DLC Alert: Listen To America!
The following quotes are from today’s NYT Letters to The Editor section. They underscore how Democrats are perceived by a cross-section of readers, under our current “centrist” DLC, stand-for-nothing “leadership.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/opinion/l09dems.html
“President Bush's operatives took on Senator John McCain and then Senator John Kerry on their war heroism. The Democrats don't need to be nearly as dishonest to raise questions about President Bush on security issues.”
“I'll tell you what: Why don't the Democrats just do the right thing, instead of worrying about re-election? The American people might follow.”
“The Democrats need to stop being afraid of who might disagree with them on this or that fine-tuned point. Get a game-face transplant. Show some conviction. Speak with courage. Stand up for something.”
“While I hope that strong Democratic leadership appears soon, it seems doubtful from the current crop in Washington.”
These people are not talking about mainstream Liberal Democrats; they are speaking directly to the Hillary Clintons, the Joe Liebermans, and the rest of the namby-pamby DLC DINOs who purport to represent us. Americans want to see some fire, and counter-attacks by honest-to-goodness Democrats who are not afraid to be labeled as patriotic Liberals by the neocon RR, and the current PNAC puppets in Congress and the White House.
They want to see and hear Democrats, like Howard Dean and the members of this blog, who are mad as hell and are willing to speak up loudly and be heard.
DLC
The DLC is in bed with and controlled by the same corporations that run the Repuks.
Hillary is part of the elite oligarchy that rules this country
Why do I say that? How did Bill Clinton get the money to rise to power? I suspect from the alleged Iran-Contra drug running occurring in Arkansas while he was governor that Bush Sr. was a part of through his CIA associates. Note the Bush/Clinton connection: According to President Bush, he and Bill speak once a month and Bush claims Bill is like a brother to him. Note Bush Sr. and Clinton are often seen together and Clinton visits him at his residence in Maine.
Many suspect Hillary will be the democratic candidate for president due to the money backing her provided by the ruling elite. A true tipoff that shows a candidate is not in the hands of the ruling elite would be to return the power to print money back to the people where it rightfully belongs, which means taking it away from the privately owned Federal Reserve (a deceptive misnomer). JFK with executive order 11110 attempted to do this. However LBJ reversed this once he became president. LBJ was from Texas and supported financially by Brown and Root, now a subsidiary of Halliburton. See the video Money Masters to understand that the greatest single effect a president can have on world poverty is return the ability to print money back to the people.
Yet another conspiracy
Yet another conspiracy theory rears its ugly head. We have an administration that is openly anti-American, and yet some people feel the need to go looking for boogeymen under their beds.
If this node goes any further off-topic, it will be locked.
Bill
Look at your email please!!! Rich
Got it.
Got it.
By the way great post
I definately agree that we must take our party back from the DLC. The candidate I am trying to help now has a fellow named Jim Bloink running against him. He is running as a "Convervative Democrat". Sounds like a DLCer in the making.
Why in the hell
am I reading the Foster shit and the AR Iran/Contra shit on this website and what in the world does it have to do with the node parent?
Kick them all out!
I'm so tired of the fence sitting and wishy washy indecision I could puke. If they can't convey the needs of the average American they have no business representing them. Hillary is nothing more than an opportunist who cares for nothing but herself. I want people like John Conyers and Barbara Boxer representing me in Washington. We need real Democrats to step forward and challenge the status quo of these icons of poll sitting.
John McCain Lies to America,I can prove it.
Even tho I can prove John McCain lied to America,nobody wants to hear it.I guess this country will let him continue to lie because he was a POW...Big Mistake!
John McCain has the MSM covering up for him.
Neither "george bush" or "john mccain" will stand on stage,on camera,infront of all of America and answer my questions to them.
You will never get these corrupt,lying,selfserving viruses to ever stand before the people of America and answer to them....NEVER!
They can not tell the truth..and we put them in office.Have any of these "Great People" ever showed any concern for the Americans that live along our boarders with Mexico? Those Americans have had their lives turned upside down and nobody seems to care,at all.Not even other Americans,much less
"george bush".I don`t know,it looks like everyone is lying.
He proved in the primary against Bush
POW or not he is a coward. I am sure he is a liar too. He lost any respect I might have had for him letting them rip him apart and not defending himself in the primaries of 00. Coward.
Excuse me...
We have plenty to bash the GOP with, and there are things we should get downright nasty about. But we're not going to make many friends out there by calling John McCain a coward! Especially not among Vietnam Vets.
I'm a Democrat. Been a Democrat all my life. My father ran for in a few elections as a Democrat (and won a couple) on a local county level. On some issues, I'm so far to the left I'd make Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer hide behind Rush Limblah.
But John McCain is not a coward.
I've lived and I'll die a Democrat, but I stand by my opinion!
Well here is the thing:
Some of us would have died supporting McCain if he had stood up and demanded that the Constitution be protected. He did not.
Now McCain seems like a nice guy. He seemed like he would have put his foot down to fight many a battles he ended up not bothering with. History will not shine brightly on this era or its enablers, and McCain is one of them.
McCain is a survivor to be sure. I lost a lot of respect for him when he did not stand. Something is very wrong with how these last few years panned out.
Jim; While I agree...
that there are questions that need to be asked, and votes that the general public needs to be made aware of and reminded of, my argument is not against campaigning against McCain if he runs for president again.
We have plenty of ammunition to throw at him.
My objection was to the use of the word "coward".
I'm sure those of us who are old enough to remember Vietnam whether we served there or not, those of us who were there, and certainly those who were POW's, or lost brothers, uncles, dad, son, or husband in a POW camp, simply rail at the word "coward" used against John McCain. We exploded at the Swift Boat slime thrown at John Kerry(myself included) and rightfully so, and he wasn't a POW for years. Now, are we no better than slime
Look at Bush's military record and call him a coward. No argument, Look at Cheney's "other priorities" deferrments and call him a coward. No argument.
We can rant against some of McCain's votes. We can qustion his motives. But I have serious issues with the word "coward" being used.
People change, and there is
People change, and there is more than one type of "cowardice."
I hear ya.
Can we agree that McCain was brave at times in his life and NOT at others?
I mean he either showed cowardliness (and I don’t need to keep the word but it is descriptive) OR he is in agreement with horrid anti American acts OR he believes he is biding his time to “rescue” us.
At the first infraction I believed the last of these. As each infraction came I moved fully into the first two’s camp.
Too much has happened. McCain lost his moment to come to his Nation's defense.
I have known a few POWs from
I have known a few POWs from WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam, and they all tell me the same thing: surviving captivity is not a test of moral strength, but of sheer willpower and survival skills.
John McCain may not be a coward in the macho sense of the word, but he has displayed moral cowardice on more than one occasion. When he panders to the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party (for personal gain), and puts partisan "loyalty" above the oath he took to defend the Constitution he is, in fact, displaying moral cowardice.
That label also goes for every elected representative from both Parties (including the DLC, which is the topic of this node) who choose to protect their careers at the expense of the People they swore to protect and defend.
But Bill, remember one thing...
McCain was offered the chance to be released by the Cong. His name was included in a list of names of prisoners to be in a prisoner exchange. He refused to go unless all American POW's were released. That was not the act of a coward!
If he runs fro president, I will campaign against him. But his voting record and his party's platform give us enough ammunition to sink his campaign several time over. I will not, however, question his courage.
Terry
Again, people can change. I
Again, people can change. I still say that he is a moral coward, as are all politicians who trade their loyalties on the open market.
I respect McCain's bravery in Viet Nam, as I was there myself. I do not respect his capitulation to neoconservatism however.
Maybe I was
A little out of line. Anyone who has served honorably does deserve people's respect. I never will doubt that. Let me put it another way, if McCain would've shown the same courage in the primaries of 00 as he showed in Vietnam I would respect him. He has lost something somewhere.
And I too
question his judgement and/or motives concerning some of his votes and some of his behavior lately.
But I'm afraid we strayed a little from the theme of this thread.
The fact is, as I believe the opener of this thread to mean, we do need Democrats who will stand up and breathe fire. Too many are, while disagreeing with the majority, are doing so very,very politely. Far too politely in my own opinion.
The password of the day seems to be congeniality.
While this is disheartening, we need to keep focused on a number of candidates who are outside the beltway. I get email from a group calling themselves the Liberal Majority, who claim to be recruiting, grooming, and supporting progressive candidates in several states. If their emails are truthful, they are doing an admirable job, and producing some noticable results in several states. This is exactly what we need to do; find challengers to "sitting" congress people who have gotten too comfortalbe and feel too secure to really rock the boat.
But the boat needs to be rocked. Vigorously.