Establishment dems to OWS: you're not the change you've been waiting for

[Enrique]

I'm talking about the dems like Barney Frank and now I just heard Melissa Harris-Perry from over the weekend, admonishing the protesters that their hope lies with the Democratic Party.

i.e. telling them that "you're not the change you seek, WE are."

I'm thinking of that huge crowd at Grant Park. Are the dems under the impression that they were all there for the Democratic Party? I think they're in for a rude awakening. They were motivated because of issues they have in their lives. If the party, or the head of the party (the president) don't address their issues, the energy that got them out there is still going to be there.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. If they'd done shit to help, perhaps those words would be more than just balloon juice.

[BanzaiBonnie]

2. NO! Our hope lies with each of us working together

Old establishment Democrats had their chance.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. The establishment is trying to get the anti-establishment protestors buy in. K&R

[Avalux]

4. Was she really admonishing them?

Dems who want to co-opt the movement for their own political advantage isn't going to work. If they want to be involved, they'll have to be humble and join the protests themselves; be willing to be a part of it. We have to do it together and it doesn't matter if you're an elected official, wordy pundit or construction worker.

[county worker]

5. OWS does not need to follow or join the Dems it is the other way around.

Seems like some politicians want a ready made base or something.

I have and will attend OWS gatherings and I don't want some Dem or Repub that I need to back their agenda! I want them to change to what we want!

[Scuba]

15. +1

[dameocrat67]

6. I agree. Dems like barney frank are part and parcel to the asskissing

politicians have given wallstreet, and now the stupidly feel entitled to our votes.

[coalition_unwilling]

7. Chris Hedges says it better than I ever could:

". . . . Tinkering with the corporate state will not work. We will either be plunged into neo-feudalism and environmental catastrophe or we will wrest power from corporate hands. This radical message, one that demands a reversal of the corporate coup, is one the power elite, including the liberal class, is desperately trying to thwart. But the liberal class has no credibility left. It collaborated with corporate lobbyists to neglect the rights of tens of millions of Americans, as well as the innocents in our imperial wars. The best that liberals can do is sheepishly pretend this is what they wanted all along. Groups such as MoveOn and organized labor will find themselves without a constituency unless they at least pay lip service to the protests. The Teamsters’ arrival Friday morning to help defend the park signaled an infusion of this new radicalism into moribund unions rather than a co-opting of the protest movement by the traditional liberal establishment . . . ."

Taken from an awesome op-ed piece yesterday:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_movement_too_big_to_fail_20111017

[Little Star]

33. Wow, that was a great article!

[dixiegrrrrl]

63. I love his phrasing about this:

"These protesters in that one glorious moment did what the traditional “liberal” establishment has steadily refused to do—fight back. "

How many years have we furiously pounded on the keyboards HERE, and sent letter to the WH,
asking....saying....praying....Fight Back!!!!!!! Why won't he/they Fight Back???!!!

Well, the answer has become obvious and even more obvious is..it is time for a new paradigm. The old ones are broken beyond repair.

[Hotler]

66. +1 n/t

[disillusioned73]

70. Wow, great op-ed.. thanks

[hifiguy]

72. A terrific piece. Thanks for the link.

The rumblings are getting louder and louder.

[Admiral Loinpresser]

8. Can you spell co-optation? n/t

[joeybee12]

9. They're clueless...the Dem Party is a joke right now...

There needs to be a very thorough house-cleaning.

[Donnachaidh]

14. +10000 n/t

[L0oniX]

58. They need this product too...

[tk2kewl]

10. there is talk at Zucotti of writing in "none of the above"

(offered as a first hand account w/o comment)

[formercia]

26. When the Pols show up, make sure they have their walkin' shoes on.

Show them where the art supplies are, so they can make themselves a sign, then tell them to blend with the rest of the protesters.

I hope they leave their egos at home.

[dtexdem]

11. Dems can be friends of OWS, but they cannot be allowed to own it.

And the friendlier the Dem, the greater the danger.

[deutsey]

56. And that's what scares the hell out of most of them, imo. n/t

[undeterred]

12. Democrats and Republicans, you're the dirty diaper that needs changing.

[Donnachaidh]

13. remind the establishment dems of the LAST *shellacking*

BEFORE *ows* and tell them to get over themselves and start LISTENING to US.

[xchrom]

16. +1

[dixiegrrrrl]

60. "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.

Liberty is a well armed sheep contesting the vote."

often attributed to Ben Franklin.
but fitting, none the less.

[bvar22]

17. In 2008, the American people gave The Democrats:

*The White House

*A BIG Majority in The House

*A Filibuster-Proof Majority in The Senate

*A Gasping & Dying Republican party

*A HUGE Popular Mandate for "CHANGE",
and an ARMY Standing in the Streets.

Instead of "CHANGE"
we got a whole list of whiny excuses.

And THAT explains the complete absence of "Obama 2012" signs at the OWS protests.


You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their whiny excuses.

Solidarity99!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[TroglodyteScholar]

20. Should be its own OP if it hasn't already... n/t

[pscot]

21. Truth!

They sold us down the river.

[Matariki]

22. +++++++1

what you said needs to go viral, so that the current Democrats in power might see it and get a clue.

[Bake]

25. Well said!

We gave them everything they could ask for. And what did we get in return? Universal health care? Public option? Closing Gitmo? End of the Bush tax cuts?

You know the answer.

We were HAD. Won't happen again.

Bake

[Ignis]

28. +++

:yourock:

[yodermon]

29. *A Filibuster-Proof Majority in The Senate

really?

[AtomicKitten]

40. for 49 days between when Al Franken was sworn in and when Ted Kennedy died

[joshcryer]

41. Teddy's health was deteoriated the entire time, fyi.

Obama could've monopolized on it and passed some crazy stuff but it would've been for one or two votes only, no real ability to get regular stuff passed. Would've been a remarkable new deal type of thing.

[AtomicKitten]

43. Good point, 49 days at best.

The '49 days' attribution belongs to you, a relevant point often misstated here as a talking point.
Thanks for dispelling the myth.

[joshcryer]

45. The 49 days number is a fact, he may or may not have been able to vote.

And I didn't come up with it, I believe TxDem (spelling?) did. It's merely a factual observation, there were, factually, 49 days between when Franken was seated and Teddy died. Not factually, but subjectively, Teddy may have been able to be on a ventilator in a wheelchair for votes the entire time, or maybe not. Factually Teddy did not vote at all for 3 of the last 4 months of his life, so it's unlikely that could've ever happened. In the end Obama never had a mandate when you consider these variables.

I do think Obama could've (and should've) capitalized on it and made a sweeping vote to fix the country, but it would've been utterly unthinkable. It should've been done.

My fantasy scenario is if Obama made a new deal law, one sweeping law that fixed everything in that 49 day period (have it written up months in advance), extended the debt limit, single payer health care, whole nine yards. And then, dissolved the congress after the vote passed and the bill was signed into law. The President has sole authority to dissolve congress if the two houses disagree. Obviously that would've been the case, as we held the Senate (a majority vote would be the rule because we'd have a joint session happening). The Senate says they want to dissolve, the Congress says it doesn't want to dissolve, and the President stands up and says "Congress is hereby dissolved." Epic is not even a word to describe it.

But again, 49 days with the filibuster proof majority whereby one of our guys was lethally sick. I wouldn't have expected Obama to do it in a million years.

[WillyT]

32. + 1,000,000,000... What You Said !!!

:applause::applause::applause:

:hi:

:kick:

[Little Star]

34. What you said!!

[Blue_In_AK]

37. Exactly. n/t

[woo me with science]

44. Thank you. nt

[myrna minx]

49. Thank you. I love how it's now the American People's fault that

Washington isn't working because we didn't vote in more establishment approved blue dogs. :eyes: It's never the broken, corrupt institutions and the greedy minority of people who power them, it's the American People who are the problem. What's a catchy campaign slogan.

(I have voted in *every* election, even special session School Board elections since I turned 18).

[fasttense]

54. Exactly, all we get from the third way (like fascism was the 3rd way?) Democrats

is excuses and more give aways to the idle rich and immortal corporate persons.

[L0oniX]

57. Yoda! K & R +1

[closeupready]

62. +1,000,000.

K&R

[Pacifist Patriot]

64. Well said!

[disillusioned73]

67. Ding!!!

Thank you, bvar22..

[ConservativeDemocrat]

68. Seriously, bvar? Seriously?

Al Franken wasn't seated until the court ruled in June 2009 that he had won the race. And even then, that left your so-called "filibuster-proof" majority to the whims of people like Joe Lieberman of the "Lieberman for Connecticut" party.

I'm not sure what's worse. Lunatic right-wingers voting for Republicans who then ship their job overseas, or lunatic left-wingers who vote for anything but a Democrat because they didn't get 100% of what they want instantly in the face of unprecedented GOP obstructionism.

Neither, apparently, can open a newspaper and actually pay attention to political facts.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[bvar22]

74. I remeber a "REALITY" where the Republican Party...

...was able to get everything they wanted with much less than the Democrats were given in 2008.
Do you have an excuse for that?

Do you also have an excuse for the Democratic Party leadership sitting on their hands
and allowing the Republicans control the battle to delay the seating of Al Franken for as LONG as they were allowed to?

Do you know how pathetic it sounds to try to blame everything on Joe Lieberman?

Joe Lieberman was this SUPER Bully
who beat up President Obama and the whole Democratic Party
and..and...and RUINED their WHOLE Health Care Plan for Everybody!
It was HORRIBLE!
There was NOTHING we could DOOOOO!:cry:

I am old enough to remember DEMOCRATS who STOOD UP, FOUGHT the GOOD FIGHT, and Got the Job DONE,
or DIED FIGHTING.

Leadership! "The Buck Stops HERE!" NO Excuses!




Can you imagine wimpy Joe Lieberman trying to tell LBJ that he wasn't going to support his plan for Medicare?
He would STILL be looking for pieces of his ASS!


Force the VOTE.
MAKE them Stand Up and Vote AGAINST the 99% On the Record,
and THEN take your case to the American People.


I would rather Fight HARD & Lose,
than to give up because "we might not have enough votes."
America LOVES a FIGHTER.

...and THAT is WHY there are NO "Obama 2012" signs at the OWS Protests.


"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for,
at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them."
--- Paul Wellstone

photo by bvar22
Shortly before Sen Wellstone was killed



Solidarity99!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. “The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.”

“The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.” Marie-Henri Beyle - aka Stendhal

[no_hypocrisy]

19. What are the sentiments of THESE "Establishment Dems"?

Dennis Kucinich
George McGovern
Al Gore
Pete Seeger
Bobby Kennedy, Jr.
Mario Cuomo
Jerry Brown

[dameocrat67]

24. Dennis Kucinich is pretty good. McGovern is not in office and has defended payday lenders

and credit card companies.

Al Gore chose Lieberman for his vp and a bunch of centrist advisors, and ran a centerright presidential campaign, so noone knows what he really believes. He only became a liberal since he lost.

Pete Seeger is an old communist, not a democrat.

Bobby Kennedy Jr is not in office.

Mario Cuomo is no longer in office and supports his slimy centrist son.

Jerry Brown is an apologist for austerity, budget cuts and wont propose a tax on the rich or a complete withdrawal of pro 13.

Some people have an emotional commitment to any and all dems that does not seem to be justified by any real policies.

[Little Star]

35. Thank you, you are so right!

[LanternWaste]

69. Whilst other simply pick one or two issue the Dem had voted on

"Some people have an emotional commitment to any and all dems ..."

Whilst other simply pick one or two issue the Dem had voted on while ignoring other relevant votes, and proclaim that to be indicative of his/her entire career and positions.

Both seem rather simplistic at best, and disingenuous at worst-- and above all, a waste of time.

[Eric J in MN]

27. Al Gore supports OWS.

"From the economy to the climate crisis our leaders have pursued solutions that are not solving our problems, instead they propose policies that accomplish little. With democracy in crisis, a true grassroots movement pointing out the flaws in our system is the first step in the right direction. Count me among those supporting and cheering on the Occupy Wall Street movement."

- Al Gore

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/7910-ows-count-me-in

[EFerrari]

23. MHP should go back to the academy

because brilliant as she is, her social skills need to go back for regrooving.

[a simple pattern]

30. They've made themselves irrelevant.

[Raksha]

31. K & R - They had their chance in 2008 and blew it. n/t

[JoeyT]

36. Yeah, we're going to see some rage directed at the protesters from the D side pretty soon.

They can throw all the snits they want, this isn't being done for their benefit. They had their chance and they blew it.

If they'd done their jobs this wouldn't be happening at all.

[donheld]

39. Damned right

They (Dems) are not the change we've been looking for either.

[joshcryer]

42. The D's will benefit the most from it unless OWS starts a party.

We live in a democracy, which is what a lot of people apparently don't get. It's a shitty one, but the best we have at our disposal short of civil war, which is something the United States decidedly won't want right now.

[Fumesucker]

47. The last civil war never really ended..

Oh, the out and out, musket firing hostilities did but the underlying social, economic, cultural and political divisions didn't end.

What we are seeing now is about phase 4 of the American Civil War, the Confederacy lost one phase in 1865, won the second phase after the end of Reconstruction, lost the third phase during the Civil Rights era and is by no means defeated at the current moment.

[Selatius]

48. I wouldn't say the "Confederacy" is the enemy.

Even at the height of the Civil War, the plantation owners made it a point to distinguish themselves apart from the robber barons further north on Wall Street and the speculators around them. They made their wealth from factory sweatshops, railroad monopolies, and unsafe/dangerous coal mines, while the southern plantation lords made theirs through the trafficking and enslavement of humans as farm equipment.

I view the Civil War as a conflict between wealthy interests over control of the future of the Union, fought with the labor and sweat of the poor workers become citizen soldiers. The Civil War determined who was supreme, and the wealthiest in the north were supreme. Sure, it wasn't all bad, though; slavery was outlawed, but when money is the most important issue in your head, racial equality is an issue that falls by the wayside.

Today, the wealthiest on Wall Street are facing a confrontation not against southern wealthy plantation kings but against their very own workers and those they have cast out into the cold. They faced a similar confrontation in the 1930s and were outflanked by the likes of FDR and those New Deal Democrats that ushered in reforms that alleviated human suffering and spread around some of the wealth being produced.

They do not wish to be outflanked again, which is why they made it a point to flood both parties with corporate campaign cash. They've driven the Democratic Party into a center-right position, while the Republican Party has become the party of extreme right-wing policies.

But people can only be muzzled for so long before they ditch the two-party framework and simply protest and occupy. They are starting to find their own voice outside the two-party framework, and it is growing stronger by the day. This could be the start of a real class struggle in the US that pushes the nation back toward the middle and, best case, the center-left tilt.

[woo me with science]

38. K&R

They may start to get some embarrassing pushback if they keep trying to co-opt without substance to back it up.

[Raine]

46. K&R nt

:kick: :thumbsup:

[Bonobo]

50. So Barney wants them to vote, huh. His problem is assuming the votes will be for his party.

Unless, that is, they show they intend to start acting like actual Democrats.

Be careful of what you wish for, Barney. They WILL be voting. Make sure you EARN that vote.

[Ganja Ninja]

51. The sense of entitlement of the Democratic party never ceases to amaze me.

They lost in 2010 because the stealth republican blue dog centrists foiled any attempt at a liberal agenda. Their prospects for 2012 aren't much better and all they do is blame the left that they have abandoned. I don't know how many times have I seen on this board "If you fail to vote for Obama and the Republicans win then it's all your fault! Enjoy the next 4 years." So keep ignoring the dissatisfied left. Go on patting your self on the back and calling yourselves the grown ups. Move a little farther to the right but remember, we owe you nothing. Our votes do not belong to anybody but us. If you want them you have to earn them. Our loss is your loss too. The Democratic party needs to do the math and decide which side of the political spectrum they are on. Don't complain to us if you miscalculate and lose.

[leftyohiolib]

52. they are of the mind set that says "where else can you saps go ":

"Our loss is your loss too" not so much. most of the people in congress are wealthy with life long health care and pension regardless of what we do. THEY will make sure THEY are cared for.

[Bonobo]

55. Ninja, that post kicked ass. You got it exactly.

The one thing I would add is that they really don't get that their lack of a strong commitment to their own convictions is what sends the message that they cannot be trusted.

[DocMac]

71. Your right. Ninja kicked some ASS!!! Love it.

[hobbit709]

53. Me to establishment Dems: Have you looked in the mirror lately?

[Aerows]

59. OWS isn't about politics

Except in the context that both parties have failed to hold accountable the thieves on Wall Street. Anyone that wants to step up to the plate and say "We are the change you seek" needs to start prosecuting.

Look at what BoA is trying to do today - pass off $75 Trillion in Merril Lynch's toxic derivatives so that they will be covered by OUR tax dollars via the FDIC. That's "Trillion" with a capital T. The world GDP is only $65 Trillion. If these things crater and the taxpayers are on the hook, they will have to print money like it's going out of style to cover them. It would absolutely destroy the economy.

Unless you are screaming "Regulate, Prosecute and Recoup the stolen money" at the top of your lungs, you don't give a crap about what OWS stands for. If we DON'T do those three things, the next bailout is eminent. Look at the BoA mess - they are setting it up to happen. There are $600Trillion in derivatives floating around out there.

There's no other way to put it.

[Arugula Latte]

61. Fool me once, shame on -- shame on you.

Fool me — you can't get fooled again!

[Pacifist Patriot]

65. Their mistake is thinking this is a purely political statement being made.

Economic and social justice transcends the pettiness of party politics.

[hulka38]

73. Power trumps progressive liberal policy for establishment Dems

who include virtually every elected Dem on the national scene. OWS is becoming a real threat to the establishment of both major parties.

[TNLib]

75. I think the OWS Crowd is basically saying to all Politicians "Put up or Shut Up"

I'm pretty much tired of politicians. Our political system is broke IMHO.