a lot of us have not changed much at all

[G_j]

in fact we are still passionate about the same exact issues we where discussing when the shrub was president. Personally, I am still passionate about the issues I cared about when I first voted for Jimmy Carter.
Don't bother thinking we are part of some kind of wingnut sleeper cell whose been waiting all these years just to criticize Obama. We are, generally speaking, progressive/liberal/Democrats who are committed to those traditional values. It's really quite simple.

..end of mini rant..

[PDJane]

1. I've been passionate about the same things since I was 16.

I've added some things since then, but that's the normal process of education.

[NightWatcher]

2. It sounds horrible but what I care about doesn't change based on who is prez at the time.

One of the only notable exceptions I can think of are the dead or wounded friends who were pulled into shrub's wars. Outside of war, nothing much changed based on the regime.

[X_Digger]

4. +1 n/t

[sabrina 1]

7. I think that sounds like a true Democrat, not horrible at all.

[A Simple Game]

17. Darn right, principle and Country before party. If you don't feel that way you may as well

be a Republican.

My principles haven't changed since the '60s. Well maybe a few tweaks as the changing times require.

Sadly after a brief period of improvement, I think the Country has gone downhill since then.

[Octafish]

3. I'm so old I remember when Democrats put people ahead of profits...

...and I vaguely remember when peace trumped money -- for everybody.

[datasuspect]

5. i remember when cops were worthy of respect.

[G_j]

21. At least the aspirations were there once

and working for the people was considered a noble cause.

[Egalitarian Thug]

25. I remember when the liberal Democrats would work with the liberal republicans to

get shit done for the rest of us.

[LWolf]

6. Yes.

My issues have been the same for my entire adult life, regardless of who the POTUS has been, or where any party stood.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. The truth will set us free

and its painful.. No I haven't changed either though my physical activism has because of age and health.

We still fight the good fight.

[leftstreet]

9. DURec

[bvar22]

10. With YOU.

I joined the Democratic Party 47 years ago because I BELIEVED this:

"In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be[font siZe=3] established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.[/font]

Among these are:

*The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

*The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

*The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

*The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

*The right of every family to a decent home;

*The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

*The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

*The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.

---FDR, State of the Union Address, 1944

Please note that FDR specified the above as Basic Human Rights,
to be protected and administered by our Government of The People,
and NOT as Commodities to be SOLD to Americans by For Profit Corporations.

There was a time, not so long ago, when voting FOR The Democrat
was voting FOR the above Basic Human Rights.
Sadly, this is no longer true.

---bvar22
I haven't changed.

[G_j]

22. thank you

that's right on the mark in every way.

[forestpath]

11. Exactly, it's about the issues. Period.

[Hydra]

12. *Puts a finger in the wind*

Yup, still facing the same direction since I became politically aware. Damn though, the landscape and the markers have sure changed...

[East Coast Pirate]

13. So anyway,

why do you President Obama?

[Skittles]

14. WE HAVE CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

YES INDEED!!!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. I voted for McGovern, and my political beliefs were formed in horror at the Reagan years

I marched against nuclear proliferation and helped edit a weekly newsletter that told the truth about Reagan's wars in Central America--which most of the DLC SUPPORTED, by the way. I stood out in the snow in subzero weather to protest Reagan.

I left political involvement when the local Democratic county organization froze me out for suggesting a motion against intervention in Central America. Turns out that a CIA front organization was a major employer in that town.

I got interested again in the 1990s, astonished and dismayed at how much the country had deteriorated.

Fast forward to 2013: Thanks to Democratic wimpiness, the Republicans have gone into full fascist mode.

Yeah, I'm disgusted. I wish I had taken the opportunities to emigrate that I had when I was younger. If my nieces and nephews asked, I would advise them to emigrate while they're still young enough.

[MisterP]

18. the DLCers were always on the GOP's side, since Cranston

their rhetoric has become more Pol Potty over the years--but if they really thought that the GOP was going to DESTROY AMERICA AND LEFTARD CRITICISM ONLY HELPS THEM DO THAT then they wouldn't push GOP legislation every chance they got

[G_j]

30. yes

I think I wish I had too.

[felix_numinous]

16. I feel there has been an attempt

to marginalize who ever is standing up for Constitutional and civil rights, in an attempt to rewrite history. It is deeply disturbing.

It is as hard to stay silent and go along with as any other murder.

[zeemike]

19. There is no shame in changing when you find you are wrong.

And that happened to me.
When I was young and impressionable I was recruited by right wingers and even attended 2 meetings of the John Birch Society and read Atlas Shrugged and bought into that fantasy.

The events changed me...JFK was killed right before our eyes, and all those people that I thought new what was right were glad and happy about it and I knew then they were wrong and I abandoned it as my eyes were open to just what they were.

So if some right winger has his eyes open I will welcome him with open arms because I was lost and now I am found.
But I will never abandon what I know is right and moral and just...and that is obvious if you listen to your heart.
People, community and love is what is right, and greed, self interest, and hate is obviously what is wrong with this world...it is not rocket science.
'

[nashville_brook]

20. k and r

[Mnemosyne]

23. K&F! nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

26. F? n/t

[Mnemosyne]

27. Arrr! R. lol. nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

29. I thought I had fallen into geezerdom and couldn't understand these damned kids anymore!

[Mnemosyne]

35. Hey, I'm a geezer! My brain finger connection is sad at times.

[tavalon]

24. Count me in

I thought, naively, that these things that infuriate me would be ferreted out by this current administration. But I forgot the axiom, power received is not given back. I definitely didn't know the axiom that doubling down is cool if you have a big D after your name.

[TBF]

28. Not only have we not changed -

I was reading the communist manifesto when I was 16 and it still makes more sense to me than most things I read -

but capitalism has not changed either.

The only thing that has changed is that we are not even attempting to reign in capitalism anymore - and that includes present administration and Mr. Corporate Tax Cut President.

[MrNJ]

31. k&r

[Lydia Leftcoast]

32. I wonder if the Third Way crowd are waiting for those of us who remember the past

to die off, so that they can tell younger generations such fairy tales as:

1. Social Security must be destroyed to save it

2. We needed unions in the past but no longer do

3. Mass transit won't work here because Nature laid America out in one-acre residential lots interspersed with freeways and strip malls

4. Sorry, we don't have magic wands to stop the Republicans with (and we're unable to reform the filibuster, vote against bad legislation, or have presidents or governors use their veto power)

5. The Republicans were right about national security. Too bad about your civil liberties and all those dead brown people

6. We have to be nice to the job creators, or they'll send jobs to China (Oh, wait...)

7. The Republicans were right about privatizing education, because far be it from us to publicize the fact that schools in the U.S. are locally controlled and that if you have bad schools you need to vote in a school board that will change things

8. Free trade is great. Let the money and cheap, shoddy imports flow across national boarders. Let national laws be voided for corporate interests. Let First World jobs be destroyed. Give corporations free movement across borders! Free movement of people? Not so much.

[KoKo]

33. I've had that same thought, lately.

sigh... Also, there's the Shock Doctrine Factor. Keep us shocked enough and move those stories through on the MSM with Distraction and Disinfo....and we all would just tune it out and accept the next shiny thing they throw our way.

[MisterP]

38. it's also important to them to delay any reactions: the less their bad moves get out, or the more

chaff they can put out (equating "Cheney did 9-11" and "Reagan did Iran-Contra" with "Obama did Sandy Hook," or trumpeting "if NOAA, FDA, SS, and HUD, then NSA" as "they're both statist&quot , or the more they deny these bad moves, the more they can "manage" the reaction

that way, activism is kept down until the changes have been finalized, and any rollback will be far smaller than otherwise

that's why They chose a president who made--what?--three-quarters of the activists under Bush just go home: had McCain or Romney taken credit for the Max Tax or gotten us into Syria or colluded to crush Occupy, DU would not be full of approved "sit down, shut up, and just keep pulling the lever like we tell you to" posts

AND it's also like big chain stores and the suburbs: you have whole generations not realizing there could be something different; things like farmer's markets, mom-and-pops, sustainability, transit, playing outside, yardening, and walkability may be easily accepted by Gen Y and Z, but have to be *actively and consciously* introduced: cars-only, point-to-point culture is hegemonic by virtue of nothing else being visible within the horizon (literally)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

39. Yes, it's no coincidence that outer suburbs are Republican strongholds

In fact, I'm sure some right-leaning social scientist figured out long ago that isolating middle class people in outer suburbs, with no place they couldn't drive to, and no neighbors who looked different from themselves, was the perfect way to encourage conservative ideology through fear of the unknown.

[G_j]

37. scary thought

but we have already watched history being seriously rewritten. Even with some of us still alive and kicking, not many really want to hear it.

[Rex]

34. I haven't changed much since the first days of DU1.

Much to the chagrin of some other old timers.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

36. Worker's Rights, Human Rights and the Environment...

Some Democrats are TERRIFIED of those issues for fear the Republicans will call them names.

[reusrename]

40. Awesome mini rant. Spot on.