DoYOU Support The Troops???

SAYING you support the troops, and putting a cheesy-ass yellow ribbon magnet on your car does not "support the troops".

Taking care of injured and disabled vets adequately when they come home is support.

We fail at that.

Ensuring the vets come home to the same freedoms they were supposedly "defending" is support.

We fail at that.

Having an economy that can provide adequate economic opportunities to troops who muster out is support.

We fail at that.

Finally, making DAMN sure that any man or woman wearing the uniform of an American service does not risk their life needlessly or for mere corporate gain is support.

We fail miserably at that.

There's a big difference between supporting an unethical and immoral war, and supporting the troops. In fact, much of the time, those two things are mutually exclusive.

So, next time you talk to someone who "supports the troops", ask them exactly HOW they do that.

Chances are that they don't.

Not really anyway.
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A True Look At The Gulf

The Anti-Moratorium Rally Ate Our Oily Souls:






http://www.rudepundit.blogspot.com/

There the Rude Pundit was, in the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana, a week ago, in the media section, right in front of the stage, for the Rally for Economic Survival. The rally, sponsored by local businesses, but mostly those that are oil-related, was to send a message via the media that most of Louisiana opposes President Obama's six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling, as well as the suspension of operations on 33 wells currently being drilled (which is less than 1% of the deepwater wells in the Gulf). Everywhere you went in town, you could see signs telling people to go to the rally. Businesses shut down so their workers could attend, some even providing buses for them to get there. And, indeed, the Cajundome, which has a Justin Bieber concert coming up, was pretty much filled with over 11,000 people.

Behind the Rude Pundit was the staff for the Attorney General of Louisiana. Two seats back was Senator David Vitter, the Republican whose affairs with diaper-changing hookers do not seem to matter to the supposedly good Catholics and evangelicals who vote for him. Oil executives were all around. Walking through the Cajundome, you could identify people by their shirts - who worked for Halliburton, who worked for Shell, who worked for every small oil company, who was there for the local Tea Party. Most were the workers whose jobs could be affected by the halt of drilling, although one suspected that they were acting like it was a blanket moratorium and not one so specifically targeted.

A few observations:

1. Lieutenant Governor Scott Angelle is one of those old school politicians who can whip a crowd into a frenzy. Frankly, he's the guy Republicans should be grooming for the future, not Governor Bobby Jindal. The Rude Pundit's mom, who was his "photographer" for the event, found him absolutely thrilling.

2. Bobby Jindal is one of the goddamned worst speakers. His whiny little speech, which featured him saying that "We don't want a check from BP," climaxed by his lame-ass attempt to get the crowd to chant "Let us go back to work," which he approached with all the enthusiasm of a man forced to go to a John Mayer concert with his girlfriend. The crowd clapped a bit and confusedly tried to chant, but it was aborted before it reached its first trimester.

3. Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser is not your roly-poly friend anymore. Oh, how we all loved this man of the people when he appeared on our magical Anderson Cooper show, railing about BP's despoiling of his people's land. But now he mocked President Obama and demanded an end to the moratorium on the very drilling that wrecked his parish's marshes and coasts. He's an old oil guy, so he knows where the big money comes from. It ain't shrimp.

4. Speaker after speaker said that this was a "war" that had to be won. The war was with the federal government, which was criticized (to cheers and boos) constantly in a way that BP was not.

5. The Cajundome and rally organizers did not allow people to bring signs, not inside, not in the parking lot. One imagines it was a way to avoid anyone showing up with an Obama/Hitler or witch doctor poster. But there was a barely contained rage towards the President that popped out every now and then when someone would yell, "Stop Obama." Or when oil lobbyist John Hofmeister started to talk about the "three evils" affecting South Louisiana. He was talking about the evils of what he called "misinformation" in various forms, but dozens of people called out "Obama" or "Obama is evil."

6. Yes, there were black people there. Yes, the vast majority of the crowd was white. No, the representation of non-whites was not in proportion to the truly diverse population of the region.

7. No Democratic politician spoke nor was in the audience. Not Senator Mary Landrieu. Not Representative Charlie Melancon. They both oppose the moratorium, too.

The Rude Pundit felt disgusted by the entire thing. Because you know what? They were right. South Louisiana is bought and owned by the oil industry. In the last century, it has raped the Louisiana landscape like a Russian mobster with a new shipment of hot Ukrainian women who thought they were immigrating for modeling jobs. The state is now the oil industry's willing whore, doing anything it can to please Chevron or ExxonMobil because that where the jobs are.

You drive down, for instance, Highway 90 from Lafayette to New Iberia, and you pass the pipe fitters, the heavy tool operators, the boat repair shops, the undersea explorer offices, the truck rental places, business after business after business, every single one of them, every single person in them, every single restaurant nearby, every single motel and hotel that puts up business travelers, all of them serving the oil corporations. And all of those jobs and all of those sales and service payments make up a huge part of the tax base of the state.

So, yeah, even with just 33 rigs down, that's thousands of jobs that are directly affected. And BP ain't gonna pay it all. And it's kind of a joke to get all upset about the ruined marshes when the canals and paths that have been carved out of the Louisiana landscape have shredded the wetlands for decades, with little attention beyond activists who wave their hands uselessly.

We're fucked. That's the conclusion the Rude Pundit reached. We are so very fucked by oil. Because the cost of weaning this nation off it is astronomical. Last month, when Bill Maher said, "Fuck your jobs" in favor of the environment, it was a fine rhetorical flourish, but so, so very naive, in a way he usually is not. But not because he dreams big. Liberals are dreamers. It's what we do.

We are fucked because every job lost is a family we all gotta help. It would cost trillions of dollars to extricate ourselves from the claws of Big Oil. And we are simply no longer a nation that thinks in such ways any more. That's why the Rude Pundit walked out of the rally angry, sad, and despairing. Unless we are willing to sacrifice as a whole, unless we are willing to shift our entire economy to saving the earth and the air, you may as well let 'em drill.

I Will NOT Tolerate Crack Heads As Neighbors

Call me old fashioned but I will NEVER allow crack heads to exist ANYWHERE within my vicinity. They will be reported to local law enforcement and their drug induced activity will cease immediately.

Fuck these addicted pieces of shit.

So BEWARE!!!

If you are a crack head and I know you - you will soon enjoy an 8 x 10 cell in county jail.

Screw You Liberals - Today I Have Become A republican

I give up, I became a conservative republican today...

Posted by AnArmyVeteran in General Discussion
Thu Jul 22nd 2010, 08:51 AM

 

I give up, I've had enough, I can't take it any more. After years of fighting for progressive causes and trying to do what was right for my country, I've decided to become a republican. Not just any republican, but a conservative republican, a far right wing extremist.

After a lifetime of pounding my head against the wall trying to promote progressive values I finally asked myself 'why?'. It hasn't gotten me anywhere and I haven't made any impact on society or made it better. I've just been hurting myself.

It takes far too much energy and mental exercise to be a liberal, a democrat or a progressive. Being a liberal means I have to think intelligently using entire paragraphs and think rationally. I have to inform myself by reading hundreds of sources for information to make sure I found the truth. But I've become tired of immersing myself in the sea of knowledge and now I just want to crawl to the nearest shore and rest.

So it is with great pleasure that today I am announcing I have become a conservative republican. I've officially changed my party status and I am no longer affiliated in any way with anything that hints of left wing ideals. I have finally swam ashore and I feel very safe and secure on my small right wing island where I no longer have to process information or to try to seek the truth.

From this point forward I am only going to listen to talk radio and Fox News all day long for all of my information. It's going to be so much easier than using all my energy with thought and research. I'm hereby going to stop thinking, and instead, just absorb everything I hear from my new right wing sources. I give up being a functioning human being and a responsible, informed citizen, and from now on I will just mindlessly sit in front of my television or radio and let right wing hosts do my thinking for me. I will faithfully repeat only what I hear from them, never doubting anything I hear. I'm looking forward to just regurgitating buzzwords instead of using complete sentences or paragraphs.

To ensure I remain a conservative republican in good standing I have scheduled appointments to have 95% of my brain and 100% of my heart removed. As a right wing extremist I know I will no longer need them because I don't need to think, and I certainly will never need to have compassion or empathy for any other human being. I now believe in the right wing philosophy of a dog-eat-dog world where only the strongest should survive and the rich should own everything and control our country.

I'm going to like living my life selfishly, without any regard for anyone else. If I see someone who is poor or down on their luck I will now feel they deserve their fate instead of reaching out my hand to them. If I see someone who is vulnerable I will try to exploit them. I will now prey on others instead of praying for them. And I will support my new conservative philosophy which favors the lazy and opportunistic rich over the hardworking poor. I know only those who are rich have any true value while people of modest means have zero worth.

Capitalism is my new god are CEOs are my god's disciples. I now consider Limaugh, Hannity, Beck, OReilly and so many others to be the missionaries who believe unregulated capitalism is a divine force in which we shall all bow to and worship. I vow to always pray to the god of the almighty dollar and condemn those who do not share my newfound greed.

I was so excited yesterday when I received my conservative republican welcoming package in the mail. Contained within it was an 8 x 10 glossy photo of Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin. When I was still a thinking and responsible liberal such a picture would have ended up in the fire, but now I am proudly displaying that photo above my fireplace in a place of great reverence.

I have officially gone over to the other side. I urge everyone who was as tired as I became to follow me and to have your minds and hearts purged from your lives. I'm learning how truly blissful it can be to be totally ignorant.

Signed,
A former educated, informed liberal who is tired of using my brain and my heart...

Quit Ponting Fingers

Republicans blame Obama, rejecting facts that illustrate one man could not do that much damage in that short of time, using selective amnesia on the last 8 years of Bush.

Democrats talk about creating jobs, but never where they went and how to really get them back.

The job losses are CLINTON and GORE's fault. Can't anyone remember the debate, what Ross Perot was saying about the "giant sucking sound" of American jobs. I know that Democrats do not want to face this but Perot was right. What Gore and Clinton did was wrong. And Al Gore, in particular, is a hypocrite because these policies moved all our industries to countries where they pollute freely. CO2 anyone? But they want to cap and trade tax us to fix the environment?!

You want to fix the environment, create our goods here where we know they are made in an environmentally(not to mention decent human rights) sound environment. Punish BUSINESS that purchases from polluting companies overseas.
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I Hate To Say I Told You So BUT.....

Us left wing, free thinking, tree hugging, antiwar, peace, love, and understanding hippies were right about everything.

We were right about drilling in our seas and now the Gulf of Mexico is filled with oil.

We were right about war and now we are a broken, divided country with debt flowing into a desert drain and soldiers dying for oil and imperialism.

We were right about the corporatization, monopolization, and The Federal Reserve. Now we have Goldman Sachs and the big banks performing daylight robbery whilst infiltrating the highest levels of our government. We have the greatest joke for media on the planet. And we have corporations that are so large if they fail they take down whole portions of our economy.

We were right about our foreign policy and going to other peoples lands for their resources. Hence we had September 11th, 2001. Terrorists didn't attack Norway. They attacked us because we steal the worlds resources under the guise of spreading democracy.

We were right about overfishing our seas and treating animal life well. Now we have depleted fish stocks around the globe and dwindling endangered species in bodies of water around the globe.

We were right about green house gases and the hole in the ozone layer and treating Mother Earth with respect. Now weather conditions around the world are skewed each year, ice caps are melting and Kilimanjaro and many other mountains are growing barren of snow.

We were right about gas guzzling cars and clean energy. Our cities are filled with pollution and the price of oil continues to rob our families. We had the chance to adopt clean energy back under Carter and the big corporations killed the best ideas.

We were right about having healthy pregnancies. We have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and also one of the highest C-section rates. Those doctors need to be able to make those tee times!

We were right about legalizing marijuana. 30 years later and the drug war rages on. Alcohol still kills many more people. Mexico is full of headless corpses. Americas jails (which are now corporate workhouses) are full of our young people. And Columbia our only friend in the drug war is the only South American country that deals with us. The rest have had a Bolivarian Revolution and gone completely left against us as we robbed them of their resources and performed coups in their countries for the last century and a half.

We were right about trusting our leaders. Those leaders lied us into war, stole our retirement savings, and gave away our taxes to their friends. Our current leaders are still entrenched with large corporate interests to the point of making their own leadership nearly ineffective.

We were right about saving the Whales. New research indicates dolphins and whales have an intelligence on par with human beings. Japan, Norway, and other countries continue to slaughter the whales while the U.S. does nothing of serious consequence to enforce the U.N.'s decision to ban commercial whaling.

We were right about religion in government. The alliance of the Christian Coalition and the right wing Republican Party brought us George W. Bush and the two wars he decided to implement. Creationism is being taught in many schools, Church's pay no tax and they actually receive our tax dollars for spreading their religion. Many states actually vote in their Church's. Religious schools are on the rise and public schools are being denied funding.

We were right about the CIA and our media. We now have a dumbed down population that doesn't stir while all these terrible things are implemented in our name. The hippies said don't trust em during Vietnam and they were ignored but thanks to the antiwar movement and people like John Lennon, Abbie Hoffman, and Allen Ginsberg the war was eventually stopped. Now the hippies continue to be correct but our military industrial complex continues to expand. Even under the current administration.
We were right about drilling for oil in Alaska and now that formerly unspoiled territory has pipeline's running through it and a sound that is amuck with oil.

We were right about free love. Now we have lecherous senators having sex with prostitutes (who are found hanged) and closet gay congressmen who tap their toes in public restrooms looking for a seedy blowjob. We have poor young women on our streets who become drug addicts and murder victims while the roots of the problem continues to be ignored. The roots being repressed sexuality, lack of education, and terrible upbringings due to our screwed up society.

We were right about feeding the world. World hunger is on the rise and men, women, and children all around the world are dying from disease and starvation. Food and life saving drugs are so corporatized that people are actually not receiving them when they need them. We are now manufacturing genetically engineered seed and injecting cows with Bovine Growth Hormone. Opening the door to mutations and new diseases.

We were right about nuclear power. We have had a reactor melt down on Three Mile Island. We have had Chernobyl. And we have had a nuclear arms race that has wasted trillions of dollars and poisoned our planet.

We were right about a rising police state. We now have cops that use gestapo tactics, who dress like stormtroopers, who use tasers regularly to control the population. We have designated off site protest areas, heat rays, agent provocateurs, and mass arrests of peaceful protesters and innocent bystanders.

We were right about unregulated capitalism. The cream doesn't rise to the top. The crap does. Bad guys get away with their crimes and even get promotions when they lie and steal. While the middle class goes broke. The rich grow richer and pay less tax.

We were right about deregulation. TV, radio, the music industry, big pharma, power companies, cable companies, telecoms. They all fix prices. They all promote inane crapola. They all collude. They all hurt the little guy. They all suck.

We were right about the death penalty. We now have a country that thinks war is the answer and has no problem with the killing of innocent people. We refer to them as collateral damage. The death penalty is social conditioning as our government puts citizens to death. The lesson taught to our children is that some killing is ok. As long as the government does it. This paradox is eating away at our humanity. The death penalty should be abolished and peace and love should be the answer.

Joseph Campbell had it right. The musicians, artists, writers, poets, inventors, and dreamers are the ones who will enlighten us and bring about a true golden age.

We are the liberal left.

We are the hippies.

We are the progressive left.

We are Americas future and only hope.

And our track record of success speaks for itself.
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Corporate Interess

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune

Corporations sue to allow campaign contributions

Not content with running their own ads supporting candidates, businesses want judicial approval to contribute directly to campaigns and political parties.

By PAT DOYLE, Star Tribune

Upset with restrictions on political campaign contributions, backers of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer are seeking to overturn a Minnesota law barring corporations from contributing directly to campaigns and parties.

State law now allows corporations to spend money independently of campaigns on ads supporting or opposing candidates, an arrangement that the U.S. Supreme Court approved early this year.

But the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life and Coastal Travel Enterprises seek to go beyond that ruling and allow direct contributions to candidates by corporations.

"Our clients believe ... that the First Amendment gives corporations ... the right to contribute to candidates and political parties through their general treasury funds," said Joe La Rue, an attorney for the plaintiffs, who sued this week in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.

Read more: iUs" target="_blank">http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/98080899.html...
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Dave's Rage - Monday July 5, 2010

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE America, mainly because it is the country of my birth and I have lived here all my life but I am deeply disappointed in what my country has become.

We have things going on now that just don’t make a bit of sense to me: two ridiculous wars, American occupation of at least 75 other countries, corrupt government leaders, a disaster caused by a foreign corporation in American waters and don’t EVEN get me started on republican obstruction and 8 years of george fuckin’ bush.

But what frosts my balls the most is the idiots screaming for politicians to act more like the founding fathers. You know these guys? The people that wrote the Constitution. The foundation of America.

You know the founding fathers right? 

 

That band of slave owners that escaped British tyranny and landed in America and said that all men are created equal. That is unless you’re an Indian, nigger or a woman, of course. Excuse me, but I like to use those good ole’ American words, the kind that helped forge this great country of ours, when discussing the current turn back the clock attitudes of these uninformed, uneducated clods that comprise the current republican party.

Come to think of it, it shouldn’t surprise me at all.

Seeing the republican/conservative/teahadist alternate reality bizzaro world take on everything, going back to elitist attitudes and hypocrisy would seem like a great idea to them. Get them a couple of slaves, beat up their women and rob the world blind as long as they have more toys than their neighbor. DAMN THE TORPEDOS – FULL SPEED AHEAD!!!

In my short, fifty year gig so far here in this world I have never seen such a split between two political parties. We just don’t agree on anything. Not one damn thing. At least I never really paid attention to things as much as I do now.

And maybe THAT’S the problem

Because I know if, in my younger years, I seen this loss of personal freedoms and powers, I would probably have run for President by now. So instead I share my observations, my views, my feelings with you all here – not trying to change your mind on things but to at least get you to think.

Think outside the box, even for just one moment.

Think for yourself.

For some, this cold be the first time you have ever tried this and I would guess that you possess the (R) next to your political name. I applaud your efforts. There may be hope for you yet.

I see the problems with the Democrats also and believe me when I say that they have done some pretty rotten things in my book too, but to no degree of the republican destruction. So I have chosen to side with the lesser of the two evils. Not really feeling the hope and change I was promised but it sure would have been worse with the “other” guy.

I guess that’s better than being on neither side right? But it’s getting pretty old.

I would LOVE to see a third party candidate make an honest run for President. But I sure as hell wouldn’t just want the same product under a different label. There is only one person that I know of that can fit that bill and would have a great chance of winning.

Jesse Ventura.

I have a great running mate for him too. Someone that can bring respect back to the office of Vice-President. A person of power and charisma. A person of equal in-your-face-screw-you-I’m-doing-it-MY-way attitude.

 
Only one man can do this.

Donald Trump.

Now just think of this for a second or two. Think of the powerful way that these two guys take care of business. Think of THAT working for US as OUR elected leaders.

Comments please.
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They Keep TRYING To Make "Liberal" A Dirty Word

As I get older I find myself getting more and more liberal. I think it is because I see the mean-spiritedness of the conservative movement now. I see the harm their ideas have done to this country. I find myself upset to see the conservative Democrats going along with some of the policies that really will hurt people in their everyday lives in a painful way. I remember how it really got going with Newt Gingrich and his language control attempts in his 1996 GOPAC memo. He and his cohorts made liberal sound like an insult. Then the think tanks on his side picked up on it, and a few on our side of the aisle as well. They sneered at liberals, made them synonymous with words like "fringe" and "radical". I remember when I first realized how most of my Republican family felt about anything remotely off center to the left. A family member scornfully called my parents "bleeding heart liberals." My parents were moderate old-fashioned Southern Baptists who even hesitated to sip wine because the church forbade it. I noticed it again in 2003, and it really hurt then. Those of us who became so active in politics with the Dean campaign were called liberals and scorned as fringe activists. It was stunning, and it carried right down to the local level. And it was not the Republicans who did that, it was our own party. The most annoying thing was the preempting of the labels. The conservative Democrats began to call themselves progressives as they pushed liberals aside and called them fringe. They also renamed themselves the "sensible center" and the "moderate middle" and other similar high-sounding terms. It started a long time ago. And through the years the degrading comments toward liberals/leftists/the left have escalated. 1985 Blueprint for reforming the party. In his "Saving the Democratic Party" memo of January 1985, From advocated the formation of a "governing council" that would draft a "blueprint" for reforming the party. According to From, the new leadership should aim to create distance from "the new bosses"-organized labor, feminists, and other progressive constituency groups-that were keeping the party from modernizing. From's memo sparked the formation of the Democratic Leadership Council in early 1985. According to Balz and Brownstein, "Within a few weeks, it counted 75 members, primarily governors and members of Congress, most of them from the Sunbelt, and almost all of them white; liberal critics instantly dubbed the group 'the white male caucus.'" These words in the 90s from Al From, then head of the DLC, were real gems. He is actually saying that President Clinton beat the GOP to issues before they knew what happened. Something odd about bragging about pre-empting the Republican party. "One Election, Two Interpretations The predominant analysis in the media echoes the New Democrat view that Clinton won by pre-empting the right on such issues as crime, welfare reform, and a balanced budget. "Every time Dole tried to get cracking on an issue," Al From pointed out at a post-election DLC press conference, "he couldn't do it because the president had, in a sense, beat him there." Democrats at the Crossroads Pride in using the GOP's policies before they got around to doing it? There should be pride in standing for real Democratic values, not the punitive conservative ideas. An article from the DLC website in 2003 not only went after Howard Dean, his website, and his supporters, it attacked Democratic Underground. Yes, it really did. "Meanwhile, in addition to its standard-fare official website, deanforamerica.com, the Dean campaign also maintains a weblog called blogforamerica.com that plays a curious role in keeping activist supporters emotionally invested and engaged in the campaign. It is part sitcom, part soap opera. Enthusiastic campaign supporters participate in the drama, posting their own comments in related discussion areas. The interactivity and the cacophony of voices help create a sense of energy -- the feeling of a movement." But there is also another, simpler explanation for why fringe groups would be using the Internet better than mainstream campaigns: "Because they have to," said Fose, McCain's Internet manager. Certainly, the fringes of the political spectrum are active online on heavily trafficked discussion boards such as the left-wing democraticunderground.com and the right-wing freerepublic.com. Dean's fiery message resonates in the left-wing haunts. He is the favorite son on democraticunderground.com, according to the site's proprietor, David Allen, and the people posting on that site are an animated bunch. Much of what they post -- about Bush, and about moderate Democrats -- would not be appropriate to repeat here. But the question remains: It's easy to activate the activists, but what about everyone else? Nothing but Net I always find myself thinking that they must not need the activists since they so often scorn them/us. I hope they never find that the activists are not there anymore. Also in 2003 the same group defined the role of activists in the party. They as much as said there is none. There is no role for activists which they seem to equate with the left, with liberals. The Real Soul of the Party Hint: It is not activists. Not only is the activist wing out of line with Democratic tradition, but it is badly out of touch with the Democratic rank-and-file. "But the great myth of the current cycle is the misguided notion that the hopes and dreams of activists represent the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. Real Democrats are real people, not activist elites. The mission of the Democratic Party, as Bill Clinton pledged in 1992, is to provide "real answers to the real problems of real people."Real Democrats who champion the mainstream values, national pride, and economic aspirations of middle-class and working people are the real soul of the Democratic Party, not activists and interest groups with narrow agendas." ..."What activists like Dean call the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is an aberration: the McGovern-Mondale wing, defined principally by weakness abroad and elitist, interest-group liberalism at home. That's the wing that lost 49 states in two elections, and transformed Democrats from a strong national party into a much weaker regional one." An article in 2004 pointed out the newest young leaders in the New Democrat movement. Note the use of the words "interest groups", "minority groups" "weak on defense." One of the founders once said of the DLC that they had been founded to lessen reliance on the traditional interest groups and get funding from corporations. Then they did not have to stand for things that made it hard to win. These young New Democrats have the talking points down pat. (Jamal)Simmons and his fellow "Young Turks" worry about the Democratic Party's dependence on interest groups, their relations with minority groups, the stereotypes that they are weak on defense and values, the Republican appropriation of the "reformer" label and the swaths of America that Democrats seem to have written off." .."We respect the struggles of the feminist movement, the civil rights movement and Vietnam, but (we) are not defined by those struggles," says Kirsten Powers, 37, a New York-based strategist and commentator for Fox News. "We want to take what is good in liberalism and make it better, and get rid of what is not working." ..."Simmons, Powers and New York City-based consultant Dan Gerstein have been three of the bluntest commentators. "The party in certain respects is fossilized," says Gerstein, 37. "It's trapped in the last vestiges of the New Deal coalition. That coalition is no longer an electoral majority or even close to it." A former aide to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Gerstein wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Democrats have "fallen right back into the elitist, weak-kneed, brain-dead trap" they thought they'd escaped with Bill Clinton." It's time to pass torch, younger Dems say The words about "the left" have gone on for years, decades. In 1998 Al From said: "I've got bad news for the President's opponents in both parties: New Democrats are winning the battle for their party's soul. New Democrats, not liberals, will be the party's dominant force in the 21st century." New Democrats are here to stay In 2003 Evan Bayh had choice words about the left. His words were condescending. Bayh has a history of sparring with the left in his party. As chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council in 2003, he warned of then-rising presidential campaign of Howard Dean. “The Democratic Party is at risk of being taken over by the far left,” he told DLC members in 2003. “We have an important choice to make: Do we want to vent, or do we want to govern?” Bruce Reed of the DLC talked about how the DLC has completed its mission. “The political mission of the DLC has been largely accomplished,” said Reed, who’s had the group’s No. 2 post since 2001. “Twenty-five years ago, the forgotten middle class had serious doubts about Democrats, and now Democrats are winning the middle class, suburban voters, moderates by handsome margins. Our next challenge is to deliver on that promise and earn those votes for years to come." Political mission completed He did not refer to voters on the left. Some of the most contentious words used by the party have been directed, not at Republicans, but at "the left", "liberals". Notice how this article accuses us having narrow agendas. We are called "elitists" by those who sit in their ivory towers and make the decisions. The Real Soul of the Democratic Party Real Democrats who champion the mainstream values, national pride, and economic aspirations of middle-class and working people are the real soul of the Democratic Party, not activists and interest groups with narrow agendas. Most Democrats aren't elitists who think they know better than everyone else; they are everyone else. They don't swoon when they hear a candidate say it's time for Democrats to dream again. What they want is the American Dream, where everybody who works hard and plays by the rules has the chance to get ahead. SNIP..."Not only is the activist wing out of line with Democratic tradition, but it is badly out of touch with the Democratic rank-and-file. In 1996, a survey by the Washington Post compared the views of delegates to the Democratic convention to those of registered Democratic voters. The delegates perfectly mirrored the Democratic electorate in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender. But they could not have been more different when it came to class and education. Democratic delegates were nearly five times more likely than Democratic rank-and-file to have incomes over $75,000, three times more likely to have a college degree, and over four times more likely to have done postgraduate work. No wonder that when the New Yorker recently asked Karl Rove to describe the Democratic base, he said, "somebody with a doctorate." One of the latest to toss careless words out about liberals is Blanche Lincoln. Lincoln calls out the Democratic left In a new interview with The Hill, Sen. Blanche Lincoln -- facing a tough Democratic primary challenge funded by national progressives on Tuesday -- called out her opponents on the Democratic left wing. Lincoln said she is facing criticism from a political movement that she suggested is divorced from the political reality. Divorced from political reality? There is a constant in the jibes at the left, the liberals. We are always talked about in the 3rd person. Like we were in a separate place or location in time and space from the rest of the party. We are referred to as they or them, never in the 1st person plural like we or us. The words through the years have left their toll. As we have moved to the right things have changed in this country. The wars are growing longer, the rich are getting richer, and now the poor are growing poorer. Each time we get in power now we move right so as not to offend the Republicans, while they have no hesitation about offending us greatly and often. The most annoying thing of all is the attempt to portray liberals as not very bright, not very politically savvy, unable to see the big picture. That's the problem. We do see the big picture. We see the harm done when there is a concerted effort to define a whole group of people as being fringe and inadequate. We see the harm done when we fail to stand up to the meanness of the conservative movement of today.