For Those Who Will Not Come Back From Rock Bottom

[McCamy Taylor]

This is for my friends who died from HIV during the Reagan era, because Reagan was just a rock bottom we had to get through if we were ever gonna get off our couches and get political. I miss you. I’d do anything to bring you back.

Sometimes Americans mistake the movies for real life. In films, it is always darkest before the dawn. When the hero finds himself backed into a corner, with the villain’s hounds snapping at his throat---that is when he gets an adrenalin surge and discovers his superpowers.

In real life it’s a lot uglier.

When your grandmother finds her Medicare cut off, replaced with a voucher to help her pay for (part of ) a $12 thousand a year private insurance policy with copayments and deductibles so high that she can not afford to use it, granny is not going to discover a super power that lets her survive her diabetes without treatment. No, she is going to lose her feet, then her eyes and then her life. Four years of Rick Perry will not empower your grandmother. They will kill her.

When your disabled veteran brother, the one who can’t find a job discovers that there will be no military pension, he is not going to be able to survive for four years on political outrage. He will slowly starve to death on the streets. They will scrape him off the sidewalk some winter day, and he will become a feature story on the back page of a local newspaper. “Hero dies homeless.”

When your niece’s unemployment runs out, and she shoplifts to get food for her kids, her criminal record is not going to read “Another working class American empowered by oppression.” It is going to read “Class C Misdemeanor Theft” and she is going to find it a whole lot harder to get a job. If she writes a couple of bad checks after that, in order to pay the rent and keep the electricity on, her record will read “Felony Theft” and then she will really hit rock bottom in a (privately owned) prison while her kids get to experience the horror that is American foster care.

When your job is moved to India and you work 80 hours a week at minimum wage just to pay the bills and keep your own family fed, you are not going to look at your ailing mother and your homeless brother and your imprisoned sister and say to yourself with pride "Yes indeed! In four years we'll whip this country back into shape." You're going to be so mentally and physically exhausted from trying to climb out of the pit that you'll wonder if life is even worth living any more.

Jesus rose from the dead. For the rest of us, death is pretty much a one way street.

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmer name upon name,
As a mother names her child

W.B. Yeats Easter 1916

http://www.easter1916.net/peom.htm

[AndyTiedye]

1. Every Lost Election Has Worse Consequences than the Last Lost Election…

…and every lost election leaves them stronger and us weaker.

If we lose again, to THESE crazies, there is no way back.

[MannyGoldstein]

13. Even if we win, we get most of what the crazies want

Triangulation and appeasement have become the dual gods of elected Democrats. 18 years of this, and here we are.

"The other guys suck worse" is not a way forward. We need a movement to put Firebaggers in office.

[AndyTiedye]

37. The Other Guys Really Do Suck A Lot Worse

Many of those voted out in 2010 were "blue dog" Democrats.
They were all replaced by insane teabaggers.
I respectfully submit that they suck a whole lot worse than the "blue dogs".

"The other guys suck worse" is not a way forward.

There isn't any way forward, as long as so many teabaggers are in Congress and state governments.
If the Repiglickins win next year, there may not be any way forward ever again.

We need a movement to put Firebaggers in office.

Yes, but that means actully putting them in office, not running spoiler campaigns or futile primary campaigns
to "teach Democrats a lesson". Run the firebaggers against the teabaggers.

[Chan790]

44. "Run the firebaggers against the teabaggers."

Great, how do we keep the Vichy Dems from throwing huge amounts of loot and headhunting quislings to back in those districts. I've been backing and supporting real Democrats for a decade to see them consistently defeated by cravens and assholes with the backing of the party leadership PTB that we should be ejecting from the party instead.

Do you think these quislings magically appear on GE ballots? The vast money and power that controls the party leadership spends their vast money and power in the primaries too to make sure that they get their vast-minority opinions represented in the GE over the liberal majority of the Democratic Party.

The path to liberalization runs through destroying bad Dems, not just running libs against Republicans. There is no way to a liberal Democratic Party that doesn't run through electorally-slaughtering Blue Dogs along with the tea-scum and GOP. Three faces of the same die.

[AndyTiedye]

46. But We Need a Way That Doesn't Let the Repiglickins Win

A loss in 2012 isn't the sort of thing we would be able to come back from in 4 years, or 8.

The Repiglickins would be so entrenched that we'd never be rid of them until they sucked the whole country dry.

[Chan790]

50. Aye, there's the rub.

In some places, it's probably necessary to let the GOP guy win to get rid of some really bad Democrats if there is no other option. (Unfortunately.)

In more places it's important to win, even if that means putting a Vichy Dem in the GE.

In most places though, it's as simple as not running centrists where we should be running big lib; the centrists are costing us as many of those elections as we're winning. A non-moderate instead of Coakley would not have lost to Brown. Likewise, I was living in Philly when Santorum got the boot from the Senate...he was a dead fish. We could have run anybody and won...and we chose Bob Casey who was and is a pro-union pro-life conservative Democrat, albeit one who is also pro-union. I'm still not sure how we ended up with Joe Manchin in the Senate when we should have been ejecting that Zell Miller Jr. from the Democratic Party by-force if need be.

Also, it's time that we start thinking small and taking some of these precinct seats that usually go unchallenged...those are the people who choose the leadership of the party, not us.

[StarsInHerHair]

54. the template already exists, we just have to put Progressives in place another DU poster

http://theprecinctproject.wordpress.com / found these links, ignore the TP/GOP stuff & become a precinct committee

http://youtu.be/Nczt5cN8hd4 the importance of becoming a precinct committee member-you determine who gets put on ballots

Waiting For Everyman found these links & I bookmarked it

http://youtu.be/yMkTdMXwhbE

[barbtries]

29. i hate to say it

but i agree. we're so far down the rabbit hole as it is. damn.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. If we continue down the road we're on,

this country isn't going to be fit to live in -- at least not for those who aren't wealthy. I'm now actively looking at other countries to live in and I'm preparing to make a move relatively soon. It looks like the election is already rigged, and I don't see things getting any better after that.

[StarsInHerHair]

55. yes, every time I go out into the city I see more empty stores, more closed

restaurants, new homes have dead, yellowed knee-high weeds in front of them with for sale signs-these are homes that have never been bought. It's not looking too good, & this is in northern CA. What country are you considering?

[LuvNewcastle]

58. I'm generally looking at different places

in South America. Several countries have cities and regions that are inexpensive to live in, but have a decent standard of living. If you want to live in the mountains, there are plenty of those, or if you want to live in a plains region or by the sea, there's plenty of that too. I'm going down there soon to check it out so I'll have a more definite idea of where is the best place for me.

[WCGreen]

3. I asked people in another post this question...

"Tomorrow I go to a relatives house and they will be on me to name one or two things that president Obama campaigned on, stood fast behind and got through.

I'm not talking about tinkering around on the edge, give me some red meat, so to speak, so I can easily defend our president...

Where did he draw a line and said you cross that and it is over..."


But I am going to take your very emotional, gut wrenching post with absolutely no mention of policy because this is what has to be done. A story has to be told in order to get it across to people how critical this election is...

[awoke_in_2003]

41. The Walton's living situation...

was not as pretty as TV made it look.

[Kennah]

4. On the bright side, many families will be closer

I know that in my case, if it comes to a family of five living in our minivan, we'll be very close--whether we want to or not.

[Avalux]

36. Yes, closer, like during the depression.

Like my ancestors; multiple families living in one house; aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. I remember my grandfather talking about his grandmother, who at one point in time went up to her bedroom and never came down. Family members would take food to her, bathe her and keep her comfortable. She didn't go to the doctor and when she eventually wasted away and died, no one knew the cause. It was "old age".

That's where we're headed; except for those with $$$$.

[BzaDem]

5. K&R.

[demgrrrll]

6. The new voting laws in Republican states need to be taken

into account too. It is fine to come here and blow off steam and posture about how sick you are of the "enablers" but think of the people who are going to be voiceless in 2012 think about all the people who are going to want to vote and will be turned away from the polls, these people will be Democrats as the Republican governors and congresses are doing everything in their power to keep people they do not want to vote from voting. You have to think about someone other than yourself and your hurt feelings. The people who are not going to be able to vote do not have time for your grand rebuilding plan they are already living on the edge. But hey, what am I talking about, it is all about YOU after all.

[BzaDem]

7. They "do not have time for your grand rebuilding plan they are already living on the edge."

Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is exactly right.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Where were you two in the 80's? Were you voting for Reagan?

What were you DOING in the face of the AIDS crisis during Ronnie the Rapmaster's Regime of Death? Share with us. If you are spewing advice this time, tell us what you DID then, so that we can see if you have standing.
Were were you in 82?

[eilen]

11. In 1982 I was in high school.

I turned 18 in 1983. I voted in 1984. For Mondale.

I protested the atrocities happening in Central America-- El Salvador and Nicaragua.
I also protested nuclear weapons. My friends were politically sophisticated and the music we listened to was angry and pissed off.
People threw rocks at us and we offended nearly everyone.

Life was wonderful and it seemed like we could do anything. I guess that is how it feels when you are between the ages of 18-22.

[emulatorloo]

20. Same here. I was a little older than you, so I got to vote for Carter against Reagan.

Iran-Contra outraged me and it still does.

[Lunabelle]

28. I remember those protest days

We sat in the FSU Alumni Association building to assure our student dollars weren't going to Apartheid South Africa. We won; they divested. Oh, those were the halcyon days of youth.
Now I worry about paying my mortgage and saving for retirement.

[sulphurdunn]

12. In 1982

I was scrambling to make a living at the low end of the income scale. Most of the rest of the time I was drunk. How about you?

[demgrrrll]

47. I was a social worker in East St Louis Illinois where were you?

[Chan790]

48. I was in Pre-K.

I was 3. I was just learning to read. I was the only kid in my kindergarten class 2 years later who was reading on his own and who could write. Puff the Magic Dragon in K, The Hobbit by 2nd grade.

But I distrusted that bad-dye-job funny-talking Ronnie Ray-gun on the TV even then.

[tgal]

63. I'd like to hear the answer to this as well

good question Bluenorthwest.

[Knight Hawk]

27. An old Indian chief....................

once told his tribe assembled in the freezing Dakota plains.I have some good news and some bad news.The bad news is that all we have to get us through the winter are buffalo pies.The good news is that we have plenty of the Buffalo pies.The lower classes are being told that by our Guv.

[totodeinhere]

57. I hear you. But given what you have said, what exactly do you suggest that we do about it?

Sure people come here to posture and blow off steam, but how do you propose converting that energy into something useful?

[demgrrrll]

61. I have worked on the local levels for many years logged many

miles walking door to door, phone banking, putting signs in yards everything that most people on this board have done and will, probably, when the dust settles continue to do. Write letters, phone organize make a difference where you are right now. I don't care how many negative threads are published between now and election time as long as we have enough people to get the job done in 2012. I worked as a social worker for so long and have seen so much that it worries me when I see that people are so cavalier about the possibility of electing someone who not only does not support our social security medicare safety nets but thinks they are unconstitutional. I would not ever say that anyone should sit down and shut up. The polarities are not sit down and shut up vs. blind support. It is not that stark. YMMV.

[w0nderer]

8. K&R

[salin]

10. kick & rec.

!

[OneGrassRoot]

14. As always, thank you. Brilliant. K&R n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

15. Beautifully said, thank you! nt

[InvisibleTouch]

16. Well-written and absolutely valid.

In some cases adversity does make a person say "enough is enough" and force them to stand up and "find their superpower," so to speak. But that's rare. I've always kind-of questioned the notion of "that which does not kill me makes me stronger" - because I've more often found that "that which does not kill me just exhausts me even more," and beats us down further a little at a time.

[awoke_in_2003]

42. well said. nt

[Riley18]

17. Reminds me of how the rethugs are always pushing

for "smaller" government while at the same time lining their own pockets with government money. The reality seems to be that we are helpless to stop this in its tracks, but will be forced to fight back once we have lost everything. So long as we have politicians who cater only to the wealthy individuals and corporations, we will not be able to make a better life for our own families.

[Brickbat]

18. The ballot box is not going to keep us from rock bottom.

[RegieRocker]

19. Wake up its happening with a democrat president.

[emulatorloo]

21. We need Pelosi's house back and an honest to god Dem majority in the Senate

not a razor thin one that depends on Liebermann and Ben Nelson types.

[zalinda]

31. This is the reason we are where we are today.

Rahm Emanuel: As Obama's White House chief of staff, Emanuel performed much of the hands-on work of legislative bargaining that President Obama himself preferred not to engage in. (Vice President Joe Biden also regularly took on this role.) He thereby incurred a cheerless gratitude, but he is a man willing to be disliked. Obama seems to have held Emanuel's ability in awe; and such was his power that nothing but the chance of becoming mayor of Chicago would have plucked him from the White House. Emanuel is credited, rightly or not, with the Democratic congressional victory of 2006, and one fact about that success, which was never hidden, has been too quickly forgotten. Rahm Emanuel took pains to weed out anti-war candidates.

Obama would have known this, and admired the man who carried it off. Whether Emanuel pursued a similar strategy in the 2010 midterm elections has never been seriously discussed. The fact that the category "anti-war Democrat" hardly exists in 2011 is, however, an achievement jointly creditable to Emanuel and the president.

Source: Mother Jones http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/obama-real-politics-revealed-cabinet-members?page=2

zalinda

[MH1]

24. "democrat"???

"democrat" is not an adjective.

[emulatorloo]

22. Thank you, You have put it so well

[MH1]

23. K & R

thanks for pointing this out.

[Schema Thing]

25. Kayed and Arrrghed.

[blkmusclmachine]

26. Everything's going according to plan:

Bend over and grab your heels. This is gonna hurt.. :hurts:

[libmom74]

30. Every day when I

look online I half expect to see one of the nations that is currently protesting austerity measures has turned the corner to full on revolution, I don't think it's a matter of if it is a matter of when. And I think we will see a lot more suffering in this country whether we have a Democratic or Republican administration in power, unfortunately both parties have decided to serve the top 2% and eventually people in this country will say enough is enough.

[lonestarnot]

32. K & R for awakening of dumbshits.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[sabrina 1]

34. But it's not pragmatic to

think about individual human beings! We are supposed to be willing to 'share the sacrifice' so that the poor, wealthy Wall St. gamblers don't end up with only one or two yachts!

K&R

[awoke_in_2003]

43. oh, but what of the thriving...

yacht industry? :)

[Hydra]

35. People have always been ground beneath the boot of our system

The thing is that now the middle class are getting it with both barrels.

NOW someone has something "important" to worry about.

The funny thing is that if everything settles down for those people, it'll be ok for the ones under them to keep dying. It's the American Way, after all.

[McCamy Taylor]

38. Actually, when the middle class suffers, the poor suffer even more.

And then the corporate masters point to the poor-poor and tell the middle class poor "If you don't button your lip, you will be down there, too." I remember economists complaining about LOW unemployment under Clinton. How can low unemployment be bad? It's bad if you are the Koch Brothers looking for minimum wage slaves for your Dixie Cup sweat shop. And recall how the stock market would surge every time an employer announced layoffs in the 1980s?

Capitalism is built upon the backs of the workers...and the blood and tears of the poor. We can no longer let the "market" tell us what is right and what is wrong. We have to use our own conscience instead, and our conscience tells us that having a permanently poor and underemployed class in a wealthy nation is just plain wrong.

[Hydra]

40. Actually, I'm doing about the same as my single Mother did 25 years ago

And have been barely scraping by the whole time. The screams are coming from the people who used to look at us as if we were the problem, when they thought they were invincible, and "important."

I can't tell you how many people have come to me and said "I understand now."

IMO, this is what it's going to take for what you call "conscience" to kick in. I'd rather call it "self-preservation," because I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm looking for sanity in the system.

Whatever you call it, I think only when everyone finds out how vulnerable they are and how much it hurts to be burned by the system will there be any real change.

[awoke_in_2003]

45. excellent point...

I remember the Clinton years, LOTS of jobs with a shortage of workers. Like you say, the big guys don't like that- they actually have to pay to keep people.

[awoke_in_2003]

39. "In real life it’s a lot uglier"

yes, it is. k&r

[quakerboy]

49. Which is why things have to change now.

I submit to you that my aunts Medicaid is entirely likely to get cut no matter who wins the next election, My cousins unemployment is unlikely to receive extension no matter who wins the next election, and my Friends veterans benefits are likely to be nicked no matter which side officially wins the next election. There is no solid stand on any of these issues, outside a handful of legislators.

People are going to die. The question at hand is whether we try to elongate the process slightly, allowing them a hair more time in which to be worn out, defiled, and eventually die in poverty, or do we try to do something about it?

[Number23]

51. Rec'ing for some fucking sanity around here

That other post was about as disgusting as it gets. I thought that type of self-destructive stupidity was only reserved for teabaggers.

And as I said in the thread, every person kicking and rec'ing that delusional foolishness need not say ONE DAMN WORD when we see some redneck making $15K a year who's voting Republican because of (insert asinine reason). Apparently, the "left" has its own brand of selfish, self-destructive idiots willing to vote against their own interests and watch grinning like fools while the most vulnerable suffer so that they can say "I told you so."

[xchrom]

52. Recommend

[cry baby]

53. Thank you - for me, it's my parents, not granny. nt

[NYC_SKP]

56. Fuckin' Ay, McCamy Taylor. Kicked and Recommended.

Tell it.

:thumbsup:

[scentopine]

59. 12K for insurance for elderly? No, problem, centrists have a plan for that.

Raise the retirement age. That's a few more years that insurance companies can strip mine the poor and elderly and put the profits in the CEOs pocket.

Centrists and other right wingers treat us like commodity farm animals.

They'll say "what else can we do? We are out of any other ideas? Everything is on the table." While at the same time their telling liberals to "shut the fuck up."

We're on the table all right, the dinner table. We are the meat for their market.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/155675-some-senate-democrats-are-willing-to-consider-social-security-reforms

Here is the chart that says just how well we are doing. Guess which "modern" country's life expectancy is flattening out, while expenses go up.

?w=380

Now the crazy thing is this - if these were test scores, centrists, republicans and tea baggers would be yelling that the teachers should be fired.

I guess centrists have to pick their battles - and it's easier to pile on and pick on a teacher, than a corrupt Wall Street CEO who makes his money by denying health care to people who need it.

[valerief]

60. Big kick!

:kick:

[Amonester]

62. Kick!

Thousands more will die and get maimed for life in the next PNAC plan's illegal invasion: Iran.

They will not come back from rock bottom.

mc$ame/lieberman will be pu$hing for it from day 1.