tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245640.post1023213246236541664..comments2023-10-24T06:05:38.954-05:00Comments on The Thinker--or Just Sitting Around?: With Trouble A-Brewin' At Home, Presidents Head OverseasPeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504383209010655249noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245640.post-5963819209295561482010-12-05T09:45:37.099-06:002010-12-05T09:45:37.099-06:00Thanks for the kind words.
My take on the Blue Do...Thanks for the kind words.<br /><br />My take on the Blue Dogs, and the historic Democratic defeat that followed, is that it all started with what I call the Rham Emanuelization of the Democratic Party. Remember who laid the foundation for Democratic electoral victories after 2004? Howard Dean, a true liberal Democrat. If it ain't broke, why change it? Instead, the chief DLC/Clinton triangulator was given the task of recruiting these Blue Dogs. Anyone with half a political brain (which does not include Chris Matthews and the Beltway Idiot Punditocracy) could see this coming. The old maxim stated by one of the Titans of the Democratic Party, Harry Truman is, given the choice, people will not vote for a PHONY Democrat when they can vote for a REAL Republican. Forget all the other Tea Party nonsense. At its core, that's what we saw play itself out in these elections. A cowed Democratic Party (except for its most outspoken liberal and progressive members), afraid of its own shadow/principles, afraid to campaign on its accomplishments (healthcare and financial reform, saving the auto industry, saving/creating millions of jobs with the stimulus, averting a Great Depression) while sounding like mealy-mouthed Republicans. Whether or not they could have retained the House is hard to say, because leadership from the WH was totally lacking the entire year leading up to this. But I firmly believe the losses would not be so severe. <br /><br />So, after demolishing the Democratic Party, Rhambo hightailed it out of town, to Chicago, I suppose to do to the city what he did to his putative party.<br /><br />All is not lost. But if I were advising the party leadership, I'd tell them to install Howard Dean back in his old DNC chair, like, yesterday.Carloshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12097922323580156789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245640.post-8804802989413470662010-12-05T03:32:39.828-06:002010-12-05T03:32:39.828-06:00Thank you for this excellent collection of expansi...Thank you for this excellent collection of expansions upon the news for another jaded, second-class (female) citizen like myself. I'm curious about your position on the 'new' congress, given the fact that the 'old' congress never used its majority status productively. <br /><br />How do you view the possibility that Blue Dogs (now replaced with Rabid Dogs) were largely an incursion of Republicans ensuring that a majority of actual Dems would never be in power? After all, super-majority voting could have been outlawed at any time if legislators had been serious about it.<br /><br />Barbara RubinBarbara Rubinhttp://www.armchairactivist.usnoreply@blogger.com