"Democratic"Underground is clearly a misnomer.

[11 Bravo]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by cyberswede (a host of the General Discussion forum).

The Democratic party is nowhere near as liberal as the majority of the posters here. Either the name needs to change to LiberalUnderground, or ProgressiveUnderground; or somebody needs to start their own website.

[enlightenment]

1. Is that the fault of the people

or the party?

I remember when being a Democrat meant being liberal and progressive.

[PeaceNikki]

2. wow, that's the first time anyone has had that idea!!

You should do it. It'll be a hit, no doubt.

[CBGLuthier]

3. sounds like a damn skippy idea to me

about had enough of you surrender monkey centrists anyway.

[Rex]

4. What do all the liberal haters on this site have in common?

They are always wrong and far to emotional to handle it.

[Cooley Hurd]

5. Ask the Admins:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1259

[DCBob]

6. maybe "Socialist Underground"

[cthulu2016]

7. I suggest quotas. Limit new membership to RW stooges who think they are Dems

until what balance you are seeking is achieved.

[The Link]

8. Damn, lots of hissy fits going on today.

[randome]

35. Must be sunspots or something.

[n2doc]

41. That's because they are losing the argument n/t

[woo me with science]

9. Democrats didn't change. The party did,

when corporatists bought in, and in, and in...

It would be interesting to have a time machine to go back to DU in 2003 or so, and tell people that we would have a Democratic President in 2013, now into his second term of fighting hard for:

NDAA/indefinite detention, "Kill Lists," torture and rendition, settlements for corrupt banks, privatization and corporatization of public schools, Race to the Top and high stakes testing, selling off Gulf of Mexico for drilling, support for Trans-Pacific free trade agreement, implementation of massive surveillance of American citizens, brutal and coordinated crackdowns on peaceful protesters, arguing at the Supreme Court for warrantless surveillance and strip searches for any arrestee, escalating drone wars on civilians in sovereign countries with which we are not at war, new policies of targeting children and first responders in drone campaigns, awarding medals for remote drone attacks, refusal to prosecute war crimes, refusal to prosecute LIBOR and major corrupt banks, pressure on attorneys general for settlements for corrupt banks, advocacy of austerity budgets and repeated use SS and Medicare as bargaining chips in budget negotiations, tying of SS to the general fund with payroll tax holiday, support of TSA naked scanning and groping, escalation of the war on marijuana, appointment of private prison executive to head the US Marshal's office and subsequent massive escalation of federal contracts for private prisons, etc., etc., etc..

And now a FORMAL PROPOSAL for the despicable, unconscionable, Social Security-slashing chained CPI.

[magellan]

19. +1

[RKP5637]

37. It is sad to have to agree, but this is spot on! This is not what I voted for ... I've been quite

disappointed. If this is the new democratic party, then I guess I won't be part of it, eventually.

[randome]

38. Don't forget what else the 'corporatists' managed to do.

Pushing for gay rights.
Pushing for gun control.
Covering pre-existing medical conditions.
Covering contraception.
Expanding Medicaid coverage.
Pushing for equitable taxation.
Pushing for immigration reform.
Violence Against Women Act.
Lily Ledbetter Act.

It's not as simple as some make it out to be. It rarely is.

[rhett o rick]

42. Here's what happened. It'd be genius except it's killing us.

Starting with the assumptions that the 1% have enough money to buy the best minds to help them and they recognize that the two party system is too hard to control. They decided to encourage the republicans to move into the right-wing wacko zone. This does a couple of things. It will drive the conservatives away and into the Democratic Party and it will provide the Elite 1% with an army of "Brown Shirts" with which they can bash heads. Now when the conservatives slip into the Democratic Big Tent they of course bring their ideology with them. They also bring the financial backing of the Elite 1%. This leaves us with a choice of two parties, two choices, one which is wacko and one which is backed by the Elite 1% and totally conservative. What a choice.

Pres Obama was happy to use the Left to get elected in 2008. But starting at his inauguration he declared war on them. He decided that he needed the conservative right of center more than he needed the left. He knew that the left was stuck. He could shit on them and they still had to choose between him and Mittens.

[RKP5637]

46. Well said!!! Exactly what is going on ... in one post I said the new democratic party has a lot of

Trojan horses ... and IMO what you said is exactly what is going on ...

[woo me with science]

48. By george, I think you've got it.

It's so damned easy to get the country to vote for predation, when the only other choice has even sharper teeth.

[Lil Missy]

10. DU is not representative of real life. n/t

[randome]

44. That's so true!

[Poll_Blind]

11. I always felt that through NO fault of their own, the Admins here got kind of a raw deal...

...by affiliating the website so closely to the Democratic party. Well, not the Democratic party of 2000. But who could have foreseen how things would change?

I think the Admins here, and this is just my opinion, know what's going on with the Democratic party and they probably don't like it much either. Do they dislike the situation as much as I do? Probably not.

Meh. But I don't consider them Third Way types, either. They live in a different part of the country, have different backgrounds than I do and I'm sure they see things differently. But I don't think all that different.

What they couldn't have done is foreseen a Democratic Party whose leadership took a nosedive into rightist, Third Way (at best) politics. It puts them in a shitty situation because they still want to be politically relevant on some level- i.e. some connection to the Democratic Party, but how far can they distance themselves from some of the odious policies of same while still tending to that affiliation?

It's a weird situation for us and for the Admins, too.

I'm not sure how much else can be said. I'd love to live in a world where Democratic Underground's administrators spent more time working a populist angle, inviting more leftist personalities to be part of the site (at least in the form of interviews, etc.). But I'm not so sure that's what the admins really want to do with DU. They may, as I think has been kind of made clear, really want to get on with other projects in their life and maybe turning DU into...well...a sort of forum empire of sorts...

Well...maybe that's not what they're interested in doing.

And so things kind of remain how they are.

I hope that makes sense.

PB

[11 Bravo]

23. That was kind of my point, but then the "hipper than thou righteous lefties" showed up ...

and now I have been severely chastened and put in my place.

[Buzz Clik]

12. It's not just liberals or progressives that cause the shitstorms here.

And there is no shortage of long timers who, because of their tenure here, are under the misguided impression that their immediate, uninformed reactions are automatically representative of liberal/progressive thought. Some of these people need to look up the words "liberal" and "progressive" and realize that being mired down in the 1940s is not progressive at all -- it's conservative as hell.

It's difficult to tolerate at times.

[socialist_n_TN]

17. Ah! So we're CHANGING the meaning of "liberal" and "progressive" now........

to more closely reflect the Third Way? Now I get it. Kind of like the rabid right wing now call themselves "moderate".

[Skittles]

25. they're getting worse and worse

more indefensible it all becomes, the worse they get

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

20. so, defending entitlements after a very long struggle, is considered perishable to new liberals/prog

that may be even more difficult to tollerate to more.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. A person mired down in the 40's would need to be in their 80's

unless they were mired at a very early age. Of course they did mire young back then....

[noiretextatique]

45. +1000

THIS can't be said enough. and i am really sick of supposed Democrats, from the Third Way types to the cheerleading types, to the very, very serious types calling out real progressives. Centrism is complete bullshit and hasn't produced a single improvement in the lives of working people. It's the people who were on the front line, like labor unionist, who forced those in power to change.

[Zorra]

13. No. Just drop upper Case "D" in Democratic, and replace it with a lower case "d",

and the name of the board will align with the liberal political ideology of the majority of posters here perfectly.

Just like this: democratic underground, or democraticunderground.com.

Definitely a winner, IMO.

[woo me with science]

29. [phone]

[pa28]

14. Uh oh . . .

[Electric Monk]

16. Awesome Neil deGrasse Tyson gif. I wonder if the OP knows who he is?

[Skittles]

26. STOP IT PA28

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. Team Awesome Underground!

Funny how all the Cult of Personality Obama Cheerleaders are all, like, namecalling today, when they've finally been outnumbered by Team Awesome! Team Awesome used to be on the Margins, but now the Mainstream has come to Team Awesome! Spladow!...how ya like Team Awesome NOW?

Those who Reflexively Defend Dear Leader: You're on NOTICE. Team Awesome isn't taking your Centrist Shit Anymore!

Can I get an AMEN, Team Awesome?

[Bluenorthwest]

18. Awe, do you miss Meta?

Is GD the new Meta? I understand it is hard for the right leaning people here to find ways to defend the current proposals without sounding like Mitt, but the choice to mount the pulpit and rail about the failures and faults of others is also making them sound like Mitt. 'Too damn liberal, let's cut benefits, harumph!!!'

Since you don't own DU, perhaps you should start that website for conservative Democrats you long for. Those pic of the days from Earl G are looking fairly Emoprog, and this is his website. It is not your website. You do not make the rules.
The rules of GD say 'no whining about DU'. By the way.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

33. LOL,

I often wonder what a message board for party loyalists and conservative/centrist Democrats would look like. I imagine it would be like the political version of "Tiger Beat".

[Tarheel_Dem]

22. You said it!

[Curmudgeoness]

24. We are still Democrats.

Just because we stand up for our principles does not mean that we are not Democrats. We are fighting to save the party.

[myrna minx]

31. Hey there friend.

I'm so freaked out by this whole thing. I can't believe that some Dems are rallying around SS cuts. Hang in there.

[Curmudgeoness]

36. I am more than freaked, I am pissed.

Obama has had several emails from me, and not one reply has really addressed my problems with touching SS. Pissed, devastated, hurt.

But it is what it is.....I will continue to make my voice heard, here and elsewhere and that is all I can do.

Hope all is well for you. It's fine here.

[pangaia]

27. Maybe it's the Democratic Party that needs to change its name....

[AnotherMcIntosh]

28. Your intolerance towards liberals is showing.

[Warpy]

30. That's why we've all been forced underground

as the party has mistakenly lurched ever farther to the political right.

We're still who we've always been, rank and file Democrats. However, the leadership wishes we didn't exist and tries to shout us down whenever we speak up.

The name for the site was well chosen.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

34. Except for campaign season.

They don't value our opinions, but they do seem to value our time, money, and votes!

[Warpy]

40. That's the same with both parties

They both feed us happy horseshit when they want to get reelected because it's a comfy gig, no two ways about it.

We need to find a way to hold them accountable to us instead of the lobbyists between the elections.

[IfPalinisAnswerWatsQ]

32. Well they certainly are DLCish in their love for gun control

Kissing the asses of the 1% while supporting chained CPI to force seniors to share a food dish with their poodle, as well as trying to take poor people's guns say from them.

[LWolf]

39. DU is MUCH more "centrist"

than when I first joined. It's coincided, not coincidentally, with the election of Barack Obama.

When I started reading DU in '02, I was "moderate" in comparison with much of the board. Interestingly enough, I haven't changed any of my positions, but I've become too liberal for DU and for, in some people's opinion, the Democratic Party.

[boilerbabe]

43. oh i dont know DU is the only place where i see so called DEMOCRATS making excuses

for rightwing bullshit coming from a DEM president.

[Lex]

47. No we're Democrats--the others calling themselved Democrats moved to the center. nt

[cyberswede]

49. Locking.

I'm sorry, but this post is a Meta topic, and therefore doesn't fit the SoP for GD.