The Knives Come Out (Mary Lyon)

[Tace]

Mary Lyon, From The Left -- World News Trust

Jan 16, 2008 -- I don't know, we must all just be crazy. It's not bad enough that slams of sexism and racism are flying through the air between the Clinton and Obama camps. That's just a little bit of it. But all of it bothers me.

We Democrats are on the rough end of what could be the most revolutionary, history-making, and and earth-shaking presidential election ever. If our side prevails, at least from the assessments this early in the game, we would be witnessing the ascendence of either the first female president or the first African-American president. EITHER ONE would symbolize a huge leap forward for our country, considering how both women and blacks have been the largest groups to live with disenfranchisement through our history, and what distance both groups have had to travel toward equal footing in our society.

Clinton and Obama/Obama and Clinton, should NOT be sniping at each other. For one thing, the knee-jerk media loves nothing so much as a fight. Guess what will keep getting all the coverage? Now, it's stories about "Democrats in Disarray" when we're supposed to see that label laminated to the GOP now. For another thing, if that's all reporters and pundits can see, that means no attention whatsoever paid to other worthy voices like John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich, who are as deserving for their views and policy proposals as the so-called "top two." We're not only better than this, we have much better things to do. We should be making history, and preparing the talking points and perceptions NOW: that the new century is effectively starting THIS November -- a few years late, almost a full decade into the second millennium. The years we've just been through since January 2001 should go down in history as little more than an aberration, a large but temporary boil on the skin, perhaps an abnormal pimple on the complexion of our young country, a bad, but momentary flare-up of political acne, if you will.

No outbreak of leprosy. Just a big, fat zit.

more

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/news/the-knives-come-out-mary-lyon.html

[calimary]

1. Cool!

Thanks, Tace!

[Tace]

5. Always A Pleasure

: )

[calimary]

2. Oh, wtf, shameless kick!

:headbang:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. Mary Lyon is great - I once met her

I assume this is Mary Goodwin Lyon who has had an extensive career in radio in the Los Angeles area and also heavy Democratic activism. I was at U.C. Irvine in 1972 and she had a DJ slot on the college radio station. I once dropped by the station and we had an interesting conversation. An enlightened and highly intelligent lady.

[calimary]

4. OMG...

I'm honored!

Thanks!

Watch your mail...

[A-Schwarzenegger]

28. Oh, yeah?

Me, too, and I wholeheartedly concur & recommend.

P.S. Oops, too late to rec. But I met her!
And of course one reason I was too late is because of
the current state of GDP, where I rarely venture these
days, and so her words are posted on DU where they may
do the most good. Peace.

[Auntie Bush]

6. "Just a big, fat zit." You mean like the one on Rush's ass?

HORRORS!

[calimary]

8. Could very well be. Oh, the humanity!

They're ALL just one big, oozing, malignant pustule on the complexion of America.

Come, let us pop them!

[Auntie Bush]

10. I almost vomited at the imagery. Damn my vivid imagination.

:puke:

[calimary]

11. Funny, suddenly I feel like squeezing...

:rofl: :evilgrin: :rofl:

[H2O Man]

7. Very good!

Thank you for posting this.

Nominated.

[calimary]

12. Thank you, H2O Man!

:patriot:

You always write such thought-provoking essays here. I am honored!

[gateley]

9. EXCELLENT! Thank you for posting this! Recommend! nt

[calimary]

14. I appreciate this very much!

Thank you, gateley!

And yes, the Dark Siders ARE very much like so many pimples on limbaugh's ass, as Auntie bush said a little farther upthread. They all deserve each other.

[EFerrari]

13. Go, Mary! K&R.

:kick:

[calimary]

15. Thanks, sweetie!

:headbang:

[Mnemosyne]

16. Error: You've already recommended that thread. n/t

:hi:

[calimary]

17. Error: You cannot add this user to your buddy list because this user is already in your list.

There are some threads here that I've wanted to recommend at least a hundred times (probably something having to do with IMPEACHMENT). Thanks!

:toast:

[Mnemosyne]

24. Cool! I hear you on those impeachment threads.

Even my 74yo life long repug mother wants it! She never liked idiot boy. And she is re-registering as a D to vote HRC! Not my first choice, but bless her heart; she wants to vote for the first woman president. No one can fault her for that!

:toast::hi:

[calimary]

25. Man, do I hear a lot of that among my own friends! Women friends,

that is. They want to be able to vote for a woman for president - in their lifetimes. Not surprising. I, too, want to see a woman president before I die. I can understand why older women, according to pollsters, are going for Hillary. Maybe they think their time is too short to wait til next time (assuming there ever is a next time).

[donheld]

18. Wonderful post

Thanks for calling my attention to it. So many good threads fall into oblivion it's a real shame.

[calimary]

21. I know what you mean. I sometimes have to chase a few several pages in.

There are so many great thinkers and writers here. We have what you'd call an embarrassment of riches.

[hfojvt]

19. yet neither of them are very revolutionary

we might as well be excited about the election of Elizabeth Dole or Colin Powell.

They are perhaps sniping at each other because they have no huge policy proposals that they are committed to. Their primary commitment is to themselves, as President. We are supposed to vote for them, their person, not their platform.

The media loves it because it keeps them away from boring discussions about policy and about the problems of people who don't matter, that is, ordinary Americans who are not celebrities.

It would be nice if we could just start the new millenium now, but it's probably gonna take longer than the next 8 years to get back to where we were 8 years ago. As Reagan quoted once "any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one." The jacka$$holes we have now have spent 8 years kicking down many useful structures. Fixing that will require not only the labor of many carpenters, but also time.

[calimary]

22. Boy, they sure have.

I'm still undecided (since MY candidate is Al Gore - oh well...) but I will tell you this:

When Hillary Clinton had her little emotional hiccup just before the New Hampshire primary, she wasn't the only one who choked up a little. It was the comment she made in that diner about how she see what's happened in this country "and we have to reverse it" - that certainly hit the waterworks for me. I can't tell you how many times I've either said or thought those same words, and with a feeling of sorrow, anguish, fear, and desperation in my heart about just how damned bad things have become on this schmuck's watch. When I think of the ground we've lost, the crimes that have been committed (and that have been allowed to go unpunished or even investigated), the incompetence, the cronyism, all the horrible - and horrifying - new precedents and templates that have been established that WILL impact future behavior and policy among the ruling class - it drives ME to near-tears.

When I think of how we women marched and worked and what we endured trying to gain passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, when I think of the battles we've fought as women trying to gain a place at the table (and it's certainly correspondingly true for our brothers and sisters in disenfranchisement - blacks, hispanics, the aged, children, the handicapped, the needy, AND the anti-war movement during Vietnam), how far we were able to push for change, how hard we struggled for so many years, only to see so much of that rolled back, negated, reversed, stunted, and ALL that ground we fought so hard to gain - being lost - it makes ME want to cry, full out.

Yes, it will take time. And it'll probably take having straight-across majorities in both Houses of Congress - to protect whatever corrective steps OUR president next year will have to start taking, so that the obstructionist assholes across the aisle can't interfere. Frankly, if it were up to ME, I'd tell all things republi-CON to STFU and go over there to the back corner and stand there facing the wall until we're finished - HOWEVER LONG IT TAKES. My reasoning is: They've HAD their say. They've HAD their turn. MORE than enough of each. We've done their bidding and done it their way. AND LOOK WHERE WE ARE! We have MORE than enough proof that their way works FOR ABSOLUTE TIN-PLATED SHIT. So it's time for them to go to the back of the line and stay there for awhile, and let somebody else (US) step forward for a change. For a change, indeed.

We DO have to reverse it. ALL of it. And it'll take many carpenters, brick-layers, dry-wallers, painters and plasterers, and a cast of bajillions. The less the bad guys have to say about it, the better, because all they're going to do is get in the way and try to keep things going to hell as they have been.

I do know this, too: WHOEVER it is carrying our banner at the end of convention season, even if it's the least capable or prepared, will do a whale of a lot better on this than the best the Dark Siders have to offer! I wouldn't trust any one of them any farther than I could throw the Washington Monument.

[EFerrari]

20. Kick

[calimary]

23. Hugs to ya, sweetie!

Thanks!

:thumbsup:

[Samantha]

26. I am sorry, I tried to recommend this thread but it's too late

I am responding, and therefore kicking it. The irony of reading this for me is this: you and I wrote a thread about the same time expressing the same sentiment. My thread received four recommendations and only a handful of responses. The thrust of it was that Hillary and Obama should be attacking Bush* not each other. I fail to understand why the majority of DU'ers could not bless this sentiment with a simple response. The only guess I have is that this is a crazy busy time, and there's an overabundance of items to absorb. On the other hand, so many of these threads are started with such simple premises behind them, and so little thought, and hundreds here give them acclamation. I will never understand it. It takes a lot to put some thought into starting a thread with a legitimate theme behind it, and then investing the time to host it. It seems so little to ask that if one agrees with that thesis, "raise your hand" by sending the author a simple response.

Is that too much too ask?

AND IT'S GREAT TO HEAR FROM YOU AGAIN ON SUCH AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT!

In any event, I salute you for your efforts at presenting this important theme and for the time you invested in doing so.

Sam

[calimary]

27. Hey, Samantha - first of all - Thank You for the kick!

Next time you kick one of my threads (which, yes, I whore shamelessly for myself :P ), and you have a thread of your own, why not post the link? We can generate business for each other that way, 'eh? I wouldn't mind cross-promoting you at all!

And thanks for the kind words. I think the more we're all in synch with things like this, the more powerful a tsunami we create for - and OF - ourselves. 'Cause SOMEBODY's gotta blow down those assholes on the Dark Side who have fucked up everything they could and broken whatever's left (what they didn't flat-out steal, that is). We're all Dems, but we don't always have to be like those proverbial cats that are impossible to herd. A united front is a good thing.

:hi: