Letters to the Editor
-
half-right is still half-wrong
The real problem is that the Democrats no longer have the will to be progressives. They eat, sleep and breathe the air of corporate corruption. They might occasionally bleet out a few protests as they are hearded around from one trough to another but they just go along for FEAR of reprisal.
There is NO HOPE for the Democratic Party. It could be rebuilt in a decade or two but we can't afford to wait.
We are in a situation similar to an abusive household. The Dems cower every time the Repubs howl and so it goes on until one day the Democratic Party will be found dead, stuffed in some basement freezer.
I add my cry to the thousands of others who will be ignored. Someone with a bigger brain will correct my grammar, another will better codify my arguments then shred them for an intellectual excercise. I have been around liberals all my life, I know the game.
One day we will wake up. Maybe from hunger, or cold, or the kick of a boot, but we will wake up and remember when we had a chance to change things, to set things right.
I have no illusions about America. We had a chance to be good and chose evil. We must live withour choices.
-
Democrats have too many strategists but no stratgey on anything.
Isn't obvious that Aravosis is 100% correct? The mere fact that Salon post his argument under a question mark shows you right away how big the problem is? Tim Grieve run a so-called "War Room" (except on weekends when the war suddenly stops) but he needs Aravosis to tell him that you can't fight a war without an overall Strategy and then you also need tactical war plans for specific battles. The Democrats fight every battle for itself and even tactically they are very weak.
But startegy they have none. Just plenty of self-proclaimed (and highly paid) so-called Democratic Strategists (maybe the democratic party should not allow every shmuck to use its name brand).
How can you go into a HS football game with several haedcoaches, more offensive coordinators, and even more (mostly Monday morning) quaterbacks, no game plan whatsoever, no team discipline, and every player for himself?
The last time the Democrats had a real War Room and a real Strategy was in the Clintonian era of Carville and Begala.
No wonder the other team keeps winning.
-
Labor, you've got to be kidding!
My experience is local labor leadership is progressive but the rank and file won't vote for Democrats because "they'll take away my guns".
-
Why we are dealing with the choice of Alito
Earlier writers said Bush won the election(s). I strongly feel there is enough evidence at this point that it can be proven that both elections were stolen. Although public will isn't yet ready to deal with criminal tactics in taking a presidency, the least we can do is be sure that this era of neo-con realities and other absurdities don't continue after this administration is gone. There must be "conservative" jurists who haven't spent years working for the white house or religious-right campaigns.
There must be conservative jurists who still believe in the constitution as a guiding, living document that applies to the freedoms that are rights of Americans and all of humanity. It's time to stand. Way past time to stand for retaking our America back - one that eschews tourture, "renditions",kidnapping citizens of allied countries (say Italy) off their street, secret prisons and secret prisoners.
We need more outrage in the media and a brave group of journalists to write the story of the stealing of elections.
So, WE didn't elect him and WE should not have to deal with his residue when he's gone.
-
Democrats : what's wrong?
There are 2 things working against the Democrats. One is that as a party, they are a "charismatic management" type of organization, as opposed to an old-fashioned nuts&bolts business organization. The moral rightness of their causes is so clear to them that they expect others to follow their rhetoric alone. It's hard to believe that this is the party of the old labor unions, if only for the organizational skills that those required. The party is like a workplace that's run by clique, rationalizing the clique's preferences, with no one on the sidelines analyzing the business, doing the creative thinking and risk analysis, monitoring the broad market and making the hard calls.
One smart thing the Federalist Society has done is to prep extensively the judges who go before Congress for confirmation. Why are they allowed to do this?? Why hasn't some strategist in the Democratic Party noticed it, and made an issue of it?
The second thing hobbling the Democrats is that their representatives are too comfortable and risk-averse. The trappings of affluence are seductive, but they are the milieu of the Republicans. There are writers, like Katherine Boo or Barbara Ehrenreich, who are drawn to a less comfortable arena, and Democrats need to learn from them. Luxury is the opiate of the electorate. And as for Dem politicians' fear of losing their jobs - it's an even more formidable fear, and a painful reality, for millions of Americans whom they should be speaking for. Instead, the best-known Democratic strategist, James Carville, is as far removed as possible from them.
Finally, as the governor of Montana pointed out to Salon, voters are badly pressed for time. They will vote for the person whom - rhetoric aside - they instinctively trust, rather than spend a lot of time on information gathering and analysis. The Democrats need to humbly buckle down to developing a strategic plan, pay close attention to the field, spot that candidate with most apparent integrity, and then rally behind him (not Hillary) - without rationalizing the choice of who they, the affluent, are most comfortable with (e.g. Kerry or Gore).
That, or there needs to be a whole new party, to take their place as they wither and disappear.
-
Divided We Fall
Democrats will never win battles against the Republicans if they continue to act as though they are a bunch of individuals who just happen to be grouped under a single heading, with no need to act in unison. The fact is, even when the Democrats had the majority in the Senate, they couldn't stop such obvious right-wing ideologues as Clarence Thomas and Anton Scalia, because some of their members broke rank, while Republicans held together.
Much as we may despise and/or fear them, Republicans take their party affiliation seriously, behaving more like a parliamentary party, where Yes or No votes on important issues are expected of all members, or else. When they go into a confirmation battle, it's as if they're going to war: the only way to win is to pull out all the stops, and work together.
Until Democrats learn to take their party affiliation as seriously as their opposition does, it's going to be like watching the NFL versus your local high school football team, over and over. And as they lose their contests against the Republicans, so, too, will they lose support amongst those of us who have stayed with them over the years, hoping against hope that the party will finally learn how to fight.
My wife and I have been loyal Democrats for 40 years; but we are at our rope's end. Give us a new party that represents liberal and progressive points of view, and behaves as though it is determined to win, rather than just compete, and we are ready to bid the Dems adieu.