Has everyone here forgotten that it was the Democratic Party

[WCGreen]

that championed the Civil Rights movement regardless of the political consequences... Granted, it was late in the game, but LBJ went out of way to push through the Civil Rights agenda even though he knew he was handing the south to the GOP on a silver platter....

That it was the democratic party that designed, implemented and then defended Social Security....

That it was the democratic party that brought about Medicare and Medicaid.....

That it was the democratic party that worked with Nixon, yea that Nixon, to establish the Earned Income Credit that does more to curb inflation and reward work than any other jobs program the US has ever toyed with....

That it was the democratic party that worked with Nixon, yea that Nixon, to start curbing the destruction of our environment....

That it was a democrat who stopped the exponential growth of the GOP borrow and spend creed and actually produced a budgetary surplus...

That it was the democratic party that pushed through fair labor laws....

That it was the democratic party that established the Peace Corp, Vista and other programs designed to help those who are least able to help themselves....

Granted, the party of all that we are proud of is limping, battered by a thug like GOP that will say and do anything to maintain their hold on power....

But it still is a great party...

We just have to work to renew the spirit, rekindle the passion and make sure that it is the people who count....

And not the money...

[leftstreet]

1. You need to email this to all Dem Senators and Reps

I think some of them have forgotten.

[Dr.Phool]

2. Our party used to have balls.

Now we have too many Bidencrats and Liebermorons.

[WCGreen]

3. If we are the party....

isn't some of that our fault....

[madfloridian]

9. Some of the Dem leaders still do. They fight back all the time.

Please don't attack the whole party. That is just wrong.

I am really concerned that the various forums, including the ones branching from the Green Party...are using DU to advocate against the Democrats.

[Dr.Phool]

10. Of course they do

Kerry did a great job of trying to get the filibuster together, and Kennedy gets a right-wing hatchet job done on him every time he opens his mouth.

There are a few more Dems in the leadership that consistently show courage. I wish every day that Paul Wellstone were still alive. He was the conscience of the Senate. I'm really encouraged by Feingold, and Barbara Boxer has taken stands everyone else was afraid to take.

But, it seems the ones who get all the press are the Liebermans, Bidens, and Zells. These are the ones that really hurt our cause.

[Cocoa]

47. when was the democrats' golden age?

just give me a year, I'll pull out my Howard Zinn and prove to you that they were the same as the republicans.

[Steve A Play]

4. Key word, "WAS"

How things have changed over time. :(

[WCGreen]

5. But we have to remember this....

And be proud of the fact the party has historically stood with the common folk...

Too many times democrats make excuses for what they believe in...

That, more than sucking up at the money trough, is what get's the party into trouble...

[Cocoa]

48. see my rhetorical question directly above

you can play this game with any era.

[wiley]

6. Politics has become a physical and very local activity

Democrats must learn that cerebral responses alone don't work anymore. Hey, support the DLCC! http://www.dlcc.org

[WCGreen]

7. I am very active.....

I am currently involved with a state wide campaign here in Ohio....

I have also served as the treasurer for about a dozen campaigns as well as the local county party...

I am recruiting people to run for precinct committee person in my area....

I have been involved in one way or another since 1976...

It gauls me that the party has fallen on hard times.... But that doesn't mean we can't return to our roots...

Krugman's latest column in the NYT says we, meaning democrats, are winning the war of ideas...

But losing the political fights....

We have to balance the two better....

[Doremus]

8. I'm running for precinct committee chair here in Ohio.

Not something I'd ordinarily do as it's pretty far out of my comfort zone, but when they asked I thought "can't complain if you're not willing to get involved."

So run I will, whether I like it or not. :)


BTW, excellent post WCGreen. Bookmarked for future reference.

[Dr.Phool]

11. Do you have an opponent?

Besides walking your precinct, and introducing yourself to the Dems there, consider taking the election day off work. Print some business cards up and hand one to every voter going in to the election. If you have an opponent, you'll have a greater than 90% probability of a win.

[Doremus]

13. I'm completely new to this and appreciate the suggestions.

When the assistant Dem leader of our city asked me to run, I didn't even think to ask if someone already held the position. :) When I talked to him later he said that an elderly man held it in the past but he didn't know if he would be running again. I'm not one to go out of my way to stir up ill will, but he assures me it isn't like that at all being that we're all Democrats (don't know if what he says is altogether true, but I'll take his word for it).

Anyway, walking the neighborhood collecting signatures for myself was something new and not at all unpleasant, so now I'm kind of looking forward to it and will be disappointed if I don't win. I really like the notion of helping to energize the (sleeping) Dem base around here. :)

Thanks again -- I'll be sure to take your suggestions.

[WCGreen]

20. It's great top be involved.....

In Cuyahoga County, the Chairman has gone out of his way to involve the precinct committee peope and the executive committee people in the process by letting those bodies control the endorsement process...

[Doremus]

22. Is that Jimmy Dimora?

I once lived in Bedford Hts. when he was mayor. Great city services, responsive to residents, soft spot for seniors. :) He almost didn't get elected to county government because they didn't want to let him go. :)

[WCGreen]

31. I ran his campaign as commissioner.....

We won against Pat Sweeney....

Yea, it's still Dimora...

[WCGreen]

19. Don't know yet......

But Mrs. WCGreen now holds the seat...

Either she or I have been in that position since 1994...

[OneBlueSky]

12. that was then . . . this is now . . . I'd love to belong to a party . . .

that was the outspoken champion of the kinds of programs you cite . . .

unfortunately, this isn't your father's Democrat Party . . .

[Jim Lane]

14. Add to your list -- Carter's defense of international human rights (n/t)

[AtomicKitten]

15. I remain a proud Democrat.

Thanks for reminding me why.

[bklyncowgirl]

16. How about an ad campeign highlighting Democratic Party history

Alot of people simply don't know this. I could see something like this.

Images of the Great Depression (dustbowl, souplines), followed by FDR and images of the New Deal(WPA workers, etc) followed by images of WWII and more FDR. Voiceover: A Democratic president overcame the great depresssion and defeated the greatest evil the world has ever seen.

Images of Jim Crow, MLK, switch to JFK, LBJ, RFK Voiceover: Democrats provided the leadership which fought for the rights of all Americans.

Images of Neil Armstrong on the moon. Voiceover: Democrats had the vision and the leadership to put a man on the moon.

Images of 9/11, Iraq, Bin Laden, closed factories, hurricane Katrina, pollution. Voiceover: Today America faces greater challenges than ever. Great problems require great leadership. The Democratic Party--together we can do better.

[BulletproofLandshark]

18. That's a great idea!

Maybe the "experts" in the party should be looking to people like you for their PR.

[DemonGoddess]

23. You know, you have a great idea there

[enough already]

17. Those days are long gone

Now we bend over and let the chimp put nazis on the Supreme Court.

[WCGreen]

21. I'm not bending over......

[raccoon]

49. And a Democratic president signed the so-called

Family Responsibility law.

[IndianaGreen]

24. Socialists and anarchists championed civil rights decades before Dems did

Social Security was a watered down version of the Socialist "National Pension" program.

Democrats have always been too little and too late. Consider that JFK was even reluctant to associate himself with Dr. King until late in the game.

Socialists and anarchists fought and died for such radical ideas such as the 8-hour workday, women's equality, labor rights, etc., long before the reactionary Democrats decided to adopt those programs and then, only to prevent more radical changes.

You better read some history buddy.

[GreenPartyVoter]

41. True, progressives and populists outside of the Dems often had their

ideas co-opted by them. Which is fine as long as something gets done.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. All that stuff happened before 1974

Since 1980, despite the efforts of some fantastic individual Dems, the party leadership has played "nicey-nice" with the Republicans, as if their purpose in life is not to be "obstructionist."

I've been frustrated with wishy-washy Dems since 1981. That's 25 years.

[Doctor_J]

29. Right - more than 30 years ago.

Of no use whatsover at this moment in time.

[MadHound]

26. A bit of a historical quibble with your analysis

It wasn't the Democrats that "designed, implemented and then defended Social Security....", is was the Socialists. FDR was looking at a serious spoiler race coming from the Socialist party during his first re-election bid. Therefore he stole a couple of Socialist planks, Social Security and Unemployment Insurance, from the Socialists and made them his own. In fact he ripped them off almost verbatim.

Just for the sake of historical accuracy. . .

[WCGreen]

45. Since the Socialists had absolutly no chance of ever

having power, I guess FDR was doing them and us a favor by "Stealing" the idea....

[applegrove]

27. Don't forget that all Dems on the comittee voted for swearing in

Gonzales but were out numbered. The issue is that the Dems don't have the numbers or the power. It isn't that they are not trying to get to the truth.

[blm]

28. The party would be in GREAT SHAPE if there was fairness in broadcasting.

It's the Miltary Industrial Media Complex that has taken control over the last twenty years. The Republican party was usurped to push that fascist agenda.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. That doesn't explain why so many Dems have voted to enable

the fascist agenda over the past 25 years or why Bill Clinton signed the bill that deregulated the broadcasting industry.

[blm]

32. Point was that the Dems are operating today under circumstances where

it is pre-ordained that they cannot be heard in the public square.

I very much doubt that as a party the Dems saw it coming even 10 years ago, let alone 25. They bought the whole "liberal media" line, too, back then.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. Well then they were less aware than a lot of ordinary citizens

:shrug:

I'm not the only person who has been watching them cave in repeatedly for 25 years---beginning back when they had a majority in both houses of Congress.

The legislators with guts have been in the minority for the past two decades. The Dems didn't have their power stolen from it. They gave it away.

[blm]

34. Well, they didn't control who bought up the media corporations and

certainly didn't think media would eventually be controlled by the GOP. They should have started opening those eyes after Clinton got impeached.

[Daylin Byak]

36. I think just a small part of our party is evil,

Like the DLC and the blue dog collitation. But besides that I think our party is great. Every day before I go to sleep I thank god that we have people like John Kerry, Barbara boxer and George Miller is office fighting for the common folk like us every day they take thw house of senate floor.

If we can get rid of guys like Tom Vilsack, Tim Holden and Joe Biden our party would be great cause it would "root out the weeds of the party" sourt of speak.

I'm telling you if we speak our mind in a good way, fix the voting problems in our great country and find strong democratic candidates(like we've doing)we will back on top, just cross our fingers.

[sandnsea]

35. Oh okay, post-1974

It was Dems who fought for AIDS assistance with Ryan White Law; and have fought for hate legislation at the federal level and gay rights legislation in many states.

It was Dems who fought for the Family & Medical Leave Act guaranteeing moms their jobs after pregnancy.

It was Dems who fought for domestic violence shelters and stalking laws.

It was Dems who fought for national program for child support.

It was Dems who fought for SCHIP which brings us up to about 95% coverage in most of the country.

It was Dems who fought to protect ANWR and created millions of acres of roadless areas.

It was Dems who put 100,000 cops on the streets and implement after school and other programs to keep our kids off the streets.

All of this while fighting the onslaught of the right and this barely touches the surface of some of the progress in the last 20 years.

Some people are either enamored with their negativity or just flat out clueless.

[mzmolly]

37. Exactly. Here are more accomplishments in a Republican controlled senate.

http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=sr-108-1-414

[Tom Joad]

38. Democrats that championed Civil Rights movement??

The Democratic Party convention was segragated until at least 1968.
It was the work of people like Fannie Lou Hamer that changed that... it was not the gift of Democratic leaders... they had to FIGHT. Fannie and others like her did not fawn over Dem leaders.

ML King was jailed by judges appointed by John F Kennedy. He wrote a letter from a Birmingham jail, that directly challanged his "liberal" white friends, and how they are holding up progress more than the outright racist.

Man, read a little history, be a little honest.

[inthebrain]

39. The Democrats did not "champion the civil rights movement".....

"that championed the Civil Rights movement regardless of the political consequences... Granted, it was late in the game, but LBJ went out of way to push through the Civil Rights agenda even though he knew he was handing the south to the GOP on a silver platter...."


This is false!!!!

It was Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Rosa Parks along with millions of others that "championed the civil rights movement". The political establishment caved and offered concessions because they were scared shitless. The civil rights movement scared the crap out of a lot of these bastards. They challenged the order of society.

Their work is far from finished.

[Tom Joad]

40. Progress came because of organizing on the streets, not from "leaders"

Nixon & the Dems made tough environmental laws because of enormous pressure on the streets.
Civil rights gains were made on the streets as well.

We should fight like hell to end this war now, to pressure congress to stop funding the occupation, not waiting idly by for the Dem leaders to do something. Yes, we can appreciate it when they act, but the best of them don't want us to depend on their action, they need us to organize people from below.

[CTyankee]

42. You left out the GI Bill

that enabled thousands and thousands of veterans (my husband included)to go to college and to get a home loan without a down payment. It raised the prosperity level of many, many Americans.

[Pacifist Patriot]

43. I heard Gary Hart on NPR Saturday morning and appreciated something

he said. He described the GOP as a Corporate Party and the Dems as a Coalition Party. It's easy to be a Corporate Party where decisions are made at the top and everyone else follows along out of company loyalty. It's a lot harder to function as a coalition and try to accommodate a wide variety of view points and priorities. All and all though, I'd rather cast my lot with a coalition.

[WCGreen]

46. I like that as well....

GOod point....

[calimary]

44. I always go back to this: (GREAT response to knuckledragger emails)

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN!!!

By John Gray, Cincinnati, Ohio

July - 2004

Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.

All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers’ medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

Joe takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government subsidized ride to work; it saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It’s noon time, Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his life-time.

Joe is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dad’s; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republicans would still be sitting in the dark!)

He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to. After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.

He turns on a radio talk show, the host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn't tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day.) Joe agrees. We don't need those big government liberals ruining our lives. After all, I'm a self made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.


Don't remember where I found it, but it's a keeper. Just like the original post here. More ammo.

Kicked and recommended!