I’m tired of being right

[oxbow]

A thread recently posted by JackBourassa has been stuck in my craw. It's called The Washington Establishment are afraid of the netroots and among other things, it talks about how we were right about the Iraq War and several other issues, while the Democratic Establishment has consistently been on the wrong side of the debate again and again.

I am the last person to boast about anything. I won an award at the Kennedy Center a few years ago for my writing, and my face must have been red for three hours straight until I left that place. In an argument, I’m usually the first to let things go, because I’d rather be happy than be right.

This case is different though. The fact that both the GOP and the DLC establishment have been so wrong so consistently has real costs. If they had listened to us on Iraq, think how many lives and how much of our money would have been saved! Instead, we had to wait until the violence and instability became so great that we have no choice but to back out. Still, Bush has said that this war will not end on his watch, which leaves much more suffering to go before this sad chapter of our history is through.

We were right about global warming too, when it wasn’t cool to be so. Now that we are having record hurricane seasons and the lowest ice-caps ever measured, the media and government heads are starting to come around. They had access to the same science and reports that we did though. They just didn’t want to see. The GOP didn’t want to piss off it’s CEO base, and the media didn’t want to piss off the GOP. So we had to wait until the disasters were right in our backyard before getting any credence.

We were right about this Administration’s economic policies. We told them that this would create a record number of poor people and rich people. And sure enough, we have seen the rich-poor gap widen to record levels. We have seen class mobility, which is the cornerstone of the American dream, become closer to a real dream in our lifetimes. Republicans can’t understand why American people are so down on the economy because they don’t want to see that this tide is not lifting all ships. The middle class is floundering and the poor have been just plain left behind by these policies. Yet the establishment Dems often voted with them on many of the same policies!

I said at the beginning that I’m tired of being right, and I am. I feel like there’s a Cassandra curse on the base of the Democratic Party. We keep telling these people what’s going to happen, and they keep ignoring us like a bunch of retarded children. So it’s time that we begin boasting. The Bush administration loves to boast about it’s policies, and they are usually horrible failures! I think we deserve to boast a little bit about being right. It’s the best way to counter the media myth that we are the lunatic fringe, that there’s something wrong with being the “Michael Moore wing” of the party.
Boast to your neighbors, boast to your Congressmen and your media and your republican friends on the other side of the aisle.

Don’t be an asshole about it. They have discredited us by calling us the far left. We are simply letting reality give us back our good name. Still, there’s nothing personal about this, just the wish to make things better. The country would benefit greatly from knowing the things we’ve known the past few years. We have to become a part of the dialogue again, despite the wishes of those in power to keep us unheard. There is much at stake and after the last few years of incompetence, people are willing to listen to new ideas.

[I Have A Dream]

1. I totally agree, oxbow. n/t

[oxbow]

2. Thanks Dream! Long time no see!

Have you been somewhere else or have I just not seen ya?

[I Have A Dream]

10. I've been around. We've just been missing each other!

:hug:

[mopinko]

3. i hear ya

cassandra curse is right. one of these days, my head is going to explode.

[slay]

4. Excellent post

Thanks for a well thought out, well written explanation of how the true left is right. I do love a good paradox. :P

[Tigress DEM]

5. One thing. DLC does NOT equal DNC. SOME DEM Pols Listen.

WE MUST BE VERY CAREFUL HERE.

DO NOT do the rethugs job for them and imply all DEMS are a hopeless cause.

DO NOT drink the koolaid and believe that NONE of them are on our side. THIS is a freeper based, troll headed rumor.

When the DLC came out with their DEM Agenda that read like Republican Lite, I knew they weren't MY Leadership. DNC is more about grassroots and general funding for all DEM candidates. DLC is about picking potential winners and they are willing to sell US out to do it.

When Hil supported the DLC Agenda, I pretty much wrote her off. Her backing out of the TRANSPERANT VOTE Inititave - or whatever hers was called, was the other thing. I figured she decided she wanted to win more than she wanted to represent the DEMS. Now she's taking money from FAUX News. She should just be HONEST about it and switch to the RETHUG party and have done with the pretense of giving a damm about US.

So when you sort the wheat from the chaff, do not try to do it out in the field while every thing is growing. You will KILL the DEM chances.

Speak of SPECIFICS that you know about, but the RETHUGS are spending 24X7 dissing the DEMS for all they don't do. If you start this conversation in this way, you will be giving ammo to the opposition and they have enough.

I would suggest that a better use of our time is spent on speaking the TRUTH about the MUCH WORSE offenses of the Rethug ADMIN and of finding DEMS actions and Causes that WE CAN SUPPORT.

John Conyers comes to mind. He walked up with my signature and about 1/2 a million more to the White House asking that *ush EXPLAIN himself about the Downing Street Memo and he's been EVERYWHERE a DEM out to be.

Maybe the pertinent question of all our DEMS in office is "Why can't you be more like John Conyers? He is in there fighting the good fight every day whether he gets noticed or not. How ABOUT Conyers for President? He'd get my vote."

[oxbow]

7. I stand by those Dems who saw the light when it wasn't fashionable do so

Those who stayed reasonable when the rest of the country was being led by fear and runaway nationalism into an unwise war. Those who saw the environmental damage when the mainstream media couldn't even decide if global warming was a myth or not. This article is not meant to be about those reasonable Democrats in any way.

Neither is it meant to be about those who have recently seen the light. If my former opponents can see the writing on the wall, then I will invite them with open arms to stand alongside me. This is no time to hold grudges, because we need every bit of help we can get.

This is about the radical wing of the GOP and their abettors, both in the media and the Democratic party. Specifically, those Democrats who value their seats and Washington "insider" status more than the common good. Richard Cohen, Paul Begala, Lieberman and Hillary, these are the kinds of Democrats that are standing in the way of real progress by defending the status quo.

We at the ground level have to find a way to go around them if we are going to make any kind of significant progress in this country. It's a fight that is looming in our future, and it won't be pretty. As I pointed out though, we have had the truth on our side time and again. We are the "reality-based community" that a Bush aide famously sneered at. We could see these problems that are weighing down our country before they ever became problems. And even now, we have solutions that could fix the mess that they have gotten us into.

We were pushed aside and drowned out of the dialogue once. But I for one refuse to let it happen again. Even without access to power, even with the media against us, it's time for the voice of reason to join in the debate.

[Tigress DEM]

9. Specifics are better, and I'd add Diane Feinstein(sp?) of CA btw...

Cozying up to the new General of the CIA.

The thing is there is limited time for any of US to get heard and to harp on things that DEMS do wrong in general unless specific and egregious is NOT the best use of our time.

To dialog about DEMS in terms of "those" who didn't do this or "those" who did that without nailing the specifics is a general smear and benefits the opposition by giving the rethugs the ammo that says, "DEMS are losers, even their own people don't support them."

[kittenpants]

6. great point...it has been annoying me that those who mocked

our ideas originally are now starting to see the light & say the same things as if they just discovered it themselves. I should be happy, but I can't help but resent the fact that they didn't think of this in 2004.

[Asgaya Dihi]

8. There's one more aspect

I know I've posted this link before so apologies to anyone who's seen it, but there's one part that the party dropped that it could pick back up again to good effect. The party was arguably at its strongest with the soundest moral footing in the civil rights years and we made a big mistake to think it was over. It wasn't. Take a few minutes to consider the stats on the following linked page and try to imagine how much poverty and crime this is worth, and how many people stopped voting or caring about either party because they became convinced that nobody was really on their side.

Looking at those stats, can we really blame them? It's a cause we dropped, it was never won. It just moved behind bars. It's also a lot of votes we've given up over the years. If we can't do it for them, maybe we'll at least do it for ourselves.

http://www.prisonsucks.com/