I hate to be a spoil sport but there is still time for the Dems to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory -

Never underestimate the ability of the Dem elites to sell out everything we hold near and dear.

I agree – thanks to the Repubs for not moving an inch. The Dems really, really want to cave but they have to have at least a penny or two from the Repubs and they aren’t getting it.

So far its the Repubs that are saving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The Dems really want to sell it out but know they can’t do it on their own.

However, there is still time for a big cave by the Dems. Keep an eye out for a plan by the Dems to give in on the cuts with a promise of a tax increase in the future. They will paint it as a iron-clad 100% guarantee of tax increases on the rich and corporate America in the future but it will only be a promise that won’t be kept. So, sadly there is still time for the Dems to cave and sell us out -

You said:

The people have woken up. They won’t go to sleep because they realize the last option they have for improving their lives and the greater society is public rebellion. Everything else is futile.

I really, really hope you are right -

I don’t want to get into your argument with Nathan – I’d just like to point out that this legislation has absolutely no chance of passing. It’s all part of the Kabuki Theater we call Congress. The Senate passes something that makes you happy knowing all the time that it will not get through the House so it’s a meaningless act whose only reason for existing it to please folks like me and you. The Corporate interests who own both the Dems and Repubs don’t want it to happen so it won’t happen. It’s just a crumb the Senate Dems are throwing you to keep you on board.

Now on the other hand the so called Free Trade stuff is sure to pass and your Dems will be voting for it so now they can say they tried to something about X but the nasty Repubs prevented them from doing it! Its all Theater and its all the time kind’a like all movies all the time on Home Box.

Don’t kid yourself, this is just window dressing – its going no where. Its just more crap served up to Democrats to placate the base.

It’s going no where. It’s a waste of time to even speculate about it.

Just re-read my comment and don’t want to leave the wrong impression -

What I should have said in the ()’s was: (hence the NYT suggestion that the movement was undemocratic).

I believe the movement they refer to is the soul of democracy but for the establishment, which the NYT ultimately represents, it’s gotta be scary and even worse – uncontrollable so it needs to be demeaned.

Thanks for the link to the NYT’s article -

While misguided in some ways the NYT’s article does point out one thing – folks are progressively coming to the understanding that the political system we have is just a sham. No one seems to know what to do next but folks are starting to understand that the puppets on the stage are not nearly as important as the folks pulling the strings behind the curtain.

Here’s a link to something that goes with the whole mess, not totally sure how just yet but its a factoid not to be missed – go here and listen to the podcast at the end:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/09/interview-of-tom-ferguson-on-america-for-sale.html

This:

But we can thank all the disappointed “Progressives” who stayed home from the polls last year for that.

is such nonsense. Where is the data that shows that “disappointed Progressives” stayed home from the polls last year? Their isn’t any because we voted. The folks that didn’t vote are the occasional voters that Obama disappointed in droves.

Are you from TPV?

Actually I figured he would keep up the “happy warrior for the middle class” gig a bit longer before he started in on “us” again. He really needs to build up some creds before he sells us out by oking the tar sands pipeline project. Since he knows his tax on the upper class won’t / can’t pass its the perfect instrument to whip up the base without having to do a thing.

While this should proved the Dems more evidence that Obama can’t win and should not run sadly I doubt that will happen.

Time to hunker down for the worst – Obama’s damage to the Democratic Party will be profound.

Folks- don’t kid yourself. This is a done deal. Obama will trade it for something before its all done.

It’s a setup like everything else.

I usually need to hurl after reading Ezra Klein or seeing him on Obamavision (MSNBC).

You said:
“What’s not to hate about Obama and his sycophants?”

Bravo!

Hi – its one of your former fellow Ward Chairs in Abq -

Sadly I have to disagree with you. If you look at DFNM, a place that used to be the center of progressives in Albuquerque & NM, they simply don’t want to hear anything that questions Obama or any of the local big name Dem politicos. They almost worship Heinrich and he is so sold out its silly.

I fear there is no way to save the Democratic Party from within – it is simply too corrupt. The work you and other progressives do for them will be taken and used to further their corporate goals not to defend the ideals of the traditional Democratic Party. Do you really thing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid can survive another 4 years of Obama? I just hope more of you see the futility of continuing to enable Obama and Company before he has wiped away all that Democrats have worked for over the last 100 years.

If you haven’t read the article by Kevin Drum Jane references above folks really need to – it sheds some interesting light in how we got here and leaves you with an interesting question of what to do next.

Clearly for me these two data streams – Dylan’s rant and Drum’s article makes me wonder about the utility of the Democratic Party. If it has become, as Drum suggests, just another route for the rich and powerful to influence Government actions it seems wholly useless for our goals of a better society.

We really need some creative thinking to get out of this box.