I wrote a diary over at Dkos this morning, after reading the current headlines that the Democrats voted with the Republicans (again) this time with the Senate passing CAFTA, sending it to the House…I am so mad and disgusted with these “representatives” of our party, who keep voting for bills that are against the regular working People (eg., the Bankruptcy bill, Estate Tax repeal, CAFTA, etc.).
Can you PLEASE get consistent and take a stand on issues, so people can trust you??
David Sirota says it much more elegantly and thoroughly than I:
“Why the Public Believes Dems Stand for Nothing”
http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/06/why-public-believes-dems-stand-for.html
I rant…
but go read David Sirota^’s blog…
In this case many democrats believe in this legislation. The point is made that prices are lower on all kinds of goods and that is a good thing.
I disagree with that. So instead of getting mad at the present democrats, I just plan to find and support better ones.
I wonder if the Dems voted yes on CAFTA, because they knew about O’Conner? (Gave Bush a victory, saving up for the SCOTUS fight)…
I have been saying this for years now and I am still looking around for some Dems to stand for something! So far I see Boxer, Conyers, Waters, 2 or 3 others. . .and everyone else acting as if they belong to BIG MONEY INTERESTS. . .
Someone mentioned that each representative votes for their state constituents. . .I can only say: THE BANKRUPTCY BILL?????? yeah, sure the people in their states that marked their ballots for their reps. just really thought it was a great idea to let MBNA write their own legislation that effectively lifted almost all controls on CC companies. They have no limits now on the amount of intrest they can charge (a 40% cap was just too confining), and. . .and. . .and. . .No need to go through the whole ridiculously corporately skewed legislation, you know it as well as I do. So voting for this GIFT to CC Corporations was in the best interest of their home sate constituents???? I see. . .
And that is just one of dozens of examples. Yeah, sure they care about the voter that put them in office. Unless of course the BIG Money interests want them to do something for them, never mind the voters back home.
Right now, it is very hard to tell the difference between an elected Republican and an elected Democrat, except that the Republicans all vote together on the issues. Dems seem totally “for Sale” to the highest bidder.
Yep, STAND FOR SOMETHING Has been my plea, and it continues to be.
Sirota’s premise is that the American people see the Democrats’ inconsistency and think dems don’t stand for anything. He says the American people see Dems saying one thing and doing the other and so they don’t trust Democrats. I call BS.
Since when has the American public been tuned in enough to recognize all these cases of Democrats’ hypocrisy? Surely the GOP hypocrisy has been far greater than the Democrat hypocrisy, yet you expect me to believe that America can recognize it on one side but not the other? The general public neither hears what the Democrats are saying nor sees how they are voting, so there is no way they think Democrats are being hypocrites for the reasons Sirota says. Does the average American know anything about the bankruptcy bill? No. The energy bill? No. CAFTA? No. As much as I agree that Democrats need to be more consistent and as logical as Sirota’s argument is, it doesn’t take into account a little thing I like to call “reality.”
No, the reason the American people think the Democrats stand for nothing is because they hear it over and over and over again: from the Administration, from FOX News, from the newspaper editorials by David Brooks and other liars like him, from Limbaugh, Hannity, Scarborough, et al and from every ditto-head on the street. It is a simple case of the echo-chamber working.
We all know it, but none of us want to say it because it sounds like a copout, but the truth is this: the American people are kept ignorant by the main stream media, leaving a vacuum to be filled by the right-wingers.
Until we fix the media problem — eliminate the propaganda — it won’t matter what Democrats do or say. And that is the bottom line.