Why Ponies and Unicorns are necessary against GOP Boogeymen

[Armstead]

(This is how I see it, and why Sanders speaks for me. For those who will call this a "lecture" or "purity" or whatever, I will say at the top. This my own opinion and nothing more. Your mileage may vary.)

This primary has highlighted an underlying divide over how clear and direct the Democratic Party should be as the alternative to the GOP.

Sanders and Clinton represent in stark terms those differences.

The arguments about "pragmatism" and "unicorns" and "ponies" infantalize an important principle.

The GOP has so much power because they push, and push and push on their goals, they sell them to the public -- and they NEVER GIVE UP.

They don't whine about those mean old Democrats. They don't ask Democrats for permission. They tell the Democrats "Screw You. This is what we want and we're going to fight you for it."

They don't get EVERYTHING they want -- but cumulatively over the last 40 years they have gotten a much larger share of what they want than Liberals have. And when they lose, they refuse to lose.

Democrats have dcone one of two things. Either cower in the corner and only venture out with "75 Percent Compromise to the GOP" which they believe the GOP might possibly maybe accept.......And/ or they take the attitude "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" and give us scams that have been given the Seal of Approval by Corporate America.

As a result the Conservative Agenda has advanced steadily, while the Liberal Agenda has been struggling on life-support since the 80's.

That will continue to be the case until the Democrats set aside both the corruption and cowardice and actually stand against the GOP as the Liberal/Progressive alternative as forcefully as the GOP stands against us.

[Nay]

1. A perfect summation of the problem. Democrats have oddly concluded that they

can't declare any firm principles or, if they did, they can't push them mercilessly. We would have to discuss why exactly this is happening. Is it because historical democratic principles have been binned in order to push the Third Way crap? And the reason Third Way 'principles' are glossed over is because many democratic voters would say "WTF!" to themselves if they read them in a position statement?

Yes, the appeal to stop wishing for ponies and rainbows and be 'practical' has always seemed to be a losing strategy; as you point out, the GOP says what it wants, pulls out its knives, and jumps into the fight. We need to to that, too, but we'll probably have to have a different political party to do that with.

[Armstead]

2. I think it's a combination of things

A mix of corruption, lack of backbone...and a shared worldview that develops once one becomes part of the system and is surrounded by upper-crust elites.

The mix is different in individual politicians and political leaders. But collectively it's a spell that shroud be broken, somehow.

[apnu]

3. Courage, yes. Corruption, no.

The elected officials in the party, the majority of them, lack courage. They lack courage to stand up for what's right every day all day, despite the shinies dangled in front of them by Wall Street and other special interests. Democrats since Reagan was president are usually content with scraps off the Conservative table. President Obama is an exception to that. He has no shortage of courage. He does spend more time than I would like negotiating with a party who is not negotiating in good faith, but that's not a courage problem.

Corruption comes from a lack of courage. But the Democratic party isn't any more or less corrupt than the Republicans or any other party in the United States. Corruption is a constant in politics. Be it here or elsewhere in the world. Where human beings form any kind of government, corruption will be found.

[QC]

4. "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

That's the line that 1992 Bill Clinton used to such devastating effect against George H. W. Bush, a decent enough man (for a Republican) who thought that everything was basically fine and people just needed to stop complaining.

Now a total and absolute lack of vision is seen as "pragmatic" and "sensible" by people who imagine themselves to be hard-nosed political operators because they have watched every episode "House of Cards."

As I said in another thread, Homer Simpson should not be our party chairman:

[Armstead]

6. Homer doesn't like Unicorns

[QC]

7. Or ponies. Remember when he bought Lisa one

and ended up working nights at the Kwikee Mart until he nearly died from exhaustion?

That was very, very bad.

[Armstead]

8. Perhaps if he made $15 an hour he could have paid off the pony quicker

[QC]

9. The job creators will go Galt if they have to pay a living wage.

Just ask all these suspiciously Republicanoid newcomers around here. They'll set your straight.

[Armstead]

10. Yeah I know....Beware the Commies!

[QC]

11. When I first came here, I was a centrist by DU standards.

Now I'm Karl Fuckin Marx, but I have the same opinions now as I did then.

[Armstead]

12. Karl Marx liked ponies

[QC]

13. He ate ponies. Cute ponies with big eyes and long, flowing manes.

That's because he was evil.

He hated the Job Creators.

[Armstead]

14. This seems to be the mantra of some

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[QC]

15. You're not far from the truth there.

Last edited Thu Jun 9, 2016, 05:56 PM - Edit history (1)

As the GOP has descended into madness, conservative (but relatively sane) Republicans have come flooding into the Democratic Party--and DU--and are trying to remake both into what they left behind.

It's like yuppies gentrifying a neighborhood and then turning it into the bland, soulless place they left behind.

(You could also use the metaphor of the cuckoo in the nest, but at least the cuckoo doesn't demand that the birds who built the nest get the fuck out.)

[Armstead]

16. The gentrification metaphor is apt

[Skwmom]

5. They are too immersed in the corruption and while I believe in working from the bottom up to a

degree if the top person isn't on board they will constantly push back to keep the bottom from rising.

I believe the tone as set at the top. That is why a President that is for the People and not corrupted by money is so essential.

[Armstead]

17. I'm gonna kick this