I was reading one of my favorite liberal blogs (Hullabaloo) where Digby was happy to prove that the Koch brothers funded one of the principal groups that helped get the tea bagger movement going and then lied about it.
And it struck me, WHO CARES?
I am sure that if you proved with canceled checks to a teabagger that their movement was started by a billionaire, they wouldn't care. Its only a fact and tea baggers are believers without a strong appetite for facts
I guess I don't care who paid to get the baggers all fired up.
Conservatives have their billionaires, we have ours and they all spend tons of money in support of their beliefs and goals
The question is not who funds the idiots, the question is why do we allow them to win.
Why are our supposed leaders not out there shouting out how proud they are of their accomplishments. Why are our supposed leaders not out there reminding the voters that the economy historicaly performs better under Democratic Presidents than under Republicans, that Democrats have a better record on the deficit than Republicans, that taxes for 95% of working families have actually gone down under this President, that the Health Care Reform bill will actually reduce the deficit, that global warming is real and DEMANDS action, that there are very VERY few SMALL business owners making 250,000 or more per year, that the wealthiest 1% of the population have more of the national wealth than the bottom 50% and that wealth is more concentrated now that it was before the great depression.
The problem is not who financed the startup of the tea bagger movement, the problem is that our leaders are so afraid of being called bad names by the Republicans they are cowering in the corner begging please don't call me a Socialist again.
We need to get out and drag out leaders out and BRAG about what Democrats have accomplished in 2 years and BRAG about what Democrats have accomplished in the last 60 years and we need to challenge the Republicans to tell us how they are going to balance the budget without raising taxes or cutting defense spending or cutting medicare or cutting Social Security. Expose them for the demagogues they have become without any real plans who are only interested in blaming someone else for their failures so that they can get back in power and fail again.
Its not just enough to counter the Republican lies with the truth, We have to present a positive vision of the accomplishments of this Administration and Democratic Administrations since WWII and a strong positive REALISTIC vision for where we are going towards.
Fuck the Koch brothers and all the other millionaires and billionaires who are funding the baggers. They aren't winning because of their money. They aren't even winning because they have a better message.
They are winning because WE are acting afraid.
We need to be PROUD of what has been done both in the past 2 years and in the past 60 and we need to stand up. We need to take back the Liberal label and fill it with the pride that Liberal accomplishments deserve.
They Just Won’t Leave the Kids Alone
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The program resonates with me. I recall my days as a Young Pioneer in Perth
in the 1950s. I was proud of my uniform of white shirt and red scarf, and
our r...
1 hour ago
5 comments:
Walt, I was reading one of your blogs about inflation and how Bush's time in office ranks as one of the worst of all time. But I am quite disappointed in your analysis, I know you didn't write every contributing factor, only the numbers.
But I do not and can not blame Bush for this. Outsourcing to China has been a long term problem, and Wal-Mart has been a major contributor to this issue. With Wal-Mart importing 15% of the US's total imports from China, they have the power and the control to influence GDP, and America's buying power like GM, Ford, and other US power houses used to.
In fact, I have read the CPI index is off by as much as 15%, once again, because of Wal-Mart. The CPI has been unable to reflect Wal-Mart in its index, and the falling prices and globalization of the US will only further depress inflation and american wages. Globalization is a good thing to an extent to increase competition, but companies who are driven by cheaper products like wal-mart will only continue to hurt the US.
I do not follow politics as in depth as you do, in fact, I can't really listen to their endless loops of crap. Economics, I thoroughly enjoy. In fact, I could continue to go on, but I believe its the large corporations that effect, rightly or wrongly, the US more than any politician could ever hope to.
Anon,
There is no doubt that the issues associated with outsourcing started long before President Bush II was elected. And neither party has covered itself in glory in how they have addressed this issue.
I blame lots of things on President Bush, and do believe that he is easily one of the 5 worst Presidents in our history, perhaps the worst, but I don't try to lay this mess soley at his feet.
Walmart is really the poster child for the issues surrounding outsourcing and globalization. Walmart's relentless focus on driving prices down has been a significant factor in the low inflation we have had for decades now. But that same focus on driving cost down is one of the major factors driving many industries to low wage countries like China. And Walmart precedes President BushII.
My frustration on this particular issue is non-partisan.
Hey Walt,
I agree with you in that if Democrats are proud of what they've done (and although I dislike the major policy initiatives of the 2008 legislature, I must concede that they've accomplished a significant amount), they should say so. Here in California, they have done just that. Of course, California voters are poorly-informed bumper-sticker voters, so that's a safe approach (at least on the coast).
But there's one main reason that the Dems didn't brag about their accomplishments--they haven't achieved results and the American people are pissed. I know very well that it can take time to affect change, but the Dems and in particular the Administration failed to manage expectations properly.
Tuesday's election answered this question pretty firmly as well. The Republican landslide was less a victory for them, than it was a rebuke of the Democrats--not simply their policies, but also the way in which they enacted them.
With that shrieking harridan Nancy Pelosi on the way out, perhaps the Dems will come back to all the voters they left behind.
Shrieking Harridan???
That is the funniest thing I have heard in a while!!! LOL
Speaker Pelosi is not my favorite Democrat but you have to respect what she did accomplish.
In addition to Health Care Reform and the Stimulus Bill and the Financial Reform bill and the bill to provide care for 9/11 responders and the bill to help small businesses, all of which passed into law, she also got Cap and Trade through the House only to have it die in the Senate.
As a legislative record, that is very impressive.
I agree with you fundamentally in this " . . the Dems and in particular the Administration failed to manage expectations properly."
The Health Care reform bill, by design, doesn't fully kick in for 4 years. The stimulus bill saved or created as many as 4 million jobs depending on which study you read, but it wasn't big enough and so it didn't keep unemployment from getting over 10%.
Though I agree that the election was not an endorsement of the Republican approach and it was a negative reaction to the way the legislation was enacted, but I disagree that it was a rejection of our policies.
We weren't out there defending the Health Care bill and repeating until everybody understands all the things the health care bill that would be very popular if we only talked about them. So all the electorate heard was that it was a budget busting take over of health care which is a lie on both counts, but thats all they heard.
We didn't have any ads from Democrats asking the Republicans if they really think that saving or creating 4 million jobs in this trouble time constitutes failure of the stimulus.
We didn't get our policies rejected because we weren't talking about them. We let the Tea Party define the debate on their terms and we ran scared.
Sigh!!!
And we did a lousy job of managing expectations
Thanks for the comment, ya'll come back soon ya' hear!!
"My party has failed to put out its message." Your blog.
The message was very clear.
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