Flaw in this week's Top 10 conservative Idiots.....

[BlooInBloo]

... and I think it's indicative of a major weakness Democrats have.

#3 Is listed as george bush. But when you go on to read the gloss, you don't see a single thing he said in it.

What you DO see is what VOTERS said - and boy was it craptacular!

This is the weakness that I think is endemic in Democrats: they absolutely REFUSE to blame those who are in fact most to blame: the goddamn voters. The electorate is NOT a passive battered wife in all of this. They ACTIVELY sought republican rule - for a variety of reasons. And they were WRONG to do so. This needs to be acknlowledged, and the republican electorate needs to admit their error. But this will NEVER happen unless WE require it of them. As long as we Democrats continue to blame everyone BUT the voters, they will have no reason to come clean - why should they, when we always blame someone else?

There are FOUR political loci of power in this country, though the Constitution only mentions three by name. Just like the others, the electorate has powers, and more relevantly here, RESPONSIBILITIES. Those responsibilities have not been lived up to. Everytime a citizen doesn't vote, or votes for a republican, that voter is shirking his or her responsibilities. This needs to be brought out into the open and dealt with, not shoved behind the cover of "Oh those evil politicians".

In the end, the voters DO have the final say. (Diebold you say? Who passed all the laws helping Diebold get big? Who voted for those who passsed the laws? Get it?). Certainly there are a lot of other things making the final mixture. The responsibility - or lack thereof - of the electorate is one of the biggest, and commonly goes unremarked upon, just as in the Top 10 #3.

[Elidor]

1. There was an important omission

Josh Marshall or Paul Kiel mentioned last week (either at talkingpointsmemo.com or tpmmuckraker.com) that Tobin (R-convicted), placed 75 calls to Ken Mehlman around the time of the phone-jamming. One of those little details that has yet to be placed into proper context.

[SheilaT]

2. While you certainly have a point,

I refuse to be held responsible for something I had no part in. I did not vote for George W. Bush. I did not approve the Diebold machines. I oppose the war in Iraq.

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE F**KED UP MESS THIS COUNTRY IS IN.

I tried very hard to keep it from getting this far, but I will not accept any blame for the situation we're in now.

[BlooInBloo]

3. Sheesh.

I spoke of the electorate as a whole. And obviously so. And that's not counting the times I specifically said "republican voters".

[melissinha]

4. well what do you suppose we do?

I think it is our responsibility as the informed electorate to educate the regular uninformed voet, particularly now when the sheen on the GOP machine has worn off and people are still suffering from this economy.

I agree the voters are to blame,I despise them for it, HOWEVER I know that the GOP machine took advantage of and helped create a world of melancholy citizenry which creates citizens who are not informed and wise to their tactics...

What I feel should be the strategy??? Democrats should show up at the roll call votes and we can show who's who to the uneducated with the true facts.....

[BlooInBloo]

5. Hm.... You mean "suggest"? lol

Hadn't gotten that far yet, except to get clear on the problem. Don't blame other entities for things that are properly the electorate's fault (like #3 on the Top 10 list).

I think that would be a pretty big step - there's always been this huge taboo against blaming the electorate. Given that taboo, it's not terribly surprising that they've acted less and less responsibly. We need to let the electorate know that we expect more out of them - they're hurting the country. With a responsible electorate, better politicians will follow *naturally*.