WP 2004 Third Way: New Group to Tout Democrats' Centrist Values

[madfloridian]

I looked this John Harris up, as he is supposed to be on Face the Nation with Howard Dean tomorrow. Just got curious. He is the political editor of the Post. Did not find much, ran into this.

I know the Third Way is part of the DLC group, but I thought it was already formed long ago. It used to be linked prominently at the DLC site, but harder to find now. This article from right after the election makes it sound new. The article says they will be making moves early this year. I think we have seen some of that.

I was surprised to read that Simon Rosenberg is a part of it as well with his New Democrats Network.

New Group to Tout Democrats' Centrist Values: Third Way Plans to Focus On 'Moderate Majority'

As Democrats continue to stagger from last week's election losses, a group of veteran political and policy operatives has started an advocacy group aimed at using moderate Senate Democrats as the front line in a campaign to give the party a more centrist profile.

Third Way is the latest in a series of organizations aimed at rescuing Democrats from the perception that they have lost touch with middle-class voters, particularly in the heartland states that voted overwhelmingly for President Bush over Sen. John F. Kerry."

Again the feeling they are going to take us to the right to have the values the others supposedly voted for. Note in the next paragraph that they had a "high-powered skill session in a Georgetown mansion". That sort of gives me a left out feeling.

"The group, which has been in the planning stages for months and will make its public debut early next year with the unveiling of a legislative agenda, is holding a high-powered skull session over dinner at a Georgetown mansion tonight.

""The answer to the ideological extremes of the right has to be more than rigid dogma from the left," said Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), whose state gave 60 percent of its votes to Bush, and who will be at tonight's strategy session.

"Third Way is the idea of three political entrepreneurs who in recent years have fashioned a career out of trying to make Democrats more competitive on issues that have been historical vulnerabilities. The founders -- President Jonathan Cowan, Policy Director Jim Kessler and Bennett -- are all veterans of Americans for Gun Safety, which sought to craft centrist gun-control proposals while emphasizing support for some gun-owners rights. While in his twenties, Cowan, now 39, was a founder of "Lead . . . or Leave," which advocated generational fairness and reform of entitlement programs."

"Third Way will also conduct a national security retreat and craft policy initiatives on health care, taxes, tort reform and Social Security reform -- all identified by Bush as key items on his second-term agenda." END SNIP

SO we have the NDN, the DLC, the PPI, and the Third Way. Do you think there might be room for the DNC in there somewhere? I am not sure anymore. I forgot the DSCC and DCCC. Getting awfully crowded on the playing field.

[rodeodance]

1. give it a more centrist image--geech, don't we have that already?

[Pithy Cherub]

18. It's the Third Way's version of the "New Coke"... same effect!

:eyes:

[Telly Savalas]

44. A solid centrist image would be great.

We can show our support for small business (and larger ones as well) by implementing a single payer universal healthcare system which would take the burden off them by making them no longer responsible for such employee benefits.

We can strenghten our military by shifting the focus towards defending the United States instead of needlessly occupying other countries.

We can improve our economy by moving the tax burden off of the lower and middle classes and placing more of it on those who can afford to pay. A progressive income tax structure was good enough for a moderate like Eisenhower, so it should be appealing to centrists today.

We can support families by implementing a living wage and boosting the earned income tax credit.

These are all good centrist ideas which will strengthen our nation. The extremists have been running the country for 5 years. They've had their chance and they've failed. It's time to let folks with more mainstream ideas have a hand at things.

[Armstead]

2. Their healthcare Plan

"Please Mr. Insurance Company, can you lower your rates just a little bit?"

DLC, New Democrats, Third Way --- Fukkim

I'm a Proud Centrist Liberal.

[VADem11]

3. Another one?

Good god, how many freaking groups do they need to have?

[shance]

4. This isn't centrist. It is an attempt to create a one party system.

by those with Right wing agendas.

There is nothing centrist about it.

Reform of "entitlement" programs?

Do I hear an echo????

Wasnt that something Newt Gingrich used to say?

[Samantha]

36. That was the term Bill Clinton coined to describe his presidency

I read it in one of his biographies. It might have been revealed in First in His Class by David Mariness. Clinton wanted a term that distinguished his eight years from the platforms of the two parties, and that is the one he finally settled on.

I guess it is a coincidence that this term has resurrected its head just in time for a Hillary run. Although a Democrat, he angered many Republicans by stealing their programs and then taking credit for them. Hillary's tilt to the right is indeed reminiscent of Bill's presidency.

[blm]

5. Ignoring that the highly contested swing states went for Kerry by 2%....

we can't change red states by changing our policies. They need to hear the TRUTH for a change.

They only need to hear REAL news coverage which they won't hear from corporate media controlled by GOP cronies.

[madfloridian]

8. Yes, he totally got that wrong in the article.

I am tired of all the names they use.

[IndianaGreen]

6. "The Third Way"? As in the film The Quiet American?

In that film, the Third Way was nothing more than a CIA gimmick to prevent the Vietnamese people from choosing Ho Chi Minh over the American puppet that replaced the French colonials.

Hmmm, seems like the same philosophy is at work here!

[madfloridian]

7. Wow, I just did a search on Third Way, Ireland. Take a look.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ned=us&q=%22the+third+way%22+ireland&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dsearch=Search+the+Web

What a strange thing to call it, and I never made the connection to that great movie.

[IndianaGreen]

9. The Quiet American (2003)

I also own a copy of The Motorcycle Diaries DVD, a bio on Ernesto "Che" Guevara, his volunteer work at a leprosarium, and the events that awoke his social conscience. I recommend it!

[AntiCoup2K4]

10. How about DNC, DFA, and PDA?

Those are the only acronyms I want to hear from.

[madfloridian]

11. Ok, the Third Way is a worldwide movement...from the DLC site.

The Third Way
The Third Way is a global movement dedicated to modernizing progressive politics for the information age. Third Way politics seeks a new balance of economic dynamism and social security, a new social compact based on individual rights and responsibilities, and a new model for governing that equips citizens and communities to solve their own problems. (More about the Third Way...)

More about the Third Way...

"America and the world have changed dramatically in the closing decades of the 20th century. The industrial order of the 20th century is rapidly yielding to the networked "New Economy" of the 21st century. Our political and governing systems, however, have lagged behind the rest of society in adapting to these seismic shifts. They remain stuck in the left-right debates and the top-down bureaucracies of the industrial past. "

Bill Clinton and Hillary ARE the Third Way

"Starting with Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign in 1992, Third Way thinking is reshaping progressive politics throughout the world. Inspired by the example of Clinton and the New Democrats, Tony Blair in Britain led a revitalized New Labour party back to power in 1997. The victory of Gerhard Shroeder and the Social Democrats in Germany the next year confirmed the revival of center-left parties which either control or are part of the governing coalition forming throughout the European Union. From Latin America to Australia and New Zealand, Third Way ideas also are taking hold.

On Sunday, April 25, 1999, the President Clinton and the DLC hosted a historic roundtable discussion, The Third Way: Progressive Governance for the 21st Century, with five world leaders including British PM Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Dutch PM Wim Kok, and Italian PM Massimo D'Alema, the First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and DLC President Al From."

And here is that historic conference with video and all

[IndianaGreen]

12. Third Way is another name for capitalist globalization

disguised as progressive politics. Our enemy within the Democratic Party has adopted the policies of the Bush regime, but want to sell them to us using a new slogan and 30-second commercial.

Here is another way of looking at things:

Labor, War and Peace

War and militarization are integral parts of capitalist globalization. For example, the presence of US military force and large military investments in Colombia is not separate from the drive for the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). And, of course, the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and the thrust of military might into the Mideast serve the interests of US based transnational capital – oil in the first place. This reckless use of military power is not wasted on US trading partners and on those who fight against capitalist globalization around the world.

Larger and larger sections of labor are beginning to see the connections between war and capitalist globalization – making the world “safe” for global investment and exploitation. Others in labor are going a step further and demanding that labor adopt an independent foreign policy based on the interests of the working class, not based on the corporate agenda of the US government.

In the end, capitalist globalization, backed up by a single military superpower makes the world a very dangerous place. One big conclusion drawn from this situation has to be that labor and the peace and solidarity movements are the most natural of allies. Making this connection and working to build ties with the peace movement has to be one our most important tasks.

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/1571/1/111/

[madfloridian]

13. I am starting to get the picture....takes my simple mind a while.

It is just another name for globalization, you are right.

[Q]

24. The DLC's 'progressive politics'...

...is as legitimate as the Right's 'compassionate conservatism'. They are no more progressive than the Right is compassionate.

This is nothing more than another faction of the DLC attempting to manuver the party to the right without a mandate or consensus from the rank and file.

Their main purpose is to represent 'big business' and the wealthy...leaving the Democratic party an empty shell that offers no true representation for the traditional base.

If you're poor, working class, Black or a women...the Democratic party will no longer represent you once the DLC and the New Democrats finally take full control of the party. It will mean the end of the 'party of the people' if they're able to run and force a nomination of yet another DLC-Approved Candidate in 2008.

[cosmicdot]

38. and, then, there's the group that named itself 'Third Way' ...

which is part of the Third Way family ...

http://www.third-way.com/

who are these people?

[madfloridian]

40. Ok. look at their leadership, honorary chairs, projects....

This is exactly how Hillary has been sounding...They are rebranding everything.

The Middle Class

Culture

The New South

Conservative Re-Branding

In the news...
Internet Porn Report Inspires Legislation

Third Way is a new and unique political organization: a strategy center for progressives.

Third Way develops policy and communications products to help senators and other progressive leaders better advance their values in red states and counties where progressive ideas have lost resonance.

More...

Honorary state chairs:

Blanche Lambert Lincoln
U.S. Senator, Arkansas

Evan Bayh
U.S. Senator, Indiana

Tom Carper
U.S. Senator, Delaware

Our Honorary Vice Chairs:

Mary Landrieu
U.S. Senator, Louisiana

Mark Pryor
U.S. Senator, Arkansas

Ken Salazar
U.S. Senator, Colorado

Here is their take on culture:
Abortion is their project. They have a lot on how they are going to "fix" it.

"Third Way seeks to realign these public policy debates in a progressive direction. We are beginning this work with abortion. We are taking a fresh, unbiased and analytical look at the topic from every side: substantive arguments, legal issues, public opinion data, and political messaging. Through the Third Way Idea Network, we are putting together an expert board of advisors, drawn from a wide array sectors, to help guide and direct our work. This project will culminate in the production of a series of briefing papers on abortion, with policy and messaging that will help progressives win the war of ideas in areas of the country where abortion plays a significant role in the political debate."

[cosmicdot]

42. yep ...

round up the usual suspects ...


Do these whippersnappers know that we had some of the most progressive Hill members ever from Red States?


3rd Way 'Products'

"Rebuilding progressive credibility"

"Seeking a better understanding of why progressives have lost middle class support"

"Finding effective ways for progressives to handle hot-button issues"

"Identifying weaknesses in the conservative brand"


brands, branding, products .... corporate terms ... marketing.

I bet this group will get some of that think tank money.


Did the New Deal need think tanks? ... the government and FDR's Brain Trust were the think tank.

I think it's going to come down to the economy .... again.

Meanwhile, this group is analyzing rural, exurban, suburban, urban ...
http://mydd.com/story/2005/8/6/11319/28513


It's a crying shame when our politicians can't lead without being told how to think.

[madfloridian]

14. If Third Way is global, Clinton IS Third Way, explains his Iraq comments.

Oh,yes, it does.

[flpoljunkie]

15. Carper, sellout on the bankruptcy bill, bitching about how hard it is to

"be a centrist in the House these days." We need more Senators to be like the House Democrats. Most of our stand up Democrats are in the House--this is where Rush Holt's legislation originated to reform the voting system and the courageous John Conyers has stood up against the Bush fascists where the "third way progressive centrists" fear to tread.

Politicians like the despicable Carper have sold out the Democratic party to some of the same special interests that own the Republican party--in Carper's case, the banks and credit card companies.

Stand up and fight for Democratic values and you won't have to worry about gimmicky "third way" crap to try and capture that elusive "moderate" middle of the political spectrum.

Democrats who stand for nothing do not deserve to win. If Democrats don't act like Democrats, "what good are they?" as Molly Ivins so succinctly put it.

[Hidden Stillness]

16. Funny, We Only "Lost Touch" When the "D"LC Came Along...

I am sick and tired of rich corporate consultants telling us that the Democrats have "lost touch with middle-class voters," especially when they use stupid catchphases like "the heartland," which nobody in the Midwest talks like. The only way the Democrats lost touch with middle-class voters was by hiring a department-ful of consultants who gave us "opening firehouses in Baghdad while closing them in...zzzz" or telling Kerry to run on a platform of only male Viet Nam vets, and little else, NOT criticizing Bush at the Convention (??), and ignoring women's issues and concerns so that Kerry actually lost the huge margin among single women voters that every Democrat gets as a matter of course, and that Gore won. Gore, recall, promised to protect Social Security from attack, which these corporatists never do.

They claim they "understand" the "simple, natural people" of the Midwest--like me?--yet they will not respond to anything we want. No unions, no raise to the minimum wage, no laws against outsourcing that is killing us, no universal health care, no resolution to the Iraq disaster and return to the "hunt" for Bush's business partner bin Laden; nothing we actually express an opinion on. They are STILL calling us "Republicans," claiming, with no proof, that we are against "the left" and not their corporate neo-cons.

Remember, "We are going to intervene..."

[Cha]

17. I read all this and I ask myself..

"Is it any wonder you like what Dean and other Progressives are doing in the name of Truth?" Not just some more Orwellian Shit that dinos dream up?

You probably posted this but I just saw it on buzzflash..

<snip>
"Dean also applauded New Hampshire Democrats for leading the charge in the state's turn to "blue" in the last election. While New Hampshire went for President George W. Bush in 2000, Kerry won the state's four electoral votes in 2004 in his unsuccessful bid for president.

<snip>
"He also said Republicans in this area are easier to deal with than most.

"New England Republicans are different than most. They are more reasonable and thoughtful," Dean said. "You don't get as many right-wing wackos."

Dean also described Bush's desire to privatize social security as "nutty."

"Americans do not want to privatize social security," he said. "They're too smart to turn social security over to the people who ran Enron."

I love it when Dean talks about bush desire to privatize Social Security as being "nutty"..

More..
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050811/NEWS0202/108110076

[SpiralHawk]

19. The Third Rail

I got a feeling.

[Stahl]

20. I am conservative

and I don't think the current administration follows conservative politics. "Small goverment", yeah right. Shove that patriotic act up your ass.

[madfloridian]

22. LOL Good points.

I agree.

[IndianaGreen]

23. This government has grabbed more power for itself

than any government since the Civil War. The Bill of Rights is gone! The Separation of Powers are gone! Federalism is gone! National Guard is gone to Iraq instead of being back home to protect us!

[KingFlorez]

21. Isn't this what the Reform Party is for?

The Reform Party is supposed to be Third Way.

[tritsofme]

49. Blair and Clinton proclaimed themselves "third way"

politicians during the 90s.

Basically moderately liberal pols.

[madfloridian]

25. IG, is this a good summary of the Quiet American and Third Way?

That is not the movie I was thinking of, and I did not see it. I feel very uncomfortable with that term now.

http://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/169/Quiet%20Americ.htm

"This is an eerily prophetic and, therefore, deeply disturbing book. Ostensibly the story of a love triangle involving a naive American spook, a jaded English journalist and a young Vietnamese girl, lurking just beneath the surface is an allegory for the whole experience of America in Vietnam.

Alden Pyle, the Quiet American of the title, was based on Col. Edward Lansdale, the renowned, or infamous depending on your politics, CIA operative who was sent to Viet Nam in the 50's to subvert the Vietminh after a string of successes in the Phillipines (he was also the model for William Lederer's and Eugene Burdicks "The Ugly American"). Pyle is an innocent who believes that others must surely share his ideals and pureness of motive. He is convinced, based on his adherence to the writings of York Harding, that there is a Third Way for Vietnam, somewhere between Communism and the corrupt colonial government. He has come to Vietnam to foster a group that will adhere to this Third Way. The journalist, Fowler, a cynical world-weary man of much wider experience, realizes that Pyle is a dangerous man because he is imposing his idealized vision on a group that is merely power hungry. Meanwhile, Pyle has fallen in love with Phuong, Fowler's Vietnamese girlfriend. And while Fowler can offer her little because his wife refuses to grant him a divorce, Pyle offers marriage and respectability and a life in America. As Fowler loses Phuong to Pyle and Pyle's group begins a terror campaign, Fowler finally abandons his neutrality and chooses sides, a choice made all the more ambiguous because of his romantic rivalry with Pyle.

The prescient pessimism that pervades this book is it's most interesting feature. Greene, writing well before we really got involved, seemed to sense that Vietnam was a tar baby that we idealistic Americans would not be able to resist embracing. Pyle's bloody blundering seems to presage the well-intended but disastrous mess that we would make of the entire country in the decades to come. One wishes that men like Robert McNamara and the Kennedys had paid attention to this literate warning."

Iraq is our tar baby, I fear.

[madfloridian]

26. Does the movie say Third Way in Vietnam had backing of CIA

http://www.rambles.net/quiet_amer02.html

"They say you can come to Vietnam and you learn a lot in a few minutes," Fowler says as the film opens, adding: "The rest has got to be lived." And live Fowler does, in spite of bombings, in spite of attempts to send him back to London, in spite of attempts on his life by members of the Third Way, in spite of that body found floating in the river which touches off Fowler's flashback to events surrounding Pyle's arrival.

And learn he does: that the Third Way seems to have the backing of CIA officials, that there's something phony about the massacres that are being blamed on the communists, that the plastic material supposedly imported by Pyle for his medical aid project also can be used to create explosives. All these crosscurrents make for one maelstrom of a movie -- enough to shatter, momentarily at least -- even an Englishman's stiff upper lip. But The Quiet American is about much more than plots and counterplots.

Like Graham Greene's Third Man, which was released just a few years before Quiet American takes place, it's about people -- fetching but flawed people, kicked into action by facts they don't want to know."

I realize it is a movie based on a novel, but how very "in your face" to call a part of our Democratic Party by that name.

[IndianaGreen]

30. Fowler finds out that Pyle is CIA and he does this when...

he finds Pyle speaking fluent Vietnamese after the bombing of a hotel in Saigon, a bombing by The Third Way. Fowler was taking care of a dying man when he spots Pyle ordering someone with a film camera to shoot pictures of the wounded. When a policeman tries to intervene, Pyle threatens the policeman in fluent Vietnamese. Up to that point in the film, Pyle had claimed to know only a couple of words in Vietnamese and a few phrases in French. Actually Pyle is fluent in both languages!

[IndianaGreen]

28. That's a good summary of the film, which was shot in Saigon!

I highly recommend the film for its strong cast and performances. The film was shot on location in Vietnam. The terrorist bombing in Saigon (by the Third Way strongman) was accurately staged by the film makers. On the bonus section of the DVD they have a witness to the actual event, and he is nearly in tears as he describes the events of that fateful day.

Top notch film that was barely seen in the movie theaters, but it is making the rounds in the cable TV world.

[CarolNYC]

52. Quiet American

I've read the book numerous times and I saw the film when it was in theater. I highly recommend both.

[cosmicdot]

27. bet all these 501(c)(3)'s are hoping to get the money

talked about in this WP article Rich Liberals Vow to Fund Think Tanks ... seems they are setting up the apparatus (Democracy Alliance) to serve as the clearinghouse for doling out the money. The DLC and its auxiliary organizations are likely salivating. Naturally, some of the money will go to paying salaries of the people setting up these organizations.

The WashPost seems to give a lot of publicity to the DLC crowd.

Where's the GOP 3rd way? Or is the 3rd Way actually New Republcans in New Democrat clothing????

501s are a great DC cash cow ... salaries ... fame ... tax exempt ... tax deductible ... 501(c)(3)s should be charitable organizations. The system is abused imo.

I question it all, and wish the DNC would be assertive in dealing with the DLC and its offspring.

Rosenberg launched another DLC offshoot of his ndn.org ... New Politics Institute linked to the web here fwiw, NPI has already designated some Fellows: Markos Moulitsas Zúniga aka Daily Kos, NPI Fellow; and, Joe Trippi, NPI Fellow (no wonder Trippi supported Rosenberg over Dr. Dean for DNC Chair). I wonder why the union which just broke with the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is "a major partner in the start-up phase" of NPI?

"The alliance is the brainchild of longtime Democratic strategist Rob Stein, who spent years studying conservative groups -- in particular their success in sustaining GOP politicians and achieving many of their policy goals. Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network, is working with Stein and is a leading promoter of his effort."

I bet he is.

"The Democracy Alliance will act as a financial clearing house. Its staff members and board of directors will develop a lineup of established and proposed groups that they believe will develop and promote ideas on the left."

Who decides who these Board of Directors and staff are?

Let's set one up ourselves. I want a fat salary, too ... and, a pension.

They studied all the conservative incestuous think tanks and saw what a wonderful and easy way to 'make it'. Set it up, the money will come.

... and, seems these folks smell the money coming out of the Blogosphere, too:

"...the number of liberal bloggers on the Web has been growing at a fast pace, and their blogs have become both central forums for debate over party strategies and hugely successful vehicles for campaign fund-raising, including raising through online contributions more than two thirds of the $750,000 used in the surprisingly competitive House campaign of Democrat Paul Hackett in Ohio. Rosenberg has created the New Politics Institute, an organization that works with bloggers."


I think we have the right to question the growing 'branch offices' of the DLC; and, if they're getting corporate money, I think we should know which companies and the amount. We're all one big happy Democratic family, right?


More Inside the Beltway bureaucracy ... people forming these 501's ... setting themselves up with a job and nice salary in downtown Washington, DC. ... acting independent of the Party.


imho, this money should go to the DNC, and the DNC should be devising platform/policies.

If these "new democrats" are loyal, great Democrats, who care about the Party ... why don't they work under the tent, with Howard, and with the rest us instead of siphoning money away from the Party. They are darlings of the corporate media ... used to divide the Party and muddle the issues.

I find it difficult to trust anyone who was a Fellow at the conservative Aspen Institute (Rosenberg).

I'm skeptical of anyone ashamed of being a Democrat without the word "new".

We have the Internet so we can better communicate with greater numbers of Democrats at the Grassroot level ... with people who won't have a seat at the DLC table nor the financial resources of its clones. They need to come think with us ... not be separatists, and dividers.

Let the DNC manage the Party ... we don't need a bunch of think tanks ... we are the think tank.

caveat emptor


:rant:

:hide:

:yoiks:

[madfloridian]

29. Well, hey cosmic, and as usual we agree. We are the think tank.

I heard at first that Stein's group was not using the same funding as Rosenberg's, but it appears they are working together.

It all depends on whose message they are going to put out, the message of the DLC or the message of the people.

I remember Rosenberg on TV clearly distinctly saying the Iraq War was a good thing. That is when I was alerted that maybe Simonn and Al From were not that separated as we heard.

You need to post more.

[cosmicdot]

32. hi

it took me forever to get that post together ... this DLC, etc. is one of my pet peeves ...

I can't express things as well as so many here.

Forgive the bad grammar, too :)

[madfloridian]

37. What do you mean? You have great posts...just not enough of them.

Your research is super. I think you are being hard on yourself.

[bemildred]

31. This is just another PR shell organization, intended to "frame the debate"

by trying to tell the rest of us what "centrist" is.

[IndianaGreen]

33. Their version of centrist is to the right of Goldwater in 1964

This tells you how far we have slipped to the right!

[bemildred]

34. That tells you how successful they have been with framing the debate.

It is kind of stunning how feeble the Amurkin electorate has become.

[cosmicdot]

35. see, bemildred can say it in a few concise words ...

I struggle to understand this 'centrist' term. So many claim to be one. I just don't know how it translates into 'plans', i.e., what's a centrist 'health care' program? Where does a centrist stand on 'privacy'? on corporate money in 'campaign finance'? on 'electronic voting'? on 'minimum wage', etc. etc.


I'd rather focus on solutions and ideas myself; and, call it progress. :)

Centrist in my mind means going nowhere fast; and, we've been there it seems since est. 1968.

Who has that torch that was passed on that cold inauguration in 1961; and, where is that darn pendulum?

Always a pleasure to see you, as well as, others up-thread.

[madfloridian]

41. I can think of just one word.

Bullsh**. That is what they stand for.

[cosmicdot]

43. that's even more concise

:D

:bounce:

[madfloridian]

46. And I could be more concise, but......

I might get in trouble. :D

[radio4progressives]

48. Exactly ... this is a ruse - people do not be duped on this shell game..

[Guaranteed]

39. These dumbasses won't stop.

They lose and lose and lose. But they won't stop.

[Douglas Carpenter]

45. When I think of people who once voted Democrat but lately voted Republican

They have different reasons--some are cultural conservatives..some are afraid the Dems will take away their guns. Some were scared into it or believe the GOP smear campaigns

But, I have never, never, never and again I say never met a former Democrat who now votes Republican because the Democrats fight too hard for working people. When will these clowns ever learn?

__________________________



A True Voice of Opposition
--A Voice for Working People
--Not the Elite--
http://www.bernie.org/issues.asp

[still_one]

47. sounds like a democratic version of PNAC

[Tabasco_Dave]

50. It sounds more like The Turd Way if you ask me.

We need to get back to the New Deal and fight for the poor and middle class again. Long live FDR and JFK the real Democrats.

[rman]

51. doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" - Einstein