damn. “they” strike again.

Humans are amazing. It’s not just that we never ever seem to learn from past mistakes, but that we, in our chosen collectives; ie religious/ ethnic racial political blocs, exempt ourselves from our respective contributions to the epic failures of this first decade in this new century.

I fear, the truth is that the fault, dear Democrats/progressives/liberals, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves . . . if we are underlings.

^{cross-posted at Daily Kos}

Perhaps there’s an argument in the meaning here: that fault gets placed on underlings as a prerogative of power. But I read it like this: we are, whether we like it or not, in charge of our fates. When we cede our power to others, then the results belong to us.

So here we are. Screaming about THEY. And I wonder who the fuck THEY are. My mother was keenly aware of fashion fascist THEY, those insidious few controlling when I could and could not wear white pants. Remember the old rules? Not before Memorial Day and NOT after Labor Day???

And, apparently, THEY comprise killers of doctors providing abortions. THEY are killers of a nine-year-old child. THEY are the BillO followers and the minions of Malkin and the hacks licking up every word from Hannity.

On the other side of it, THEY are members of PETA and supporters of equal rights for OMG gays and transgenders. THEY are dirty socialists who want the gov’t to use tax dollars in benefit of citizens rather than bailing out billionaires.

We progressives can scream about extremists, but what does it serve? It is starting to sound, to me, like Bush selling terrorists and terrorism.

Because we underlings, no matter how sane or extreme, have not taken over the world. We’re no where close.

It’s just another exercise promoted by the real members of the THEY party… those who keep us parted and distracted. While THEY, those really in charge, continue to exploit us and the planet.

While Obama’s DOJ writes briefs in defense of marriage, because it’s the law, remember this: we can change the law. Yes. We can.

While Obama’s people allegedly threaten junior representatives not willing to vote for supplemental war funding, remember the mandate was to dismantle the war machine.

Remember who THEY are. Not small bands of lunatics. But a small band of vampires sitting in capitols and parliments, in board rooms and exerting power as organized crime.

This is the THEY upon whom we should keep our focus. The fringes on either side never see the fault in themselves and keep us from the real work. Finding the moderately sane humans: those Republican citizens, like Democratic citizens, Greens, Indies et al who didn’t sign on for torture or bail outs or any other crazy shit being perpetrated by the power players. We need to reassure each other . . .

. . . that most of us are NOT isolationists, expansionists, or completely unaware of our footprint on this globe. We do need, however, leadership that can tap into the altruist nature most of us seem to possess…

A large majority of Americans feel that US foreign policy should at times serve altruistic purposes independent of US national interests. Americans also feel that US foreign policy should be oriented to the global interest not just the national interest and are highly responsive to arguments that serving the global interest ultimately serves the national interest. Americans show substantial concern for global conditions in a wide range of areas.

We do, btw, have statistics to tell us who we are and what we believe. And, according to statistics, we are a LIBERAL country. How do progressives reach out to this middle, who may vote Republican but in poll after poll are much more like us????

…the average for the past 30 years: 20 percent liberal, 33 percent conservative, 47 percent moderate. And yet when “moderates” were questioned by pollsters for Louis Harris and Associates in 2005, they turned out to share pretty much the same beliefs as self-described liberals-they just couldn’t bring themselves to embrace the hated label.

Over the past 25 years or so, regardless of the party in power, about 37% of the country has self-identified as liberal or progressive or Democratic or “Blue;” about 25% of the population has self-identified as conservative or Republican or “Red,” and the remaining 35% percent – call them moderates.

It should come as no surprise that conservative media figures repeat the myth that most Americans share their views. Even when Democrats win, conservatives claim that their ideology is still dominant. On election night 2006, Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume acknowledged that Democrats were winning, but stressed that “from what we could see from all the polling and everything else, it remains a conservative country.”

I’ve read a lot about how horrible Republicans are. They’re like a lynch mob and they’re haters and they’re racist and they’re……… our neighbors, family members, and friends as well. And most of them do not fit into the caricature being painted. By a corporate media that wants us to feel overwhelmed by an image of our fellow citizens as a bunch of crazed white power freaks.

We missed a big moment in the 2008 election cycle to try and oust some influential Democrats. We should NOT lose the opportunity in 2010 to find strong net roots and grass roots citizens to challenge the real group comprising THEY… the Pelosis, the Reids, and the Schumers.

It isn’t more Democrats we need. It is better thinkers. Mature citizens. People of depth and vision but not in lock step. God no. Not more power players completely blinded by their corrupt and meaningless game.

We’re a good people, we Americans. And I believe we can take our leaders along with us… when those leaders have the potential of Barack Obama . Yeah. I’ll admit it. While some of our President’s decisions have me worried that he’s just another politician, I know he can be more. I hope he can be more. I pray to a god I don’t believe in that he’s more.

But they heavy-lifting is up to us . . . to bring him along with us . . .