How our Democratic leadership is selling us down the river

none of what david sirota says should be surprising to anyone who has paid any attention whatsoever to how liberal and progressive ideals have been systematically betrayed in this country by the leadership of the very party that purports to support them... and, even if you haven't been paying attention, you've probably experienced the effects, and wondered why everything in our economy seems to work against the wage slaves that are toiling away year after year keeping all the machinery of the system running...

there was a very strong message sent in the 2006 elections, a message from the grassroots, from folks like us that nobody in congress or the white house seems to pay any attention to unless they're trying to baffle us with bullshit... watching developments since the new congressional session began in january, i can only conclude that, if the message registered, it certainly hasn't been taken to heart...

sirota highlights what's going on and, more importantly, what ISN'T going on, in three important areas - trade, lobbying and iraq - all three of which were part of the message sent by the 2006 elections...

trade...

[T]he Democratic congressional leadership and less than half of all Democratic lawmakers (as during NAFTA) join with all Republicans to ram a free trade package through Congress over the objections of the progressive movement and rank-and-file Democrats who ran against lobbyist-written trade policies in 2006.

lobbying...

[T]he Democratic congressional leadership would join with all Republicans to ram a sham lobbying "reform" bill through Congress potentially over the objections of many of rank-and-file Democrats and the progressive movement.

iraq...

[T]he Democratic congressional leadership would join with all Republicans to ram a blank check Iraq spending bill through Congress potentially over the objections of many of rank-and-file Democrats and the progressive movement.

and the result...?

Thus, we get Democratic leaders who just months after election to the majority are attempting to triangulate against their own party and the progressive movement. That this strategy helped destroy the progressive agenda, the Democratic Party, and Democrats' electoral prospects for the better part of a decade seems of no concern to the people trying to perform these acrobatics - all they seem to be focused on is bringing a smile to David Broder's face and a truckload of Wall Street cash to their campaign coffers. Whether their triangulation defies political history and brings them electoral success in 2008 is less important than what the actual real-world consequences of such behavior is for the country - and if the current trend continues, those consequences could be severe.

we have no business sitting still for THIS shit any more than we can sit still for bushco's unrelenting assault on our constitution and everything else that serves as the foundation for our republic...

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