To the DNC, and all federal Democratic legislators: Here's a little clue for y'all:

Zorra

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Sat Oct-08-11 11:56 AM
Original message

To the DNC, and all federal Democratic legislators: Here's a little clue for y'all:

With all due respect,

Most of we OWS participants/supporters are Democrats, or are left leaning Independents that usually vote Democratic. Many of us have always voted Democratic. The participants/supporters of OWS are not republicans, although there may be one or two independent conservatives participating.

There are a lot of us, and we are activists. We are knowledgeable and active, and we are engaged.

If y'all had made a sincere effort to do your job as traditional Democrats would have done, the job of protecting the interests of working people, removing the influence of wealthy private interests from government, and preventing wealthy private interests from further taking over our government, we'd love you forever, and would be thrilled and excited to be busting our asses for you every day, on the internet, on the streets, with our pocketbooks, etc, in every way imaginable.

Instead, y'all basically protected and capitulated to the interests of Wall St/wealthy private interests time after time. Why?

As a result, we are right at this moment in the streets and on the internet in solidarity behind the OWS movement, trying to get done what y'all should have tried to get done when we gave you a huge mandate in 2008. This movement, this solidarity, could have, to a large extent, been right behind you, right now, cheering you on.

Everyone recognizes that there are a few good reasons for not getting some problems solved. But there are absolutely no excuses for not making every possible effort to solve these problems. There were ways to get necessary effective productive legislation passed beginning in early 2009. Some of these ways were extreme, such as ending the filibuster in early 2009. Sometimes you just need to suck it up and do whatever is necessary, within the boundaries of cultural norms of ethics and morality, to do the right thing.

The job did not get done. Everyone with half a brain understands that Bush/republicans left you a huge mess. However, it appears to many of us that the job did not get done because many of our Democratic legislators, like all republican legislators, were protecting the wealthy private interests that spend small fortunes on making sure that legislators do what they wish them to do. That's exactly what it looks like from here.

So now we are in the streets, figuring out how to do the job ourselves. Primarily because of our experienced observation that we lack genuine committed representation in government.

You see, you can't be kinda like republicans, and expect us to be overwhelmed with enthusiasm about supporting you and working for you. You need to be the absolute direct complete opposite of republicans. But you engaged in unwarranted cooperation with republicans that resulted in the preservation of destructive GOP policies, and the implementation of new GOP type policies.

In other words, you need to be real Democrats if you want us to get behind you. Bipartisanship is completely regressive.

There is no third way.

There is no third way.

Here is a list of some of the problems, drawn up by the OWS General Assembly in Liberty Park, NYC, that we expected you to make a sincere (d)Democratic effort to try to solve, or to prevent from occurring on your watch, when we elected you, en masse, in 2008. Upon reasonable examination, it is obvious that each one of these problems can be traced to a single source:

The undemocratic influence and control that wealthy private interests have over our federal government, and our federal legislators as well.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers� healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people�s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.

And to those Democrats that stood out as traditional Democrats, did whatever they could to sincerely legislate in our interests, and who spoke up and fought against wealthy private interests controlling our government: Thank you so very, very much for your hard work in the face of insurmountable direct and indirect opposition. You know who you are, and so do we. Bravo.
:applause:

Well, that's it, from the perspective of a lifetime yellowdog activist. You can take this ball and punt once again, or you can run with it.

If you run with it, you will have a team full of great blockers making sure that you get to the goal line.

peace