Does anyone here really think people bashing the president will vote for the GOP in 2014, 2016?

[cui bono]

214. I don't agree.

In fact, it could have exactly the opposite effect. It could energize and drive out people who have given up on their district because it is red to vote if they think they might finally have a chance to get a Dem into office. And they might think that if they feel the tide turning to the left. But if it's business as usual and if the Dem Party keeps moving right they might feel like it doesn't matter much anyway.

OWS got a lot of people excited about the possibility of changing something, it energized a lot of people and gave them hope that something might actually change. I was working in NYC when it started and the march on Times Square was really something. Then look at OWS in all the other smaller towns across the nation. Look how brutally TPTB had it shut down. Why were they so scared? Because they saw the people energized and standing up for what they believed, standing up to corporate America. If it didn't work they wouldn't have been dousing the protesters with pepper spray and beating them with batons. And it did work to change the conversation in this country. It would have worked better if we didn't have corporate media and Third Way Dems belittling the movement and not giving it fair coverage.

Criticism is the way we affect change in a democracy. That's how it is meant to work.

Holding the Dem Party accountable is the only way to keep it from shifting even further right. It's already center at this point. We are sorely lacking a party that is fully committed to the people it is supposed to represent. If we don't speak up about it we will lose it completely. Democracy only works if the people speak up. So by asking us to remain quiet with criticism you are asking us to forgo our right to have the govt govern by our consent. You are asking us to make democracy fail.