David Broder: a pox on both parties

[Cocoa]

his first and last sentence tells the whole story.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/30/AR2005113001817.html

A Pox on Both Parties

To understand why the level of public disillusionment with politics is so high in this country right now, it helps to go back a dozen years.

<snip>
Leaving behind one big question: When both parties have lost public confidence, where do voters turn?


My comment on this is that no, Broder, you don't have to go back 12 years to understand anything. In fact going back 12 years makes no sense. People don't remember 12 years ago, let alone become disillusioned now because of it. I actually overheard some coworkers talking politics the other day, they were trying as a group to remember who ran against Bush in 2004. Seriously.

As Broder obviously knows, if the public is bummed out now, they're bummed out at the republicans, who hold both houses of Congress and the White House.

And to answer his last question, his premise is bogus, only Broder's party has lost public confidence, and the voters will turn to his democratic enemies.

[Warpy]

1. The Democrats have a lot of damage control to do

after 37 years of ignoring their base of working people and taking them for granted.

Sure, disgust with Bush may throw the GOP out of power in Congress in 2006, but if the party doesn't wake the hell up and start to take care of its base, they'll be back out of power in 2008.

[itzamirakul]

2. I agree with Broder....

There is absolutely nothing left to believe in in America any more. We are merely running on fumes right now. Corporate America owns us and we are afraid to admit it.

[blm]

3. FUCK YOU David Broder for dumbing America down. Talk is cheap in the

senate? Is that what you told your audience when Kerry was working his ass off to investigate and expose SERIOUS CORRUPTION in IranContra and BCCI and the illegal wars in Central America and CIA drugrunning?

FUCK YOU BRODER - it's SHILL reporters like you who haven't a clue what REALLY MATTERS to this nation's and its governance.

If YOU had helped Kerry expose BCCI, a 9-11 wouldn't have happened, Broder. Where were you? Dining with the DC elite press and powerbrokers who ostracized Kerry?

FUCK YOU BRODER!

[jaysunb]

20. Wow !

someone has invaded BLM's keyboard. :rofl:
:hi:

[Catherine Vincent]

23. Kick ass post, blm!

:thumbsup:

[AX10]

4. No Dave, the Democrats have offered alternatives.

It is you in the media who keep on lying about what Democrats stand for. The Whorington Post strikes again. :argh:
And to answer his last question, his premise is bogus, only Broder's party has lost public confidence, and the voters will turn to his democratic enemies.

[SaveElmer]

5. Broder is uselessly wishy-washy...

And past his prime...

If the Republicans had ordered the death of every first-born Democrat in the country he would figure a way to blame Democrats for it.

He rarely takes a position on anything that is clear!

[Cocoa]

21. his wishy washiness is very useful

for his bosses that want to keep from being held accountable, it's indespensable.

[Leilani]

6. Don't shoot the messenger!

Davis Broder is right...have any of you looked at the polls?

The public is fed up with BOTH parties...they are rejecting Republicans, but not embracing Dems.

And who can blame them? After all, what has either party done for the people lately?

The rich keep getting richer, & everyone else is suffering. Jobs have been shipped overseas, foreign guest workers brought in, & massive illegal immigration has made it impossible for the majority of people to get ahead.

Our schools are failing, health care is provided for the rich & poor, & as usual, the middle class gets the shaft.

We're involved in an insane war, & we don't know how to get out.

Both parties are responsible for NAFTA, CAFTA, cheap labor, bad schools, bad bankruptcy bill, & this travesty of a war.

This isn't about the people anymore. Politicians look out for their own selfish needs, & to hell with the country.

Our govt & politicians smell like week old fish...it's corrupt & they're corrupt, & they're all doing very well for themselves. They all have Potomac Fever, & are clueless about "we the people."

[sendero]

8. IMHO...

(I agree with your basic premise, I was thinking about it early when comtemplating some polls)

... Democrats have made two critical errors:

1) they sat around and let Rush et al villify them and turn the word Democrat into a synomyn for "loser" for 20+ years.

2) they moved away from their base towards the right rather than fight and stand their ground.

It will take a long time to overcome that. If we do win the Senate or House in 2006, it will be a held-nose vote. The propaganda war the right has waged has been uncountered, and effective.

[Leilani]

13. We, the people, have been treated very badly

starting in the 80's.

The Republicans led the parade, & the Dems fell in dutifully. Some even wanted to hold the baton.

I am so disillusioned, I could cry. This isn't the same country I grew up in.

[sendero]

14. I know how you feel....

... I feel the same way. I do believe that the "pendulum" is already swinging our way, but it will take decades to undo what damage can be undone.

I mostly feel bad for my kids. The world they are growing up in pretty much sucks.

[ClassWarrior]

17. Wrong. The Republicons led the parade and the...

...FUCKING MEDIA WHORES LIKE BRODER fell in line dutifully. Most Dems have been with us all along. But the whore press has been telling the public otherwise for 30 years.

NGU.

[spooky3]

12. has anyone tried ASKING people directly WHY they feel

as they do?

I have not seen any polls that ask this. But I have seen endless pontification like Broder's.

It's an empirical question, and I'd rather see some empirical data than hear Broder's opinion about what people think and do.

[Cocoa]

15. let's see those polls

for discussion purposes. I'd especially love to see the ones where people are still thinking about 1993.

[Leilani]

31. I don't have any bookmarked,

but I have seen a few....I think one was NBC.

It polled what Americans think of Congress...both Dems & Pubs were very low....below Bush.

That's pretty scary.

[Lexingtonian]

30. no, David Broder is an unregenerate and a moron.

There are so many bad generalizations in what he says and what you claim that I can't possibly try to lay them out.

As for what you're complaining about: Republicans promised exactly this. If you lived through the Eighties you know that "We will lower taxes and free markets" means you'll get pay the same or higher taxes and get screwed out of services while your job goes to India. "We're the party of leadership and a strong America" means shitty uncalled-for small wars and torture. And "We're the party of Values" means that lies, bigotry, egotism, and corruption are going to be the major themes of their rule.

The major fallacy you champion is that somehow The People is pure and well-meaning while the politicians are the source of all evil. Republicans and moderates now are very exactly still the Americans portrayed in "From Here To Eternity", which is set in 1941. Contrary to what you believe, our politicians know this set of Americans better than they know themselves. They know them for the fools and bigots they are, and that's how they play them. Until these voters become ashamed of being fools and bigots, they will (and perhaps deserve to) get played this way. You also ignore that, in indirect fashion, people who feel obsolete do vote/act for their own physical or psychological destruction.

Democrats are tasked with being the Party that guides into the Future. Republicans are tasked with being the Party that relives the Past and (thereby) destroys it so that no one wants or can afford to politically live in it anymore.

You personally can't get that JFK Era America back that seems to be your ideal and what you imagine Democrats have to champion. There is no "the" middle class, there is "a" middle class- the caste system of once is disappearing. You can't get that back.

Politicians are looking at The People and seeing it in Denial of where we really are, seeing sheer Avoidance of what is necessary to do at some point. If it weren't for massive fools' pride, we wouldn't be Iraq now. If it weren't for massive racism and classism, we'd have national health care by now. If it weren't for a secret massive amount of greed, the energy industry and other resource plundering outfits wouldn't be this deregulated.

The reason why the country is in misere is because of its overt and latent 'conservatism'. And yes, it's The People far more than the individual idiots it permits to rule.

[Leilani]

32. I blame the pols rather than the people, in most cases.

How many times have you written or called your Representative or Senator? Lots of times, I bet, or you wouldn't be on this board.

Do you even get a form letter answer? In Hawaii I do, but the state I lived in previously, I had 2 Dem Senators, & 1 would never even answer an email. He figured his seat was safe, so what the heck?

Sure, many people are ignorant & uninformed, but many aren't. And no matter what we do, it doesn't seem to make a difference.

For example, Hawaii is the most environmentally aware state in the country. Drilling in ANWR? My 2 Dem Senators voted yes, because of their friend, Ted Stevens of Alaska. They took a lot of heat locally, but it didn't matter...they're both in safe seats.

And no, I don't see life as the JFK era, but I do remember optimism & hope of past years versus cynicism & corruption of today. I remember when Republicans & Democrats were responsive to their constituents, when we weren't red & blue states, when the pols put the country's needs above their own.

Sorry, that's the way I see it, & you are, of course, free to disagree.

[Lexingtonian]

33. You folks in Hawaii

happen to live in something of a political time warp relative to the mainland, wouldn't you agree? In the Islands you seemingly haven't yet had that Mainland cycle of destroying one wing after another of the Parties after using them up for what they're worth, i.e. the 1994 destruction of conservative Democrats in particular. I've followed news from Hawaii and there's sadly some evidence of creep toward that.

When I want a serious reply I write a letter on letterhead paper and handwrite some parts of it. When I want my missive treated on the level of junk mail- just as a statistic for the lower level aides- I send an email. Intermediate between the two I use the phone. It helps a lot to be on their regular donor list. (My Senators and Rep spread a lot of their campaign donations around to other Democrats in far greater need of it, so I'm fine with the last part.)

There is a kind of slo-mo less-than-violent recapitulation of the Civil War going on in this country, this time about the 14th Amendment rather than the 13th. This fight poisons everything and undercuts all the high ideals. A lot of people prefer to pretend that the present is not an unusually incivil state of affairs and that business as usual is possible if only the politicians would not engage in 'divisiveness' (or something on that order).

I simply accept that this state of agitation and deranged behaviors and beliefs exists on all levels of American society. Politicians by definition are just specialists in surfing the waves of public opinion. Bitterly divided and stalemated as Americans are everywhere, politicians either have power and very little leeway or leeway but very little power.

This 'war' has lasted 15+ years but seems now to be slowly breaking. And you'll get your peacetime country back in a few. But there simply isn't much point in blaming the generals of the two sides for the existence of the war. It's in my view more productive of peace at present to be a half-decent soldier who does his work against the opponent rather than his officers.

[Zen Democrat]

7. All I needed to know about David Broder ...

I learned when the 9/ll Commission was initially created and Bush named Henry Kissinger as the chairman of the committee. David Broder swooned over Kissinger -- said he was a brilliant choice that the people would trust. Of course, Kissinger pulled out when he refused to curtail his lobbying for the Saudis. THAT's David Broder.

[sendero]

9. There are few in the media..

..... that I trust. But writing every opinion they express off as just plain wrong is dangerous.

The fact is, with things the way they are now Dems should be polling through the roof and we are not.

[Mend]

10. 30 years of negative smears will do that.....eom

[sendero]

11. I agree..

.... but it is hard to argue against the FACT that until AAR came along, we basically LET THEM do it and acted like they didn't exist.

Underestimating the power of propaganda is why we have the government we now have.

[ClassWarrior]

18. So it's okay to blame the victims for not anticipating the level...

...to which the criminals would sink?? Great logic.

NGU.

[sendero]

19. Try to follow..

.... my friend. I'm talking about the talk radio propaganda machine. It isn't illegal, and Dems were stupid to think it wouldn't sway people, it did.

[ClassWarrior]

26. Sorta like a woman is stupid to think she won't get date raped, right?

NGU.

[sendero]

27. If you bend over..

... and spread your cheeks for 20 years and don't even say "no", yeah you deserve it.

[ClassWarrior]

28. Enough said.

NGU.

[blm]

34. Because the media has focking LIED TO America for the last 30 years.

DELIBERATELY.

[Cocoa]

16. he also said Katrina was going to turn Bush's presidency around

Bush's chance to really shine!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301005.html

Because the commander in chief is also the communicator in chief, when a crisis emerges the nation's eyes turn to him as to no other official. We cannot yet calculate the political fallout from Hurricane Katrina and its devastating human and economic consequences, but one thing seems certain: It makes the previous signs of political weakness for Bush, measured in record-low job approval ratings, instantly irrelevant and opens new opportunities for him to regain his standing with the public.


So after Katrina, Bush's recent miserable failure becomes "irrelevant," but Clinton's 1993 healthcare failure is relevant?

[blm]

36. Broder is one of the Ateam cover up artists the fascists have been using

for three decades now.

[Catherine Vincent]

22. The republican shills are starting early in putting out there the

illusion that it's both parties that are corrupt even though it's the republican party that is the most corrupt. Everytime this Abramoff scandal is talked about, they always mention that this affects Democrats too and that it's not just a republican corruption case. :mad:

[KoKo]

24. Broder conveniently forgets "Reaganomics" where he was all on the

"bandwagon." Seems like "retrospective" about "Where did I go wrong" to me. :eyes:

[kentuck]

25. But mostly a pox on the Republicans.......

who have screwed up our country royally....

[BenDavid]

29. Broder has outlasted his

usefullness and he is banking on McCain running in 08. He is a McCain tool.....

[second edition]

35. The real reason people don't care can be traced to the News Media,

the very organization he works for. He is making excuses for their lack of efforts.

[CBHagman]

37. I'm glad someone brought up this column.

It typifies the sort of devolution to cheap shots and ghastly generalizations that have marked Broder's columns of late. That off-hand dismissal of the legislative branch of government galls me no end. Has he not heard of checks and balances?

[blm]

38. Media only cares about their PAYchecks and BANKbalances from corporate

masters in sync with the fascist agenda of BushInc.

[DemCam]

39. a pox on Broder