Reply #22: It should be about what you want to DO. What direction do you want to lead the country?

[paulflorez]

1. ANTEA isn't a good name. Coffee isn't any better. It shouldn't be about the teabaggers. It should be about what you want to DO. What direction do you want to lead the country? It should be about a progressive/liberal/democratic movement. Angry Democrats.

2. We voted Obama in, but what the hell did we want him to DO? I think the problem is that everyone under the big democratic tent wanted something a little different. Some people had "universal healthcare" as number 1 on their list. Some people wanted him to just up and leave Iraq and Afghanistan. I think most people wanted him to stabilize the economy, fight for green jobs and regulate the damn financial sector. Some people wanted DADT and DOMA repealed right away.

The problem seems to be that we STILL all have different things that are #1 on our list. The Democrats in Congress, the President and the grassroots groups all failed to get us all on the same page.

For example, personally, I didn't think that was our #1 priority. I support universal healthcare wholeheartedly, but we needed to hammer down on stabalizing the economy, creating green jobs and reforming the damn financial sector. The Democrats went after healthcare but didn't hammer away at us to tell us why we should all be fighting for this first. Worse yet, they focused so much on getting a bill that they seemed to do nothing about getting people to make noise to get the media's attention and thus frame the debate. They lead in getting the legislation done, but they didn't LEAD us. No one called my house and said "hey, we're going to a townhall, come with us and bring a sign" and it seemed like I had to actually search for events to show my support instead of having event organizers reaching out to invite me. I shouldn't have to search for anything, they should have been hounding me and everyone else as to why it was so important, get us excited and at the town halls in numbers to rival the opposition. Was I ever pissed when I went to the townhall but didn't make it inside (I was out with the protesting group), only to watch it later and see that people from A DIFFERENT DISTRICT were allowed into MY rep's townhall.

Now the Democrats have a chance to get us fired up about several progressive priorities: repealing DADT and regulating the banks. I don't see them doing ANYTHING though. They're fighting the fight in D.C. but NOTHING seems to be happening at the grassroots level. I went to the local Democrats meeting to watch the SOTU and it was EXCITING! We were yelling, screaming, cheering, just like during the 2008 election, but after that it was back to doing NOTHING. I went to an OFA meeting and while I heard some passionate anger there, and loved it, it wasn't something they "took to the streets" so to speak. I'm going to some other Progressive/Liberal/Democratic meetings but I really don't think I'm going to see anything as angry/exciting at the 2008 election or what I saw at the SOTU. I'm going to keep looking, but I'm afraid I won't find it!

Personally, I think what we should unite against is the Capitalistic ANARCHY that we are marching towards. It's called Anarcho-Capitalism, look it up, it is exactly what we are marching towards. The further cutting back of government, the extremely low tax breaks "starving the beast" etc are all a march towards privatizing EVERYTHING and replacing the government with one or many corporations. The government can't do anything because it's being destroyed from the inside and out while corporations become more and more powerful. This is a huge problem, it's broad enough to include issues like the economy, jobs, healthcare, lobbyists, even the wars (defense contractors, Halliburton). Also, I think fighting too much corporate power is something that a majority of Americans can get behind. The government is supposed to be the voice of the people AGAINST huge entities like corporations. If you break down the government then you are breaking down the voice of the people! If the government is broken, you don't throw it out with the garbage, you FIX IT.

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." -Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Whenever I find a group that fills this purpose, I will put my heart and soul into it. I genuinely feel that the future of this country is at stake when it comes to this.