the regulations hurt poor people who are trying to become entrepreneurs.
And so on and so on.

[daleanime]

52. +1

[Jasana]

72. Impressive post!

And I love that video. Thanks!

[The Link]

7. Some of our so-called "Comrades" have made a living out of it.

[FredStembottom]

8. I sat out long periods of DU

...when those who parrot the right wing talking points you describe seemed to (be allowed to) overwhelm this board in what must have been organized swarms.

I am seeing less of that as the Obama admin. continues to do exactly what the "professional Left" has predicted.

Left, schmeft. I am a blue collar white male that just wants the slide into poverty and degradation my friends and family are experiencing to end. Some policies are systematically stifled in D.C. By the egregious corruption there. They just happen to be the policies that would help my family.

I still want those policies anyway.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

51. Thanks, Karl.

[FredStembottom]

70. Karl?

?

[UnrepentantLiberal]

71. I was joking.

[FredStembottom]

74. Oh.....

Me being dense.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. my friend...by the stricstest

definition of the word...we are the true conservatives. You and I are trying to conserve what makes this country great. I drive the radicals here crazy I am happy to embrace my inner classic conservative. But the chuckle heads don't realize this is a true burkean position. Who is Burke? The other half of John Stuart Mill.

And it is time we take that language control and call all thone who want to destroy the safety net...radicals I don't give a dam about labels

My apologies for errors. Posting from phone sucks

[woo me with science]

11. Nothing angers me more

than the labeling of what is happening to our country right now as "centrist."

It is not "centrist" by any stretch of the imagination. We are seeing an extremist dismantling of our civil rights and our way of life. Our middle class has been devastated, the gap between rich and poor is exploding, and our laws are being rewritten to grant power to oligarchs in ways that we have not seen since before the Magna Carta. Legislation coming out of our government repeatedly bears no resemblance whatsoever to what the people have repeatedly said we want and need. We are witnessing the construction of a massive surveillance state, the militarization of our police forces, and the brutal suppression of protest of what is being done to us.

We are witnessing the destruction of our representative government by banks and corporations. We are losing our country.

[kentuck]

16. Things are returning to normal...

As they were before the New Deal and the Great Society. The last 75 years have not been the norm. Folks are going to have a hard time adapting after living the good life.

[abelenkpe]

22. Hope that's not going to happen

Worry that it could

[Armstead]

35. Yes, but norms are created...We should not dismantle that

I know you agree but I do think that when you create a norm it becomes the norm.

[kentuck]

38. But what was the "norm" before the New Deal?

Circumstances change the "norm". Conservatives have been changing the norm since the 1980's. That is why they are now talking of making changes to Social Security. It is happening.

[Armstead]

34. I make such errors when I type on my laptop keyboard, heh heh

[antigop]

10. Thanks. And it's not "too far left" to protect American jobs. But we are called "haters/bashers"

for wanting a stop to the bleeding of US jobs through outsourcing and increases in h1-b visas.

[abelenkpe]

23. +1000

[redqueen]

12. K&R

[Cleita]

13. It's to their benefit to make decent people who care about others, their nation and

their planet look as being on the looney fringe. I hate to bring up Hitler because someone will swoop in with Godwin's law, but he lays out very clearly in his book "Mein Kampf" how propaganda should be done. He also credits the Brits and Americans for teaching him about propaganda because he admired our expertise in it. When he came into power, he and Goebbels made sure that they took over every media both news and entertainment so that no message got out other than the Nazi message of hate and fear of the "others" designated as anyone who wasn't a pure Aryan and disagreed with his policies. Anybody who published anything in opposition was marginalized or disappeared. He also laid out the method of telling the Big Lie, which he says he learned from us. We should be so proud of ourselves.

[Win-the-fight]

39. great comment - and we need to keep bringing up history because we are repeating it!

I hope you don't mind if I post this as it's own thread?

[Cleita]

40. Maybe not. Sometimes the Hitler referenced threads are not welcome here

as being conspiratorial although I try to make what I do say historical and as unbiased as I can. But, thanks.

[myrna minx]

14. K&R.

[zeemike]

15. Some very important points here

K&R for all the post made here so far.

[valerief]

17. But are the DU parrots truly progressives? nt

[bvar22]

18. DURec!

---bvar22
a mainstream-Center FDR/LBJ Working Class Pro-Labor Democratic Party Activist for over 45 years,
NOW labeled a "Fringe Leftist" and "Fucking Retard" in the New Democrat Centrist Party.
I haven't changed.

[woo me with science]

24. +100000

[felix_numinous]

19. Making human rights.

conservation of the environment and the commons, the conservation of untainted food, privacy and safety into PARTISAN issues--when they are not, has been a method of dividing the country. And it has worked.

IF people were to TRULY wake up and realize this, that all Americans have been robbed and the very structure of our government changed right out from under us from people on BOTH sides of this illusory spectrum, that would be progress.

Americans need to unify around human rights and constitutional issues, and not allow ourselves to be brainwashed into believing that this is an extremist view!!!

Whenever I have the chance to explain this I do, and most times people are speechless. 'Anyone turning Americans against Americans, neighbor against neighbor should be suspect' is how I've put it.


K&R!!!!!!!!!

[timdog44]

20. I am glad to see this talk.

I have felt like I was a fringer. But I see that I am truly a liberal, and I hate it that term is used to denigrate us like thinkers. The ultra right have no morals and so accept any group that will vote with them on any single issue voter stance. For instance, abortion. They, the ultra right will be OK with an anti-abortion stance because that is a litmus test for a large group of people. So is "this is a Christian nation" stance that has become a litmus test also and thus the ultra right will believe this to garner votes. Thus the people who really get screwed are the ones who end up voting along the litmus test line for those who will agree with them. And they agree because they have no moral fiber. They only think bottom line $$$$$. The bottom line is not the bottom line. The bottom line is you and I, and the rights and privileges granted to us in the constitution.
I have read this over a couple times. I hope I am clearer than I think I am.

[Armstead]

47. You're pretty clear

It's the politics of distraction.

[timdog44]

48. I am not always

able to make my thoughts come out in print. I have, over time, come to want to allow my thoughts to take form. I am not adept in the subtleties (and sometimes not so subtle) of site such as this. I always try to be straight forward, but sometimes not the best. I want to be personal, and I see that is not best. Maybe I should make that a trademark. There are some obvious favorites and some I find wanting and cannot believe they are tolerated here, other than they have so many posts. Shame on me, huh?

[treestar]

21. What prevents actual progress is Republicans in power

Common sense means don't elect Republicans. Unfortunately some 48% of this country insists of voting for Republicans. How they are going to be convinced to quit doing that is an issue no one seems to tackle.

[kentuck]

25. That is the $64,000 question

?????

[Armstead]

31. It's easy....Well, not easy, but straightforward

Democrats should start telling the f*******g truth, and actually start acting on that.

Not this buying into the Big Corporate Lie bullshit but actual truth.

It would so refreshing, for example, if there were more Democrats who were like Bernie Sanders when he says things like "When a bank gets 'Too Big to Fail' it is actually 'Too Big to Exist.'"

The fact that we have allowed these huge private monopolies to take over our economy is a simple truth that mpore and more people are starting to realize, regardless of their politica persuasion.

If Democratic leaders would start telling such truths -- and acting on them -- instead of waffling. I think they'd win a lot of those fense-sittering "swing-voters" over, and actually start to generate the critical mass necessary for positive change. ...Heck, they might even get some hard-core Republicans to start to rethink their views.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

55. They vote for Republicans PRECISELY because the Dems seem to be accepting Republicanite memes

If spokespersons from BOTH parties are saying, "We have to cut Social Security," "We have to build up our military," "We need to crack down on welfare cheats," "We have to give the public school system some competition," "We have to cut taxes to maintain competitive strength," "We have to give up our freedoms for the war on terror," then why shouldn't the voters vote for Republicans? Get the real thing instead of the pale imitation?

I'll come right out and say it, even if it gets me banned:

The Democratic Party power structure is full of right-wing moles. There are a few noble holdouts in the Senate and Congress, but by and large, both parties are bought and paid for by corporate interests, so the mainstream Dems' "opposition" to Republican initiatives is just theater.

It's like what happened during Reagan's war on the leftist revolutionaries in Central America:

A Reagan administration mouthpiece would come onto Face the Nation or the McNeill-Lehrer Report and say, "We've got to come down hard on those Soviet-financed Commie terrorists. We need to invade Nicaragua and topple their far left government and give more aid to El Salvador and Guatemala to fight the Communist threat."

Then some smooth talker from the newly-founded DLC would come on and say, "I share your concern, but we should just impose sanctions and try to persuade the Sandinistas to adopt free market reforms."

There were Dems in Congress who understood the truth about the Central American revolutionaries, that they were fighting evil right-wing dictators who imposed cruelties that America's founding fathers never had to endure, and that the moral position would have been to let the revolutionaries have their way and see if they could do better for the people of their countries.

But that position never appeared in the mainstream media.

It was the first time I began to think, "We're being lied to and manipulated, and most people don't realize it."

Everything that has happened since then has only confirmed my views.

[treestar]

59. They should be smart enough to know the difference between

major cuts and small nicks.

If they really like SS, they should never vote for Republicans, who will always do far worse.

Voters that ignorant and stubborn deserve to end up on the streets. But frankly I don't think there are any such voters. People vote Republican when they got theirs and don't care about anyone else, not because they are worried about those poorer than they are.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

60. So it's the voters' fault that the Dems haven't reached out to them in ways they can understand?

I do hope you're not a teacher, because every experienced teacher knows that you have to start from where the students are, figure out what makes them tick, and reach out in ways that resonate with them. You can't just call them "stupid" and expect them to respond constructively.

The Dems have BLOWN more teachable moments than I can list.

People who spend every waking hour trying to survive don't have the physical or mental energy to research policy positions, and the mass media are bought by corporate interests.

And WTF is this corporatist nonsense about "small nicks"?

Are you one of those Third Way types who goes around saying, "We have to destroy Social Security in order to save it"?

[treestar]

61. Of course.

We have self government. We are not victims. We have freedom of speech and information and can ask questions. The government does not run the press. You are insulting the voters. They have the opportunity to be less lazy and find out more. Faux News is not all their is. If anyone is that illogical and stubborn it is on them, not the Democratic Party. Or anyone else.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

65. The problem is not so much the Fox News voters as the ones who have concluded that neither party

has anything to offer them. And I don't see the Dems reaching out to them.

You really are out of touch if you think that everyone has the leisure or resources to research policy positions. I suggest volunteering in an agency that works with the poor for a little reality check.

In fact, I'd like to send the entire sorry bunch of Third Way Democrats out on a bit of experiential learning of living among the working poor.

Even FDR, who grew up in wealth and was kept from physical activity by his disability, had the good sense to send people out to document what was happening among the poor.

I don't think the Third Way Dems know or care about the working poor except as potential recruits for votes.

[treestar]

66. Very very few voters think "neither party has anything to offer them."

Nearly half are fine with the Republicans and another good chunk are fine with the Democrats.

It is not a matter of a party offering you anything. We have self government. We can freely campaign for an opposition. We are members of the party ourselves.

WE the People. Not THE GOVERNMENT TO MAKE OFFERS TO WE THE PEOPLE. This kind of verbal slip up lets the freepers say we are in fact waiting around for someone else to take care of us.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

68. I'm talking about the 50% who don't vote at all

The ones who are too beaten down by life to know or care about politics, the ones who have been subjected to Fox News propaganda without any counterbalancing Dem efforts, the ones who ARE savvy and see it all as a cynical game.

If the Dems could reach out to them, they'd have the country sewn up.

But they'd rather put on Kabuki plays with the Republicans.

[Armstead]

62. Small Nicks?!? You mean like NAFTA, Media Deregulation, Repeal of Glass Steagal, etc.

Face it. Sometimes the things championed and or accepted and advanced by centrist Democrats are just as bad as anything the GOP can come up with.

And regarding "small nicks." I assume you've heard the term "death by a thousand cuts." That's what this nation is experiencing as a result of gthe collusion between the centrist poobahs of both parties over the years.

[baldguy]

26. The RW tossed common sense & common decency out the window long ago.

They found that they got in the way of the things they wanted to promote.

[xchrom]

27. I don't know how to turn away the Rubin/Clinton/Gheitner

Wing of the party.

Too many dems seem very heavily invested in this continuing rightward shift.

[Armstead]

32. Yes, but are they a majority?

[xchrom]

36. Not a majority. But so far - they haven't needed to be. Nt

[Armstead]

45. True....But "pay to play" is part of what has to change

[marcusc81]

42. No, but they have the money.

[michigandem58]

28. It's moderates who working to save Social Security and protect beneficiaries

The fringe wants to hold to positions that will result in no type of deals or change in the course we are on.

[Armstead]

33. What positions would those be?

Not reducing benefits?

That doesn't seem very "fringe" to me.

[BrotherIvan]

37. When you prove the OPs point in your reply you get a prize

[Lydia Leftcoast]

57. Really? By cutting future benefits for people who are already struggling?

By totally IGNORING the suggestion that constantly comes up in op-ed columns, online comments, and ordinary conversations, namely to raise the cap on FICA assessments?

Why is that commonsense suggestion off the table when it would be very popular with everyone except the 1%?

Oh, wait. You don't have to answer that.

It's because the 1% own both parties and decide what "the mainstream" is.

[Marr]

29. +1

[upaloopa]

30. My guess is that the modernizing Social Security

OPs are not from regular DUers.
When you chalenge them you get snark not a debate. I think they cut and paste someone else's words here.

[Cleita]

43. +++++

[Lydia Leftcoast]

58. Oh, there is a long, long history of regular DUers who specialize in right-wing snark

and forming three-person tag teams to beat down anyone who makes a leftish suggestion.

Some of them are still here.

[woo me with science]

41. Kicking for compassion and decency.

[Cal Carpenter]

46. K & R

Glad to see you posting again lately.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

49. The MEDIA is most guilty of this

We have a network (WRAL) in NC that LOVES to call ANYTHING common-sense or decent "left-leaning". But they all do it.

[KoKo]

53. Recommend!

[laundry_queen]

56. K&R nt

[Zorra]

63. Hey, come on, now! Some people got a job to do.

...............(Psst, hey little girl - wanna buy some kool-aid?)

[Jamaal510]

64. I doubt very seriously we

have to worry about cuts to the Big 3.

"Its terrible when Democratic politicians, strategists and those of us in the rank-and-file do it. It is especially destructive when so-called liberals and "pragmatic" progressives echo the message that has been cooked up for many years in Koch think tanks."

I think they are just being used as a bargaining chip to show more people how unreasonable the Republicans in Congress are, so that they'll get booted out in 2014. He knows that it is highly unlikely that Republicans would agree to more tax hikes for top earners in the deal. Furthermore, Obama has had over 4 years to cut the Big 3, and so far he has been failing miserably at it for someone who supposedly wants to do it. And even if both sides were to agree on a deal, Sen. Sanders said that he and other liberals in the Senate would filibuster it. So yeah...nothing to set our hair on fire about.

[avaistheone1]

67. K&R

[Douglas Carpenter]

69. we are now at a point were being "far left" means holding the same position as the overwhelming

majority of Americans including the vast majority of Republicans and Independents. That is now what passes for "far left".

[woo me with science]

73. kick