I'd like someone to tell me how it is possible to be a liberal and not support striking teachers.

[woo me with science]

209. You aren't talking to liberals. You aren't even talking to "centrists."

You are talking to mouthpieces of the Third Way. You are talking to the very same group that can be reliably depended upon to appear in any thread to vociferously defend, and to attack anyone who opposes, any right-wing, corporate, neocon, or police state policy coming out of this administration. Corporate tentacles run deep.

This is the same group that downplays, denies, defends, or justifies indefinite detention, "kill lists" and drone wars, pre-emptive war as administration doctrine, spy centers for mining or surveillance of all phone calls and email without a warrant, internet IDs and internet-censoring measures like ACTA, military drones in American skies, coordinated violent crackdowns against peaceful protesters, and strip searches for any arrestee. This is the same group that reliably and incessantly and beliigerently supports bailouts and settlements for corrupt banks, letting banksters off the hook, supply-side tax policies, payroll tax holidays that threaten Social Security and Medicare, consideration of the chained CPI and eligibility age increases for Medicare, and austerity budgets in an economy that has already impoverished its middle class.....Don't believe it? Try to pin any one of them down on a good range of these policies. Try to pin them down on their agreement with traditional, fundamental Democratic values and principles. You will get the garbage response of litmus tests and, "So I'm not a liberal if I...?"

Now they trash unions. Why anyone is in the least surprised, or why anyone would invite more of their right-wing talking points, is beyond me.

Persistent advocacy of Republican-style right-wing, corporate, and neocon positions used to be grounds for expulsion from DU, but DU is now a deliberately corporate entity that condones and welcomes them. Wading through Third Way, right-wing bullshit is now part of the DU experience. That is why so many liberals have abandoned DU. They hate to see what used to be a Democratic gathering place given over to MSM-like propaganda and incessant commercials for extreme corporatist, neocon, and police state policies.

We have a problem with corporate money in our politics and in our party. What you now see at DU, every single day, is a symptom of that malignancy. These people are not liberals with varying opinions. They are reliable propagandists for the corporate, neocon, one percent-bankrolled Third Way. Their policies on economics (which includes education, "the Big Enchilada&quot , war, and the police state are just like those of the Republicans. Don't fall for this garbage.