The How and Why of America's Polarization: Republicans Declared War

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.progressivedailybeacon.com/more.php?page=opinion&id=1357

"Gosh," professional pundits and pseudo-journalists like Tim Russert and Katie Couric wonder, "how did American politics become so 'polarized?''' One assumes it is a sarcastic rhetorical question. The how and why of America's polarization is after all, as obvious as it was intentional. Most absurd, however, is the way in which the Russerts, Blitzers, and Courics of the world tend to blame the so-called liberals for America's polarized condition.

How America became polarized is simple. More than thirty years ago, the Republican Party set out on a mission to divide the country. Early on they used race-based wedge issues to make inroads into the South. Come to think of it, if the recent senate campaign in Tennessee is any indication, that whole race-based wedge issue trick remains a vital and vibrant part of today's Republican electoral strategy. When pitting Anglo-American against African-American finally failed to get the big results, Republicans turned to the so-called social issues. They rode abortion for all it was worth. Then the Republicans simply declared war. They call it a "culture war," but for them it is a very real war. In some cases, regarding doctors that provide abortions, the Republican war has become a shooting war...and at abortion clinics, a bombing war.

For the better part of twenty years blathering buffoons like Rush Limbaugh, mouth-frothing morons like Sean Hannity, bigots like Michael Savage, and liberal assassination supporting bit...ladies like Ann Coulter have been making it their business to ensure that the "Conservative Crusaders" understood who America's real enemy was. Then along came FOX "News" and before the country knew what had hit, the entire Republican Party propaganda network -- the people that started and declared the "culture war" -- was busy telling the GOP faithful that the LIBERALS were waging a war against CONSERVATIVES ... against "American values," Christianity, and anybody that disagreed with "their secularist agenda."

Boy-howdy damn! If Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, O'Reilly, and FOX News's listeners and viewers didn't get their butts in gear the liberal horde was going to burn down their churches, make their children engage in "home-ah-sectial" sex, force conservatives' daughters to become impregnated by black men and then make them abort the babies. This insanity started more than twenty years ago and continues on through to this day. The media, of course -- the Russerts, Courics, Blitzers et al -- pretends that this very real and pervasive GOP propaganda network either exists in a vacuum or isn't related to the Republican Party.

"Hmmm...just how did the country become so polarized," ask the so-called journalists.

[Mythsaje]

1. This deserves multiple kicks and recs...n/t

[KT2000]

2. Needs to be said

and loudly! They have been getting away with "the Democrats do the same thing" for too long.
The plan is likely to make the divide even wider so they can regain power.

[Mythsaje]

3. I'll kick this again

just because it needs it...

[xchrom]

4. you have to know where you've been to know where you are going.

too few know this history -- and this is just a small slice.

[Chulanowa]

5. The day I was told I loved terrorists...

The day when I was told it was my fault that the people were killed on 9/11 - not just by Jerry Falwell blaming Pagans, among many other groups - but as a liberal, by conservatives as a whole...

The day when I was first told that I "revel in the murder of 70 million babies" because I'm a liberal...

The day I was told I hated Americal because I refused to throw any support into going to war with Iraq....

The day I was told that if I don't want to see Iran nuked, I must hate Jews...

The day a shrill anorexic man pretending to be a woman suggested that I should be murdered to scare others who share my politics into submission...

The day my democratic vote became a vote for Stalin / Castro / Idi Amin / Osama...

The day my desire for our troops to be safely at home with their families morphed into cowardice...

The day my religion turned me into a looming threat to be combated on all fronts - to say nothing of the faith of my Muslim friends...

These were the days that conservatives lost any and all capability and credence to whine about how mean I am to them. They wanted this. They desperately wanted me - and all of you, reading this - to be captured, held without warrant, and tortured, then executed for not voting for their party. I'm sorry, but to me that's all pretty fucking unforgivable. I'm not going to give them the same - But I'm sure as fuck not going to let them forget the things they've said and done, and i'm not about to offer them an open hand.

[NEOBuckeye]

10. GOP: The REAL Terrorists

No other organization has done more damage to this country in such a relatively short period of time. Its' organizers should be prosecuted, and the GOP itself, disincorporated.

[ixion]

6. The GOP culture war has brought ruin and death to tens of thousands

of American citizens at the hands of so-called 'peace officers', and a variety of government agencies.

And the fact that the Courics of the world blink their eyes and pretend not to know the history of this dark, dark period in the Story of America will not be lost on historians, should we survive this period. And it's questionable whether we'll make it through. These people are hell-bent on sending each and every last progressive to a concentration camp, and will not go quietly into the night, as it were.

This is, of course, the driving force behind such farces as the so-called 'War on Drugs' and it's ugly younger brother, the so-called 'War on Terror'.

[cassiepriam]

7. The repugs started a civil war for political gain. nt

[fasttense]

8. Their tactics motivates their enemies.

Republicans controlled the three branches of government and most of the media for the last six years. At the same time, Limbaugh, Rove, the Vice President and others called liberals unpatriotic, cowards and worse. Republicans shut out and ridiculed the liberal American voice.

They kicked that old liberal dog so often that he finally turned around and bit their legs off in the last election. I’ll never vote for a Republican even if my life depends on it. Cruelty in politics, like the torture of POWs, only motivates your enemy. It’s a lesson the republicans have yet to learn.

[Morgana LaFey]

9. Don't forget Newt Gingrich and his role

with the Contract on American and his GOPAC which funded people like Rick Santorum and many othes -- basically your narcissistic/socipathic, amoral politicos who took to this kind of politics like ducks to water.

Newt wasn't alone. There were thinktankers like Marvin Olasky and Gertrude Himmelfarb -- and no doubt many others -- who wrote books which provided some of the intellectual/philosophical underpinnings for the demonizing of liberals. This gave the whole thing a thin veneer of respectability.

[Jade Fox]

11. This is the elephant in the living room that the MSM ignores.

The Far-Right creeps created the largely false (in the sense that minor issues are inflamed until they become huge conflicts) political polarization in this country.

This cannot be said often enough: Extreme political polarization exists i this country because the Right has put decades and millions into creating it.

[nicknameless]

14. Because MSM is a huge part of that elephant. (n/t)

[The Wizard]

39. The corporate

media shills doing the GOP bidding on major media outlets are losing audience to venues such as the Daily Show, Olbermann and Colbert. Most of the programing on the networks is shit and geared toward the mentally infirm. I stopped watching corporate news since the Clinton impeachment. That was when the mask came off, and they were exposed as right wing scumbags.
As for sucking politician's dicks, Monica Lewinsky is a lightweight compared to the corporate media shills enabling the GOP jihad.
We will fight them on the beaches. We will fight them in the streets. The right wing criminals must be driven into the sodden depths of despair.

[nicknameless]

43. Corporate media complicity was essential for the GOP coup.

Really, all the GOP is doing is the bidding of the corporations ... in exchange for money and a guarantee that they'll remain in power.

[DBoon]

12. The goal of the GOP is a one-party dictatorship

They can't work with, negotiate with, or accomodate Democrats - they have to eliminate us.

US politics has had its share of demagogues attacking political movements. What's new is an entire political party and the views of at least half the population are the enemy.

Joseph McCarthy went after communists (real and imagined) and caused great damage to civil liberties and our democracy. Communists were, however, only a small political fringe. What is frightening is that it is now the political mainstream that is treated as traitors to the nation.

The GOP does not even tolerate discussion or dissention within its own ranks. It is run on a top-down basis, with adherents required to follow the party line or be expelled.

The GOP has more in common with the political parties running the worst dictatorships of he 20th century than they do with any traditional American political party.

[creeksneakers2]

13. Daily they say things like

Liberals want everybody to be poor so we can all be equal.

Liberals hate God and want to take him away.

Liberals keep blacks poor so they'll need social services the Democrats provide.

etc etc etc

What really gets me is when they say we are angry they say its because the 2,000 election. An explanation that makes it look like the left has no valid reason to be angry. And the mainstream media buys the libs are angry because of Florida 2,000 line and repeat it all the time.

As wingerism collapses more and more people will demand to know how America got in such a mess. Those who allowed the right wing to get away with all its done and pretended the right wing plots and propaganda didn't exist will be named and shamed. Hopefully, they'll all be forced to look for another line of work.

[nicknameless]

15. The reich-wing cabal IS the true enemy.

War's cost in lives, etc.. Bankrupting the country. Destroying and poisoning the environment. Contaminating the food supply.......

So it's the cabal's task to conceal the truth and convince people that their real enemy is other Americans.

[understandinglife]

16. "this very real and pervasive GOP propaganda network" ... Add Treasonous prior ...

to "GOP" and the resultant phrase - this very real and pervasive, Treasonous GOP propaganda network - sums the willful enabling of Bush and his neoconster criminal collaborators by most of the American corporate media.


BE AMERICA. ---

[HockeyMom]

17. Teri Schiavo woke up Mainstream America

The "culture war" of the "religious right" invaded Grandma's and Grandpa's death beds. Abortion may happen to "somebody else", not my problem mindset, but nobody alive is going to escape death. It hit too close to home for comfort.

[Alcibiades]

18. It's the darn Vietnam War, still

The leaders of today's GOP were students in the 1960's and early 1970's. When campus radicals occupied buildings and protested the war, they were shocked to find themselves in a minority, a rather small minority, on campus. They swore to themselves then that, if they should ever get hold of power, that such things would never be tolerated, and they would exact a revenge on the left. They learned--or thought they learned--a lesson about politics, which is that whoever shouts loudest wins. This message, which was learned at a young age for them, has never left them.

They have been shouting for 30 years, and it has had an effect. Yet what they forget is that the campus radicals of their youth were young. Their shouting and outrage was, in a sense, appropriate, not only because of their age, but also their circumstances (i.e. being asked to fight-or actually fighting-a war in the name of an unproven academic theory, the domino theory, which has since turned out to be bunk). Today, they are still yelling, but, as white upper-middle class people with good incomes, all their yelling about tax breaks just seems silly to average Americans.

More and more average middle Americans are learning the truth. Not only are today's pseudo-libertarian Republicans, folks I like to call "the shouting classes," actually a good deal more radical than the anti-war folks of the 1960's and '70s, they are also really mean bullies. And we don't like that, because we are a nice people. Not as nice as the Canadians, but nice nonetheless.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. Unbelievable. I'll never forget the poisonous conversations that

came out of the mouth of right-wingers at our family get togethers. What did they think was going to happen? That we were going to sit quietly and take it? This "polarization" is just us finally fighting back.

[Donovan61]

20. It ain't paranoia if they really are out to get you

This is an excellent analysis and succinct summation of the history of the right's war on democracy. I agree that a lot of liberal and moderate Americans really didn't catch on to the fact that the right saw them as enemies until Dubya's appointment by the Supreme Court. The good news is that they have finally jumped the shark and are increasingly seen as out of touch with the real American values of tolerance and fair play, and we have the blogosphere to bypass the mainstream media in order to re-frame the debate in terms not of what they say we are, but what they really stand for. If we are successful in doing that, we can send the GOP back to the richly deserved minority status they occupied for the last half of the 20th Century.

[namvet73]

21. This is why I "dialed out:" Couric after her...

schmoozy interview with Bush.

[Fire Walk With Me]

22. Are we in a cold civil war? Could be.

[GOPS Worst Fear]

23. I Think it started at least in 1988 or 89'

I worked at McDonnell Douglas in St.Louis,Mo at the time. I remember sitting in the breakroom and overhearing a guy talk about some plans his church affiation were laying out and he called it"The Gateway 2000 Plan". He was saying how the Christians were going to take back America by infiltrating the politcal process as well as every single area of Society. He went on to mention that they were going to wipe out the Gays and any other religion other than Christianity. I remember thinking two things at the time:
1) That it could never ever happen in America
2)I was totally scared to death at the time hearing what I had heard


Has anyone else heard of this? I remember it plain as day.

[JHB]

48. That was just one phase...

Parts of it date back to Goldwater's presidential campaigns, parts to the 70s.

The part that you overheard was the politicized evangelicals' post-Reagan strategizing: they'd backed Reagan, but he mostly gave the lip service: he said all the right things (to their ears), but didn't deliver their legislative agenda. So they started a program to elect "their people" at the state and local levels, to better facilitate their designs on Washington.

[conscious evolution]

53. Another phase occured in the late 70's early 80's

The takeover of the Southern Babtist Convention was done to facilitate the brainwashing of the sheeple.

[namvet73]

24. Thus, "Unholy Alliance" by David Horowitz...

On my annual Thanksgiving visit, my wife and I drove up to pick up my mom and bring her to my sister's house, where we almost always celebrate the holidays. (We're 80 miles south of all of them.)

While at my mom's house, I saw a book by Coulter "peeking" out from the pile. I knew she was reading something by Coulter, but when I saw the book, I did not want to know what book it was nor did I want to know if my mom bought the crap within. To me Coulter is irrelevant and I pay as little attention to her as I possibly can.

Then we drove 4 miles to my sister's (and family). We had a nice party. However, I saw another book: "Unholy Alliance" by Horowitz. I read the back of the jacket and wanted to throw up. But now I see this posting and seems to be a perfect reflection of what I read on the back of the Horowitz book about us "Commie" liberals.

I thought, "are they still part of that 1/3 that 'approve?'"

Yet, if you confront them with just issues, they don't seem all that different.

To me, an approval rating of 30% for this prez is quite good. It's hard for me to imagine any sane person of either party approving of this administration.

Thanks for the posting. I hope that Bush is the whitehead of the festered "conservative" boil that is ready to pop and leak the toxic puss of lies that have been building up for 30 years.

[namvet73]

25. There IS good news in my family, however...

I talked to one Republican brother on the phone and he is seeing the light.
I talked to my other Republican brother at our Thanksgiving party who said, as a Republican he voted Democratic. Whew, a breakthrough!

[rfranklin]

26. But will they continue to reject the right wing Republicans?

I know plenty who are now against Bush and his crime family, but they have not given up their anti-choice, anti-immigrant, anti-gay beliefs. They are ripe to be manipulated by another set of despots.

[namvet73]

29. I haven't picked apart..

all of their specific standings. However, my mother has been open to discussions and she is surprisingly moderate, which seems to be dissonant with what she listens to.

One brother said "nobody's really prejudice" so I know he is really uninformed.
My brother in law thinks Elton John has no talent because he is gay. When I heard that my eyes popped out as I began to wonder if there was any gray matter at all between his ears. (Sir Elton John? No Talent?) But, I think it's an acute case of homophobia.

My mother thinks that a gay couple living on our street would ruin our marriage. I asked her how and she could not answer as she didn't really come upon that decision using any other reasoning than that she believes almost everything she hears on Faux "News."

Go figure.

My father died in '87 and I truly believe he would see through all the lies just as he saw through the hypocrisy in our church (didn't like some priests for reasons not revealed to me) and seemed to be able to make good judgments on friends that would not be good for me. He also did not like being pushed around by the church. I miss him badly. He would have seen through Bush, not that there was much to see through. His character was blatantly obvious to me as soon as he opened his mouth, but the media seemed to just let things slide.

My youngest brother seems to be much more aware and I can actually have a civil debate with him.

Yesterday, there was no political discussion at the Thanksgiving table at all. This is the least I hoped for when I told them that I was NOT a Republican (since 1985 - Reagan caused me to switch parties permanently) and didn't like Bush. My initial reasoning was that I was sick and tired of the constant bashing of the Clintons every time I visited them. I had to put them on notice that if they wanted to bash Democrats, they would have to do it the presence of at least two, my wife and myself. It lowered the "noise" level almost immediately.

Two of their sons just graduated from college and I believe that they come out of the darkness, which may have also helped neutralized things.

Before Bush, I think we were all much happier I think. But, as a family, we all love each other, which is why we have survived the "Uniter."

[Vidar]

27. Great editorial.

[neuvocat]

28. They were and still are the mouthpiece for an agenda.

Reagan turned the clock back on a great deal of civil rights legislation and that in itself did a lot to create a great deal of mistrust between whites, hispanics, blacks and asians. Furthermore, the mouthpieces then told their white audiences that the same people were out to take what the white people had. The result was to divide both the middle classes and the poor against one another so that the wealthy wouldn't have to worry about losing their wealth.

[lostinacause]

30. I respectfully [strongly] disagree

There are two reasons why I believe that America is so divided. A significant amount of the division goes back to the civil war and the differences in preferences that have been maintained since then. While the preferences of voters have changed they have changed somewhat uniformly according to the areas.

Perhaps the more important reason for the division is the political system. The system is very focused on party membership. This means that many people will be physiologically attached to one of the two parties. This would suggest that preference formation would cause more people to be inclined to believe the same beliefs as the party over time . Another significant problem is, because of the nature of power in America there are a significant amount of back room deals with to implement policies. This makes determining who is responsible for the successes and failures difficult to analyze. Therefore again people are inclined to support their party regardless if they are right or wrong.

[niceypoo]

31. The present division was started by George Bush and his "The 'L' word" campaign

In his first campaign George Bush Sr equated the word liberal with the "F" word. This was the beginning of the rights obsession with liberalism. Limbaugh picked up on it and when Clinton won the right went bezerk. Newt Gingrich's whole philosophy of the right taking over the US government was based on being divisive.

This modern division came about with of the fall of communism. When the iron curtain came down the GOP was without an enemy, so they turned their gun-sights inward. The republican party cannot exist without an enemy.

[KansDem]

33. "...Gingrich's...philosophy of the right taking over the US government was based on being divisive."

Soon after the GOP took Congress in 1994, I heard Gingrich say, "we will co-operate, but we will not compromise..." I remember thinking then, "did all those days in school civics classes when we learned that a democracy is based on compromise mean nothing?"

I thought then we were headed for some dark times. Little did I know...

[hfojvt]

32. I think the article ignores the Republican grass roots

Ordinary Republicans became worked up over legal abortions and ACLU cases.

Also, I think this article, and the media overstate how polarized America is. Perhaps 10 or 20% or America, on each side, is furious, and shouting - they hate the other side with an irrational passion and fear. The mass in the middle do not. Perhaps a larger group of people on each side are passionate about various issues, particularly abortion, but again there is a mass in the middle who are not as worked up.

The whole blue state-red state divide has been shown to be divisive nonsense - as California re-elects its Republican Governor and Kansas re-elects its Democratic Governor and Democrats win state-wide elections in South Dakota, Montana, Virginia, Ohio and Missouri, and a mass of Americans still did not even care enough to vote at all.

Culture-warmongers on both sides are pushing the whole "culture war" and "America is divided" idea. I'm not buying it.

[Kashka-Kat]

34. great thread, luv it when we get under the surface & into historical backgrounds of things..........

the elimination of Fairness doctrine, the division into "liberal" and "conservative" media is I think the biggest factor... to the point now where we have totally separate realities. In one, Clinton is a cokehead who fathered black babies, Abu Ghraib torture consisted of harmless fraternity pranks, warrantless wiretaps are only done for purposes of catching nasty terrorists and never for collecting dirt on political enemies, we went to Iraq only to find WMDs and bring democracy. Etcetera, ad naseum. In the other reality, the world looks entirely different.

During 60s/70s, as divided as we were then at least there was some common reality, some common frames of reference. Now we dont have that, and there is no bridge between the two. Its more than just our opinions are polarized, its that our very realities look entirely different.

I always wondered how they could get away with extermination camps in Nazi Germany, now I know that it was the establishment of a similar "alternate universe" where these things could occur... simply because in the views of most people, they weren't *really* extermination camps - there were of course rumors and reports about the true nature of what was going on but those weren't believed.

It's the willful ignorance of some percentage of our population-- they want to believe in their firm, strong, protective daddy fantasy.... so they bend their reality to resemble the fantasy.

[muntrv]

35. The Russerts and Courics turning tricks for the GOP perpetuate this "war."

[populistdriven]

36. GOP use race-based 'wedge' issues? Never. Here's why

The GOP unabashedly uses race as THE issue



Paid for by the New York Republican State Committee in 2006 - and mailed to their racist constituents

via http://blogs.nydailynews.com/dailypolitics/archives/2006/11/so_what_are_you_1.php

[Sapphocrat]

37. Bookmarked, and K&R'd.

I keep promising myself to write a short paragraph to have at the ready next time somebody accuses the gay community of hurting the Democrats by pushing the "gay agenda" -- when the truth is, it was the Radical Right that foisted the gay-marriage battle on us, and have milked it for all it's worth.

Now I don't have to write much at all; I'm just going to quote this, which is exactly the way it is with Queers Under Fire -- just replace "left" with "gay":

"Nobody on the left, liberal or otherwise, has ever declared a war on fellow Americans. If anything, the left didn't take the threat seriously until Bush came to power and made it clear -- Crystal clear? Crystal clear, Sir! -- that the 'culture war' was real and that Republicans were playing for keeps.

"Once that realization finally struck home, people on the left had no option but to fight back."

Great piece. Thanks for posting it!

[Cass]

38. Best editorial I've read on the subject.

:thumbsup:

[T Wolf]

42. Absolutely agree.

I koved the force and the way it brought the facts presented into focus.

[kevinbgoode]

40. I have always believed that these nutcase neo-cons

fantasize about war and suffering in a sexual manner. Perhaps that is one reason why they seem to so consistently be discovered as people beating their wives, soliciting pages, trippin' along on meth and soliciting for "massages." I think of that party as the original S/M club.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

41. And this hatred was never considered problematic until the left

began fighting back with the likes of Michael Moore and Air America. All of a sudden, all the pundits were wringing their hands over "polarization." Where were they throughout the 1990s?

[canaar]

44. Buck up lads and lasses...

Even after we won (or they lost) must we continue with the sniveling? At the bottom line, the Democratic party and especially the left wing of the Democratic party lost its organizing soul, attempted to consolidate its position and got its hat handed to it by a very motivated group of extremist right wingers with a coherent vision, who took Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals," memorized it, practiced it, expanded it and exploited it to great effect. In short, we became "conservative," protecting a status quo that had become powerlessly corrupt. Sound familiar?

Their unbridled successes were due in no small part to their ownership of a press that more than failing to act as the Republic's referee, spearheaded their organizing effort with gleeful and arrogant demonizing of liberalism through repetition of unchecked lies that originate in our basest and most vile private biases. Meanwhile, the left couldn't let go of the cookie in order to get its hand out of the corporate cookie jar so that it could mount an effective counter punch.

Bottom line folks is that we played rope-a-dope for the last twelve years until the Republicans finally punched themselves out. Unlike boxing however, the rest of the world suffered while we covered up. I hope we haven't forgotten how to punch and that we still have the will and the strength to go forward.

[DirtyDawg]

45. The Russerts, et. al....

...believe that they are somehow above and apart from all this. They they are simply observers of the human condition and reporting on the changing tides. Sorta like some sportscaster that claims objectivity while calling a game or a race. All they want is excitement and action so that they can claim that they were responsible for all those eyes and ears and advertising dollars. Whereas the Olbermans actually 'get it'. They know that this 'culture war' is real and is deadly.

Of course, there is yet another side to this, namely that the corporate media interests as represented by the Russerts, have long ago taken sides in this thing. They know that if the Democrats - and particularly the progressives within the party - take over both houses and the White House, their gravy train is going to be derailed. Media ownership...corporate profits...election financing...the entire process - and costs - of running elections will be investigated and potentially overturned. Indeed, I believe that the coordinated effort to end Howard Dean's bid in 04 was fed primarily by the, so-called, MSM upon hearing that one of his goals was to take a look at, and probably overturn, the ownership and equal time provisions that have led to consolidation of broadcast holdings. One day they'll be forced to admit that they were not only complicit in this, they were manipulating the very contests they were reporting.

[illinoisprogressive]

46. Agree and Disagree

I think the journalists, to be fair(and I'm no fan of those lapdogs) were so in the mix and middle of it all, that they did not see it until too late. I think when you are right in the middle busy working and going and on automatic you miss some important things that those outside can see clearly.
They are so wrapped in a bubble they don't see things. Like with Hillary. they are certain she the darling of the left. Actually, no. Most don't like or trust her but, they don't see that.
To cure this, they need to , it needs to be mandatory that they go out into the real world far away from bubbleland and talk to real people about issues.
I do agree that the right set out an agenda to overtake and force down thier agendas. A planned coup on America. Make it love conservative values because they actually believed they were right.
One reason they were able to mobilize and we were not was thier awesome organizational ability. But, to do that you have to have discipline and willing followers. Republicans are ripe for this.
We cannot because we are independent people who don't like being told what to do and think and say. We like to express our own opinions. Organization is not a word much used by democrats. But, we are lovable and fierce and caring. We are the fun party.

[canaar]

51. The left used to be very good at

getting people to mobilize in support of specific issues for which we made a commitment to lay the necessary organizing foundation. Perhaps a superfluous listing but some successful examples are: the class divide (monopolies/trusts, the New Deal and the labor movement), civil rights for African Americans, poverty (the Great Society), and certain wars (sadly, too late to prevent them).

What we haven't been able to do that the right easily accomplishes is to be able to organize around a clear vision of sustainable U.S. Governance, either domestically or with respect to our relationships with other nations. That is a fundamental reason that we have been getting out-mobilized every election day. It is not too much of a stretch to credit the Republican machine for the mobilized voter turnout in the mid-terms. More of a mobilized electorate turning on its masters rather than a wave of support for fundamental democratic principals in my view.

I have run out of patience for the standard "we are a big tent and we can't form a coherent vision" malarkey. Determining those issues for which we Democrats share commonality that are clearly different from a Republican vision might be a good start toward bringing - not discipline - rather a clear set of shared values that comprise a shared vision to the party and then spirited engagement with the Republicans over those clear differences.

What does that mean? It means that those "hallowed" planks that Democrats believe must be a part of a platform that causes the party to splinter like a Barry Bonds bat should be discarded. We must stop focusing on specific issues that divide us. By the time that we have built a platform out of choice, gay rights, gun control, (add your own favorites here, etc., we have included everyone and satisfied none.

Let me suggest some common ground values for consideration:

That the basic infrastructure of the U.S. economy comprises a commonwealth. That one of the fundamental responsibilities of citizenship is to be stewards of the commonwealth. That those persons/entities most able to exploit the commonwealth for private financial gain have the greatest financial obligation to the maintenance and development of the commonwealth. That the measure of our greatness is our support for the meanest of our citizens. That the values that we hold most dear are the values that we share universally without reservation. That we hold ourselves accountable, or agree to be held accountable to the same international standards to which we hold other nations accountable.

The above suggestions are there to prime the pump. What I have not included are specific initiatives. Support for legislation and the conduct of foreign policy should be measured against our vision rather than "shaping the vision to fit the circumstances," (see Downing Street Memo). Until we agree upon a shared vision, I think it is unlikely that we will be able to govern effectively and initiatives such as fixing health care, national education reform, addressing our immigration issues, etc., will continue to flounder under Democratic governance just as they have under the Republicans.

The last note that hopefully brings this rant back into the focus of the original posting is that although I may want to castigate individual journalists or the entire profession for a signal lack of courage and integrity, my initial remarks were directed at the Barons of the industry for whom empire is the coin of their realm and whose vision is unitary with that of the current vision of the Republican party as led by the Bush junta.

[OneBlueSky]

47. and the reason for this polarization? . . .

wealth and power long ago agreed to keep the middle and lower classes fighting amongst themselves by exploiting every human difference they can think of -- sex, age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc -- and manipulating the public into civil war, one against the other . . . they figure that as long as we're fighting with one another, around issues great and trivial, then we won't be going after THEM . . .

when those of us without wealth and power finally recognize that our common humanity and our similarities are FAR more important than our differences, we'll stop fighting with each other long enough to direct our considerable anger where it really belongs -- at YOU, the privileged class, the ones who make all the money, take all the resources, do none of the work and pay none of the taxes . . .

damn right, it's class warfare -- and YOU started it! . . .

[The Wizard]

49. They have divided

old friendships for cheap, temporary political gain. I cutoff some old friends because they said I was a traitor and terrorist for questioning the wisdom of invading Iraq. I was the guy who put on the green suit and carried an M-16 through rice paddies and rubber plantations, and they labeled me a traitor. Prior to making me their enemy I was not politically involved. Now they can deal with me and my residuals from the Vietnam experience.
Whenever possible I get in their faces. So far, all they've done is back down like the punks they are, living vicariously through the actions of others, like those who actually serve in harm's way. Ever notice how they always say "we" when talking about going into combat? These hose bags would soil their drawers when the hot lead flies and the bombs start exploding. Some people just need to be smacked around a little.
Chest thumping and flag waving will get you killed in combat. All the posturing of the right wing sounds like professional wrestler jargon, sound and fury signifying nothing, spoken by idiots.

[tom_paine]

50. K & R for the truth

[lib2DaBone]

52. Americans Sleep in Walmart Doors to Buy X-Box

This is not over, only started. Conservatives will lie, cheat, steal and slander to get their way. They have NO morals, no rational reasoning. The American population is dumbed down to follow the Neocons. ( Witness Kevin Federline, Puff-Daddy and Ann Coulture as major media players) The Democrats are very stupid if they let down their guard for even one brief moment.

[applegrove]

54. Thanks for finding this. n/t