The Democratic Party is . . .

duopoly4.jpg

Irrelevant.

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The Establishment.

Owned by the Oligarchy.

An Imperialist party.

A Wall Street party.

A Neoliberal capitalist party.

The other side of the same fucking coin.

The Opposition.

[video:https://youtu.be/PtT92kJKD9A]

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Big Al's picture

Which is a good thing about this blog. We can discuss politics and this political system without letting partisanship get in the way. To me, partisans are what I would call "true believers", those that are so immersed in the system and their role, like a sports fan and his/her team, they do not want to see outside of that box.
I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens as we get closer to the next election, not only nationally but here at C99. To me, every election is an opportunity to "them" to fuck off. We'll see if it comes and goes.

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Welcome to Trump's America! The tables are open and the bar is on the right. The left bar, I hear, serves anyone. any $1.

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Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever

@fight2bfree

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Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever

Strife Delivery's picture

Huh, thought the registered Dem number was lower? But I haven't looked at the numbers in a while.

One thing that utterly frustrates and truly angers me are those who continue to try to shame and browbeat people into submission, to utterly vote and support monstrous and evil policies. The tell you that well "You can't make the perfect the enemy of good".

Good? What good is a Democrat? It's all lies, all bullshit. It frightens me how easy people fall for this.

Which party will stop our imperialist wars? Which party? "Well, we can't stop the wars, that's unicorn talk." Yes, yes you can stop them. You just stop. It's that easy.

Which party will give us single payer? Which party? "Well, it's complicated and we have to sit down with insurance companies." No, it's not. It's easy. You just go do it. Will, not technicality, is stopping you.

Which party will actually deal with climate change? Which party? "Us Democrats do." No, you don't.

And on and on.

It frightens me that people who vote to rape, torture, slaughter, or destroy the lives of tens upon tens of millions of people actually believe that they are doing good. It's frightening and disgusting.

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Big Al's picture

@Strife Delivery I was reading about the republican senate version of the health insurance scam and started thinking about what democracy should be, i.e., why the hell don't they, our supposed representatives, ask the people what we want? And even worse, why the hell aren't the people demanding that they have a say? That's how broken and ingrained everything is. People are unable to think outside of this system.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

@Big Al
Big Al. People should speak up, should be voicing their demands, but "people are unable to think outside of the system." This is exactly the problem. I was one of those people until I started writing letters and contacting my congress critters. People are unaware that they can empower themselves by taking action. People are so busy keeping up with the Jones' (which we have successfully been in training for now nearly 40 years), they are allowing themselves to eat the pablum our elected officials and the MSM offer, thinking they have no choice; working two jobs so too tired to do much else; too involved in their own consumerism to take action.

When people say electing Herr Drumpf awakened the populace, I ask what those awake are doing to enact change. We must participate, empower ourselves, or be taken further down the rabbit hole of oligarchy.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

@Raggedy Ann

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dfarrah

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Big Al Well. In my life as a citizen, I've:

1)Written my congressman (paper) D
2)Written my congressman (electronic) D&R
3)petitioned my congressman (paper)D&R
4)petitioned my congressman (electronic)D&R
5)petitioned the White House (electronic) D&R
6)met with my congressman in person D
7)co-founded an NGO and lobbied Congress D&R
8)campaigned for candidates (this shouldn't have an effect on legislators, but it sometimes does, so I'll include it. "Campaigned" includes small- and medium-dollar donations, door knocking, sign-waving, phonebanking, GOTV, events organization, and a bunch of other things up to and including campaign management.) D
9)Been involved in temporary protest (D&R) Many, many times for about 30 years.
10)Been involved in persistent protest (D) Only once.
11) Did a few other miscellaneous things. (I don't know if boycotting a product or a company and telling politicians about it counts for anything, but I'll list it here anyway.)

I'm no Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks or Emma Goldman. But I think, given the various things I've done, my government probably understands that I'm demanding to be heard, and has a fair idea of what I want to be heard about.

I stopped demanding to be heard in 2014, when it became clear that the government, whether D or R, had no intention of giving me a hearing.

Continuing to make the demand as I was doing was obviously futile. Making the demand in a different way is possible, but most of the ways I can imagine to do it would be dangerous and also futile.

Best I can come up with is a general strike on both production and consumption; it's the only thing I can come up with that would inconvenience the establishment without playing right in to the establishment's strategy and to its strengths.

However, mustering such a strike under these conditions would be extremely unlikely. Most people with a job are desperate to keep it; most people without one are desperate to get one. Scabs would be numerous.

I'm really less interested in demanding my government give me a say and more interested in trying to build something that isn't based on me asking the government to please do right by me. I don't yet know what that would entail. It's a politics of invention rather than reaction, and I haven't seen or participated in anything like that in a very long time.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lily O Lady's picture

@Big Al

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Big Al's picture

@Lily O Lady but what I'm talking about is instead of asking for alms for the poor, demanding the keys to the car.

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Lily O Lady's picture

@Big Al

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Strife Delivery it is frightening, disgusting and very frustrating as well.

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@Strife Delivery
The last I heard the split was Ind 40, Rs 30, Ds 25. But then that was a "preference" poll, not actual voter registration.

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On to Biden since 1973

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Strife Delivery The numbers I saw:

Repub: 26%
Dem: 29%
Indies: 42%

That was in January. Big Al's numbers are from a kinder poll.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/188096/democratic-republican-identification-n...

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

It has to break before it can be fixed. We are helping.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Cassiodorus's picture

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Big Al's picture

@Cassiodorus Global cooperation, inhibited by our own country as much as anyone, appears to be a pipe dream so far.

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Wink's picture

@Cassiodorus
doesn't care. They know everyone will be dead by 2050. party like it's 1999, baby! Fuck the poor, and party on their graves!

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Strife Delivery's picture

@Cassiodorus Climate departure? Could someone define this.

Does it mean that, due to climate, that these cities will be forced to evacuate because they will be unlivable?

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Cassiodorus's picture

@Strife Delivery at which point the seasons will be irrelevant and good luck with agriculture.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Strife Delivery's picture

@Cassiodorus @Cassiodorus Well, I'm here in Minnesota. I was trying to understand the graph some. Places on the map here I saw needing to leave made sense (either due to heat or rising sea levels). I was just trying to understand what that meant more for say the "heartland".

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Wink's picture

is irrelevant. Our MeetUps and regional conferences are non-partisan. The Dem party isn't mentioned. The Founders of 1776 certainly wouldn't put up with this horse$h!t, why should we? Time for a new government.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

thanatokephaloides's picture

With all the good and substantive things Democrats have done for working folks like me lately, I asked the folks in this Essay to direct me to this article which they used to illustrate it.

The article is about hot air engines, for which Democrats now provide quite abundant feedstocks!

As long as our current Democrats continue to exist, I truly feel that hot air engines are the growth area of the future!

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Pluto's Republic's picture

…that seems to mirror the mood out there — toward Democrats. How is it possible that they cannot see that their own base is turning on them? It's the story of the century.

The very timing of the fake Russian conspiracy was suspicious from the start to anyone with common sense. The story took off in the media literally one day after the election. This conspiracy has always had "red herring" written all of it. The conspiracy is starting to look more like a malicious Democrat Party creation, obstruction, and absolutely colossal waste of taxpayer money.

The NY Post reported this weekend that the Trump intelligence dossier that started the lies and falsehoods about "Russian connections" with Trump, has now been traced by the Senate Judiciary Committee to a very shady research and intelligence firm with strong Democrat Party connections, known as Fusion GPS.

Many voters won't forget or forgive this lie and conspiracy from the Democrats anytime soon! If this story completely boomerangs on the Democrats, then you can bet the overall Democrat Party losing streak at the ballot box will continue for many years to come. This is cutthroat, dirty, and corrupt politics to the core from the Democrats. There is going to be a true fury about this lie and conspiracy by the Democrats in the minds of many voters!

Yeah. The author is likely not a Democrat. But the Democrats aren't Democrats anymore, either. The coming blowback could continue for another generation, or until the establishment resigns or dies off.

They reacted very badly to being toppled in November.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
mimi's picture

ok, I shut off the laptop. Gives me headaches. The Democrats are the opposition to whom and what?
I guess I am "da stupid innocent naive German maiden" again.

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@mimi "The other side of the same fucking coin." is "The Opposition", same same both sides. It reminded me that Clinton won six primaries by coin toss, all six. 6 for 6 is statistically improbable, not to mention "decision by coin toss" how absurd is that? Totally broken system needs to be flushed completely. The leaders are not leading us that way, they are still on war paths dug in beyond votes.

peace

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lotlizard's picture

@eyo  
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=iowa+primary+clinton+coin+tosses&t=ffsb&ia=web

But of course your larger point, the system is absurd and broken, still applies.

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@lotlizard thanks for correcting that. What bad memories, I am still denying a lot. Bernie effing won Iowa! They just couldn't let it happen, the DNC apparatchiks. No way. I'm glad that's all documented by TYT and whoever put that Democracy Stolen video together. Stunning, I got stunned in to oblivion by the end, always California. What the huh? Just stop counting why not. Over.

peace

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Big Al's picture

@mimi oppose it. That's up to you mimi. It's like opposing the republican party, basically the same thing at this point.

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mimi's picture

@Big Al
Oberstübchen... thx.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Big Al I thought the Dems were the establishment and the Repubs the opposition. That's funny. As others have pointed out, doesn't really matter.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Big Al

I actually had the impression that the Democratic party (like the Republican party,) is the opposition to voters/democracy/the public good/Geneva Convention/international law... such a lengthy list that I forgot which entry was mentioned and that I initially was looking for...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Big Al's picture

@Ellen North It's the opposition to freedom and democracy, simple as that.

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earthling1's picture

seems apropos to form an Independent Party of America.
Just sayin'.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@earthling1 If we do that, then we'll have to face the systemic problems that are deliberately engineered to keep "third parties" out of power: primarily 1) legal obstacles to getting on the ballot (which should have been challenged as unconstitutional a long time ago, I think, but I am not a lawyer--but why should two organizations get preferential access to the ballot under the law? I thought they were just private clubs?), and 2)the media blackout on all non-duopoly candidates and activities.

This is the sort of thing I thought people might focus on after the election. Instead we got a 24/7 repeated run of the miniseries The Evils of Trump and Putin.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

earthling1's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
people from all walks of life are clamoring for a third party.
The Green Party never has gotten any traction. Nor has the Libertarians. What to call a new party seems to be the biggest hurtle. It has to catch the imagination of the disenfranchised voters.
I've suggested the Disinfectant Party before, with the idea that we must scrub the Democrat Party clean of all current officeholders before we can reform it. And they seem to be "self-deporting" themselves already what with the continuing losses of elected offices nationwide.
How hard would it be to generate enthusiasm to run them all out?
I've also put forth the Credexit Party to encourage movement away from usury, borrowing, or the credit/debt industry that underpins their control of every facet of our lives.
I suppose we could try just The Third Party, maybe.
Somehow we must unite that ever-growing group of people that call themselves "independents".
The Independent Party seems like a good start. IMHO

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Bollox Ref's picture

The Democratic Party is a fish tank.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

@Bollox Ref

Lol, cracked and leaking?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.