Why the Democrats Suck.

And the alternative is? (0.00 / 0)

Maybe because they still love the job, bashed and battered as it is, more than they would love leaving it.  Maybe because there are 6 unemployed for every job opening in the US generally (this is not the full story, I admit -- one wants to know how many qualified people there are for the job one wants, not how many bodies there are).  And maybe it is a matter of time -- I went to college with one woman who was a few years ahead of me and made it very high up in the editorial ranks of a well known business mag.  She left and went into....nursing.  Seems like that's how badly the urge to do good was not satisfied in her work, I guess you could say.  Another. a friend, left radio news and is now teaching.  He became supremely discouraged at the state of affairs.

Either you have a sellout personality or it's a matter of time till even the bad options look better, IMHO.

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by: greenpeas @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 20:26:14 PM UTC

IGNORE THIS COMMENT (0.00 / 0)

Somehow it ended up here when I was trying to respond to CTKeith under the Rell/Lisa Moody diary here:
http://myleftnutmeg.com/diary/...

If anybody wants to move the comment and delete the comment here plus advice of mistake, I have no problem with it.

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by: greenpeas @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 20:34:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Here's two Dems in the Senate Chamber that suck even more (4.00 / 1)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/...

Every day I get closer to thinking 2010 may be the year it really won't be worth voting.

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by: ctkeith @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 20:43:49 PM UTC

It's worse than that IMHO (4.00 / 2)

Grayson nicely summed it up in few words, but he left out the part that said that the GOP and many Dems are simply couriers for their corporate paymasters and are incapable or extricating themselves from that stranglehold to look at issues freely as human beings and fellow citizens.  It's a revolting scenario -- we face enormous environmental and other problems with a very tight time frame for meaningful action , and pardon me while I feel nauseous as the GOP and Dems use whether or not I can go to a doctor or be treated for illness as a proxy for wrangling over the political future of their parties for the next generation.  Certain individuals in Congress may genuinely care about this issue, but what it appears to me is that their ability to transform the nature of the debate in a corrupt and dysfunctional Congress (at least as it is displayed in mass media) is limited, and we woul be fools to anticipate a robust and honest debate about anything.  The GOP has absolutely no intention of doing that.

The consequences are far greater than we get/we don't get health care.

It's the congressional Titanic, where all the ship personnel were replaced by middle managers and pest control operators who are constitutionally and personally not imbued with the temperament or skills for actual bold and principled leadership and policy making.  The pest control operators think everything has to be sprayed or baited, and the middle managers think that leadership is the ability to play public relations three card monte (the pest control operators prefer Russian roulette).  Putting them in charge of a ship that has the wellbeing of an entire country as the clock ticks and the iceberg nears?  Physically nauseating and pardon me for not caring about the deck chair arrangement.

I think I have it  figured it out now  - earth to Larson -- upturned pinkies are pointless -- Grayson can apologize all he wants or even  recite the pledge of allegiance if he wants and the GOP will twist the story to suit their purposes - put a mustache on him, change the background music, edit the clip they want to use or lie about the circumstances, etc.  So he might as well tell the truth as he sees it -- because if he soft peddles it, it still won't do him any good.

So uncock your pinky finger, Mr. Larson, and forego the oolong  -- these people have never been to that sort of tea party and frankly, I doubt if you have, either. I don't find your good taste and manners at all convincing or authentic.

Mr. Grayson, at least, seems to realize that somebody has deliberately shot out at least half the street lights and it was sunset hours ago.

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by: greenpeas @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 21:32:40 PM UTC

Grayson apologized, but not to Republicans ... (4.00 / 3)

Here's what he said today:

"I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America," he said.

When you consider the millions of people who go without coverage and who needlessly suffer and die because of that, as well as the cold-blooded politicians and businessmen who perpetuate this system, "holocaust in America" is a pretty fair analogy.  

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by: CaptCT @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 21:43:20 PM UTC

It's A Great Headline (0.00 / 0)

The headline of this Diary. And you further illustrate the point.

Nice choice- between the suckjobs or the fascists...

"If those in charge of our society...can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves." ~~Howard Zinn

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by: lakezoarian @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 23:33:58 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Want to help? (4.00 / 2)

Donate to Alan Grayson today.

"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." - Warren Buffet

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by: joesaho @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 22:31:25 PM UTC

I don't throw money around to express my rage (0.00 / 0)

It seems to be the latest way to fund raise and I do apologize, but I'm tired of the tactic of tut-tutting for dollars.  We need real, genuine, bona fide action here.

Note from your link's comments, joesaho:  "Grayson is not yet a co-sponsor to hr 676 (single payer, expanded and improved medicare for all) and i don't send $$ to any congressperson who doesn't show support for universal healthcare.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/... "

Is this a test kite in the political wind to check the weather before he signs on?  We know what he is against; what is he FOR that a donation supports, other than to vote with dollars for a great sound bite that I can't use as a copay if I get sick.

I do appreciate his remarks.  All I can do is clap.

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by: greenpeas @ Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 23:41:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

i can understand (4.00 / 1)

Rewarding actions should be more significant than rewarding sound bytes. But I think in a climate where it's OK for one side to use hysteria and lies, and the other side doesn't know how to communicate their ideas, something as simple as clarity is worth rewarding, at least to me. As for single payer, that's a mighty high bar to set in 2009, but I understand if some activists still want to have that bar there.  

"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." - Warren Buffet

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by: joesaho @ Thu Oct 01, 2009 at 15:53:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Grayson's authenticity vs. toeing the line -- clips, too (0.00 / 0)

I just read Grayson's website.  A pretty pretty impressive guy who grew up in the Bronx and went to Harvard, graduating early from Harvard (part of his funds earned there by scrubbing toilets) and from law school, and who scored the top score out of 50,000 students in high school testing.  Yes, he seems like the real deal and there are more reasons to support him than his sound bite that called my attention to him.

In terms of Dems "don't know how to communicate their ideas", this has been going on for years.  They would have  lost their jobs in the real world if they remained unable to communicate any original ideas that they had themselves (as opposed to being told by pollsters to have).   Often their communication feels inauthentic to me.  Without knowing the facts, it appears to me they are getting poor quality coaching and maybe trusting someone who has done it for many years who should be augmented or let go.  If you can't get your ideas across when you have 60 members of the Senate purportedly on your team, it's time to go back to the drawing board and see what is fundamentally wrong other than the conservative stranglehold on cable news etc.

I would like to know how the inside of the Democratic clock works in terms of who exactly it is who comes up with these horrible ways of explaining things and why it is that the Dems appear to have taken an instance of a snappy and resonant comment like Grayson's, which is street smart and frames precisely issues that many know or sense are going on, and then have proceeded to coach him to  make the sound bites so dull, so boring, and so hard to understand that bingo! you lose everybody in this age of instant and candid communication with the somnolent drones of polite but false conversation and comment.  This is a very corporate mentality - smooth everything over, don't rock the boat, go with the flow. People are riveted by authenticity and bored senseless/turned off by inauthentic pablum.  But the Dems go for that more often than not.

They need to identify the issues about which each of their  members have built their lives -- their life and work experience, their passions -- and about which they can speak with passion and authenticity and build around this authenticity, not around encouraging all to be drones toeing the party idea line.  That's a corporate concept.

Look at Grayson here on CNN where he's backpedaling and on message and IMHO really boring, "no plan" and "can't work together":

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

I could hardly watch that clip through the whole thing after those few opening watered down comments.

He starts off with boring on message stuff  (saying what he was told to say)and seems like just another politician (to me anyhow).  Then around 4:45 or 4:58 or so,  he hits his stride and speaks with clarity and passion about his commitment to health care and his experience working with the GOP -- the footdragging, the lack of a plan (and this time it is not a soundbite he was given).  

In communication,it is the tone of voice that carries commitment and persuades people, not the actual words.  You can see how Grayson finds his own voice in the message and increases the compelling qualities of the message by about 1000 per cent.  And by the way, the panel tut-tutting so disapprovingly of Grayson after all the sh*t the GOP has pulled  - why do I find them utterly lacking in credibility?
It's like a mob hit man telling someone they really shouldn't own a gun.

When Obama is euphemistic, IMHO it is clear he doesn't miss much so one imputes more to what Obama says than he gives you. This Austan Goolsbee clip (economist who works with Obama and was his neighbor/taught at U of Chicago with him) shows the "what I am saying/what I really think" that I at least impute to Obama.

Its so,so hard to do with many other Dems.  I can never get past their "try to say the correct thing" sound bite.  Pelosi backs up Grayson -- but then dilutes it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

"There's no reason for Mr. Grayson to apologize. If anyone should apologize, everyone should apologize."  No, Nancy,  you just equated Grayson and Wilson, and there is no comparison I can see between Grayson and Wilson - these are two different issues.

Finally, the notion that it is okay for the other side to use hysteria and lies is deeply troubling.  You can't take a butter knife to a gun fight, calling  it like you see it is often pretty efficient in deflating silliness and geting  it all in perspective.  Pretending the silliness is serious shows that no one is at the helm -- the GOP KNOWS they are full of sh*t.

It is interesting that Grayson, who has experience as an entrepeneur, evidences an independence of thought (while still conveying a message) that other corporate schooled Congress critters do not.  Perhaps it is because he has actually made a living having to use his own brain and ideas.

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by: greenpeas @ Thu Oct 01, 2009 at 18:19:57 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I sent this to Maericablog about 2 hours before Scarce posted at C&L (4.00 / 1)

Click for full image

The question is not what you are, we already determined that, we are now negotiating price.
electrealdemocrats.com Online since 3/07 -- TimetogoJoe.com Online s

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by: Met00 @ Fri Oct 02, 2009 at 01:34:05 AM UTC