I really wonder if 2006 was the best time for the dems to win .

[blues90]

As time has gone by since the dems won in 2006 midterms I see now they are held back by themselves . It's difficult to figure why they allow this surge and now the passing of the massive funding bush wants .

Now the way things look all the blame will fall on the dems for this war and the escalation .

I had hope that things would really change but now we are the path to certain destruction , at least it appears so .

I try to focus on the present issues , not the 2008 elections being far enough away and the past which now cannot be changed .

You can't erase all the deaths or the damage to Iraq or Afghanistan on either side and there seems to be no way to bring jobs back or rebuild this economy back to a fair trade and fair wage . Once things are gone especially these days the seem to be gone for the foreseeable future .

Add into this global warming while this wavers about as a torn flag in the wind .

All the work done by grass roots and the liberal radio media to get the dems the big win seem lost .

As the gap widens between the wealthy and the poor and the clear truth that the major corporations control and run all there seems to be no way to stop this power grab .

So what are we left with ? Many say a revolution , others say peaceful protests , others say arm yourselves in case of martial law .

We seem to be on the edge of an attack with Iran and nothing seems to be out there with enough strength to stop this PNAC plan .

If you look too far itno the future you loose and if you dwell in the past you loose and if you fight for the present which way do you go for the best hope for a good outcome ?

I have to admit I am completely lost these days and just want it to stop and return to some sort of livable reality instead of this surreal state of uncertainty we live with now .

Wars and hurricans and tornados rip through this country , grandstanding takes the fore front and hope is a thin membrane that is easily torn . We balance on sanity and insanity in the day to day stuggle to continue on . Where are we headed , I cannot say .

[Hippo_Tron]

1. We will have a political shift in this country, but probably not within the next few years

The political climate in this country is still defined by the Reagan Revolution and therefore it's going to be very difficult to get anyone in office who will bring about real change. Eventually the system will collapse on itself and we will elected a President to bring us a second New Deal. I doubt that will be in 2008, though.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Yes we should have tried harder to lose.

Oh well... maybe next time we can do better at losing.

(Insert sarcasm thing here.)

[Edweird]

3. Anytime is a good time for a win.

Yes, it would be sweeter if we had a veto-proof majority, but as it is now we can prevent any further 'puke legislation from seeing the light of day. Not ideal, but it could be worse. I just wish our reps would show a little more spine even if they know in advance their bills will fail. They can grandstand for the hometeam, and in '08 pick up enough to really control.

[KharmaTrain]

4. It Had To Start Somewhere

I expect other to flame in with "and would you like the Repugnicans to be in control" at any moment. I like where we are now compared to where we were...and even better what I feared following the '04 elections.

Many here at DU will remember that deep despair...in many ways both our darkst moment and the start of our brightest hour. My concern about '06 was the possibility of the Repugnicans getting the 5 Senate seats and more House seats that would have assured a total rubber stamp...all but making the Democratic Party irrelevant. Just remember how low we were then and where we are now...and then look forward to where we need to go.

In last year's election I was hoping just for the chance to come close to retaking the House. Few realists here had any expectations of the Senate...and I worked my ass off to assure the one Democratic seat in the House gained in '04 would stay that way and see if there was a chance to take another seat in a nearby district. As '06 went on, I could sense a shift in this country and in the electorate...many of us who had been shoved off to the edges were starting to get our voice (thanks to DU, DKos, MyDD and other great sites) and good things happened last November.

The road back from hell is just getting underway. The right wing hate machine hasn't been vanquished and the corporate media is still as bought and compromised as ever. My hopes for this year was just to put the brakes to a runaway regime that I knew would fight any type of oversight or accountability. I didn't expect automatic impeachment or withdrawl from Iraq...first we had to crawl before we walk before we run before we fly. And crawling things are...but at least in the proper direction.

While you are frustrated, just think back a year or two or four and not how bad things have gotten, but how far back we've come and in the fact so many of us have been on both the right side of history and what's right and just.

Cheers...

[blues90]

5. I know what you are saying , however

As it is now bush is still getting his way forward to certain disaster which seems now to me we would be in almost the same place if we had lost the elections . I know it's a start but the car battery is dead .

[KharmaTrain]

6. So What Do You Suggest?

If the "battery is dead", you have the options to either charge it, get a new battery, get out and push or just walk away. Which is your option?

[blues90]

7. Replace it

I don't knwo with who but we voted them in and then we were told to keep their feet to the fire as if they don't know now how to do thier damn job . Most of these Dems such as Reid have been inoffice for years and they should know damn well by now what needs to be done if not they don;t belong there .

It is really disheartening to come to fully realize that the Dems are so weak and wavering , this makes the repugs look like they are right .

We voted and deserve to have our wishes represented and they are not .

I don't look at 2008 since there are too many things right now that are fr more important to deal with . I don't want clinton or Obama or Edwards , they are promoting keeping all options on the table meaning Nuclear so this we don't need .

We need to focus and fix this country before we go forward in Iraq , we need to fix New Orleans and the Miss gulf coast and the economy and on and on . We are a weak and torn country so how are we to fix the middle east now that we have destroyed it .

I give up , do we look at this bleek future if in fact it can be called a future and if it is , it is a future without hope .

If we can't end poverty , revitalize the education system , bring about real jobs and insurance then what sort of country is america ? I'll tell you what it is , it is a war country and a corporate country with war on it's mind while all else stagnates and whithers away .

[KharmaTrain]

8. If You Don't Have A Solution

Then you're part of the problem.

I understand your frustration. I have plenty of my own, but throwing up ones hands and walking away only gives ones enemies the satisfaction and more power. Now I would hope that's not what you want.

The problems are massive and we're stuck with a system that moves slowly, but deliberately. Replace it seems like a wonderful broad brush, but what would you replace it with? It's the devil you know vs. the one you don't.

We, or at least, me, in my own little world in my own little way, try every day to make a difference...do something worthwhile and try to help others in doing the same. I've long given up chasing windmills and just doing the little things I know I can do...and feel good when I do them.

The future is what you make of it. Think of it as bleak and it will be. Believe you are part of a larger dynamic that is just starting to find its feet and voice and there's reason to face another day.

All the things you wish are possible...and all good...but giving up means one less voice, one less foot soldier in bringing truth and sanity back to this country.

We're stuck with what we have...either we work to change from within or get shut out even further than we were. It's your choice and may you have peace with it.

[blues90]

9. I do try the best I can .

I try to find a reason each day to get through the next day but it is one dissappointment after another .

I feel we are on the edge of falling out this planet .

You see being one of the boomers thinking back in the 60's we would pave the way to a better more humane future then when Kennedy was shot down /murdered this hit home what sort of a country we really lived in and it went along with some hope then RFK was murdered . This just kept reaching out to MLK and much later Lennon .

Well now here we are after Reagan came along the the hope of Clinton which really was a false hope it now appears .

Now we have bush jr and the stolen elections and more wars and more debt and an economy with no good jobs or much hope of any coming back any time soon and this affects most people .

We have dug a deep hole and there is no ladder to climb out so it appears .

I have heard all the political promises come and go with no results all these years and look at where we are now .

So from my point of view it is very dark and bleak sorry to say .

At the Jan 27th DC rally what I saw were Kucinich , Waters and Conyers . Now what this tells me is these are the only ones who care to connect with the public , all the others really had a great chance to connect but they did not so you have to ask yourself why .

I would have made it a point to be there if I had a position like that .

We have in the last 40 odd years gone further and closer to a collapse that there may be no way out of because 2007 is a different and more dangerous world than ever before in so many ways that counting them would require volumes .