( – promoted by buhdydharma )
Apparently, I am a purist. I believe in some ideal Democrat that no one could ever live up to and so I fail to acknowledge the real world distinctions that make the real world Democrats so much better than the real world Republicans. Or so I have been told.
Let me introduce you to my ideal Democrat.
My ideal Democrat is probably corruptible, wholly flawed, and possibly even takes a bribe or a kickback on occasion. And when he or she drinks way too much, I’m pretty sure my ideal Democrat says things that would get him or her in lots of trouble if the press found out. Maybe my ideal Democrat sleeps with hookers or got her husband a cush job somewhere in the Fish and Wildlife agency – anything to get him out of the house. Or maybe he or she is a fucking saint. Regardless, I’m still pretty sure I wouldn’t want my ideal Democrat to babysit my children. I’ve never much liked politicians.
Oh, and one more thing. My ideal Democrat is completely fucking wrong about a couple of issues I care about.
But it is true. I am a purist. For there is one thing upon which my ideal Democrat cannot waver. One line that can never be crossed, come hell or high water, no matter what. And that is this: He or she must remain forever loyal to the common people of this country above all others. And when the situation demands, as it most often does, that he or she must choose between serving the common people or serving the entrenched interests of the few, even at risk of personal sacrifice, my ideal Democrat will always serve the interests of the former. To choose the latter would be unthinkable.
Now, I know Bush kinda made the whole, “either you’re with us or against us” thing unpopular. He said that in the context of a fictional “war” on an abstract idea (terrorism) that imposed a foreign policy position most sane people saw as untenable, to say the least.
But there are, indeed, times when one must draw a line in the sand. And this is certainly one of those times. As I said before, our nation is under attack. There’s no other way to describe it. A powerful elite with horrifying and vast resources have set their sights on destroying our society, seizing our system of government, looting our resources and turning us into veritable slaves in a corporatocracy.
Either you are working for us, or working for them. There is no in between.
Now, it was predictable, but a few people weren’t quite able to get past the title of my last post. And as such, they appeared to not to be willing to dig in to the substance of what I was really getting at enough to understand that I wasn’t talking about letting Republicans win over real Democrats™. I was talking about letting Republicans win over these sold our sacks of shit disguising themselves as Democrats while they facilitate the destruction of everything that once made this country worth living in. My point was that the ideal Democrat is pretty much extinct and even if you find a few, the system will devour them. Look how Alan Gtrayson and Dennis Kucinich folded like paper dolls on the Corporatecare plan.
So let’s pull the sheep outfits off the wolves, shall we? No one should wear white after Labor Day (which, by the way, I’m going to celebrate by watching a bunch of movies about the plight of the labor movement on the History Channel.)
I hope that clarification was helpful.
Oh, and for those with a more visual synaptic proclivity:
Is it COKE!™? Or is it a brown, carbonated corn syrup beverage?
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“He may be a crook. But he’s our crook.” ~Some guy talking about Huey Long in a movie allegedly about Huey Long.
perhaps lingering well beyond the appropriate moment, when it might do any good, but still time.
that’s absurd. The double speak, double think mentality of both sides of our fictitious political breakdowns hurts my head. It defies common sense and logic to believe that your a purist if won’t accept that the same outcome from both parties is not better then. Or the other bs. about how were a center right nation and this is the only reality possible.
Then there is the mindset that requires you to believe that the narrative put out is real. To believe that GS must run the economy or bansters will fall on you, that the troops, must always be supported because that they protect us and freedom with their lives and pure hearts, or that we must all acknowledge Obama’s achievement via the bogus corporate landmark legislation being written by lobbyists, is not pragmatic it’s delusional. All these brinks they keep pulling us back from are bogus and created. All of the political spectrum is fictional at this point. Right, left, purist, pragmatist or my favorite absurdity moderate centrist. The center of what?
My ideal Democratic pol is like yours. A representative who while a pol and by nature somewhat of a crook works for the common good and actually believes in the concept of democracy and representation and will work within the laws and system that are our countries framework. A real populist who’s dealings are not purist but pragmatic in the sense of politics that have an agenda other then destruction of the system that sustains them. I am not voting for Republicans but will not freak if they win. Somewhere in my purist heart and mind i know that it’s all just a case of good cop bad cop and my vote is not wasted if I vote for nadar or Kucinich. It matters not, the fix is a coup accomplished as the populace got their ‘peaceful transition of power’ when they voted out the bushies. Yeah right, no left, actually neither just a slight of hand not to skillfully done and an illusion so feeble that the real purists are the only ones who believe it.
The purists are the members of the party that never have to compromise, never have to reexamine their views or forego the things they believe in. If you’re a left-winger in America, that simply cannot be you, because every day in this society forces us to give something up, to compromise ourselves, to undermine the things we hold most valid. It’s the Power Centrists that never have to do that, never have to lower their expectations, to inventory themselves to find exactly what can be foregone without entirely surrendering their dignity, and most certainly never ever ever will they have to take one step in the direction of the left to forge party unity. In fact, it is their article of faith that party unity is best built by relentless insulting harangues and abuse, treating the left as ignorant naive children (despite the fact that the left has repeatedly gotten the correct answers on all the major issues of the past couple of decades) like the Obama White House calling us “libtards” and “drug-crazed idiots”, by rubbing shit in the faces of the left of the party, into the mouth and eyes and noses of their errant wayward lefty brothers and sisters. Unless you’re one of them, you’re not a purist.
effortlessly have the votes of the liberals and independents who tipped the balance in the democrats favor in 2008 and with the nearly 20 percent of the country now unemployed.
Unemployment would be a lot lower than it is, and homeowners rather than wall street would have been bailed out which would have saved wall street by restoring the value behind the securities they were selling that got them into such a bind. Too.
If enough of the democratic party were your ideal democrat there would be no question of them retaining both houses this November.
Of course, the Pentagon and the MIC would be on their knees begging for some funding, any funding, but they wouldn’t need a lot because they wouldn’t have any foreign occupations to run.
Besides, the EPA would have the budget the Pentagon has now, and there would be windmills everywhere you look.
Bush and Cheney and Hayward and Suttles would be in prison. And Guantanamo? What’s that? Oh right… a naval base.
Christ. Barack Obama would be a shoe in for a second term if he were your ideal democrat.
There would probably be a mosque the size of Texas in downtown Houston.
Your ideal democrat could really fuck things up, you know that? 😉
voted out of office and replaced with a Green.
biggest problem would be getting the money to spread his message, because his message would appeal to the common man and repel the elites, whose interests it would undermine. We may be approaching a moment when all the slick adds and sick attacks money can buy will not turn out many votes. Enough people are being screwed over that they are starting to realize what is happening. Our problem may well be just seeing this in time to take advantage of it.
Just because they get on TV and say stuff like “knuckle-dragging Neanderthal” etc. doesn’t give them a pass on crap like this POS HCR. You’re not a purist. You’re just expecting competent Democrats who will hold the line when it comes down to the nut-cutting. I could humor the lesser of two evils philosophy for some of them, but I’m not going to idolize anyone who voted for this HCR.
We would be OK right now if Progressives would have held the line on the public option (no public option, no vote), we wouldn’t have this crappy bill right now and we could have been running on something (getting meaningful HCR with public competition PO, Medicare buy-in etc.). The PO had at least 2/3rd public support and even 1/3rd of republicans polled supported the concept of public competition. That would’ve been real hard for the republican to run against because they would’ve had to defend one of the most unpopular industries in the US (private health insurance industry) by opposing the concept of public competition during an election cycle. Something to run on without having passed this crappy bill would’ve been a lot better than having nothing to run on with this crappy bill. (i.e. what we have now). This is just another case in which the wise counsel of the progressive base was ignored.
And pretty much how I finally got banned too! 🙂
of the “Party” whoever the that is. I’m probably as impure as it gets and I’m considered one at DKOS. I’m a Machiavellian in many ways. I believe in realpolitik and playing rough when it comes to politics which is the way I play basketball (not so much at my age). Those that use that label really mean “not on the payroll” of the PR/Lobbying firms funded by the FIRE sector, Big Pharma (a very big source of money and employment for Democratic Party political operators), and the MIC. I’m not saying eveyone at DKOS, for example, are hired thugs of the Dem Party but some of them are. The other are just frightened rabbits who are scared of the Republicans and base their life on that fear and believe themselves lovers of the “art of the possible” but that’s not true at all. You don’t get political power by constantly melting every time someone opposes you. You give in sometimes and when you feel taken for granted you fight or drag your feet. What you don’t do, if you are serious about politics, is give in to every demand made by your opponents because that’s a sure way to lose power. If you hadn’t notice in a contest between two teams in this country you don’t get points for allowing your opponent to score.
Rahm Emmanuel for example, thinks of himself as a realist and he is but he does not even come close to representing the views of progressives. He is similar to Dick Morris who is and was a Republican operator. He’s in the Dem party only because he’s, frankly a double or triple agent working for any number of factions from a foreign gov’t to various factions within the oligarchy. He’s got nothing to do with political ideas of justice or the interest of the majority of the American people as far as I can see.