Reply #89: Sigh - I think you're stuck in Lesser-of-Two-Evils-Land.

[calimary]

If there's no difference between an R or a D, or it's just better to "sit this one out in protest," who are you really hurting?

Imagine if it had been john mcsame who was allowed to pick a replacement for John Paul Stevens? :banghead:

In Congress - imagine, for example, if it was that idiot neanderthal global-warming denier james inhofe continuing as chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee - and not Barbara Boxer. Especially NOW, when we really do need to have somebody's boot on the neck of BP! :scared: That one nightmare scenario in particular is all I ever need to keep in mind.

Unfortunately, in this climate where liberals have been aggressively demonized and marginalized for at least 30 years, we have to take the crumbs. Sometimes there are larger and fresher crumbs than at other times. I find myself envisioning the pendulum that hopefully will swing back eventually. We had a liberal surge with FDR in the 30s and 40's. That spawned a CONservative backlash that took some 70 years to bear fruit - about an average human lifespan, which may mean it's all about the movers and shakers of these movements dying out and being replaced by whippersnappers rebelling against their elders, especially since they weren't around to learn the hard lessons that their elders did and from which their elders got their motivation. I heard a very interesting observation regarding Wall Street reforms. The protections were originally put in place to remedy and curtail the robber-baron rape-and-pillage mentality that led to the Great Depression. So, fine, 'eh? Well, not so much - because, according to this premise, once the regulations were in place and having an effect, the young 'uns growing up found themselves restricted when they wanted to take chances and cut corners, because they weren't around, or they were too young, to remember what calamity ensues when you DON'T have those restrictions and protections in place, and they either forgot or weren't interested in the lessons that should have been learned. The attitude becomes - "hey? WHAT problems? We're fine! All better! We don't need those regulations and restrictions and protections anymore! It's all fixed! Screw it! Let's party!" The conclusion of this argument was that this stuff happens in something like 80-year cycles, for this generational reason. So it may take 70 more years to push us back to a liberal-leaning nation as people wake up and realize - "uh - hey! Gee, this is fucked up now! Something's gotta be done to fix this mess! There oughta be a law..."