How can our elected Democratic officials save us if they refuse to act?

[dfgrbac]

First of all, I am and always have been a Democrat. But at this point in our history, I have to say I am extremely disappointed and frustrated by the inactions of my Party since the election of our nemesis Ronald Reagan. We had a fairly good run after FDR turned things around; even Republicans understood many of the good things coming out of the New Deal and continued regulatory policies that kept the nations economy steady through Jimmy Carter.

But those who cried over the loss of the Gilded Age were strategizing how to bring it back during these decades. Wikipedia describes the gilded era in this way:

Political corruption was rampant, as business leaders spent significant amounts of money ensuring that government did not regulate the activities of big business - and they more often than not got what they wanted. Such corruption was so commonplace that in 1868 the New York state legislature legalized such bribery.[46] Historian Howard Zinn argues that the U.S. government was acting exactly as Karl Marx described capitalist states: "pretending neutrality to maintain order, but serving the interests of the rich."

Think tanks were formed to defeat this hold Democrats had on America. Having lived through this period, I saw them make a dirty word of liberal - and started calling it the "L" word in the media. As time passed, the continuous repetition of this type of internal propaganda combined with the general population largely ignoring politics except for what they heard on sound-bite news from radio and TV, the public bought into the idea that government regulation was hurting capitalism making the election of Ronald Reagan possible with his "Get the government out of our way" message.

What is beyond me to understand is why elected Democrats did not see what was happening. The media kept pounding the idea that the country was swinging to the right and the "L" word was to be forgotten. Democratic officials rolled over and offered almost no resistance to what the media was saying and seemed to actually believe it to the point that they had to join this swing to the right or lose elections.

The ultimate and devastating roll over came with Bill Clinton's "new Democrat" pronouncements. We now see that "New Democrat" means continue to speak the same while basically conceding major policy to the new far-right GOP. This reduced Democratic backbone allowed the catastrophe of the 2000 election where Al Gore won by a half million votes but put GWB in office anyway. Democrats standing ground for what is right would have placed Al Gore in the White House and I truly believe save us from the horror of September 2001 and what came after.

Then even worse beyond belief, the lack of serious investigation of the events of 9/11 was allowed, even after the people replaced the GOP White House with the current occupant. All Democrats of power refused to place investigations of war crimes on the table even though they had control of all houses of government. I have to say this to you, I strongly believe if these investigations were done in depth as they should have been, we would not be having difficulty today electing Democrats!

[Autumn]

1. What makes you think they want to save "us" ?

Where is the benefit to them in doing that? Lesser of two evils and all that rot.

[dfgrbac]

2. The Benefit?

How about saving the planet from the destruction we are witnessing? We only have one!

[Autumn]

3. You are under the impression that they care the planet is facing destruction.

Only a few of them are willing to consider that is happening. The rest of them know that as long as they keep their mouths shut the money keeps rolling in.

[dfgrbac]

5. So, we let the planet burn?

How can we make people care for more than their personal life? We need to make them understand they are in this sinking boat with us.

[Autumn]

6. Are you talking about people or our elected officials?

Because I will tell you, people that I know even republicans are worried about this. What are our elected leaders doing about it? They know that some of their constituents are concerned, they had to have seen something about a big march in the news..

[dfgrbac]

7. The Climate March

Unfortunately, the impressions of the march were minimized in the media making it look unimportant - except for FSTV and the like. Americans need to break out of the mass-media trance they have hypnotized us with.

[reddread]

4. well put

completely correct.

[AZ Progressive]

8. This is the Democratic Party's fault too, but it seems that many sold out long ago

or just didn't take the threat seriously. Maybe they are all just people caring about their own self interests and just holding their political beliefs for personal gain (i.e. to gain constituents.)

[CrispyQ]

9. What makes you think the dems didn't see what was happening back in Reagan's day?

I think they saw very clearly what was happening. If one sided with labor & The People, the media took you to task & called you a pinko liberal & big money piled up against you & you may have even lost your cushy House/Senate position. So what did most of the dems do? They got on the same fucking gravy train the repubs are on, only they throw us a few more crumbs to maintain the illusion that there is a difference between the two parties.

If there was a real difference between the two parties, there would be some banksters sitting in jail for a very long time.

Look how satisfied Harry & Nancy look.

[dfgrbac]

10. I just watched this video. It's great to see so many people involved!

The video is an hour and 43 minutes, but well worth it. Hear Bernie Sanders, Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Kshama Sawant, and Chris Hedges talk about our crisis situation of all time!

[Scuba]

11. Recommended reading: "The Political Brain" by Drew Weston ...

... excellent study into the failures of the Democratic Party in one election after another.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Political-Brain-Emotion-Deciding/dp/1586485733