Even If We Win By One Slim Vote... Should We Act Like It's A Mandate

[arwalden]

Poll question: Even If We Win By One Slim Vote... Should We Act Like It's A Mandate

and run roughshod all over the place with tyrannical force just like the Republicans have done? Should we take policies and laws and regulations as FAR to the LEFT as we possibly can?

Or should we respect all Americans and "govern from the center"? Should we try to set an example and use compromise and negotiation to bring the country together and heal our wounds and the national division?

-- Allen

edit: clarity/emphasis

[yardwork]

1. Mandate - absolutely

We have a LOT of catching up to do. We'll get hammered by freepers no matter what we do so we may as well go for the whole enchilada.

[napi21]

6. You got that right! We should have learned something from this

insane 4 years! It'll be a whole lot easier if we can also get the Senate back too!!!

[Dickie Flatt]

2. Why not?

I see no reason to cower in the middle when more progressive policies will be better for America.

[gospelized]

3. i think we should...

ban the bible and make gay marriage and abortions mandatory.

[punpirate]

4. Hell, yes...

... Bush lost and he acted like he had one.

[The Straight Story]

5. A Mandate to do what precisely? (n/t)

[napi21]

8. Ohh where do I start with that question?

Break up the media comglomerate
Reverse the tax breaks on the wealthy
Redo the stupid medicare drug bill
Reverse most, of not all of Srubs executive orders
Initiate environmental saving again
Try to repair the bad name shrub had given to the US
And on & on!

[The Straight Story]

11. Sad really

It could go on and on!

[Sandpiper]

7. Damn right we should

If we want to see what playing nice with the Repukes has done for us, we need look no further than the last four years.

[LeighAnn]

9. Same as the "Mandate" voters gave in the Nov '02 Election

We don't have to pretend.

Not a one of those repugs in '02 won by more than a few points, yet that was declared a Mandate. They are soon to get what they've got coming to them. Whatever "whitewater" they come up with as soon as Kerry takes office is less likely to get much attention, what with the War Crimes prosecution of Bush and Rumsfeld that will hopefully be getting underway soon. Except on Fox. But nobody will give a care.

[camero]

10. Yes

and send BushCo to the Hague.

[kokomo]

12. the democrat in me wishes minorities to have rights....but

playing nice with Republicans has only got us a screwing. Do unto others as they have done unto you.

[arwalden]

16. They Act Like Cutthroat Revolutionaries ... So Should We

No mercy. Kill or be killed. Slash and burn. Take no prisoners.

-- Allen

[NoPasaran]

13. Fucking A!!!

Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice.

[Hello_Kitty]

14. We have to. We're so far to the right

We need to make a u-turn just to get back to the middle.

[NinetySix]

15. Robert's Rules of Order? No.

Robert's Rules of Order will not serve us very well in what has become guerilla warfare, thanks to Republican heavy-handedness. Ever since Reagan first set eyes upon Newt Gingrich intoning forcefully and earnestly to an empty House on C-SPAN in the late '80s, politics has changed dramatically. Our side has been abiding by a gentlemen's code, hoping for reciprocal respect from a drooling, knuckle-dragging brute which is untethered by etiquette, or even morality, from imposing its will by force. Time to stop that and get with the times.

As much as I'd like to return to civil society, whose fair-minded, democratically elected representatives engage in polite, rational debate over the essence of the issues and focus on the spirit of the law, I am convinced that the doppelganger of Conservatism, so-called Neoconservatism, must be vanquished wholly, the totalitarian genie forced back into the bottle. When this is finally accomplished, we can go back to rational politics practiced between respectful political opponents.

To go on as though this had already taken place, or as though our once-civil opponent had not undergone its radical transformation is analogous to walking alone at night after having been threatened by thugs. Progressives must stand together as courageously now as at any time in the past, lest we become an extinct species, as the fondest wishes of the Neoconservatives would have it.

[flaminbats]

17. anytime the incumbent is defeated..that is a mandate.

In 1976 voters gave Carter a mandate, it was a mandate to end corruption in government and boost the economy. In 1980 Reagan's mandate was to end inflation, for two-party government, and in favor of a broader libertarian agenda. In 1988, Bush's mandate was to continue economic growth and support a broader libertarian agenda. In 1992 Clinton's mandate was to end deficit spending, stop corruption, and reform health-care. In 2000 Al Gore won the popular vote, which was a mandate in favor of two-party government, the strong economy, and reducing the national debt. Bush won in the electoral college while losing the popular vote, which is not a mandate.

If Kerry wins it will represent the following mandate..deficit reduction, health-care reform, and national security.

[Dr Fate]

18. Repubs should never be given an inch.

They never give us one.

[Cat Atomic]

19. You bet your ass we should. And if the Dems get Congress back,

they'll have zero excuses for not making some serious progress, and fast. I don't want to hear any "finding the middle ground" bullshit either.

[urbanguerrilla]

20. what Barry Goldwater said

n/t

[bvar22]

21. All of the above PLUS

repeatedly spiking the ball and doing the taunting turkey dance in large groups while laughing hysterically at the pathetic republicans!.....

OR

maybe we should join together in bipartisan forgiveness and healing......NOT!

[rucky]

22. damn good question

will a power shift lead to hypocracy? are we doomed to repeat this vicious partisan cycle?

as long as the Repugs are fighting like cornered animals, I'd have to say yes. Ignore the GOP until we can trust them again (if that ever happens).

[Senior citizen]

23. The way elections are rigged these days,

if we won by a single vote, it WOULD BE a mandate when you take into consideration all the illegally disenfranchised voters, the BBV scams and miscounts, and whatever other dirty tricks they came up with.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

24. The leaders are too well funded and organized to compromise with

They gave no quarter during the Clinton administration. They attacked constantly in every way possible. They shut down the government!

They think our willingness to compromise shows weakness. So we'll show them our strength.

We change the laws that favor wealthy embezzlers and polluters, that reward those who take away our jobs and unions, and enrich those who steal from the aging and infirm.

We put in judges that will prevent the right wing dream of a theocracy.

We create actual, real liberal media so all sides of an issue can be examined in venues more mainstream than a weblog.

We punish the criminals at the top. We reeducate the followers at the bottom. We demonize the neocons and the Religious Right in order to help classic conservatives and Christians understand that they have been led astray by extremists, and that their own beliefs are not threatened by liberal values.

And we push and push and fight for all of this just as hard as we're fighting now, because the Right has never given up its racism, its xenophobia, its disdain of the poor or its sense of entitlement. And they never will. We can't eliminate them but we can minimize and marginalize their influence.

That's what they've been doing to us for 30 years. We thought eight years of peace and prosperity would make people realize that the country is better off when we're in charge. We were naive, complacent at best. I know I was. I certainly didn't think Bush would end up in charge. But even once Dubya is defeated there are more Bushes waiting in the wings, and more Scaifes, etc. to fund them, and more extremists eager to empty the pockets of Americans and carve up the rest of the world for their profit.

We give them no quarter.

[tritsofme]

25. You can't govern with a mandate unless you have a Congress

that works with you.

After 1980 many Dems in Congress worked with Reagan because he did have a mandate, and because there were still a lot of Dems from the Zell Miller wing of the party.

If we take the WH in Jan 2005, best case scenario we will have a razor thin majority in the Senate, and I really see no scenario possible in which we take the House. And these are the same people as you said, that lost an election and acted like they had a mandate, what makes you think if they truly loose the election they will let any of Kerry's legislation go through?

If we take the Senate, look for fillibusters gallore on all sorts of issues, and if we don't take the Senate look for very few Kerry proposals to even get out of committee.

I saw an ad in the internet for the Weekly Standard (complete neocon rag) and it had the cover of the two possible post election scenarios, either a Kerry or Bush win. The main article of the theoretical Kerry win was "2008 Starts Now" that's going to be their philosophy immediately after Nov 2, they will campaign against him before he is even inaugurated, no honey moon, it will be like Carter's term all over again.

[bobbieinok]

26. LOTS of executive orders undoing W's exec orders that undid Clinton's

policies.

IMMEDIATELY UNDO EXEC ORDER THAT PERMITS SECRET TRIALS

[Forkboy]

27. Four votes to respect the minority?

"I can't wait to beat them so we can be just like them!" :-(

[arwalden]

28. Possible Explanations To That Polling Anomaly

1) Poll clowns who intentionally vote OPPOSITE of what they believe or hope for, just to skew the poll results.

2) Freepers.

3) Genuine idealistic "do-unto-others-as-you-would-have-them-do-unto-you" pacifists.


-- Allen

[tom_paine]

29. Of course, pursuing that course, cost-free, requires a multi-billion

dollar propaganda infrastructure to convince Imperial Subjects that what they see isd NOT happening.

Or that we have a good reason to do it and our opponents are corrupt and blah blah are you feeling sleepy?