Americans need to come to the realization...

[kentuck]

...that we are all in this together.

It is not written in stone that our nation will stand forever - that we cannot fall.

Political Parties and unlimited money have put our country in great jeopardy. My Party, right or wrong, is now the dominant political philosophy. And it makes no difference which Party is "right" or which Party is "wrong", the other Party is always wrong.

Somebody has to break the cycle or we will be in for some truly dark days ahead. I do not mean to sound so pessimistic but the political Parties have created a wall between the people. They cannot hear each other and they cannot see each other. They only whisper political dogma in each others ears...

[postulater]

1. Just like religion.

We need separation of politics and government.

[yeoman6987]

27. First of all

They need to stop the schedule. I am not talking "vacations". I am talking about leaving Washington on Thursday morning and coming back on Monday afternoon every week. Back in the day they all stayed in Washington even on most weekends so they all got to know each other in social settings. They were all much more friendly to one another which helped in negotiating and talking issues out. Now neither party knows one another or care to know one another.

[BlueJazz]

2. I understand that we Democrats are not always correct in our viewpoints but the big "But"..

...that causes the most turmoil is the misunderstanding of Democratic policies as perceived by the Republicans.

How many times have you heard: "You Democrats want to take ALL the money and give it away to all the poor."
or: "You want to take everybody's job to save a certain type of worm"
or: "You want to raise all the taxes on everybody."

I usually say something like.."Who in the hell told you THAT crap?? "That's not even CLOSE to the way we feel"

Well, we know were it came from...Rush and his band of blowhards and the Media.

THAT'S what we have to fix.

[Enthusiast]

4. "You want to take our guns away."

"You want illegals to come in and take our jobs."

[BlueJazz]

7. Yep...those are good ones also.

[meanit]

12. I find it hard to see it as a misunderstanding of Democratic policies.

I think a large segment of the right understands Democratic policies quite well. They could just care less about helping anybody else, maybe with the exception of exploiting needy people for personal gain.
The right's arguments are all based on insinuation, innuendo, misrepresentations, villianizing, fears, half truths and downright lies. Another name for all of those things is propaganda. And they float their nonsense as legitimate by claiming it's "the other side of the argument" or "opinion".

Not withstanding some people who are too young or people who refuse to think for themselves, the right wing knows exactly what it's doing, with no "misunderstandings" about anything.

[BlueJazz]

17. What you say is true. I was speaking of the low-information voter that usually hears their..

..."News" from either Fox or Rush and (worse) other people who are just as uninformed as they are.
Those comments I wrote are ones that I actually hear from my clients. (I'm a MCSE)

I understand what you posted and I'll be the first to say..You're absolutely correct.

[tecelote]

13. Yes. I've never understood why Republican's hate for the "takers'...

is so much stronger than their compassion for their neighbors in need. For every cheat, there are a dozen deserving people who honestly want nothing more than to provide for their loved ones.

Yet, there are so many many feeding at the trough of greed while, ironically, many of them are on some kind of assistance themselves.

This is why education is so important. We have too many ignorant asses supporting the very greed that keeps them from enjoying a comfortable life.

[lovemydog]

3. Well-said kentuck. Not sure if you were thinking of Yeats

but it reminds me of one of his poems. Here's my take on your thoughtful post. Trickle-down economics was proven at best a fraud and at worst a crime that impoverished millions. The War in Iraq, the war on women, deregulation of banks, and the list goes on.

Yet most are so enamored with 'the other Party is always wrong' that they keep voting for the same abysmal and destructive policies. I think that is a real problem in this country. And I'm not just talking about Republicans. Many Democrats are talking at them, not with them or to them. The Democratic party keeps going right as well.

We need policies that more closely resemble other industrialized nations. In those countries, it's called Centrist. Here, it's call Far-Left Wing.

I'm usually an optimistic person and a humanist. I think from an economic and political standpoint we have darker days ahead. Particularly for those for whom I care most - people who work forty hours a week and can barely make ends meet.

I think Elizabeth Warren (to just use one example) is trying to break the cycle. But it must be millions more like her, who can elect more than half of Congress, for real change to occur. I'm very skeptical about that happening in my lifetime. But I'll keep fighting the good fight because it's better than giving up or making myself less aware or informed, lol.

Thanks for making me think. I hope you enjoy a good day. Here's the poem:

The Second Coming
by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html

[Android3.14]

15. Only Words

But, oh, what words. That's going to stick with me all day.

[lovemydog]

16. Awesome! Those words have profoundly resonated

for nearly 100 years. Yeats wrote the poem in 1919. Have a good day.

[pampango]

5. True. And humans everywhere need to realize that we are all in this together.

The Democratic Party is better at this but has a long way to go. republicans hardly even pretend this is their belief.

Many other countries are better at this than the US is but we can become more like them.

[blkmusclmachine]

6. There is a sizable chunk of "Christian Dominionism" infiltrated into State & Federal Gov't,

(D) & (R), and it actively seeks to destroy our democratic way of life.

"9/11 was only the beginning."

[eomer]

8. But we're not, won't ever be, all in this together.

The 1%, or whatever you want to call them, will never be in it together with the rest of us.

And it does make a difference who is right, although in our two-party system both parties can be mostly wrong, as is the case now.

I'd say, respectfully: start over and think this through again.

[Demeter]

10. +several brazillion

typical Third way propaganda

[kentuck]

11. I'm sorry you missed my point.

Of course, there is right and wrong.

But when each Party thinks and truly believes that they are right, there can be no talking and no seeing the others point.

I would propose that both Parties fire their leaders in Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, and start over.

[eomer]

14. Do you have an example

of a rightwinger's point that I'm not seeing that I ought to?

[kentuck]

19. You still don't get it.

It has nothing to do with the "Third Way" or any way. There is a wall created by the political Parties that prevents discussion of any issues, legitimate or not.

[Bluenorthwest]

24. Nothing is preventing you from making specific points to explain what you mean.

As it stands, it sounds like you are saying 'the bigots and racists need us to listen to them, they are right about some things'.

[kentuck]

29. What I'm saying is..

It doesn't matter if you have a legitimate argument, it is ignored. Why?

Because the Parties, and especially the Republican Party, has brainwashed their supporters to believe everything and every idea of the Democratic Party is evil and void. Their eyes and ears are closed.

We in the Democratic Party, do not have an answer. Unfortunately, we do not have the time or the tools to defeat the Party machine before it destroys our government. Their money and lies are now in control.

If a tree falls in the forest....

[eomer]

30. I think the problem is how you're putting it, not in my not getting it.

A solution built on people actively deciding (not just realizing) that we're in it together is great, maybe the only real solution. But that requires more than people just seeing each other's point - some people will have to change their points. That's because the current positions of many people are based on not being in it together, to the extreme. So in those cases I don't need to see their points, they need to change their points. And they will gladly do so if they sincerely begin to live a life based on being in it together.

I suspect you're trying to say the same thing but have just glossed over a bit too much. Maybe if you clarify a bit you'll find that a lot of DU will agree with you (I'm just guessing).

[kentuck]

31. But they cannot change their positions..

Because they are under the total control of their Party. We may be on the right side this time but we are no more exempt from this total control by the Party apparatus than are the present bots in the Republican Party.

The sky is not blue. Water is not wet. It is whatever the Party says it is. Unless, of course, we believe that the present opposition is open to logic, facts, and rational argument??

[eomer]

33. Right, they first have to change their foundation...

and then their positions will follow along naturally.

They first have to decide to be "in it together". If they do that then their positions will change and I won't need to "see their points" that they held when their foundation was "get mine and screw everyone else".

[FiveGoodMen]

34. We WOULD be all in this together if we first took the 1%'s money and re-distributed it

[The2ndWheel]

9. There's very little that keeps such a large mass of people together

From an evolutionary standpoint, we're not built for it. The same way humans can fly through the air without actually having the physical ability to do it themselves.

[TBF]

18. Kentuck, I'm not sure how to get there but

I did write about this a bit yesterday and this morning in the socialist group.

I think the key is the churches: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10246065

As I say in the comments there, I would best classify myself as agnostic and open to whatever forces might be out there (but not religious in the traditional sense). I sort of move between both worlds - I have both secular friends and clergy in the family and hear multiple perspectives. But what I see overall is the disastrous take-over of the churches by the religious right and the effects of that in this country. I think it explains the phenomena you are describing in your OP as well.

[B Calm]

20. When the republicans stop being partisan, hell will freeze over!

[stevenleser]

21. Yeah, I can't see how the President could have reached out to them any more.

This OP smacks of false equivalency.

[Romulox]

22. We have one of the most unequal countries in modern history. We are patently NOT "in this together".

[madokie]

23. Break the cycle is one of the things Obama wanted and tried to do

I think he actually thought that since he was black they'd try to get along with him rather than look like the racist jackasses they are. Wrong Obama, they're racist and don't give a rats ass who knows it.

Looks like us non racist white folk needs to start busting our white racist asshole brother's heads, actually

[jeff47]

25. Lovely false equivalency.

Let's see....Dems want background checks before gun sales. That gets reported as "They want to seize all guns!!!!!!"

Republicans actually pass laws to starve poor people.

Yes, the parties are 100% equivalent.

The Republicans wandered off into Randian fantasyland because some folks with a lot of money bought that policy.
In response, Democrats are trying to be everything to everyone.

Neither is stable. The Republicans will go the way of the Whigs, and the Democrats will fracture in two. Then we'll get back to functional government. Unfortunately, it's going to take a while.

[Martin Eden]

26. My **IDEOLOGY** right or wrong

Many Progressives find a lot of fault with the Democratic Party, and many Teapartiers find a lot of fault with the Republican Party. I don't think the bitter divisiveness in this country is based on party loyalty as much as it is on polarized ideologies. The two political parties that have a near monopoly on elective office are to a large extent the tools of a plutocracy which deliberately fosters the divisiveness in order to maintain its power over our government.

But, kentuck, you are absolutely correct in that the American people need to come to the realization they are being manipulated and ruled by the plutocracy and that our only hope for a better future is to work together to advance our own common interests.

The common folk of this country -- Progressive/Democrat Teapartier/Republican -- have to realize they/we have much more in common with each other than with the elites of money and power.

A great man once said A House divided against itself cannot stand. He was talking about the institution of slavery, but this also applies to the American people today. We are bitterly divided because the Powers That Be want it that way. Divide, conquer, and reap the spoils of our failing experiment in representative democracy.

[RKP5637]

28. Political parties are the great diving force in this nation. It's like watching/participating in a

perpetual domestic quarrel. And, I'm so tied of MSM perpetually parading out one of one party, the other of another, and then egging them on to duke it out for MSM profit.

I wish ALL Americans would wake the F up to what is going on. This country will not survive divided in this manner, it just will not. The things that make it a successful democracy are dismantled more and more each day. Far too many make it a sport where one has to ALWAYS lose and the other win. It is damn nonsense and destructive.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

32. George Washington on political parties in his farewell address

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

[Special Prosciuto]

35. You are correct.

The founders including George Washington warned that partisanship would disrupt and destroy their revolutionary concept, and that partisan elections would be a perpetual cycle of vengeance; tit for tat, revenge for the sake of one's party. Has that not been true for the past 160+ years?

But smashing political parties down smacks right into the 1st amendment: right to free association and to peacefully assemble.

I may be at a loss for ideas as much as you, but I wouldn't smack down parties. They have effectively kept us, both sides, from each others' throats. But not for much longer....