Is this site reality?

[rocktop15]

Or does this site simply represent the far left? The reason I ask is because, on election night, I was simply 99% cocksure that Kerry would win after all the outragous, scandalous, incompetent things that the Bush administration has done. I read this site every day (multiple times), and felt for sure that Bush was toast.

Well, on election night I kept telling myself "that site isn't reality. 53% of this country is ignorant and uninformed."

I'm reading American Dynasty right now and am outraged that Bush is our president....again. There's no doubt in my mind, after reading this book, that the election was stolen........again.

[Skittles]

1. I don't f***ing care if it is "reality" or not

it's my island of sanity, the place I go to escape from the masses of idiot f***ing wingnuts who inhabit the place I live, TEXAS. I like DU the way it is.

KERRY DID WIN - the bastards stole it again, plain as day.

[babylonsister]

4. Skittles, hi!

:hi: How ya doin', as we say in the ole country (NY)? Merry X-mas!

[Skittles]

14. no so bad baby

could be worse :hi:

[babylonsister]

2. Join the club...

"on election night, I was simply 99% cocksure that Kerry would win after all the outragous, scandalous, incompetent things that the Bush administration has done. I read this site every day (multiple times), and felt for sure that Bush was toast."

[The Straight Story]

3. Well, Let's say 100,000 read it daily

how many voters voted on election day? 100k is small in comparison to the MSM audience. Heck, we might have 5 times that amount and still small when compared to the total voting population.

Just my random thoughts on it all.

[babylonsister]

7. My take, SS;

exit polls all over as well as MSM, not just on DU, had Kerry ahead. I still haven't heard a valid explanation for any discrepancies that night; it was a done deal when I woke up in the a.m.

[The Straight Story]

11. I was replying more to the

"is this site reality Or does this site simply represent the far left? " thing directly - I don't think many voters really had a grasp on the issues. They had fluff news and quick blurbs and were innundated with ads.

I don't think we fully represent the reality most other people have. They may share some common aspects and fears with regards to politics but I see more people as closer to the center due to an oblivious view of things (ie, they are happy, they go shopping, live their lives, chat about politics at the water cooler, and don't see the big fuss over a christmas display or saying merry christmas at work instead of happy holidays, etc).

The most simple way I can say it is that they have a lot more going on in life and don't feel the need to spend hours online or doing party work. DU has a little over 60k members - out of a few hundred million people in the US. We can come on here and discuss, investigate, bitch, etc but they are not going to hear it usually - and even when they do it mostly a sound byte.

Political junkies spend more time and know more things in depth on the topic, and they care more deeply about it. Sort of like someone in the math field getting all excited over an equation that was solved finally and wonders why no one else seems to care when it is major news that could affect their lives in the future. To many there are far more interesting things to be doing with their lives then reading or posting here or watching news (not saying doing those things is bad, just trying to show their POV and what is interesting to them in life is not always the same to us).

We want, in an almost religious way if you will, to convert others to see things and care about things we do because we believe it is best for them to do so (ie, they would get better representation, and so forth).

At any rate, just my thoughts on it all.

[nickshepDEM]

5. The public is SO NOT informed about the reality of this admistration and

the War in Iraq. The average american thinks things are going A-OK because the terrorist are still being killed. The main stream media does not want to cover the 1,000+ soldiers dead, the 10,000+ soldiers wounded, 5,000+ soldiers seriously wounded. They are afraid it will "hurt" the moral of the country. I say "SO THE FUCK WHAT" Its time the truth comes out and this administration is exposed for what it is. The war is a fucking disaster and the average American that doesnt get the latest headlines from the internet who insteads refers to FOX thinks the War is a great success because SADAM is gone and his people are free. Free? They cant even walk down the street without having a 1/4 chance of being shot or blown up.

...end of rant.

[OneBlueSky]

6. one election night, you had good reason to believe . . .

that Kerry would win . . . that's what the exit polls were showing . . . up until about 10:00 or so, when they magically changed to favor Bush . . . nothing like a little hanky panky to steal an election and convince the voters that the result is legit . . .

[babylonsister]

9. Agreed, One Blue Sky; my exact

take on that eve. "Magically" "hanky panky" and then today, with so many young people dead, and * trying to look aggrieved. I'd throw the "hurl" emoticon on here, but it's much sadder..

[pocoloco]

8. 99% sure...that is unbelievable,

did you know nothing of BBV???


On edit, you were not alone!!

[UdoKier]

10. This site represents the ACTIVIST left.

Not especially extreme, but we are a lot more motivated than some of our brethren. We were the fist to awaken from the post-9-11 fear fog - many other self-described democrats still don't get it. They continue to buy the line that the muslims are about to overrun us and the we need to dismantle all democratic institutions to hold it at bay. They are trusting and naive.

I wasn't surprised by the outcome of the election. I wanted to believe it wouldn't happen, but I was not surprised. We needed an appealing candidate to run a strong, visionary campaign, and we got a lukewarm candidate with a past that made him extremely vulnerable in the present paranoia climate, one who refused to really differentiate himself from Bush on crucial issues surrounding the war, and refused to defend himself vigorously from false accusations about "flip-flops" and his Vietnam record.

I expected it to be close enough to steal, but apparently, the gay-baiting bible beaters were more rabid this year than I expected.

[hfojvt]

12. rephrase the question

Whether the site represents the far left or not is moot. The question is about reality, who is describing it more accurately, the far left, the mainstream, or the far right? Has the Bush administration really been "outrageous, scandalous, and incompetent", or is Bush a strong and moral leader? Is the mainstream ignorant, or are we being fed slanted propaganda and having our hatred stirred up?

I have to wonder what I would think if I only had the four television stations and the two local newspapers for information. I am sure that I would still be opposed to tax cuts for the wealthy and on unearned income. I am sure that I would still be opposed to war and I would still be asking: "where the f*ck are the WMD?" and "how dare he drag the good name of the United States into Saddam's torture chambers?" I cannot figure out what is wrong with this country that he even got 10% of the popular vote. Maybe he is the benefit of lowered expectations - what kind of naive fool expects our President to be a decent human being?

[checks-n-balances]

13. When you put it that way, I think I know what you mean...

When this is one of the only places you hear some of these things, it's like a parallel universe here. But I think it's much more "reality-based" here than it is in the MSM world, where too many realities are swept under the rug and people hear the orchestrated news.

Yeah, out in the "real" world Bush doesn't seem to sound so bad to many of the people who don't hear anything else. Maybe sometimes it seems like we're all negative toward everything, including this country in general, and maybe people who visit this site without familiarity with the info we have may misunderstand and think we're just negative people. But the stuff they aren't hearing IS negative. There are few things I'm that sure of anymore, but one thing I'm adamant about now is that I don't trust a THING coming out of the present administration, because it's clear that they make up their own reality for the rest of us to believe.

[RBHam]

15. Is reality this sight?

Are you going to believe your own lying eyes?

[Swamp Rat]

16. There's no such thing as the "far left" - just another construct used with

propaganda. No "blue states/red states" either.

Though, I am glad you are here asking questions and reading. I recommend George Lakoff's book "Don’t Think of an Elephant," forward by Howard Dean, on re-framing the debate.

[DS1]

17. Remember, this was all just a bad dream,

[bling bling]

18. I know what you mean.

Tonight I was going over the list of all the things that have happened over the past four years and trying to prepare myself for the next four (those last three words were really hard to type, btw).

Bush is a failure. He has always been a failure at everything. He was an academic failure throughout school, and a wife-abusing alcoholic who ran two companies into the ground and governed a state with disgusting scores on education and the environment. We were attacked while he was on vacation. He bullies anyone who questions his policies and has basically fostered a state run media system. He gives giant rewards to richest of the rich at the peril of the rest of the 95% of us, he claims he's on a mission from god, sent our military into a war based on manipulated evidence and lies -- and botched up the war in every conceivable way. The only people benefitting from this war are (surprise) Bush's friends in the oil industry. He has run the dirtiest of dirty campaigns ever. He's plunged the economy into record debt. He can't string together 2 coherent, intelligent sentences unless he's reading from a teleprompter. His campaign was closed to the public at large and open to only those who would sign oaths of loyalty. He's shown nothing but contempt for the military by not ensuring the military leaders are protecting them, never attending a single funeral, and banning photos of flag-draped coffins, and by being awol when it was his turn to serve as a national guardsman. Under him our military was instructed to disregard international laws on torture. Books have been written illustrating his incompetance by people who worked with him, red flags all over the place about how dangerous he is, and yet he gets re-elected?

Either 1) I'm dreaming or 2) God hates me or 3) This is the most corrupt, scandelous, election-stealing group of thugs this country has ever seen in a white house administration.

How in the world he could have been legitimately re-elected is beyond comprehension.

Next stop on the nightmare train: destruction of social security for the benefit of Bush's friends.

I want off this ride. :(