Wake Up Dems!

[SHRED]

You are not going to find many who are more liberal/left/progressive than me.
I was a 20 veggie, lobbied hard for industrial hemp, pushed hard for alternative/ecological solutions, and have chanted in OM circles, at hippie gatherings, fer God's sakes!

However, my redneck streak gets all fired up with the Hackett debacle.

When are the Dems going to learn about imaging and message framing?
My RW "friends", which I believe speak for many, always harp on the Dems as being weak and "pussies".
The Dem leadership just feeds that image big time with pasty ass Reid and whimpy spokespersons.

I know this is a superficial level but not to millions in middle America.
"Image is everything" and we, as Dems, can have both that and substance with candidates like Clark and Hackett.

Wake the 'F' UP!

[MrBenchley]

1. The only ones not awake I see are our "progressive purists"

"Image is everything"
So that's why we need a blowhard whose position on illegal immigration, which he appeared to pull out of his ass, is "Deport 'em all"?

[SHRED]

2. And with that nit picking...

...they will continue to be a non factor in American politics.

[MrBenchley]

3. So pointing out that your fairhaired boy is a blowhard

whose position on guns and immigration is indistingusihable from racist Tom Tancredo's is nit-picking?

Geeze, no wonder your friends think what they do.

[welshTerrier2]

4. a "blowhard" they wanted to run for a House seat

that's your argument? Hackett had screwed up, right-wing positions on important issues like guns and immigration??

i'm with you Benchley ... let's get rid of all the right-wing conservatives in the Party ... and let's get rid of the elitist leadership that wanted Hackett to run for a House seat ... i trust you're as critical of them as you are of the OP ...

what kind of jackasses are running and ruining our Party?

[MrBenchley]

5. He could win in a right wing enclave

of the sort that elected a crazy woman last time...

"i'm with you Benchley ... let's get rid of all the right-wing conservatives in the Party "
I didn't say that...I just found it funny as hell that after months of having our extremem leftists DEMAND that "we" (hahahahahaha) purge the party of everyone to the right of Noam Chomsky, now they imagine they got the purge they're demanding and are foaming with rage over it.

[400Years]

6. Meanwhile the DLC corporate whores are the ones purging the party

of all people who actually give a shit about democracy.

Nope can't have the unwashed masses picking a candidate in the primaries.

[MrBenchley]

9. Not even close to true...

But it's hilarious to see the faux outrage from our "progressive purists"

[LincolnMcGrath]

12. Not even close to true...

It is not just "Extreme Leftist" or "progressive purists" who are upset with this. No matter how many times you post it.

[welshTerrier2]

7. "he could win" justifies endorsing a "blowhard"?

you mean, of all the Democrats he's the only one we have? you mean we're stuck with him? you mean as abhorrent as you see his views on gun control and immigration are, we should run this blowhard anyway?

your argument is that he's a blowhard when he ran for Senate but it doesn't matter that he's a blowhard when the Party pushes him to run for the House seat?

interesting dichotomy ...

[MrBenchley]

11. It's a big tent, chief....

Fuck those who wanted ideological purity....doubly so because they're showing what hypocrites they really are.

[LincolnMcGrath]

14. Big enough for Extreme leftists and Progressive Purists"?

Or any of the other dozens of labels you have lobbed at fellow Dems? Including the DLC!

[MrBenchley]

15. You mean the extremists who want to push everybody else out?

LOL!

[LincolnMcGrath]

17. Nobody is more exclusionary than you.

Teeny Progressives

Progressive Purists

Jr. Joe McCarthy Club

And on and on and on. Shall I post links?

I have given you more chances than you deserve to bring something to the table other than "Hackett is a racist" or your usual "Leftist Bogeyman Nonsense"

[welshTerrier2]

18. "big tent" in the House but not the Senate??

please clarify ...

your argument is that mr. blowhard is "outside the big tent" when he ran for the Senate seat but it's just okeedokee with you for the leadership to push him to run for the House seat because he's "inside the big tent" ???

i repeat, interesting dichotomy ...

[LincolnMcGrath]

8. Whoa! Back up the 'enemies list' bus there bubba.

Stop your weak attempt to paint 'Extreme leftists' as the only ones upset here. I mean, we all knew you would try eventually, but this is just pathetic. I gave money to Hackett, because he had a shot to beat a GOPer, knowing he was more centrist than many.

Now you are trying to paint Hackett as a racist?

[MrBenchley]

13. I leave enemies lists to the "progressive purists"

who have been screaming for months that "we" (snort, chortle) needed just such a purge as they imagine they got when Hackett quit.

[LincolnMcGrath]

16. Your own posts betray you MrB

But we are all used to your baseless nonsense by now.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

20. you and Benchley are full of crap

I invite EVERYONE into America's party, which endorses real old fashioned patriotic ideals that promote varied opinions and beliefs...

Lock-marching and goose-stepping people on the left are no better than Reich-wing Nazis.

The REAL issue today is a run-away Military Industrial Complex that makes ALL DC leaders nothing more than whores.

The Democratic Party, with all it's shortcomings is our last refuge and final stand for ANY semblance of Democracy.

Here's my "invitation" to the right wingers and religious fundies who have recently seen the light:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

[welshTerrier2]

21. what the hell are you talking about ???

why are you saying i'm full of crap ???

trust me on this, you have misconstrued my intent ...

my position is not at all that Hackett is a "blowhard" ... my position is that Benchley made a criticism of Hackett but then is NOT prepared to criticize the Democratic leadership that drove him out of the Senate race ... how can he call Hackett a "blowhard" and then support the leadership when they ask him to run for the House?

i don't live in Ohio and thought a fair fight in the primary was in the best interests of the Party ... what i really hated was the Party's heavy-handed interference ... it's clear they did serious damage to Hackett's chances and that is NOT what the Party should do prior to a primary ...

the elitist leadership took the decision out of the hands of the voters ... you may have construed my using Benchley's characterizations as my own position on Hackett ... the truth is, my only position on Hackett is that he deserved a fair hearing before the voters without interference from his own party ...

Benchley loves to antagonize the left rather than trying to make the party a real "big tent" ... he's a destructive force because he fails to understand that every vote counts ... his arguments in this thread are the very height of hypocrisy ... if he is so negative on Hackett, how can he honestly condone the party's support for his candidacy for a House seat?

my points have been to highlight his self-contradicting arguments; not to condemn Hackett ...

[sandnsea]

10. But then they go and vote

And everybody gets pissed off all over again. You can't be willing to sacrifice liberal politics for centrist firebrands, then blame the DLC when the firebrands don't vote with the liberals. The left wants to blame everybody except themselves and their own inability to put some fire in their own political platform.

[Armstead]

19. Is THIS wimpy or Corporate?

Sherrod Brown on Globalization. Nobody with half a brain can say this is not fiery and a strong and uncompromising message:

"In 1999, thousands gathered to protest the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Seattle. In September 2003, thousands more will gather in Cancun, Mexico, as international leaders meet for the fifth WTO ministerial.

These demonstrators will be demanding comprehensive reforms to an international trade system that has failed to improve the social and economic conditions for millions around the globe. The WTO model - forcing poor countries to open markets to wealthy nations - is not working.

The failures of the WTO are nowhere clearer than in agriculture policy. In the United States and across the globe, rural economies and farmers have been devastated by artificially low prices in almost every major commodity. Large, multinational corporations now control trade in major commodities by selling below the cost of production on the global market.

WTO policies have led to economic insecurity, instability and an increase in illegal crops and crime throughout the developing world. Increased migration from rural to urban centers has exacerbated poverty and joblessness. In the 10 years since NAFTA was signed, 1.7 million jobs have been lost in the Mexican countryside. Not only do WTO practices destroy lives, they destroy cultures."