I'm compiling a list of Democratic leaders who no longer represent us.

[Buzz Clik]

Mostly because they don't pass the purity test. It's pretty short so far, but this is what I've got:

• Barack Obama
  
• Hillary Clinton
  
• Bill Clinton
  
• John Kerry
  
• Al Gore

Who am I missing?

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. My opinion? 90 percent of the sitting Congress.

[Buzz Clik]

5. The way we're headed, 90% is going to be a very small number.

The 10% we like will be Sanders and Warren and maybe one or two others.

[woo me with science]

11. Your attempt at sarcasm is failing. The purchase of the party is a serious problem.

Corporate money IS corrupting the direction of the party.

Your attempt to pretend that it's all fake outrage doesn't change that. I have always considered that one of the lamest rhetorical tactics used in corporate propaganda, to deny the obvious by pretending it's hyperbole.

Red vs. Blue = Oligarchy Theater for the masses.

Mass spying on Americans? Both parties support it.
Handing the internet to corporations? Both parties support it.
Austerity for the masses? Both parties support it.
Cutting social safety nets? Both parties support it.
Corporatists in the cabinet? Both parties support it.
Tolling our interstate highways? Both parties support it.
Corporate education policy? Both parties support it.
Bank bailouts? Both parties support it.
Ignoring the trillions stashed overseas? Both parties support it.
Trans-Pacific Job/Wage Killing Secret Agreement? Both parties support it.
TISA corporate overlord agreement? Both parties support it.
Drilling and fracking? Both parties support it.
Wars on medical marijuana instead of corrupt banks? Both parties support it.
Deregulation of the food industry? Both parties support it.
GMO's? Both parties support it.
Privatization of the TVA? Both parties support it.
Immunity for telecoms? Both parties support it.
"Looking forward" and letting war criminals off the hook? Both parties support it.
Deciding torturers are patriots? Both parties support it.
Militarized police and assaults on protesters? Both parties support it.
Indefinite detention? Both parties support it.
Drone wars and kill lists? Both parties support it.
Targeting of journalists and whistleblowers? Both parties support it.
Private prisons replacing public prisons? Both parties support it.
Unions? Both parties view them with contempt.
Trillion dollar increase in nuclear weapons. Both parties support it.
New war in Iraq. Both parties support it.
New war in Syria. Both parties support it.
Carpet bombing of captive population in Gaza. Both parties support it.
Selling off swaths of the Gulf of Mexico for drilling? Both parties support it.
Drilling along the Atlantic Coast? Both parties support it.

[woo me with science]

9. +1 The problem is systemic at this point. Corporate money pouring into all aspects of government.

We have seen the scam at work for some time. United oligarchy masquerading as divided democracy:

http://www.salon.com/2010/02/23/democrats_34/

Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010 11:24 AM UTC
The Democratic Party’s deceitful game
They are willing to bravely support any progressive bill as long as there's no chance it can pass


Democrats perpetrate the same scam over and over on their own supporters, and this illustrates perfectly how it’s played:

.... Rockefeller was willing to be a righteous champion for the public option as long as it had no chance of passing...But now that Democrats are strongly considering the reconciliation process — which will allow passage with only 50 rather than 60 votes and thus enable them to enact a public option — Rockefeller is suddenly “inclined to oppose it” because he doesn’t “think the timing of it is very good” and it’s “too partisan.” What strange excuses for someone to make with regard to a provision that he claimed, a mere five months ago (when he knew it couldn’t pass), was such a moral and policy imperative that he “would not relent” in ensuring its enactment.

The Obama White House did the same thing. As I wrote back in August, the evidence was clear that while the President was publicly claiming that he supported the public option, the White House, in private, was doing everything possible to ensure its exclusion from the final bill (in order not to alienate the health insurance industry by providing competition for it). Yesterday, Obama — while having his aides signal that they would use reconciliation if necessary — finally unveiled his first-ever health care plan as President, and guess what it did not include? The public option, which he spent all year insisting that he favored oh-so-much but sadly could not get enacted: Gosh, I really want the public option, but we just don’t have 60 votes for it; what can I do?. As I documented in my contribution to the NYT forum yesterday, now that there’s a 50-vote mechanism to pass it, his own proposed bill suddenly excludes it.

This is what the Democratic Party does...They’re willing to feign support for anything their voters want just as long as there’s no chance that they can pass it. They won control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections by pretending they wanted to compel an end to the Iraq War and Bush surveillance and interrogation abuses because they knew they would not actually do so; and indeed, once they were given the majority, the Democratic-controlled Congress continued to fund the war without conditions, to legalize Bush’s eavesdropping program, and to do nothing to stop Bush’s habeas and interrogation abuses (“Gosh, what can we do? We just don’t have 60 votes).

The primary tactic in this game is Villain Rotation. They always have a handful of Democratic Senators announce that they will be the ones to deviate this time from the ostensible party position and impede success, but the designated Villain constantly shifts, so the Party itself can claim it supports these measures while an always-changing handful of their members invariably prevent it. One minute, it’s Jay Rockefeller as the Prime Villain leading the way in protecting Bush surveillance programs and demanding telecom immunity; the next minute, it’s Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer joining hands and “breaking with their party” to ensure Michael Mukasey’s confirmation as Attorney General; then it’s Big Bad Joe Lieberman single-handedly blocking Medicare expansion; then it’s Blanche Lincoln and Jim Webb joining with Lindsey Graham to support the de-funding of civilian trials for Terrorists; and now that they can’t blame Lieberman or Ben Nelson any longer on health care (since they don’t need 60 votes), Jay Rockefeller voluntarily returns to the Villain Role, stepping up to put an end to the pretend-movement among Senate Democrats to enact the public option via reconciliation.

[elehhhhna]

2. congress. they harbor some doozies.

[treestar]

3. Jimmy Carter

Harry Reid, Pelosi

[Buzz Clik]

6. Yeah. He sucked.

Paled on comparison to FDR.

[treestar]

10. Forgot FDR. He couldn't pass either.

Social Security didn't apply to everyone back then.

[Chan790]

4. DWS?

I'm not really sure she ever represented "us" though.

[Vinca]

7. If there is going to be a purity test, we won't have a candidate.

Imagine . . . President Ted Cruz.

[Buzz Clik]

8. Remember, electability is less important, even if we lose.

The new leaders must be all in or out.

[Cheese Sandwich]

12. Rahm Emmanuel

[lamp_shade]

13. FDR and JFK

[Buzz Clik]

21. That's harsh, but...

But FDR got us into that war and JFK made his reputation rattling swords with the USSR.

[geek tragedy]

23. Don't forget Bay of Pigs and beginning our involvement in Viet Nam nt

[lamp_shade]

30. You took me seriously. Hah!

No surprise, however, that you found something negative to say about each of them.
They're dead. Neither is currently representin'

[Buzz Clik]

32. Please tell me...

... that you are not taking this thread to be serious.

[pintobean]

14. Buzz Clik

[aspirant]

16. I second, Buzz Clik

[Buzz Clik]

18. +1

[Buzz Clik]

19. +a Brazilian

[Capt. Obvious]

15. Fail

[Buzz Clik]

17. Wrong answer

Had a point to make, and I am making it.

[Capt. Obvious]

20. Making it poorly

Not clever, not funny, unoriginal.

Fail.

[Buzz Clik]

22. Shit! I don't cap'n's purity test!

[Capt. Obvious]

24. Still unfunny and unoriginal

You better believe it!

[Buzz Clik]

26. That's it. You're going on the list.

[Capt. Obvious]

28. You better believe it!

[FSogol]

25. Any Democrat who manages to get elected...

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

27. Wouldn't it be easier to compile a list of those who still do? nt

[el_bryanto]

29. That's funny - I'm compiling a list of Democratic Leaders we should follow blindly

The leaders we have to support, regardless of how little they fight for liberal ideals.

So far I have

Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
Bill Clinton
John Kerry

Hmmm - where I have I seen that list before.

Bryant

[Buzz Clik]

33. That's a discussion for another thread.

Oh wait... I think DU is dedicated to that topic this month. Probably for the coming year.

[Buzz Clik]

31. Okay, I think I'm getting a sense of this. Here's the updated list.

The requirements for passing the purity test are pretty steep, and a lot of our icons have failed:

• Barack Obama
  
• Hillary Clinton
  
• Bill Clinton
  
• Al Gore
  
• John Kerry
  
• John F. Kennedy
  
• Jackie Kennedy (she married a 1%er, after all)
  
• FDR
  
• Between 90% and 100% of Congress (Warren and Sanders not included)
  
• Jimmy Carter (no explanation given, but look at his family!)
  
• DWS (not sure who that is)
  
• Rahm Emmanuel (duh!!!)
  
• Buzz Clik (duh!)
  
• Capt. Obvious (my suggestion, based on spite)
  
• All elected Dems (I think Warren and Sanders fail this test -- we'll need a ruling)

We're running out of Democrats and rapidly approach Marxism (Groucho, not Karl): I would never join a club that would have me as a member.

[DanTex]

35. Don't forget LBJ (Vietnam). And Truman (nuked Japan).

Also Elizabeth Warren probably belongs on the list, she used to be a Republican.

[Buzz Clik]

37. +1. Double down on Warren -- she voted for Reagan!

[mulsh]

34. I'm a life long Democrat. I do not have a leader I vote for people to represent me. that's it.

I try to learn what I can about issues and make up my mind where I stand. the folk who represent me don't always vote or act in a way I support. That doesn't mean I don't support them. My only hard and fast rule, and i've had this since I could vote is I will never vote for a republican candidate.

[Buzz Clik]

36. I see. We'll add you to the list.