Why vote? It only encourages them.

[kentuck]

The people all across this nation united and went to the polls in November of 2008 to throw out the incompetent Republicans and to finally get our country back on track. They elected Barack Obama the President of the United States.

Not only Barack Obama, but they also voted in a large majority of Democrats in the House and the Senate. It was as plain as the nose on your face that the people wanted change. Barack Obama promised "change you can believe in".

Before Barack Obama was even sworn in, there was an economic collapse on Wall Street caused by the failure of the biggest banks in our nation. He was the leader to save these banks and Wall Street, under the belief that if we did not save them, it would be worse for all of us. It was not an option to let the big banks go under.

The stock market was losing hundreds of points each day. People were losing their 401K's and their life savings, Democrats and Republicans alike. Eventually the market would drop from over 14,000 to just above 6500 before it started its present recovery. Barack Obama gets no credit for that whatsoever.

The new Administration recognized the need for health care reform. But the Republicans decided, with their 40 votes in the Senate, to disrupt and block everything that the people thought they were voting for. Majority rule meant nothing. Your vote meant nothing. Democracy meant nothing.

So we sit here today and the minority is calling all the shots. Nothing is getting passed. The massive problems facing our country get heavier and heavier with each passing day. We are powerless to do anything about it. Yet, they want our vote in the next election? Why?


.



Special thanks to all the generous folks for the hearts...

kentuck

[dionysus]

then don't vote if you don't want to.

:shrug:

[asdjrocky]

1. No we can't!

Wait, I mean, Yes we can! No wait, I mean, Yes we did!

No, what I meant was, ah fuck it.

[DrDan]

2. not only our vote . . . but our money

what little of it we still have

[stillwaiting]

15. They really don't even need our money anymore with the recent Supreme Court ruling.

They'll still ask for it to pretend that they "need" our support, and they'll continue to have such good intentions. They WILL be thwarted every time until we radically change campaign finance and outlaw lobbying.

[DrDan]

16. compaign finance reform . . . sure would be a welcome initiative

not just talking about it - or putting a band-aid on it - but really reforming it for the good of the citizens.

But, alas, I fear it is out of reach considering the greed that now permeates our government.

[DJ13]

3. The problem is that the minority runs the country

As you said, people voted overwhelmingly for change from conservative policies, making the conservatives the minority, but our system is co-opted by conservatives operating in both party's, in control of both the Senate and (increasingly obvious) the WH.

[truedelphi]

4. You make it sound like this Administration and the

Pelosi led Congress and the Democratic Senate were gagged and bound to their chairs while the minority Repugs went on a rampage.

There exists only one Party, the Money Party, and so both parties act complicit in the pretend Acknowledgment of the Kabuki theater (Think Tea Bagger movement, the smallest movement ever known on America's political stage.)

I am totally convinced that Obama made a deal days before McCain's selection of Palin for VP status on the Repug ticket. In consideration of Obama's rounding up all the needed Democratic Senators, and in exchange for various other major matters (Not going after Bush/Cheney for war crimes, installing Geithner for Treasury, leaving Bernanke alone, Valseck and Taylor of Monsanto in key positions etc) the Republicans would basically fold their hand, and let Obama win.

And he won in part by Appealing to the Progressives and the Far right that understood what tragedy might descend on our nation if the BailOut monies were mis-used.

Obama was very careful to make his pledges late October 2008 to assure the voters that he would carefully oversee the Bailout process, so that the monies would have to be offered to the Main Street crowd. Or else those Wall Street Fraudsters would see regulations and stipulations in place.
Or so the Obama of Oct 2009 had saith.

It was a pledge he apparently had no intention of keeping, and he even lied to us straight out when in March of 2009, he said that while running for office, he spent no time considering the economy,as he was too distracted by the two wars.

If you were so distracted, Mr President, how come there are accounts of you rounding up the Senators needed for the votes for the first Big Bank Bailout. I am sure someone must have talked to you about the economy before you did that.If you didn't understand the process of an economy, and many elementary things about its collapse and recovery, how come you promised executive oversight in Oct 2008, and then resorted only to "scolding" bank executives in 2009?

Then there is your background - your mom's stint at the Ford Foundation, your family's friendship with the Geithner family while you were growing up, and the countless investors and money managers and Big Money People that you were allied with while in Chicago. (To say nothing of your education at the Uber-conservative University of Chicago.)

[timeforpeace]

8. Or that they are completely incompetent. Too early for that verdict.

[truedelphi]

9. If it was mere incompetence than I am keeling over in amazement

At how the incompetence matches step for step what is needed for the Banksters and Big Money people to succeed. In other words, a politician ignores taking those actions that are needed in case after case, precisely in the order required so that the Big Corporate side of things always succeeds.

I would say that is very unlikely.

If I didn't have YouTube to rely on to confirm that Obama used to say one set of things and now says another, it would be easier for me to agree with you.

But I remain at all times only one or two computer keyboard clicks away from Obama's very populist October 2008 speech. In this speech, he assures We The People how he will indeed oversee the Big BailOut monies and ensure that if they are not used properly, then he will put stiff regulations and stipulations in place his very first year.

Bu that particular version of Obama, like the version that spoke up for wanting Single PAyer Universal HC, has gone somewhere every bit as mysterious as Cheney's bunker.

And I don't know exactly why and am left to guessing.

:shrug:

[timeforpeace]

10. It has been suggested that he has become who he always was. I agree. Our mistake.

[readmoreoften]

5. We need a pre-Thatcherite, English-style LABOR PARTY.

The American Labor Party. (Course, I don't even know if the unions would support it these days.)

[bigtree]

6. I hope you don't mind if I respond to this in a separate post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7714308

Hope the mods don't mind . . .

(K&R)

[Odin2005]

7. If voting changed anything they would make it illegal.

[Enthusiast]

12. You could be on to something. nt

[rug]

11. R.I.P. Jack Paar.

[mmonk]

13. So they can have something to sell when they take office.

[Ohio Joe]

14. So... because repugs are obstructionists...

We should not vote for Dems? Sorry, I'm not buying it.