So ..... what kind of climate would we need to get an actual, no shit, unreconstructed LIBERAL ....

[Stinky The Clown]

.... as our presidential standard bearer.

To show how strongly the country is leaning our way, Mary Landreau, perhaps the MOST endangered Dem, is leading in polling against a former Dem (who the Repubics have put up against her) by 55 to 39. That's just about landslide territory. With our least favored candidate.

Why don't we have a candidate who favors single payer health care for everyone?

Why don't we have a candidate who is willing to haul out the trash - in the form of SERIOUS investigations into the ongoing criminal enterprise that is our current administration?

Why don't we have a candidate who is saying Out Now with respect to Georgie's War?

Why don't we have a candidate who favors a 75% reduction in military spending?

Why don't we?

[cyberswede]

1. Because,

unfortunately, Kucinich is "not electable." :(

[Fireweed247]

18. That's what the Corporate media told us

and then everyone listened for no apparent reason.

[Skittles]

22. CORRECT

they went with the frontrunners the corporate media picked

[Warpy]

2. Obama is on record for saying he'll start pulling troops out of Iraq

as soon as he is sworn in. That's about the best of the three on that issue.

Nobody is talking about single payer because the conventional wisdom in the private club inside the beltway is that people would call it socialism and reject it. That means it's time to clean out the club and get new membership.

Nobody is talking about reducing the bloated Pentagon budget by 75% because the conventional wisdom says being soft on defense (or largesse to fat defense contractors) is political suicide.

All we can hope for is a pleasant surprise once a candidate gets into office. We know that is impossible with McBush or any other GOP. With them, we get no hope. With either Democrat, at least we get hope even if they're too scared to act.

The hope is that we can scare them. My guess is that things will get bad enough that people in this country will start getting very scary.

[Fox Mulder]

3. We had one.

His name is Dennis Kucinich.

Too bad the media said he was "unelectable". :eyes:

[spanone]

4. good questions.....i'll be damned if i can answer one

is our system fucked up? i can answer that, but so can you.

[hootinholler]

5. Because the people don't control who the candidates are.

Simple as that.

I think the time is right for a third party.

-Hoot

[lonestarnot]

21. And the people don't really care or know shit from shinola. Look at their

ignorance on the torture issue. Prollee glad we torture, AZ nutballs are glad Sheriff Nazi Airpiehole is harrassing Mexicans by kidnapping. Fed the fuck up with people.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Thank the media

kucininch was "not electable" and Edwards "was too liberal"

Oh and they have started the Liberal with Obama already

But we "elect" our candidates, really.

But to answer your question... another 1929 situation will lead to another "traitor to his (or her) class.

Or tars and feathers and a hot revolution

[Stinky The Clown]

7. I will embrace that traitor to her/his class ....... if (s)he ever shows up.

[vixengrl]

8. First thing we do is--we *kill* all campaign advisors.

I don't literally mean draw and quarter them in the public square. At least, I think I don't. After the mind-numbing spin-session this and all campaigns I can recall (and I've been actively paying attention since '88) have been, I'm convinced that candidates might start out really well-intentioned, and they go in for these "rain-makers". And end up all wet. And the longer they play the game, the worse it gets.

I'm also looking for term-limits for talking heads. They must be rotated out on a regular basis so opinion can stay somewhat relevant. Do I think Cokie Roberts or George Will has a clue what "regular voters" think? No. Not especially. (I'm really not sure how this one gets enforced. Maybe we can start with the geniuses on FOX--convince the management that it would be a cool news-related reality show to vote each week on which fool we don't ever want to see on a Sunday morning show again. I'd vote for Bill Kristol.)

More citizen journalism. I think grassroots blogs are actually doing some good at shining a light on how politics is played and why it's no good for our democracy. I also think the internet may play a part in making more people aware of how *they* are being played. A lot of polling and the dividing up of the electorate into these little demographic boxes--I wonder if, as more people are exposed to differing viewpoints, those hard-edge differences will blur, and people will just stop looking at it as "white males aged 18-34" or whatever. People would poll on issues and: "seems the trend *everywhere* is..." I like that, and here's why:

Communication has gone global and soundbites have gone viral. A candidate can't give a message in one place, and not expect it to turn up somewhere else. Crafting a message to appeal to a certain group can just as easily alienate another group. I'm not saying the numbers are worthless--I just think they are *worth* less than might be supposed.

If we got down to more direct inspection of the candidate by the voters, and more listening by the candidates, and less noise and spin, the voter could make a more informed accounting about candidates, and have less of the "spinpression" we're left with after all the hacks have had at the poor, once well-intentioned, would-be hero or heroine.

Or that's just my off-the-cuff feeling about it.

(Edit: you know, everything is spelled right and makes sense before I hit submit....)

[AdHocSolver]

9. We will get "liberal" candidates when (or, if) we get a citizenry that lives in reality, not a ...

fantasy world. It would help if the "new" electorate possessed some intellectual competency as well. Unfortunately, it may take another depression like in the 1930's to force reality onto the populace.

Yet, even faced with reality, the citizenry might make bad choices, anyway. Americans appear to have an aversion to the requirement to think through a situation logically, or to think about anything at all.

Our entire culture has a delusion that reflecting, even for a moment, before making a decision, somehow negates the correctness of the decision. The people have been trained to make snap decisions, to "trust your gut". However, "trusting your gut" only works if your brain already contains valid information, and some logical capability to begin with.

If one's brain is filled with Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly (not to forget American Idol) and one's logical capabilities have been stunted and short-circuited over the years, trusting one's gut is akin to relying on an idiot for advice.

However our educational system, the mass media, right-wing propaganda, and the electronic "world" have reduced a large number of Americans to mental obsequiousness. Their choices are already programmed in to them. Even when they question their "own" judgment, they generally pick the wrong source for helping them make a decision.

When any candidates even moderately suggest any of the proposals you mentioned (like Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, and John Edwards), the mainstream media, the Pavlovian trainers, will quickly marginalize them.

If you were looking for a serious response, maybe this post will provide food for thought. If you were merely asking a rhetorical question, I hope I haven't ruined your day.

[tom_paine]

17. Well said and true, sir.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[tritsofme]

10. Never, because such a candidate would not gain majority support in the party

Let alone in a general election.

You might not like to hear it, but its the truth.

[iamthebandfanman]

11. a lot of people are ignorant fools?

thats what i tend to think.

but dont listen to me, im just an elitest.
haha.

[terrell9584]

12. the candidate you just mentioned

is not a liberal by a long shot, and, in the eyes of many in the state, the view of her changed 180 once her brother ran against Nagin. It's a result of the '06 NOLA election and nothing else.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. I never said she was liberal. I was saying that she was the MOST endangred Dem .......

........ and that even *she* is leading in what was to be a Repubic pick-up.

[varelse]

13. Good questions

Perhaps if WE actually chose the candidates, we would. :grr:

[cynatnite]

15. Here is a documentary that will help answer your second to last question...

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

It's a must see for everyone, IMO. A great documentary.

[tom_paine]

16. A replay of 1776-1783: Americans vs. Bushies/Imperials/King's Men

I believe we are beyond anything else at this point, though I am far from certain.

The future is far from certain.

But we have allowed this thing to cement itself as Conventional Wisdom and we (our Democratic Leaders and each of us bear some portion of responsibility for this) have allowed the Bush Lie Machine to replace and/or intimidate and neturalize what was left of our post-WWII Free Press.

That and so much more.

The future is unwritten, of course, and I may be wrong, but this is how I see it.

Come back and talk to me after November when "water flows uphill" once again in a Soviet/Orwellian/Bushie style when Emperor Bush McCain wins, likely by a landslide (not that it will be representative of the actual voters, who will likely give McCain a slim margin of actual victory but add in the Bushie Disenfranchisement Program, both manual and electronic, and there you have the landslide. (The future is unwritten on this, too, and I desperately hope I am wrong...but I see what I see)

All this in a nation in which 81% of us think we are on the wrong track. Don't try to figure our Amerika, the Old Soviet Union or Nazi Germany...these related, similar nations just are. None of it makes sense, but that is what Bushie/Nazi/Soviet Propaganda is all about...making the lie seem real, the sensless seem sensible.

In any case, a replay of Americans vs. Bushies 1776-1783 is unlikely because we are not the same poeple who helped defeat Hitler 70 years ago.

Hell, mentally, we Imperial Subjects of Amerika are MUCH closer to those Germans who launched Hitler to power.

[TransitJohn]

19. Revolution and/or a new Constitutional Convention.

eom

[RB TexLa]

20. Glad to have sent Mary a check last week.