We, the people, are starting to come together. Talk to your con acquaintances.

[elehhhhna]

Here in TX I am SHOCKED at the number of virulent cons who, once I share my disappointment with the current admin, cop to the fact that they feel utterly betrayed by their party and are fed up at least as much as I am. We are coming together. They are awakening. This is America and Americans at their best. I have more hope for change now than in the past 13 years.

Lots of rethinking 911 and Iraq etc. going on out there. Ask them!

[JoePhilly]

1. Sounds like the making of a 3rd party.

[maddezmom]

2. Sounds the same to me

I am here in TX and I am not going to join forces with the republicans, libertarians, etc.

[JoePhilly]

8. I have an old high school friend who moved to TX some years back.

He's a tea bagger now. I see him about once a year on a golf weekend with a group of old friends from high school. Still great fun to hang out with him.

But politically he's gone insane. He occasionally sends our group of friends Tea Party nonsense in emails, which I demolish. Our other friends find it hilarious.

[maddezmom]

9. I have a girlfriend who is similar

And her husband kept sending me tea party crap....his email now goes directly in my junk folder.

[JoePhilly]

15. lol ... I respond to my old friend's insanity because ...

... within that particular group of old friends, making fun of each other is a constant.

I'd ignore it if not for the fact that it gives me a chance to make fun of him and make the others crack up.

[KharmaTrain]

6. But Who Leads...

...the shared discontent is very much there but so are the walls of partisanship that make it difficult, if not impossible, to galvanize that frustration into a viable third party....

[JoePhilly]

12. Agree ...

Those groups also disagree on what their UTOPIA would look like in some pretty fundamental ways.

[elehhhhna]

27. okay then nevermind

lol

[leftstreet]

10. The DLC created a 3rd party n/t

[JoePhilly]

13. And they are kicking your ass apparently.

[leftstreet]

14. LOL 2012 midterms - lowest turnout in decades

The DLC couldn't even hold on to Kennedy's seat



lame

[JoePhilly]

17. How they do at the top of the ticket?

[leftstreet]

20. Campaign like FDR, govern like Reagan

[elehhhhna]

28. .

[Bluenorthwest]

25. In Oregon we had high turn out, low DLC content.

Run candidates people like, people return their ballots marked for those candidates. It is not rocket science.

[Bluenorthwest]

22. That must be your proclivity, because to me it sounds like both Parties are getting ready to clean

their houses of prevaricating, self serving professional politicians. In my Party, the Democratic Party, that means a continuation of the exposure of the Third Way Republican Lovers Club and a return to the people based policies and agendas that made our Party great.
Would it be awful if both Parties had reason based public service oriented candidates? Why should both offer faith based, corporate servants as candidates differentiated only by labels? Why should right and centrist folks get TWO choices while others get no choice at all?
I've just been reading a thread on which 'BOG' hosts are cheering and endorsing a site and blogger that disowned Obama in the last cycle and said 'Good riddance, Obama'. They claim to support Obama, but they cheer for that because the 'blogger' does not like Greenwald. That sort of crap is not sustainable, Joe. Situational ethics is not a good tent pole. Other Democrats will not be putting energy behind that sort of politics.

[JoePhilly]

35. Neither party is going to do what you describe.

The GOP isn't going to "clean house" in any meaningful way. The crazy red districts will stay crazy and red. And the crazy Republican Senate candidates will struggle to win primaries in anything but very red states. And then they will lose in their General. The Dems should be able to hold the Senate, and make some in-roads in the House, although taking it back will be tough given the gerrymandering. Crazy red will stay crazy red until it dies of old age.

On the Democratic side ... for all the screaming about the evil DLC, those screaming don't seem to have much of an alternative group of candidates to put forward. Take NC ... the DLC helped Kay Hagen beat Dole. Are you telling me the left in NC is going to primary Kagen and get a more liberal Dem into that seat? I doubt that.

The angry part of the left struggles to maintain any sort of focus. Their outrage jumps from topic to topic with such speed that any momentum gathered at any time dissipates as they argue about which issue is the one to protest and focus on today.

Have you ever noticed that no matter what issue the President is dealing with now, its not the right one for many on the left. They immediately jump to something else that's MORE important ... only to shift again a few short weeks later to something else.

The real problem you have is that you see the two parties as exactly the same. And so, fighting against one is fighting both.

The vast majority of Americans actually see two distinct parties. Because there are two distinct parties.

The case you are trying to make is that those Americans should be equally against a blue dog and GOP opponent. But you don't have enough good liberal alternatives to really push that anywhere. Yet you expect people to be concerned about the difference between a non-existent alternative candidate and the actual Dem candidate ... rather than the difference between the actual existing Dem candidate and the actual GOP candidate.

If the left is actually going to purge the party of the impure dems ... its going to need to start putting forward A LOT MORE alternative primary candidates that actually exist. The endless carping is insufficient.

I'm not sure what your "bog" point is all about. "Somebody endorsed some site or they should have or not because Obama in the last cycle said or did something .... " ... see ... this is what I'm talking about ... FOCUS.

[sufrommich]

3. I don't know where you live,but

conservatives seem crazier than ever to me.They believe climate change is a hoax,Obamacare means death panels and you can never have enough guns and ammo.

[Myrina]

5. Don't forget Obamaphones, socialized atheism and anchor babies!!

I've got several family members who have been lobotomized by that wing of the GOP too.

[sufrommich]

16. I also notice that the most paranoid

right wingers are now becoming "preppers" as they believe there is a coming civil war,or if their honest,a race war. Survivalist rations are being sold on right wing radio now. I've got no desire to get anywhere near those people,let alone find common cause.

[LisaLynne]

24. I've noticed the preppers thing, too

I wonder if we could stage something that would send them to their bunkers and then lock the doors behind them ...

[sufrommich]

26. lol. nt

[Myrina]

31. Or have someone pay Beck to convince them there's a safe colony on Mars ....

... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

[LuvNewcastle]

4. That's what it's going to take to bring about meaningful change.

Everybody is going to have to be united in their disgust with the way things have been.

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. To paraphrase EarlG...

Fuck the Pauls!

[maddezmom]

11. LOL

I bet you used your button again.

[greatauntoftriplets]

21. I did!

Got a few bars of the William Tell Overture. It's so appropriate for many things.

[HappyMe]

18. Yup.

[greatauntoftriplets]

23. Not that I want to set eyes on either of them, of course.

[hobbit709]

19. I don't know any cons.

[elehhhhna]

29. mine are coworkers and some social acquant.'s

[Ichingcarpenter]

30. Toon..... the illusion

[woo me with science]

32. Spot on.

Our only hope is to become the 99 percent.

[JoePhilly]

36. So you want bipartisanship.

[woo me with science]

33. You are, of course, correct.

And my experience is exactly the same as yours. People are waking up and realizing that we need to come together to stop this.

Post 30 nails it.

[nyquil_man]

34. I always think there's a major realignment in the offing,

but it never seems to materialize.