"Dems Need a Newt of Their Own" (A Dem Party Without Revolutionaries)

[KoKo]

Dems Need A Newt Of Their Own
The Party Can't Have a Revolution Without the Revolutionaries

By Elizabeth Wilner and Chuck Todd
Sunday, February 19, 2006; Page B05


House Democrats have been slow to promote younger members of their ranks in part because of the lessons that current Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) learned at the knees of skilled machine politicians, including California's Phil Burton and her father, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., who rose through the Democratic ranks in Baltimore. Machine politicians are reared on a seniority-based, pay-your-dues regimen.

This style of leadership, which Pelosi also inherited from Democratic predecessors such as former House majority leader Dick Gephardt (Mo.) and former House speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill (Mass.), punishes those who speak out too much and can have the effect of suppressing young firebrands.

Pelosi recently told reporters that she does seek to promote younger members, noting the "major role" some of them played in quashing President Bush's proposed overhaul of Social Security. However, it's hard to give any young rank-and-filers credit for that when there was a multimillion-dollar partywide effort to rally grass-roots outrage.

Back in the early 1990s, Gingrich and the Gang of Seven did not only attack Democrats; those insurgents also stormed their own party's ramparts and took on the GOP's moderate leaders and senior members. Not so with younger Democratic members today. Because Washington has become more partisan, there is tremendous pressure on Democratic members to fall in behind a unified party message. Republican party leaders and Bush administration officials are quick to point out dissent within the Democratic ranks and cast it as a sign of weakness.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021702477.html

[cyclezealot]

1. Remember Newt was a 'bomb thrower.'

It worked. He made them the majority party. Calls for civility won't work. It is an uncivil era which can't be undone until one side wins. Unfortunately. Repugs used to be called the rule or ruin party. They are ruling but the moto ruin still wins out. Ruin the nation . With today's media - governing civilly does not win out. Gotta smash the other party to get headlines.
Will we let them ruin the country in their drunken stupor. When the country stands in another depression, guess the American people will think they made a mistake. Or will we not have an equivilant bombthrower to tell the American people what they did to us.

[Vidar]

2. Yes! A real fighter like Teddy Roosevelt or Andrew Jackson.

And yes I abhor what Jackson did to the Indians. But I lkie the idea of duelist.

[AX10]

3. A Teddy Roosevelt-style fighter is what we need.

No more of this pandering to the conservative side crap.

[shrike]

4. They need LBJ

As loathsome a character as he could be sometimes, LBJ would NOT, under any circumstances, be afraid of the Bushies.

[Demeter]

5. We Need Adams, Jefferson, Franklin and Washington

We have to rebuild this country from scratch--after Hurricane George--on our First Principles, with the addition of plugging a few holes regarding corporations, taxes, and the meaning of commonwealth.

Remember these men and women were prepared to lay down their lives, loves and sacred honor, and fight to the death. The DINOs are just prepared to lie down.

[KoKo]

6. I know...but there are NO HERO's left...it's up to US...to make the hero's

and I think it starts with weeding out the "Corruption" like the "Magna Charta." I've read about that and think we are now so far back..even in our "supposedly enlightened informational time" ...back to the RIGHTS OF THE PEASANTS over the LORDS OF THE MANOR.

Sorry for the "freeperlike full caps." I just used it for emphasis...in my
frustration to be heard....whistling in the wind, here....:-(

[depakid]

7. Newt nationalized the elections

Took on and smacked down the RINO's (or- who the base considered RINO's). He reframed the message, and took back Congress for the first time since 1946.

Dems, meanwhile let their DINO's undercut them at every move- while legitimizing the opposition's policies (and voting with them)- making it seem like they have no coherent message at all. The Republicans would never stand for that.

That's why they're the majority party.

And why the Dems lose- and the way it looks- will keep losing. Both elections and legislative "fights." (not that they really fight anything- therein lies much of the problem).

[cyclezealot]

8. Civility on the freepers terms.

Most Repugs have no interest in compromise. Their agenda is benefiting their sponsors such as pharmeutical and insurance industries. How can one compromise with such. Their interests are not the interest of the public's.
Yes, we need our bombthrowers since their compromises are not compromises. We must convince the public they are bad for our well being.
Who knows , with publically funded campaigns, maybe even the Repugs can be made civic minded ! Throughout the world not all right wing parties are as evil as the neoconservatives who inhabit the US.

[yurbud]

9. our radicals are the ones doing their jobs: Conyers, McKinney, Tubbs...

essentially, most of the black caucus and some of the whites.

No one is more fiery than McKinney and dead on accurate on the facts, but business-owned democrats treat her like a cockroach in their salad.

Conyers has been the slow, steady, consistent voice of reason, and stating and investigating the obvious that we all see but most in Congress pretend they don't.

Newt was able to succeed because he came up with a more effective way to deliver the goods for Chamber of Commerce Republicans.

Chamber of Commerce (DLC) Democrats are the problem not the possible solution for the Democrats. They can't be clear, fiery, and confrontational because of they want to appear to care for voters while they are actually wholly business-owned. So much so that even a moderate like Howard Dean scares them, not because he is so radically liberal, but because he is not on someone's leash.

We have a couple of historic models to look at:

FDR's Four Freedom's

the Port Huron Statement

Paul Wellstone's example

Anyone who took a bullet in the 60s.

[cyr330]

10. They're not going to get one given how they behave

The Democratic Party is full of a bunch of pussies. They equivocate, cry, apologize, whine, and then do as the Republicans demand. Russ Feingold is one of the very few along with Howard Dean who isn't afraid to speak his mind. Harry Reid & Hillary Clinton can both get lost. As soon as things heat up in the kitchen, neither of them can take it. We need people who aren't afraid to publicly and rudely state the facts. As James Carville said, the Democrats are never going to win as long as they're afraid to fight nasty. They are going to have to pull out ALL the stops--get UGLY and NASTY and shove the knife in deep and not pull it out until the Repigs are DEAD. We've allowed the Repigs to pull this shit on us again and again and again. Things are so bad now that it's just mind boggling that so few people are able to state that our "emperor" is not wearing any clothes. We no longer have an American press, so it's even more imperative that the Dems stand up for SOMETHING. Come on--what are they waiting for? I'm getting really, really impatient.

[Apollo11]

11. I hear you cyr330

The Emperors New Clothes is not just a kids story. It's a moral imperative!

Five years of this Administration (with 3 more to go!) is giving me ulcers in my stomach.

The only thing that relieves the pain is seeing Dems stand up and fight back.


In Gore We Trust
www.algore.org :)

[w4rma]

12. Democratic "heros" outspoken bomb throwers tend to get the circular firing

squad from even progressives, imho. This would happen less if more Dem activists ignored minor disagreements and focused more on the big picture.

In other words, when the "heros" appear, we need to support them instead of shooting at them.