Submitted by feline on December 21, 2007 – 12:31pm.
The Democratic Party has morphed into a strange multi-headed creature over the last 10 – 15 years. I’m all for diversity, but when they can’t remember their own principles and vote consistently as a group, the Republicans and the Administration end up winning on legislation as if they were the majority.
The Dems are invested in the idea that voters are so fed up, we’ll vote for anyone that doesn’t have an R in front of their name. But, here’s the problem: I have no idea what the D means anymore.
Does it mean this?
CHARTER OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
Or does it mean this?
Democratic Leadership Council
I had once had hopes that it meant this:
Congressional Progressive Caucus
(Remember when those used to be the ideals of the Party and not just a Caucus?! Sad…)
Anytime I see the word “New” anymore, I get really worried:
New Democrat Coalition
And I don’t know how a representative who identifies him/herself “conservative” even gets to have a D in front of their name:
The Blue Dog Coalition
(How in the hell did the Democratic National Committee let that start happening? Do these folks even know the Bylaws of the Party?)
Well, there you have it, the “Democratic Party”! It’s become so hybridized, I wouldn’t know some members of the Party unless they had the D in front of their name (with the exception of a few who actually seem to have read their Bylaws and the U.S. Constitution).
Every election cycle, the Democratic Party feels the need to reinvent itself in order to secure or gain a majority. Maybe if members of Congress with a D in front of their name would just adhere to the principles of the Democratic Party while they’re in office, they wouldn’t have to work so hard and waste so much money trying to convince the voters that they’re different from the Republicans.
We’re NOT STUPID, you know…
(That was my Andy Rooney, impersonation, I hope it was okay.)
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now what do I do with it?
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I just realized what time it is – I will be back later in the afternoon.
I think that the Democratic Party is as splintered as the Republicans are. The D after the pols name doesn’t tell you anything and I see a struggle between the base and the entrenched ‘leadership’. I also from reading blogs see a split between those who cling to the notion that they only way to have political power is to stick to the DLC outdated corrupt way and fear offending the so called centerists.
I am a member of my local county Democratic Party and the grassroots are not happy about this either. Focus groups and polls while giving information for marketing don’t tell the whole story. Try walking a precinct, for canvasing and getting out the vote and you hear a whole different story. It makes me laugh/cry when I read about how the various factions within the party tell us that they have to represent their district.Even local office holders seem to represent no one but ‘business’.
You finally did it. 🙂
I’ve just been totally discouraged the past few weeks. Wondering how we take our party back. Seems that theres way more DINO’s than real Dems. The party just keeps kicking us in the face because they know we won’t go repug.
Yep, I’d say we’re all really confused at this point. Just exactly WHO is a Democrat?
I think there are several problems with the Democrats and with what both parties have morphed into.
There might be some divisions among the republicans but most of them share the same philosophy of “I’ve got mine, sc**w you…”
OTOH, it seems there are almost as many different Democratic “philosophies” as there are Democrats. And, it also seems that the Democrats would much rather fight among themselves than they would to unite and fight the republicans.
IMHO, the Blue Dogs are one of the big problems. Though they have a “D” behind their names, most of the time they vote as functional republicans.
I’ve been very discouraged of late too. Though I know I wouldn’t actually be able to bring myself to vote republican, I’ve been having fantasies of going to the polls and voting a straight repub ticket & walking out of the voting booth, laughing and shouting “Take that You Wussy Dems!!” But, I have been toying with not voting at all, to give a figurative finger in a passive-aggressive way to the Dems…
unruliness…
i always counted on the fact that they agreed on the magnitude of problems and thereby could prioritize them. I never counted on the fact that we all saw the same way of solving those problems. And that is not, imo, necessarily a bad thing.
great solutions come from diverse people with different ways of seeing things hammering out ideas… all at the same table. (and remember that BushCo’s lockstep thinking and the flattening of any other version of reality is what got us here)
so it’s okay to have conservative dems and progressive ones. i think the bedrock principle of an equitable SECULAR country is what holds Dems together. After that, well that’s the fun of it. how do we all make it work and look like most (not all cause that will never happen) of us?
how do do we mature into the give and take, as citizens? that is what comes from good leadership… people who succeed at leading us to fair compromise without our principles being compromised in the bargain…
not easy but absolutely doable. unfortunately, we have Dems in congress who couldn’t lead us out of a paper bag. they have compromised OUR bedrock principles and call themselves Dems, but they are some other party and have stolen our brand.
very much enjoyed your comments yesterday and your FIRST essay here!!!!
I think Dems have too much confidence and too much money. They are winning the money race and won’t do anything to upset anybody–and therefore, upset everybody. Pelosi/Reid must go–and Dean too if he doesn’t start threatening the dogs with withholding cash.
Before, I felt abused by “them,” now I also feel abused by my own family.
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and recommended – thanks for checking it out and discussing, everyone!
I wish I could have stuck around earlier.
while they continue to live on their knees?
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and I agree with you on FDR and Kucinich
Rahm Emanuel is a member of that Coalition, if that is any indication?
I’m not acquainted with any of the other members, but their statement there sounds more Republican than Democrat to me
He was married to a liberal but didn’t have a liberal bone in his body.
“The only thing you have to fear is fear itself” was pretty much the equivalent of “Let them eat cake.”
“He’s a son of a bitch but he’s our son of a bitch” summed up FDR’s contempt for rights about as well as anything.
FDR was a nasty bigot nearly on the order of Henry Ford and the America Firsters. His refusal to accept Jewish refugees cost innumerable lives of innocents only because of their ethnicity.
Every Democratic president of the latter half of the 20th Century railed against liberals. I used to have a link to a choice selection of words regarding us malcontents from each.
Despite the conventional wisdom, hindsight is often quite blind.
There is no real need to have a congress dominated by liberals as long as you have liberals to keep the conservatives honest.
When the liberals poked fun at John Adams and his royalist pretensions, the country devolved into the beginnings of a real democracy with the election of Jefferson and more importantly Jackson instead of rule by aristocrats alone.
We have done a great deal of backtracking in recent decades.
What is not good ever is vast corruption represented by both Reagan and Clinton as well as Bush despite denials here.
Best, Terry