Right Wingers Responded To HCR Being "Rammed Down Their Throat" By Winning In 2010. The Left?

[TomCADem]

The right was so pissed about getting HCR reformed getting rammed down their throats that they not only beat Democrats in record numbers, but they even targetted and beat Republican incumbents and establishment candidates. The right wing moved the Republican party even more to the right, then it was before. Thus, you had a bunch of radical right wing economic illiterates who were willing to blow up the entire economy, and risk a default, in the House, who forced an austerity program on the rest of the U.S.

The right wing did this by winning elections, not boycotting them. Yes, they had substantial assistance and guidance from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Freedom Works and Fox News, but in the end the radical right not only beat Democrats, but some incumbent Republicans. Except for a few outliers, the radical right did not form a new party. They just took over an existing one, and moved it even further to the right.

Well, the left just had had austerity rammed down their throat by the radical right. Heck, the radical right has been ramming things down the throat of the left following the 2010 elections beginning with the destruction of public employee collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin by George Walker with substantial assistance and support by the Koch brothers and Mitt Romney. Chris Christie scored points by ridiculing public teachers. Even most recently, House Republicans forced the furlough of thousands of FAA workers because they wanted to curb collective bargaining rights.

So, the right has been grabbing the left by the mouth, spreading it wide open, and ramming right wing policies down the throat of the left and the American people again and again at the State level and the Federal level. And, just when you think they have made their point, they come back, threaten to harm the poor, the middle class, and hold out for the rich, because the rich are the job creators and taxes kill jobs. The right wing won in 2010 by telling us that they would create jobs by cutting spending!

How will the left react to getting all these right wing policies rammed down its throat by a Republicans who will not hesitate to harm the poor, middle class, your family members, in order to protect the rich, er job creators?

Will the left organize and win elections? Or, will they pout, stay home in 2010? Or, cast meaningless protest vote for a fictional character in 2012? Put another, after getting right wing policies rammed down its throat as a result of the 2010 elections, will the left win elections in 2012 and take back Congress or will it simply open wider and invite the right to give it another go, but this time with some gusto?

[villager]

" Or, cast meaningless protest vote for a fictional character in 2012?" Like the anti-incumbent

...successes you cited when setting up your Teabagger example?

The reason they "voted" is because they primaried candidates who they felt hadn't "listened" to them.

Yes, we might want to consider doing the same.

[TomCADem]

3. Exactly. The Right Wing Won Even If They Had To Beat Sure Things Like (R) Mike Castle...

...in Delaware.

I see some folks saying they don't think the Democratic party is left enough. Well, then the left should just take over the Democratic party. Since Republicans hold so many House Seats, the Democratic primaries are wide open. It should be easier for the left to advance progressive candidates in Congressional races.

[villager]

14. Well, the right wing won all right. And a lot of those "protest candidates"

...got their people to the polls. And -- in the House -- many (alas!) won.

You seem to both cast aspersions on "protest votes" and laud it as a strategy -- those wide-open primaries -- at the same time.

But since it's late, I'll allow for the possibility we may be in some kind of agreement.... ;-)

[villager]

1. Dupe, for emphasis?

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

2. No matter how many times you post it, it's not true that the left stayed home in 2010.

And btw, Obama also implied spending cuts would create jobs in his last major address on the topic.

[Danascot]

4. Excellent post

Thanks!

[BNJMN]

5. Kinda obsessed with ramming things in people's throats? Also, TP'ers had ONE issue. And a pledge.

We have a dozen issues, and no pledge.

http://www.atr.org/taxpayer-protection-pledge

Check out how simple that pledge is, if you haven't already.
It was actually a really good idea. We need to take what has
worked for the TeaParty and boldly use it if we can.

[TomCADem]

6. Hey, Remember When Every Republican Was Using The Ram Things Down Our Throat TP?

On top of that, you had the "Tea Baggers." I seriously think that the double meanings were not an accident.

[BNJMN]

8. Whoops, I missed that. In which case, never mind my post!

[scarletwoman]

7. Do you know what the difference is between the right and the left?

The right has a political party that actually WANTS them. The right has a political party that will bend over backwards to cater to their demands.

The left, on the other hand, has a political party that dismisses them, mocks them, ignores them, denigrates them, calls them names, and pushes them aside at every opportunity.

There's a problem here.

[TomCADem]

10. So, The Left Just Needs Take Over The Democratic Party. Its That Simple.

Why could the right manage to do this in 2010? How did Sharron Angle manage to win the primary in Nevada? How did the witch lady in Delaware steal defeat from the jaws of victory by beating the Republican establishment candidate, Mike Castle? Rand Paul won the GOP primary in Kentucky. In each case, the Republican establishment candidate was beaten by a candiate catering to the nutso base.

So, why can't the left do this with the Demcratic party? What, the Democratic establishment does not like this? Well, screw them, its our party, just pick the progressive candidate and win.

I don't understand the argument that the left should just sit back and let the right wing and the establishment ram things down their throat because life is so unfair, and the mean old Democratic bosses don't run out and hug us with open arms. Boo hoo.

If some rich old dude mocks you, ignores you, denigrates you, calls you names, and pushes you out of the Democratic party are you saying that you are going to take it. Perhaps cast a meaningless protest vote for Nader, who is never going to win squat? Or, are you going to back a true progressive and win?

Better yet, run for office yourself. Most folks on DU would do a hell of a better job than the economic illiterates who are in the Tea Party. You look at the Tea Party House Republicans, and you can't seriously tell me that most folks on DU don't have a better handle on economic reality than they do.

So, shoot, run for office and take over your local Democratic party.

[JVS]

9. The problem is that HCR was rammed down everyone's throat.

It pissed off republicans. The corporate approach to it pissed of democrats. So, by the power of "compromise" Obama succeeded at both rallying his opposition and suppressing support for him from his own side and from moderates who really weren't that impressed with writing insurance companies a blank check and shit like Nebraska's special conditions.

[TomCADem]

11. And Tea Bagger With Their Grover Norquist Amendment Dreams Love The Debt Deal?

Heck, look at Romney and Bachmann! They are the Republican Presidential candidates and rather than celebrate the debt deal as some right wing triumph, they attack the debt deal as a sell out that does not go far enough!

The big difference between the right and some on the left is that some on the left only work hard to come up with reasons for not winning elections.

When angry, the right wins elections, while the left tries to justify boycotting them. Lets see which approach is more effective in changing federal policy.

[JVS]

12. The right knows to complain even when they get what they want because they know they need more...

of what they want.

The left is filled with people who tell others to STFU because that's the best they're going to get.

[krispos42]

13. Where are we going to get another hundred Alan Graysons to primary out the loser Dems?

Where is the organized money and lockstep enthusiasm to start a Jeffersonian Party?

Is there a small cadre of rich liberals that will run an astro-turf liberal organization?


No, there isn't.


Fuck, we can't even get wealthy liberals to sponsor a counter-part to the right-wing noise machine. Remember Air America? For relative pocket change Air America could have been subsidized for years to counter-balance Rush and Company. Mark Green bought it in 2007 for $4.5 million. Hell, for some people that's stuff they find in their couch.

So why didn't they step up? So it loses a million bucks a year or whatever. I bet lots of wealthy liberals give that away in charitable donations every year. The best thing they can do to change the dialogue and thus the politics and the direction of the country, is to counter-balance the RW noise machine!


But they didn't step up. And if they couldn't do it then, they're not going to fund an astro-turf liberal activist group.


We're fucked.


We're going into the shitter. We had a couple of generations that we'll always fondly remember, the post-WW2 era when the entire industrialized world (except us) had been bombed into rubble, millions of their productive citizens were dead or crippled, and the output of so many factories lay shattered in battlefield or settled in the bottom of the ocean. We rose to the top because everybody else had been smashed to the bottom AND we had the New Deal to make sure that pretty much the whole citizenry benefited from the prosperity.

And then came the Oil Crisis and the post-Vietnam slump, and a depressed nation decided to try out that really nice Reagan guy and his exciting new economic ideas.

And now the flow of wealth to the top is in a positive-feedback cycle of epic proportions. It will not stop until the collapse.

[TomCADem]

15. Look at DU! - There Are More Potential Graysons Then You Can Shake A Stick At

Also, have you read the write-ups of some of these Tea Party "Fiscal Conservatives" who were newly elected to Congress. While some of them are rich, a lot of them are deeply, deeply in debt:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/freshmen-financial-disclosures-2010/

Why can't we get some liberal, left wing deadbeats to run for Congress? Why is it that only the right wing can run for Congress with a huge debt.

Or, perhaps the left is filled with true fiscal conservatives who would not run for Congress while they are underwater.