We’re Mad as Hell and the Dems Aren’t Listening (Jim Hightower)

[kpete]

We’re Mad as Hell and the Dems Aren’t Listening
January 14th, 2008
By Jim Hightower | Hightower Lowdown | Alternet

What I am hearing from across the country is a surge of angst and discouragement. In conversations, calls, emails, and letters, people in general (and progressives in particular) are expressing profound dismay at the deterioration of America’s democracy, not only because of the BushCheney regime, but also, and especially, because of the fecklessness of the Democratic Congress.

“For crying out loud! Why do we even bother to have elections?” Mark wailed in an email.

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Come out, progressives

It’s tempting to snicker at this. But it’s too important for that. On issue after issue — war, the imperial presidency, health care, jobs, environment, unions, etc. — the public is overwhelmingly progressive and wants action. People didn’t expect progress when the GOP was in charge, but they threw those bums out. What now? As a fellow once said to me, “I don’t mind losing when we lose, but I hate losing when we win.” People need hope that someone’s on their side, that our democracy is not just a rigged game for insiders, that real change is possible.

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The public invisibility of most progressive lawmakers is a failure of America’s conglomerated, celebrity-riveted media, of course, but it’s also a glaring failure of the progressive movement’s strategy. The focus of these stalwart Congress members and the Washington organizations that surround and support them is locked on the inside fight. Simply put, they don’t play to the outside.

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Learn from the past

Rather than thinking of themselves as lone rangers fighting in Washington on our behalf, congressional progressives need to act like leaders of a mass movement, mobilizing and targeting us to be ground troops in a fight that belongs not just to them but to all of us.

more at:
http://blog.pdamerica.org/?p=1634#more-1634

[mdmc]

1. i can't hear you

:shrug:

[flashl]

2. K&R n/t

[truedelphi]

3. Democratic Party and its relationship to democracy

The Republican Party is so far from ensuring demcoracy here at home that the small amount of encouragement the Democrats offer is seen with far too much appreciation.

Kucinich is the only one that really sinks his teeth into the corporate parasites feeding on the middle income class, and the Powers to Be exclude him.

With nary a whimper from the three still allowed to sit at the table.