Please, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

But we do occupy the legislative and executive branches, do we not?

Right? Right?

For so many years I've mocked the GOP pro-life faithful for their dutiful, yet dubious, myopic voting record for voting in repubs. who have literally done shit for them with regards to anything substantial regarding a pro-life platform/court. The repubs. repeatedly screw their constituents, and this was most readily visible when they too owned the legislative and executive branches.

So now are we the ones? Petraeus? Really? Jobless benefits? Corporate oversight? Do they just throw us bones so that we can be satisfied?

Or am I being unfair? They do have to work against filibusters and all sorts of parliamentary procedures. Are they doing the best with the hand their dealt? In short, would a President Kucinich and a legislative branch of Kuciniches get the job done (I'm being metaphorical here, as D seems to embrace so many of our progressive causes)?

Are are we dems. being treated by our party a bit like the repubs. I loved to mock?

Insights?

Should we hold tight until Obama's second term? Is this what it comes to--taking scrap by progressive scrap over the years until it becomes the norm? I guess I'm fine with this. But, man, it's tough to be patient when you have two branches.

[Oregone]

1. Oh boy. Here we go again

:)

Good points BTW. Just hold tight. Another few terms and we will get to fixing the "pragmatic" legislation

[HughMoran]

14. Yes, idealism really has a track record one can hang their hat on

right?

:) to you to.

[Confusious]

2. myopia AHOY!!

Damn the friendly fire torpedoes!Full steam ahead!

[treestar]

3. They had 911

whatever they wanted, they'd connect it to 911, and the voters were behind that.

And they don't want much, either. They would be fine if no new bills passed - other than tax cuts.

They also do not get everything they want - not by a long shot. Abortion is not a crime. Homosexuality does not rate the death penalty. They can't put the 10 commandments or crosses in public buildings. They don't get to deport all the Mooslims. We aren't bombing Iran. There are still several government agencies limiting their "freedom." Citizenship is not denied to the children of illegal aliens. Girls are not arrested for being pregnant outside of marriage. Women are still allowed to have jobs and even serve in the Senate. Welfare has not been abolished. Hollywood is not forced to make everything have a G rating. There are still some gun restrictions. Atheists are not locked up or shunned. There is no drilling in ANWR.

[Scuba]

8. Your assumption is they want those things. Fact is, those things are window....

...dressing used to gain votes. They don't really care about anything but money and power.

[papadog]

9. Thnak You SCUBA!

The Dems are "opposed" to things they know have no chance of passing, once there'a a chance of something anti-special interest passing they back peddle. Two sides of the same coin.

[Scuba]

10. Bingo.

[treestar]

11. You can't separate them that much from the voters who put them there

They still get the votes, even though they don't deliver. The voters at least know they are better than Democrats as far as what they want, and they don't undermine the R party, which is their only hope.

And in the last term, they used 911 assiduously. There was nothing they would not relate it to. It gave the law and order crowd a ton of power.

[Scuba]

15. Most Republican voters are dupes...

..they don't actually adhere to the Republicans true core values, but they fall for the divisive issues - racism, abortion, guns, etc.

[nashville_brook]

4. 'What's The Matter With Kansas' in reverse

The largely blue collar citizens of Kansas can be counted upon to be a "red" state in any election, voting solidly Republican and possessing a deep animosity toward the left. This, according to author Thomas Frank, is a pretty self-defeating phenomenon, given that the policies of the Republican Party benefit the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the average worker. According to Frank, the conservative establishment has tricked Kansans, playing up the emotional touchstones of conservatism and perpetuating a sense of a vast liberal empire out to crush traditional values while barely ever discussing the Republicans' actual economic policies and what they mean to the working class. Thus the pro-life Kansas factory worker who listens to Rush Limbaugh will repeatedly vote for the party that is less likely to protect his safety, less likely to protect his job, and less likely to benefit him economically. To much of America, Kansas is an abstract, "where Dorothy wants to return. Where Superman grew up." But Frank, a native Kansan, separates reality from myth in What's the Matter with Kansas and tells the state's socio-political history from its early days as a hotbed of leftist activism to a state so entrenched in conservatism that the only political division remaining is between the moderate and more-extreme right wings of the same party. Frank, the founding editor of The Baffler and a contributor to Harper's and The Nation, knows the state and its people. He even includes his own history as a young conservative idealist turned disenchanted college Republican, and his first-hand experience, combined with a sharp wit and thorough reasoning, makes his book more credible than the elites of either the left and right who claim to understand Kansas

[kenny blankenship]

5. Obama's second term? If he has one expect 'pragmatic stasis' to give way to 'lame duck drift'

I think you've seen all there's to see already.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. We still get to see the dismantlement of Social Security and Medicare

There's more on the checklist.

It will be sold just like healthcare and financial regs as "the most sweeping reform in half a century" blah blah blah.

[Toucano]

6. The Senate rules need to change.

One senator's ability to stop legislation is not a democracy.

[metapunditedgy]

7. That's just a red herring. The folks we already elected should be publicly and loudly

opposing that "one senator." They have not.

And the reality is a lot more complex than "one senator."

[treestar]

12. But did we complain about that during the Chimpadministration?

That's why the Democrats don't get rid of it.

[Festivito]

16. The media covered filibusters FOR Repubs, now they don't, again, FOR Repubs.

Explain the media, and you'll have your anwser of where you can be wrong.