Great post. Alas, the outrage throughout the Bushler junta didn’t break the juggernaut, before two terms and the unnecessary 2002 loss in Congress, owing largely to capitulation to said junta on the part of the “centrist” — as in Attila — Democrats re belligerence towards Iraq.

Yep, definitely have drawn the wrong lesson. See Lawrence O’Donnell, who also was around for the ‘94 debacle. But I understand he has recently seen that things are different now. Rahm is too far removed from the rank and file like us to see the difference. And when they lose in 2010, he will draw the wrong conclusion again.

I saw the demonstrations against the bankers in Chicago this morning on Dylan Rattigan and, of course, on Democracy Now. What was really interesting to me was that they had a trial of the bankers. They had witnesses telling their stories of being thrown out of their homes, charged outrageous fees, not able to get loans for their farms, etc. etc. Then the bum banksters were convicted.
This was some of the best theater that I’ve seen. No more marches on Washington or letters to our so-called representatives. And certainly no vigils. The time for passivity is over.

What prompted me to write this piece was this whole feeling of our country no longer feeling at all like a country. It feels like a corporation, a company. When I went to a meeting of Montana Democratic County Chairs, half the people there sounded like employees rather than citizens. They urged us to all think as one. That unity was the most important thing. That we couldn’t diss the boss. That we had to praise him instead. It’s this odd feeling I’ve had for years. Matt Taibbi recently said something similar in his piece about Elizabeth Warren.

, but what we have in the Democratic Party is an organization dedicated to avoiding such conflicts and resolving issues in the manner of a corporate board, in closed meetings with the chief cardholders where things get hashed out to the satisfaction of everyone present.

I also read Sheldon Wolin’s book “Democracy Inc: Managed Democracy and Inverted Totalitarianism” and he echoes the same thing. Like Taibbi, Wolin says we must concentrate our efforts outside of Washington because the coup has already taken place. That’s why we can’t let community organizations like ACORN be attacked. The National People’s Action that organized the demonstrations in Chicago yesterday and today were responsible for the Community Reinvestment Act 32 years ago. The workers at Republic Window and Door that had the first sit down strike in years are to be supported.

Taibbi is right. We need to get back to the “disinterested” citizen who goes to Congress to do the people’s work. Elect people to your state legislature that will put public financing in place. Don’t give another dime to a politician who takes money from corporations. Don’t give a dime to party campaign committees until we get a real health care plan.

And, again, our job as citizen journalists is to highlight the non politicians. And to highlight the citizen journalists like Jane and Marcy and Josh and the renegades like Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman, and Taibbi.
And to keep our spirits up to continue the fight.

Hi mm, Thanks for this post. As an old FDR Democrat, I really enjoyed it. The demonstrations in Chicago were great. I hope for many more like them.

Right on, mm.

Oh screw Rahm. The generals always fight the last war. Rahm and the generals are totally useless, but that won’t prevent them from getting in the way of progress.

Thank you for this wonderful diary.

Left ya one at Caturday.

Excellent post. I really like the way you think. Have to tune into your show more often, too.

Great diary.

Despite their recent gains, overly cautious triangulation is destroying the Democratic Party. They should be as unashamedly liberal as the Republicans are conservative.

The problem is that so many of them are DLC Dems there are few “liberal” Dems outside of the progressive caucus. When Wall Street and its equivalent in London beat out the manufacturing sector as the basis of the economy the Dems dropped the workers and unions just as the manufacturers did by shipping the jobs overseas. They threw their lot in with the banksters. Profit over people.

But not crazy. Whatever the Dems do, they need to stay away from the crazy.

True, at that point the parties became indistinguishable until the Republicans tacked so hard to the right they fell right off the edge of their flat Earth.

I think the wingnuts have cornered the market on crazy.

Yep, that’s when we first started hearing that there was little difference between them. Then the Rethugs had to go and turn batshit crazy. I wonder how many corporate donors hold their nose when they write that check to BonerPAC.

So we’re all agreed then, we’ll work for and vote for the least of the worst? In that case, we already have Obama (Rahm).

I understand that the republicans are crazy, but they’re still the “other” side, they still have to be dealt with, they still hold sway. We can’t laugh them away. And so far we haven’t been able to reframe the argument in any meaningful way.

Somehow the President has to hear that if he doesn’t give us a public option, there will be no second term. If he doesn’t care, then there’s little that can be done. He has a tough job, no question. But he did sign up for it.

If somehow he can’t get it done, then the only thing we can hold over his head is his re-election. THAT’s the message he should be hearing! “Listen to Rahm and you will be a one-term failure.” Listen to your constituents, and you’ll get a second term and a lot of help for the rest of your agenda.

Rahm and Bi-partisanship are not your friends.

This post was out of the ball park. Just excellent. Many thnx.

For several decades there’s been an agenda Dems and most Liberals want. Obama and Congressional Dems are doing it. What more do you want?

I had an interesting conversation Saturday with two of my Republican friends. One is moderate and the other is a raving loon. The loon launched an attack and after a while I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the Real-ID he was so against was a Republican initiative, that the teabagger newsletter he read was full of misspellings, that they ran the country into the ground and he had no real Obama failures to criticize. All they’ve got is that they’re not in charge, they don’t like Democrats and they’re ‘mad as Hell’.

Yea, Democrats in charge and doing what needs to be done. Thank God for that.

When you hear Grayson speak — despite whatever differences with or criticisms of him you may have — you hear the firey voice of liberalism [or progressive-ism] that should be shouted from the rooftops and from every tv station.

Despite Obama’s “nice words,” he never has substance and a passionate call for action. Plus some well-deserved slamming of the opposition.

Folks are ANGRY. They’ve lost their jobs or are in desperate fear of losing them. Their health care — if they have it — is tenuous and expensive. They can’t pay for their kids to go to college.

Democrats ought to harness this anger, and direct it at the “deserving” culprits. Democrats could get a lot of good out of this, instead of their periennel “tea dance” behavior.

Talk about “coddling criminals” . . .

mm, I reflected on your title again, and it struck me that Obama is like a general fighting the last war too. He seems to have learned all the political lessons of the Clinton Administration; but he hasn’t really internalized that these are different times and that the lessons he needs now he’s going to have invent anew.

Don’t give Rahm to much credit, because He’s the one who is advising Obama on what He can get through the Congress. Probably why Obama has been so uncommital, and seems to be changing as He goes.

Some time the guy who tells You this is all You can get, was more than wrong. He’s the type guy that tells you don’t waste that buck on the lottery, as your buying the winning ticket.

YES ABSOLUTELY! IT WAS NAFTA AND NOT HEALTH CARE. Bill stuck Hillary with health care reform and kept his name off it. That fiasco didn’t have a prayer and it all happened entirely behind closed doors. (not 50% like this one) It drug on for a year and a half but it didn’t get all the press that health care reform has gotten today so it didn’t seem so long.

LABOR was pissed to the max about NAFTA. They said they didn’t want it but Clinton sent his monkeys–Emanuel and Gore to twist the arms of Congress any way and they jammed the bill through. Then in the midterms, Labor didn’t give any money and they didn’t encourage their people to participate. THAT’S why Clinton lost both Houses of Congress. I’ve forgotten the exact stats on the turnout but even for midterms I think it was REALLY low.

COME TO THINK OF IT! Bill Clinton did more to destroy the economic fabric of our nation than any other president,ever. He de-industrialized our nation with NAFTA and then as a parting present he destroyed the Glass Steagall Act, deregulating the entire financial industry, finishing what Reagan has started with the Savings and Loan

Enough with the endless fixating on this asshole. Why does this little prick get so much ink here. Nobody gives a shit what this guy says or does or attempts. Fuck him.

If and when this miscreant does something of any import then maybe we should be alerted but until then treat him like the worthless irrelevant piece of crap that he is.

MM, you hit the nail right on the head!

Moderate Republicans have re-branded themselves as Democrats. Its amazing, well not really. As another poster said this is likely connected to the lost of manufacturing jobs, the weakening of unions and socially progressive government agencies.

So to keep pace with the Bankster’s best friend the Republicans, they needed to take their money too and then offer them nuggets they can use (deregulation).

So what you have is Congress with liberals littered all over, but controlled largely (by vote counts) the Dixie-Crats rebranded Blue Dogs ( the people that largely don’t care about minorites) and Non-Politicians the Revolving Door that currently is serving the Government and then the private sector or vice-versa

Just great, Obama maybe Center Left at Heart, but with numb nuts like in the WH with him, the job goes way beyond just making sure Progressive Agendas are met.

So the work continues into 2010, were we need to make those to stand in the way PAY but not the entire party, that would be suicidal. Just makes sure the alternative to adding more Progressive Congress people is Wingnuts.

I’m it wasn’t for Rahm I’d hate to think where we’d be.
As for trial attorneys….ok, only 99.9% are leaches and slick fancy talkers.

Right now through operatives like Celinda Lake, amoral staffers bent on being players, clueless politicians mouthing weasel words and also the cynical ones, we are being sold a bill of goods. We are being sold a lie. And the American people on the left and the right smell a rat. Can we do anything about it? We can keep pushing for what we really believe in with clarity and conviction. I go back to the Toltecs’ “Four Agreements” in time of great doubt. The first agreement from which the others spring is “to be impeccable with your word.” This doesn’t seem to be what the “players” in Washington are using as a guide. It looks like the free market cult has once again convinced its members that lying for the good of the religion is OK.
Lies, humbug, deliberate misrepresentation, sarcasm….it’s all part of the brambles of a “managed democracy” designed to confuse. We are indeed down the rabbit hole.