Thom Hartman talked about Democrats having battered wife syndrome yesterday

[live love laugh]

It was really interesting.

He traced back to when the whole cycle of Republican bullying and Democrats tiptoeing around quietly cleaning up in the aftermath of Republican tirades first began.

It was with Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson had proof of Nixon--who had not been elected as president yet--making treasonous deals with countries that America was at war with in order to secure his (Nixon's) election as president. Johnson could have gone to the press but instead felt he was sparing the American people from harm by keeping the incident off the record and he warned another Republican to reign Nixon in. Of course, that worked. :sarcasm:

It could be said that the Democratic Party has never recovered from the assasination of JFK and that LBJ was afraid to go public because of what happened to JFK.

Hartman's discussion chronicled this same behavior in all Democratic administations since LBJ's.

It's great that the issue has been summarized this way. What is needed though is a solution to this problem. Are Democrats cowardly with good reason? Should we push them to do the right thing (ie., prosecute Bush/Cheney for instance) despite the historic consequences? What can be done to take government back from the bullies?

[ananda]

1. Good analysis.

I would love to see the day when Dems
get a spine again... particularly
that jellofish Harry Reid.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Based on Robert Parry's article, "Democrats' "Battered Wife Syndrome" from last Sat.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/042509.html

Excellent article.

[LWolf]

6. This article needs to be it's own OP. nt

[Misskittycat]

3. Great segment yesterday on Thom's show. n/t

[ProudPrimate]

4. Population Capable Of Critical Thinking

Thanks for posting this. I heard the section on Thom's podcast, and read the Parry piece. I had heard the rumor for years about Kissinger (the Rockefeller lackey) making the offer to Thieu, but I'd never heard the tape of LBJ accusing him, nor of Dirksen believing it and admitting it was treason!

My thesis: this is an example of The Big Lie, as described in chapter 10 of Mein Kampf. People cannot face the sheer magnitude of evil that is commonplace at the top of the wealth pyramid. The scale of it serves as a cloak, because, as the LBJ audio makes plain, people at the top who are not involved or are the targets (notice I did not say "innocent" or "righteous", because I'm convinced LBJ was eyeball deep in the Kennedy murder) fear that when the common people learn these things they will go bonkers.

My solution: we need to get the truth out, but on our lower scale, which is not likely to cause mental collapse, as those better able to stand the truth will take hold first. But GO GO GO with the message. We need to take this audio clip and get it into as many ears as possible. Mass awakening is the only hope.

As George Carlin said, "I'll tell you what they don't want: they don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking."

Carlin said "It'll never get any better — be happy with what you got." But then in the next breath talks about critical thinking. So he obviously held out some hope.

[live love laugh]

5. Excellent post.

Go with the message is right. I struggle with that because it's hard to recount history and make people care about it or to make it relevant to their day to day struggles.

But, the sheer fact that this whole thing happened with LBJ is the most blatant form of terrorism that I have ever seen. LBJ was terrorized by the assasination of JFK and the after effects have echoed for 50 years.

The terror expert on Hartman the other day said torture has a 20-year shadow. Well it seems terror has a 50-year-plus shadow.

I just wish that we could quash it and move beyond the fear.

[lunatica]

7. I've been making the same analogy for years

The President as father/husband/head of household to Americans is very real. And it isn't just the Democrats who are the equivalent of the abused wife/child. The Republicans are also the same way. They're the child who grows up to be just like the abusive father.