To Democrats in Congress: I take back my apology!

[AndyA]

I was chastised here at DU for being too critical of the Democrats in Congress, and tried to keep an open mind about it, and I realized the other DUers were right and I was wrong to be so critical.

So I apologized.

Now I take that apology back. You are deserving of all the criticism, and continue to underwhelm me with your constant doting on George Bush's needs.

The American people made themselves clear last November.

George Bush has lied to us. Bankrupted us. Stripped us of our civil rights and liberties. He has burdened us with high gas prices, an incredible debt, and low paying jobs with no benefits and no future.

He has killed our sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and friends in a war created to help his cronies and their big corporations.

And what are YOU doing, Democrats, to protect us? You're wasting time trying to pass "non-binding" resolutions and talking the tough talk, but walking the soft walk.

You're giving away the farm to try to save a cow, for Christ's sake!

Shame, shame, shame on all of you*! You are not doing your jobs!!

(*Exceptions to the few who really are standing up for our rights, like Feingold, Kucinich, etc.)

[Tom Joad]

1. Andy, for awhile there i even thought they were going to something serious

to end the war.

[Phredicles]

2. Thank you - for saying what a lot of us are thinking,

at least minus the swear words.:grr:

[peabody13]

3. hear, hear!

...and while we're on the subject...

Do you think we can talk Carter into taking back his apology for speaking frankly about the damage the Bush administration has done to the world?

[Nightjock]

4. Harumph!

to your "hear,hear"....

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Welcome to DU

he just might, I don't know if he will

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. I was so bummed that Carter took it back. I wonder who strongarmed him?

[snappyturtle]

15. Does give one pause, doesn't it? nt

[yy4me]

25. Good thought peabody13, and welcome to DU.

Many of us agree with you in regard to Jimmy Carter's comment. I cheered when he said it and shook my head in disbelief when he took it back. I find myself shaking my head in disbelief a lot lately.

[SammyWinstonJack]

27. Yes, that bummed me out too! I couldn't believe he apologized or whatever one would call it.

:wtf:

[endarkenment]

5. I voted for this?

K&R my friend, many of us share your disappointment. I kind of view the Democratic Party as the Chicago Cubs of politics: you just know they are going to disappoint you in the end. (It would have been my Red Sox, but they had that odd triumph a couple of years ago.)

[Zodiak]

9. What I worry about is not that they are the Cubs.

The Cubs try to win.

I am more thinking the Washington Generals. You know...the ones who lost to the Globetrotters in every game (cuz it is in the script).

Sadly, it takes very few players to fix a game.

[endarkenment]

13. Good point.

I agree. This stinks. Rotten to the core.

[LSK]

7. 2 things

- H.R. 1

- Filibuster

[JuniperLea]

8. Whiners will come here and say...

It's only been four months!

Yeah, and during that four months, Congress has lost many cojones.

"Only four months" would imply that things will progressively get better, yet we've seen things get progressively worse.

[Deja Q]

10. Yeah but he's supporting illegal immigrants and other countries' economies, while

telling us we need the rule of law.

India and China have embarrassingly high piracy rates (the US is not even 1/3rd as bad), so I hope their governments follow Gonzales' lead...

[EFerrari]

12. What does it take, really?

And how long do these legislators think we will remain passive?

They've got us killed here and abroad. They've outsourced our jobs, degraded our schools and gone with Big Pharma over our elderly.

Maybe I need to lead a cow to Nancy Pelosi's office for her to get it.

[Fridays Child]

14. Dear Congressional Democrats:

Please do us a favor, and take a step outside of your DC echo chamber. Shed, for just a moment, your inside-the-beltway blinders, and have a look at things from where we stand.

We hired you to END this war. No compromises. No spin. We want it stopped. S-T-O-P-P-E-D. That IS your job but you're not doing it. If you can't, or you won't, do it, GET OUT, and we'll hire someone who will. Period. This is not open for discussion. Get it?

Now, go back to work.

[iwanmycntrybak]

16. I am tired of waiting and hoping.

If they are not going to fix this country now, it's not gonna happen. The opportunity is NOW!!! It will not get any better than this for the Dem's. They are blowing it !!! My feeling is that they are all on the same team, from voting for Bush's supreme court nominees to what we have today, proves that they work together behind the scenes.

[Maven]

17. I gave up on them when news of their secret trade deal with Bush surfaced.

What a disappointing performance. They really are confirming that cynical "all politicians are the same" bullshit that we're all sick and tired of hearing. I actually feel bad for people like Feingold wou are trying in earnest to DO THEIR JOBS and can't get anywhere because of the "insiders" who own the party. They're just along for the ride, like the rest of us.

[Zodiak]

18. Couple of things:

For one, do not be so quick to apologize when it comes to criticism of the Democrats. That kind of information MUST come out or this party to be made more capable of handling today's poltics. Our party obviously is not capable of getting anything done save let the Republicans have their way. It is as obvious as the nose on our faces.

So what to do?

First identifying the Democrats who are on the side of the People is paramount. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I have a list made out based on my own research. I suggest everyone does the same and compares notes. Certain names will jump out at us.

But the bathwater has to go. Today's politics are NOT about compromise, but power. And you need a party that is fierce and determined to do battle in today's poltical arena. Ones that get elected with the courage of their convictions and USE their power full-tilt. Our party doesn't even come close to doing that...half of the time they lay down without a fight, and the other half of the time they completely capitulate after a small foray with courage.

Short of that, nothing will change within the system. No third party challenge has a chance in this poltical arena. The bare fact remains that majority of Americans do not have political information outside of the spehere of the TV media, and the media will always have it Republicans vs. Democrats. So the system has to break somehow. We either have to break the backs of the TV media or we have to break the machine the feeds it....our economy.

At some point, this endless capitulation will lead to two possible things, neither of which are particularly desirable.

A. The system wins: The corporate Republican dream of corporate world rule will root itself deeply into the Earth, and worldwide proto-fascist governments will rise to cater to them. People will be reduced to mere numbers the world over, save for the few elites at the top of the food chain. Freedom will be dead, as will human dignity, privacy, and self-determination.

B. The system is challenged: The peoples of the world will have to rise up and fight this by refusing to participate in the system. That especially goes for Americans. The result of this would be a catastrophic upheaval of societal norms, and end-game does not necessesarily entail the people winning....but it might.

Our backs are against the wall because our system is completely broken by corruption and inaction. I would like to say otherwise, but by observation, this is increasingly becoming my conclusion. There are unpleasant options after that conclusion, unfortunately.

And everything is at stake....even the very habitability of our world.

[bluescribbler]

19. Whoopi was right

On Bill Maher's show, she said, "They don't have one ball among them."

[PuraVidaDreamin]

20. I'm so agitated and quite nearly broken

Yes, I will get up tomorrow, make phone calls, make
clear my anger, continue to put up banners on overpasses
including many this weekend to greet Memorial Day
travelers to the Cape, go to the vigil this weekend.

But honestly, what more can I do?
I've marched, gone to Crawford, been arrested
in my congressman's office, help to build and
erect an Arlington East.

I feel broken.

[truedelphi]

21. The Democrats have deserved a lot of criticism

www.FilibusterForPeace.org

Pass it along.

[vickitulsa]

22. We should have been tipped off when the new Madame Speaker

praised the dim son in one of her very first opportunities for public comment on him and the abominable situation he has created in our country.

She may have been trying to "play it smart" and smile to their faces while she works to dismantle Bu$hCo's hold on our government, but it isn't looking that way anymore to me... and to many other voting Americans.

Maybe part of the problem we citizens have is in our tendency to look for "heroes" among politicians. We're demanding "heroic feats" that are pretty simple, though: that they do their jobs properly, uphold the Constitution for real, and thereby save us from the monsters of corruption.

Perhaps we are fooling ourselves when we let our hopes get raised time and time again, only to have them dashed once more and then feel ashamed that we ever supported the craven cowards who seem to have as much invested in the status quo of government/corporate corruption that rules the day in our land of the once-free.

Or maybe we were never as "free" as we thought we were. I'm beginning to wonder.

Nonetheless, the American voting public let all the politicians know in the midterm elections that we are sick and tired of the corruption and the lies from the 'Pukes. That wasn't just DU speaking!

I wonder what makes the Democrats who benefited from our anger at those who have led us down a path to destruction think that we won't be as angry at them if they don't walk the walk of reform they were talking during their campaigns?

Didn't they get it? Didn't they see that when we get pissed off enough, we will turn out in numbers great enough to overwhelm even the fine-tuned 'Puke election-stealing machine?

Do all of them -- Dems and 'Pukes alike -- gather in back rooms and laugh at all of us? Is the phrase "We the People" meaningless to them after all these years of corruption steadily taking over in our government operations? Do the Dems honestly think we're going to be "fine" with their backroom dealmaking and colluding with the very devils we sought to rid ourselves of when we voted in the midterms?

I guess I have way more questions than answers; but to my way of thinking, the answers are obvious in the questions themselves.

We've been screwed ... again ... and this time it's clear beyond any doubts that it was a royal screwing by our own, the ones we placed our trust in to clean up the criminal mess the BFEE and their corporate-crony masters have made of our country -- and other countries which did nothing to us.

I hope the Dems are listening now as the people express their disgust and disappointment -- and even greater anger than we felt before at the 'Pukes. I hope they haven't completely lost their ability to tune in to the mood of the country's populace.

It's a damned disgrace, what we're seeing from the Dem "leadership" these days -- with the notable exceptions we all know who try to swim against the tide and offer real ideas and real leadership.

Americans may be risk-aversive by our very natures as we try to save our own individual lives and livelihoods in the small, localized ways we can get a better handle on and comprehend. But when the Bigger Picture way up the food chain has become so obviously tainted, flawed, and corrupt, disabling all our local personal efforts, then even those measures fail.

And we are left with no recourse but to resort to more desperate measures. The 'Pukes saw what happened when we got angry enough at them. The Dems would do well to pay attention to that and consider whether they want the same treatment.

Perhaps they feel we have no choices but the two of them, the Dem-Puke, two-faced, two-headed beast that's been sitting in the houses of power for so long they think we can't imagine anything different.

But they could be wrong, if they're thinking that.

How long do all those at the top of that food chain think we will all just bend over for repeated rapes as they continue business as usual, serving their corporate masters and ignoring the desperation and frustration of the people?

At some point, desperation drives human beings to become their own "heroes."

[puebloknot]

23. Continuing to be loyal Dems is like the abused wife...

...who continues to take it on the chin, or elsewhere, and still proclaim..."But I still love him."

We are paralyzed by the fear that a third party movement has no chance, that we'd just see the Republicans take total power. But don't they have it already? Pelosi and Reid are behaving shamefully, kowtowing to Bush, et al. and smiling all the way. THey clearly can't stand the heat, so We the People need to get them out of the kitchen.

[EV_Ares]

24. No Need For Apology From You

It amazes me how some on DU immediately jump at someone who is critical of what is going on with this congress. The Dem party has always been one of diversity and known for different factions and pretty much constant bickering. That is what has made the party great in the past.

I now do not know where this party is headed. They seem to be afraid of their own shadow.

I keep waiting for them to get hard nosed and fight back.

I am still waiting.

[SammyWinstonJack]

26. K & R!

:argh:

[RiverStone]

28. They are either part of the problem or the solution...

I'm simply mystified at the roll over behavior of DEMS on the Hill. It speaks to their desire for personal power (in 08) rather then their promises to DEM voters last Fall that went something like:

NO MORE BLANK CHECKS FOR SHRUB'S WAR!

What that a line or a promise?

Yes - Kudo's to Kucinich, Feingold, Boxer - the few that walk their talk.

Why is the Democratic party leaving DEMS in the dust? I have never seen such a wholesale abandonment of our principles.

k&r'd :)