The real reason why Republicans have kicked our asses for years....

[Skidmore]

is not because we can't get ourselves all worked into a lather over ill chosen words and other flash in the pan, here today-gone tomorrow outrages of the moment. It has nothing to do with forming ranks and marching lockstep on symbolic issues. It has a lot to do with the one true cult--the cult of the unending election campaign.

The cult of the unending election campaign demands politics as usual and not change. It demands fuel for the bonfire of the vanities to keep conceits alive and front burner. What it means is that problems do not really get solved, real work doesn't get done as essential rancour is steeped in bitterness to keep the campaign going. This is what has to change. The cult of the unending election campaign has brought us two decades of ever increasing social and economic injustice. It has brought us wars and unrest. It has brought us to the point where families and neighbors could no long be civil to one another. It has brought us a gluttonous media feeding off the fear and hatred sown by the political class. It has brought us a class of political officers who make compromises only to assure that issues are available for the next cycle of the campaign.

Yes, this is the change we must demand. That the unending election campaign be contained, that there be a period of time for rhetoric to cool so that real work can be accomplished. This is why we need someone out front who is willing to engage the cult of the unending campaign on both sides of the spectrum and reset the game. It is time for this cycle of history to end and a new one to begin.

[fasttense]

1. No, I hate to disagree but

I think it is because Democratic politicians want to be reasonable and legal. While repukes don't give a crap about anything but winning. You can't make deals with the devil.

[Skidmore]

2. When you have control, you need to deliver on more

than campaign rhetoric. You need to get the work done. And both sides have failed to do more than deliver campaign rhetoric for some time.

[TomClash]

3. Meanwhile in the real world

Dems control the Congress and 28 of 50 Governorships. Dems control both houses in 23 of the 49 bicameral state legislatures and 11 others are split. We won the Presidency in 2000 - only to have it stolen in a nonviolent coup d'etat. We won or almost won, depending on your view of the voting irregularities, in 2004 against an incumbent President "fighting" two wars. How is that getting our asses kicked?

[trumad]

4. Word!

[Skidmore]

6. Now it is time to deliver

and reset the game. The game can't be an end in itself.

[Perry Logan]

5. And here I thought it was because they had the system rigged from A to Z.

They have (or had) all the money, complete control of the media, gerrymandered districts, purged voter rolls, voters who will vote for a lamppost if told to, rigged voting machines, and all kinds of other stuff needed to build a mandate. I think that's why they've been beating us.

[melody]

7. No, it's because the top GOP people are sociopaths who will do anything

This is a war against sociopathy.

[robbedvoter]

8. For the record: last national election GOP won - without stealing was in...1988