I WAS wanting a pony.

[Naturyl]

Yeah, I was wanting a pony - if by a "pony" we mean the same things the rest of the First World already enjoys - universal single-payer health care, an immediate end to the wars, meaningful regulations on corporations and business, a robust restoration of the social safety net, equal rights for ALL citizens, and real representation and accountability in government.

Of course, I wasn't naive enough to expect all of this (heaven forbid), but a little bit of it would have been nice. We voted for "CHANGE" and what we got was just another load of triangulating centrist DLC lip service.

Yeah, I wanted a pony. What I got instead was this:

[sandnsea]

1. You wanted Cynthia McKinney

Like I said, there are a lot of people around here who are confused about what the Democratic Party platform has been.

It has not included single payer health care, ending the Afghanistan war, immediate end to the Iraq war, or gay marriage.

It also does not include nationalization of any corporation, lifetime minimum income guarantee, guaranteed work, or anything else that the Green Party would advocate.

Now if you look at the actual Democratic Party platform and compare the progress with that, maybe you'd find a whole herd of ponies. I know I have.

[saracat]

2. It does include choice. And it includes affordable health care as a RIGHT"

as well as employment opportunities. I suggest you read the platform.

[sandnsea]

3. And progress has been made in all those areas

Women with pre-existing conditions are actually going to have the opportunity to have health insurance that covers medically necessary abortions, AND FREE birth control. The actual people who have been without health care are the ones who that bill was targeted towards -- NOT YOU SARACAT. YOU have money to pay for your coverage. YOU are one of the people who is supposed to be paying more into the system to help the ones who can't see a doctor otherwise.

I also am aware that we had a severe economic crash. Imagine if you and your squirrel buddies got up in the morning and 2/3 of your nuts were gone. It takes time to regather all of those nuts, especially while your squirrel babies are eating the nuts as quick as you're gathering them.

There was $100 billion put into education over the course of the last year, a part of which was to help keep teaching jobs. There was money to save civil service jobs, cops, firefighters. There's a new youth program at the Dept of Interior. The national parks have put tens of thousands of people to work. There are 11,000 road projects. There are new wind and solar projects. A whole new auto industry is being born. It's just damn sad you're missing it.

As for FDR social programs, well gosh, we still have a ton of them so we kind of don't need to make new ones. We have JobsCorps, YouthBuild, AmeriCorps, and a bunch of other programs that employ kids. They changes the student loan program so young moms could go back to school. We've got housing, food stamps, energy asst, child care, Medicaid, Medicare. We didn't have any of that in the 30s. We've got the social service system in place and billions were put into it during the stimulus.

Letting this kind of hatred fester over a singer and a preacher is really sick.

[saracat]

4. How dare you assume that I have the money to do anything?

I certainly do not and I have played the merry go round on this issue with you many times. HCR does not benefit many of us, even if they do NOT have the money. I am supposed to be paying more? Out of WHAT? How dare you? Both my husband and I are unemployed and are savings are almost gone. The arrogance of this post is beyond belief. And even the president himself admitted that few jobs have been created. And your callous dismissal of the need for social programs is horrible. We may not need more of the same but we do need a jobs program and we need to make it possible for many more Americans to get access to programs like food stamps because obviously you are not aware of how difficult it is to obtain them.

[Hannah Bell]

5. "progress has been made"

[Naturyl]

6. "Mission accomplished" lol

[Moderator]

7. Flamebait, copycat, gratuitous violence

Locking