Thom Hartmann just made an interesting observation....based on the European election results.

[marmar]

Are the Dems really blowing it, not seizing on the current populist sentiment in the country, by sucking up to banks, insurance companies, corporations etc etc, rather than taking them on and taking advantage of the populism?
And are they setting up the nationalist, xenophobic far-right to be the populists, for all the wrong reasons?

:think:

[Cleita]

1. They seem to be blowing it. I hope they stop drinking the kool-aid and

look at the reality around them.

[billyoc]

2. Leopards can't change their spots.

[Democrats_win]

3. It's my generation's chance and sadly, they are failing.

My generation, the same as Obama's, watched in horror as Reagan gutted everything good. We were blamed and punished for the hippy generation even though we were just 10 during that generation's foolishness. We were preached to by the so-called "wise" conservatives. Then we watched them impeach Clinton, who was doing a good job. Finally, the complete joke of the bush presidency and conservatives fail to apologize for the mess that has affected us in the worst way.

Then with Obama we finally got our shot. The shot was barely fired. It was never heard. It is the biggest failure ever. My generation has lost because our country is owned by the f*cking banks.

[Cleita]

4. Before you disparage the hippies, they brought us civil rights, women's rights

and ended the draft. Unfortunately, they weren't paying attention when the corporations stealthily started to take over. I don't think your generation is to blame, however, it will be if you don't start fighting back and take to the streets to take your country back.

[hughee99]

8. Which civil rights are the hippies specifically responsible for?

They were major forces in stopping the war and lowering the voting age, but I guess I'm a little too young to understand which civil rights we have specifically because of hippies.

[villager]

11. probably not an accident that history was taught to you that way, yes?

What marginal improvements to American life we have were the results of -- not only hippies -- but all those who struggled (and sometimes died) in labor, civil rights, anti-war, and other movements...

Now, of course, the only "movements" happen with fingers hitting keyboards, and no one in the streets...

And we can see the results.

[Cleita]

12. Affirmative action for one where people of race or ethnicity or gender couldn't be

discriminated in the work place. When I started work, employers could blatantly demand no blacks or women be hired at a job no matter how qualified. Eliminating segregation in the South, that is separate drinking fountains for blacks, separate cars in the street car and restaurants and hotels that blacks couldn't patronize. I witnessed this discrimination in person. Although women and people of ethnicity haven't yet achieved full equal rights thanks to Ronald Reagan refusing to sign the ERA amendment at least there are laws on the books about it.

[hughee99]

15. While I'm not trying to denigrate the role hippies played

in affirmative action, with Kennedy's EO 10925 in 1961, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and Johnson's 1965 EO 11246, are they specifically the ones to thank for "giving us civil rights"?

[Cleita]

16. It was that generation and back then all of us where hippies at heart if not

practice.

[nichomachus]

23. Gay rights owe a lot to the ferment of the '60s

Stonewall was a natural outgrowth of the other protests that were taking place and of the mood that the people on the left -- wrongly lumped together as "hippies" -- engendered in the country.

Anyone who was on the left, had long hair, or in any other way didn't meet the cultural norms of the corporatocracy were labeled "hippies" as a way to disparage and dehumanize them.

[Deja Q]

14. In all fairness, where are the leaders encouraging people to do as you suggest?

Not to mention, counter-allegations that such people trying to incite such... change... would be accused of inciting people to do dirty work and die for them?

[Cleita]

18. We have no leadership today. Back then we had Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden,

Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, etc.. We had the rockers, the Grateful Dead, Janice Joplin, Joan Baez, and many more whose concerts were basically protests against war and unequality. I've never seen young Americans so inflamed with passion for justice and doing something about it since then.

[femrap]

24. Don't forget anti-consumerism

and taking care of the environment. The Hippies were right. They scared the shit out of The Patriarchy...after all, here were men wearing long hair, not willing to fight in wars, talking about Peace, and not into getting ahead of the Jones'. The dudes were getting in touch with their feminine side and mellowing out with weed.

The Hippies were right. The men in the Hippie were my kind of men...kind, willing to think of others, and more open-minded.

The Patriarchy would have none of that.

[bvar22]

30. Old Hippies Here:

Still doing it!

[femrap]

34. Looks great! nt

[PufPuf23]

17. The "hippy generation" was a positive and evolution

in civil rights and freedom and culture and technology in almost all areas as well as being the most inclusive populist movement in our Nation's history.

That is why we were such a threat to the Authoritarians.

Since Nixon we have had GOP POTUS in office by fraud and populist politicians are marginalized to the point of ridicule. The Democratic POTUS (Carter and Clinton) have pandered too much to the corporations, religious right, and MIC.

So now we live in neo-fascism and are in a state of perpetual war.

Impeach Clinton and take impeachment off the table for GWB? WTF? It happened and is still happening. We as populists have a mountain to climb and a dis-enfranchised voting base and close to zero leadership.

You can only dream now of the freedoms envisioned by the "hippy generation" while you are brainwashed to ignore the systematic stamping down of the social participation and populist energy of the time. So sad.

[Cleita]

19. Thank you. It really was a different world then. Other than the war, I really

miss it and am grateful that I was able to participate when I was in the prime of my life.

[Greyhound]

27. Couple of things; One, there are hardly any of us. Our generation is

sandwiched between two much larger ones and for most us we've spent our lives trying to survive on the boomers scraps and carving out an existence while they gave their spawn all the best bits.

Second, The committed Hippies were always small in numbers and generally ostracized by their peers. They were useful for getting the rest of their generation out of the draft, but then they were really very happy to sell out and go work for their parents. They got theirs, fuck us.

However, you would think that with all those mountains of dry power lying around after saving all of it for six years, that the shot wouldn't have fizzled so badly.

[AndyA]

5. They're keeping their powder dry.

Snatching defeat out of the hands of victory.

Playing the opposition for everything they can.

With Dems like these, who needs Republicans? :shrug:

[warren pease]

6. What? And disobey direct orders from their real employers in corporate America?

As Bob Dole once said in a rare moment of clarity, "When these political action committees give money, they expect something in return other than good government." -- Bob Dole, 1983 (long before he became the Senate champ of corporate fund-raising.)

Why on earth do you suppose the corporatocracy spends zillions each election cycle dispensing cash bribes except to buy the votes of their employees in Congress and favors from the White House?

How about setting up other little "soft money" perks for their favorites -- like the free, quasi-legal use of corporate jets to fly their employees around the state or country as quickly as possible?

They're just "buying access," as they claim? Horseshit. They're buying votes and favorable regulatory rulings. Just check out opensecrets.org to correlate corporate bribes with congressional votes and SEC/FCC/FDA/HUD et al oversight -- or the nearly complete lack of it.


sf

[anonymous171]

7. Only the left can be Populist, IMO. nt

[lovepg]

10. But some things only democrats can pull off...

Such as getting rid of welfare, destroying labor with NAFTA ect.
That is why a democrat is needed now to gut social security and medicare and make health insurance mandatory.
People would not put up with that from a republican. But with a democrat in office its "reform."

[CrispyQ]

31. Very true.

If you have access to Michael Moore's book "Stupid White Men" treat yourself to the first 2 pages of chapter ten, "Democrats, DOA."

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[cascadiance]

25. But the "neo-populist" tea baggers will be what the corporate media trumpet...

... since they are precisely the element of people that are lead astray from true populist stances on issues to the "neo-populist" agendas they are fed to fuel their anger so that they think they are populist and those that stay glued to corporate media also are being lead to feel the same way.

We need ways to find ways to distinguish true "populist" views and the "neo-populist" views.

And that also means that we have to recognize which issues are more progressive issues, and which are really not left or right, that could be issues we could unite more broader groups of people under, but of course issues that "corporate persons" will probably object to, since it will work against their excessive representation that shouldn't be happening at all in a real democracy.

[leftstreet]

32. If the corporate media influenced elections, more people would vote n/t

[glitch]

35. True BUT the Right can tap into Populist anger and spoof Populism long enough

to seize power. Sadly Europe seems to have forgotten the very simple truth that the Right believes the end justifies the means and very happily LIES.

Either they've forgotten about the base nature of the Right or their election systems have been corrupted too.

[SpiralHawk]

9. "Smirk" - Republicon Homelander Fascist FAIL Freaks

"Too bad about you Americans - Smirk" - Republicon Homelanders

[PufPuf23]

13. True populist politicians are rare

I have been concerned now for years that the neo-fascists have been deliberately seeding nationalism and anger. The Authoritarian neo-fascist separate the people by wedge issues that create voter blocks of those most susceptible to propaganda and useful for cannon fodder. The combination of nationalism, anger, and economic distress is the predecessor of major war. WWIII is the wrong reason to me. Anyone else recall Newt cheering on the Israeli assault on Lebanon calling for WWIII on Faux?

[ShortnFiery]

20. The conservative democratic leaders may very well be "part of the corporate waltz."

That is, does the democratic party stand up FIRST for corporations or individual citizens?

I'd suggest that, especially within our Senate, the answer to the above question is less than clear.

[cascadiance]

21. Obama needs to end the "Rahm-per-room"...

He needs to start listening to the grass roots instead of his corporatist advisors!

[Cleita]

22. I'm all for that. It's time for the Emmanuel brothers to quit to go spend

more time with their families.

[Hannah Bell]

26. "setting up the far-right to be the populists"

so falr, so good...

[Mari333]

28. oddly enough its true

my brother and I never saw eye to eye on anything involving politics. he is a gun nut, and voted republican all the time. He became very disenchanted with Bush when the illegal wiretapping started. He also started acknowledging that the occupation of Iraq was illegal and started recognizing that politicians are bought and paid for by the bankers and lobbyists. Nows hes all about Ron Paul. Im all about Kucinich. but in some odd way, in some areas, we see eye to eye for the first time.
the dems COULD have embraced the anger and disenchantment of my brother, as his eyes are opening ..instead, he calls Obama "OBushma" now and sees him as just another corporate entity being run by money.
The Dems will lose their base, and lose disenchanted republicans like my brother who are out there.

[Greyhound]

29. I've been saying that for years. The Republiks have screwed up so badly that only the

Democrats can save them.

We see the fantasy of the Democratic victory spouted here every day, we didn't win, the Republiks lost.

If things continue as they are, we may well see the Republiks make gains in 2010...
:scared:

[Puzzler]

33. Be careful comparing European conservatives to US ones...

... with the exception a few extreme right-wingers, most European conservatives are far to the left of US conservatives.