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Savannahmann

(3,891 posts)
43. More important is a matter of perception.
Wed Aug 21, 2013, 03:34 AM
Aug 2013

To me, there is little more important than our civil rights. Each time one of them is violated it diminishes us. If we are to decide that is no longer a topic worthy of discussion, then we need to use another metric. Polling shows us what is important to others, others that we hope by our agreement to join/post here to convince to vote Democratic.

Therefor if we are not going to discuss issues that are personally motivating, then obviously we are going to pivot to other issues that are more relevant to the nation at large. That means economy.

There we are as a party, stymied. We would need to come up with a stimulus plan that would be able to get Congressional approval. On this issue, we are at direct opposites with the Republicans. Especially with the Deficit being another important issue. The Republicans will not approve tax increases on the rich, and we couldn't fund a stimulus without adding to the deficit, which would harm us with still other voters.



That graphic from the Gallup story is very interesting. Those who think the economy is the most important issue give President Obama a fairly low approval rating. Roughly 35% of the people approve of the President's handling of the Economy, which reflects on the party as a whole, but consider it a very important issue.

So what can we discuss on that issue that makes us look good as Democrats? How do we stimulate the economy to give more and better jobs? What plan can we point to? What grand national goal can we point to as the reason to pump money into the economy?

Even the ones which President Obama has better to good numbers on, are considered relatively unimportant.

We can start a discussion on Voting Rights, but nobody cares outside of this board about the issue. We can't post a number of recent articles, because the press doesn't care, nor do the pundits. We could start a discussion on Guns, but we've lost that argument, and we are unwilling to expend more political capital on it. Even if you and I came up with a good plan, all we could do here on DU is start yelling at each other because we have our share of gun nuts that essentially cancel out those in favor of common sense gun reforms.

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We can tell anyone what to do, and they can tell us to piss up a rope. nt MADem Aug 2013 #1
Right -- and the U.K. is SO likely to do that . . . markpkessinger Aug 2013 #3
They can't Hydra Aug 2013 #5
You get real--you mouth off with the "Jesus Fucking Christ" like you have inside knowledge, but all MADem Aug 2013 #6
Here- Snowden dumped on the UK and exposed them. OF COURSE THEY WANT THE INFO STOPPED KittyWampus Aug 2013 #29
If the U.S. did tell them what to do, the ProSense Aug 2013 #13
This message was self-deleted by its author MADem Aug 2013 #26
I'm sure that line of discussion will come around, in time! nt MADem Aug 2013 #28
Straw man markpkessinger Aug 2013 #32
Found out yesterday we've detained Laura Poitras 40 times (!!!!!), Benton D Struckcheon Aug 2013 #2
By we do you mean... one_voice Aug 2013 #7
The US. Benton D Struckcheon Aug 2013 #10
Ok, thank you.. one_voice Aug 2013 #11
Funny. Nuts was exactly the term I used. n/t Benton D Struckcheon Aug 2013 #15
I think we did the right thing by staying out of it. JaneyVee Aug 2013 #4
You really believe the U.S. just "stayed out of it?" markpkessinger Aug 2013 #17
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Marrah_G Aug 2013 #33
Yeah, that'll show me. JaneyVee Aug 2013 #34
Advance notice=total control Progressive dog Aug 2013 #8
Raising an objection . . . markpkessinger Aug 2013 #14
"Had the administration raised an objection," Progressive dog Aug 2013 #22
There is no conflict between saying . . . markpkessinger Aug 2013 #24
If you had said that at first, it wouldn't have been Progressive dog Aug 2013 #25
I didn't think I had to . . . markpkessinger Aug 2013 #31
Well then, why would they do what the US told them to do? Progressive dog Aug 2013 #35
"Why would they do what the US told them to do?" markpkessinger Aug 2013 #37
You said "It is a given that the U.K. is a sovereign country, to whom the U.S. cannot dictate" Progressive dog Aug 2013 #44
We DID tell the UK what to do. It's not like Snowden is revealing THEIR secrets. nt Demo_Chris Aug 2013 #9
Good point n/t markpkessinger Aug 2013 #16
Totally wrong, Snowden did finger surveillance operations in the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, NZ KittyWampus Aug 2013 #20
Snowden leaked US intel, he never worked for Germany or the UK and never "spied" on them. nt Demo_Chris Aug 2013 #36
Rusbridger: "Given that there were other copies and we could work out of America..." ProSense Aug 2013 #12
It's not like they're Egypt or something. Nuclear Unicorn Aug 2013 #18
There is a fine line to be walked here. randome Aug 2013 #19
Good, let's move on shall we? Savannahmann Aug 2013 #21
Sequester. Voting rights. Gun control. randome Aug 2013 #23
None of those are considered important according to polling. Savannahmann Aug 2013 #38
I think DU looks 'stupid as hell' right now. randome Aug 2013 #41
More important is a matter of perception. Savannahmann Aug 2013 #43
They can still choose to do otherwise treestar Aug 2013 #27
Not necessarily. Britain had its own reasons pnwmom Aug 2013 #30
To clarify the OP a bit . . . markpkessinger Aug 2013 #39
While totally forgetting that most of us JoeyT Aug 2013 #40
Put another way: They wouldn't do it if we objected. DirkGently Aug 2013 #42
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