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Showing Original Post only (View all)BULLSHIT that it's a victory. Let's get our compasses straight as Democrats. [View all]
BULLSHIT that anything happening now is a victory or that we should be celebrating a Third Way chess game. Let's get our compasses straight as Democrats.
Signing on to austerity packages is not a victory. Going over the cliff is the best we can hope for now, but it is still a decided loss. Even if we go over the cliff, we are stuck with painful, certainly regressive, triggered budget slashing that Obama is fully responsible for, because he chose to validate the Shock Doctrine scam debt ceiling "crisis" last year. We should not be imposing austerity at all during this economy.
If the Democratic Party wants to claim a victory, it will not happen until after this debacle...and only IF the party makes a decision to go back to what truly defines a victory: passionate advocacy for and action toward legislation that actually HELPS people and holds bankers accountable. Let's not fall for the Third Way propaganda of steadily diminishing expectations:
How propaganda works to change our expectations of the Democratic Party
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022033331
One of the most destructive aspects of this whole debt debacle, ever since it started, has been the unconscionable decision by our Democratic President and corporate Democrats in Congress to validate the right-wing narrative and framing of what is wrong with our economy and what needs to happen to fix it.
Our Democrats had from Day One of this Presidency to correct the lies about austerity and correct the narrative about the economy and our national values. They chose instead to play along, and we have since been subjected to the disgusting, unconscionable spectacle of our seniors and poor being used BY THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY as bargaining chips.
What used to be understood as REPUBLICAN lies and talking points about the economy and the deficit were transformed into a devastating NATIONAL, BIPARTISAN narrative about the need for austerity that we now have to fight against every single day.
Every single time Democrats reinforce this narrative, it is damaging to the country.
Obama has his entire second term to start giving us some real wins, but don't you dare try to tell us that this is one of them. They need to give us something that really helps, not expect praise for subjecting us to one of the less painful of the austerity options they helped the Republicans put into place. We need to remind them, and apparently some of ourselves, what a win truly means, and what we should be demanding from our party.