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Assorted Democrat Musings and Statements...compiled by VANNROX from the web.
Various Democrat Blogs... | 11-8-04 | Various

Posted on 11/08/2004 7:40:02 AM PST by vannrox

I found these comments all posted through out the internet. I found them... inlightening.




We managed to get rid of Daschle, opening up a window of opportunities for Democrats to get a real Democrat in as Minority leader. But if you were wondering what direction the Democrats are planning to go, well, they've sent us a signal and selected Harry Reid of Nevada as Senate Minority leader.

Republicans might find it hard to pigeonhole Reid as a liberal since his anti-abortion, anti-gun-control views are contrary to Democratic dogma. He was among the minority of Democrats who voted for a ban on certain late-term abortions and he opposed extending the ban on assault weapons, winning the endorsement of the National Rifle Association.

Maybe they'll get Zell Miller on board for the new DNC chairman.

Though not viewed as telegenic or inspiring, Reid is seen by many Democrats as a hard worker who has earned the chance.

That's what we need. We need another uninspiring Democrat in a leadership position.

I've spent the last two years complaining about the Republicans, when really, Democrats are just as responsible for this mess we're in. By not standing up for a god damned thing, being terrified to stand up for progressive values and constantly failing to generate new ideas, they've become the party of no one. Now they want to be Republicans.

"I think that the Democratic party nationally is perceived as being out of step with mainstream values," said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D. "I want our party to do a better job of speaking to matters of faith and family."

That's fine, but how about you start doing a better job of speaking to matters of progress, equality, ingenuity and transparency? Are those values simply not "mainstream enough" to get your sorry, inarticulate ass re-elected? If you need to run that through a republican prism then go ahead, but can't I just vote republican if I want to vote for authentic conservatives? Your dumb ass party doesn't have my Bush hatred to keep me here any more, and offers me nothing else in exchange for my vote. The Democratic party stands against a great deal but for nothing, and deserves and will achieve complete annihilation by 2008 if it cannot get its head out of its ass and start standing up for something that matters.

I'm sticking with the Democrats now, and I want to start getting some ideas together, but if the Democrats are going to make a mad dash to the right from this then I am certainly not going to chase after them.




Meet the New Democrats

"...The Republican expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee next year bluntly warned newly re-elected President Bush on Wednesday against putting forth Supreme Court nominees who would seek to overturn abortion rights or are otherwise too conservative to win confirmation..." - AP

It's interesting that, given the complete failure of the Democratic Party, our best hope for the Supreme Court over the next four years is Arlen Specter. The "new Democratic Party" is already inside the Republican Party, and it consists of people like Specter and John McCain, both "moderate" republicans who the Conservative Wing of the Republican Party have targeted for complete destruction.

"What he may be trying to do is say, 'Don't just think that I'm going to process what you send through. I have standards, I'm going to take an independent look, you have to deal with me,'" said Hutchinson, a law professor at the University of Chicago.

Republicans who want to assert their independence are now the only assurance for progressives that America will not become the Dogmatic Christian Reich. It's not all that satisfying.





Morality Abhors a Vacuum, And Other Lessons For the Left

"What the f**k just happened?"

Democrats were facing off against an unpopular incumbent, an unpopular and badly run war, a devastated employment record, and the largest deficit in American History, and still lost. This is why I hate the Democratic Party.

But what did they do wrong? Exit polls show that the voters who were most concerned about Iraq voted for John Kerry. The voters who were most concerned about terrorism voted for John Kerry. The voters who were most concerned about the economy voted for John Kerry. So what was the most important issue for the people who voted for Bush? Get ready: Moral Values.

Morality is not an unimportant thing. Morality, in fact, is a very important thing. In this Presidential race, it was largely an ignored thing. Sure, yes, George Bush talked about what is important to White Christian Men, but he did not talk about Morality. He talked about dogma, he fit himself into the readymade framework of a Religious structure, and he used it to manipulate the poor into giving him and his party a consolidation of power. But from the left, there was no clear articulation of progressive morality, no clear articulation of what we believe Freedom means, what we believe Faith means, what we believe service to our fellow men means. So when Bush explained the world in terms of good and evil, people on the left complained and complained, called it too simplistic, which was true. But they did not articulate an alternative vision.

It seems like the left believes that these things don't belong in the realm of Government. It is part of our annoyance with the right- the fact that they use cultural issues to win elections, despite that those cultural issues are a permanent fixture of American Culture and American Free Enterprise. But the American Voters just decided that these things do, in fact, belong in American Politics.

Consider Peter Coors. Peter Coors ran in Colorado as a Social Conservative, a man of American Mainstream Values. But he also ran a beer company- a beer company that runs beer commercials. "And twins!" This is no surprise, and when the right discovered this in Colorado, they rejected him. Would they be so quick to reject all of these candidates if they knew just how entrenched advertising and the "pop cultural wasteland" were with the free market systems that their beloved "cultural conservatives" hold so dear? I don't know, but we didn't get the chance to know, either, because Democrats didn't bring it up. They lost the chance to ask the question: "How do we define morality?" Because this president brought us Religious Dogma, good and evil, a battle against the pagans, but he didn't show us any moral guidance. He gave us the complete opposite: He encouraged us to give in to all of our own worst impulses, and he thrived on that power and later thrived on the denial of the disgust it should have elicited. Under Clinton, if you told Americans that torture would be dismissed as a Fraternity prank, and then ask if that was moral... what would they say?

Morality abhors a vacuum, and so when there is no real moral guidance in this country, it reacts with fear. No one to appeal to the better angels of our nature, we react to the worse angels- the demons of our nature- because they alone can keep us comfortable. The Democrats failed to articulate the morality of the left- a morality that is based on compassion for all Americans, weak and strong. A morality based on what is responsible for the common good, a morality that is entrenched with complex navigations but stands, always, for one thing; the good of all people, weak and strong.

Because we do not articulate these values, we stand up as cold secular logisticians, working on numbers to get elected and no one knows why we want it. Because we think, day in and day out, that these values are self evident. But look in the comments section- there are people in this world who believe that to stand up for the freedom and security of all Americans, weak and strong, is communistic and amoral. We do not fit into the common framework, and we do not explain what our own framework is, so we are declared communists, atheists, godless heathens with no moral core or compass. The right cannot understand a morality that is not Religious Orthodoxy, a morality that stems from humanist principles.

When Gay Marriage was put on the table, John Kerry said, "Gays are separate, but not that separate, so let's allow civil unions but not gay marriage." This was buying in to the right by trying to neutralize them. You do not neutralize the right without moving right. When you move right, you lose ground. Gay Marriage was an issue that should have raised our shackles because we on the left believe in the good of all people, weak and strong, and when we gave up on the GLBT community we gave up our moral ground and lost the right to talk about morality. We should have insisted that this was a question of freedom and Government interference with freedom. But we didn't. Instead, we gave in.

To create a moral framework- to say that we, as Democrats, stand up for all people, weak and strong, and to talk passionately about it, to filter all of our decisions through that lens, gives us a moral message. We didn't, and so the moral messages have become dominated by the right.

Democrats do not need to exploit religion the way the Right does. It just needs to articulate its own vision of morality. It needs to declare extreme disgust with Abu Ghraib because it stands up for all people, weak and strong. The ACLU could have turned its back on Rush Limbaugh when he needed their help, but the didn't, because they are liberals and so they stand up for all people, weak and strong. We need health care, we need good schools, and we don't want war because we stand up for... you get the picture.

Ask yourself: Who were the winners in the Democratic Party last night? We were hard pressed to find any. But out of nowhere today, in the midst of all the head hanging, was the simply devastatingly absurd 70% to 27% support for Barack Obama.

"We are brothers and sisters," Mr. Obama says. "We have mutual obligations toward each other. Those mutual obligations express themselves not only in our family, not only in our work places not only in our places of worships, but also through our government. We believed in the possibility of a government that was just as decent as the American people are."

An empty call for Partisan unity, this is not. This is about unity in a true sense- a sense that we are united in our struggles, and that together we can all find a better way, so long as we look on after each other. Obama won in a landslide.

The left gave in to bitterness, and that is how the right won. We ran Kerry and we asked America to recognize how awful Bush was for it, and America agreed, but it saw no alternative in John Kerry, because we continued to simply point out how awful Bush was. We need to spend less time screaming in agony at every poisoned blow this President lands, and we need to do some soul searching on what we stand for, not just what we stand against. It may seem like we have no time for this, that there is always a new battle to be fought, always some injustice- indeed, writing this blog, I see a new outrage every single day that goes by. It used to be comforting to imagine a march, a countdown to revenge, but that slipped by, and revenge is not a moral position. So we lost our moral footing.

Now, we are forced to sit and watch, and we can stare at the train wreck in tears or we can figure out how to lay a better railroad.





Don't Blame Me, F**kers

I know John Edwards just came out to declare he would count every vote. I know it is important, for the sake of the inevitability propaganda, to stick by him and say that they will have won. They didn't. Maybe they will, I don't know, but I am not going to say they did until they do. Bush won the popular vote, and so even if Kerry wins, Kerry lost.

But I should not be surprised that America is ruled by a bunch of dumb white "Christian" men.

A little revelation: America's "Mainstream Values" are full of shit.

If you want to gloat about your "victory", let's make it perfectly clear: You hate gays and you want to kill and torture Muslims. If that's something you want to be proud of, great.

But hey, America: Let me right now register my open contempt for you.

If there is one thing the pollsters didn't recognize, it is that the morons will crawl out of the woodwork and walk through fire to do precisely the wrong thing. That is how it has always been, and always will be: No matter how hard you work and how many people you reach, there is always one more stupid person than there are smart ones.

Republicans don't have to convince anyone: They own the narrative.

Democrats had to do all the "convincing", and I believe this was the flaw in the Democratic media strategy. Every Democrat I see talks like he's speaking to the converted when there is a tidal wave of fake evidence mounted against him. But look at the trolls, look how easy they have it, a whole army of morons who swallow Drudge and Limbaugh like they were nothing short of new prophets. Carlson and Novak talk like only they know the facts, like they have heard all the lies, and Americans vote for body language.

So Americans are going to face a sort of scrubbing off of the Democratic Institutions, we'll rewrite the Constitution to ban gay marriages,

we'll consolidate wealth and power and we'll launch some new sort of devastating weapon and all the rats will cheer and maybe we'll invade Iran or Syria or both. The Democratic party is dead because Democracy is dead- long live the Republic!

But it won't. America gets the candidate it deserves, and all the wonderful things that he will certainly bring.





Notes on a bad night
Wincing past the graveyard


If you liked the last four years, you're going to LOVE the next four. If you didn't, time to either learn Spanish or Canadian.

So, what have we learned? Apparently Republicans have cell phones too.

The exit polls were mostly wrong in states with electronic voting machines. But the exit polls were wrong. Hmmmm…

Best campaign joke: "Every time you vote Republican, God kills a kitten."

In the 2000 election, only 17 percent of Americans aged 18-25 turned out to vote. But in this election -- with all the attendant hype about mobilization and energizing the youth vote -- it's estimated a whole 17 percent of those aged 18-25 voted. Kids. I hope Bush brings back the draft.

Bush lost Pennsylvania after 44 trips. And he was leading there when he started. Has anybody ever considered that a politician can visit a state too many times?

Ahhh, to be young and practicing law in Ohio.

I ended up switching between ABC, CBS and CNN because they were the only ones to refuse to call Ohio for Bush.

Best Dan Rather lines of election night: "Beat him like a rented mule." "Hotter than a Times Square Rolex." "Don't know whether to wind our watches or bark at the moon."

I was hoping Bush was going to win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote. How'd you like to be the one having to explain it to him?

I still have no idea why Bush does so well in the middle of the country. I think it's got something to do with why Trojan doesn't make petite sized condoms.

It was reported Iowa quit counting ballots because some of the counters got tired. They got tired? They should have tried watching CNN until dawn.

It was weird to see the Kerry campaign dismantle party headquarters in Boston's Copley Square before any clear winner was called. The hell was that? Were they that worried about getting the deposit on their folding chairs back?

Four more years. Don't ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

The good news is: Air America still has a raison d'etre.

The bad news is: so does Michael Moore.

More good news: Senators John Kerry and John Edwards won't have Republican Governors appoint their successors.

More bad news: 3 Supreme Court Justices.

The final bit of good news: Hillary Clinton in 2008.

The final bit of bad news: Hillary Clinton in 2008.

Anybody up for 2 out of 3?

Hey political comic Will Durst, you've just received a shitload of incredibly bad news. What do you plan to do?

"I'm going to Disney World."

No, really.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2004; bush; clinton; crybabies; dashile; election; kerry; kerrydefeat; lose; old; phonies; propaganda; sorelosers; thoughts; whining; win
These guys...they really crack me up!
1 posted on 11/08/2004 7:40:11 AM PST by vannrox
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To: vannrox
We do not fit into the common framework, and we do not explain what our own framework is, so we are declared communists, atheists, godless heathens with no moral core or compass.

Because it's true.
The truth hurts sometimes.

2 posted on 11/08/2004 7:44:43 AM PST by ppaul
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To: vannrox
"I want our party to do a better job of speaking to matters of faith and family."

Like, we'll believe you guys now? The Party of Clinton, Gun Control and Death to the Unborn has suddenly changed its tune?

3 posted on 11/08/2004 7:45:15 AM PST by pray4liberty (Jesus has saved us! The Victory is the Lord's!)
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To: vannrox

The most mystifying thing to me is...if the exit polls were bogus (as they most certainly were!!) why does everyone keep quoting them? Who knows what really motivated anyone, we don't have any truthful data. Or are there other exit polls that were done beyond the AP ones?


4 posted on 11/08/2004 7:51:21 AM PST by BonnieJ
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To: vannrox

When Republicsns lose, they draw together, gain focus and attack anew.

The going got tough and the Republicans got going. The Democrats quit (e.g. see blogger resignations at Kos)


5 posted on 11/08/2004 7:56:15 AM PST by SBOinTX
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To: ppaul

Nah, they're confused but they have a clear moral compass. Safe the whales, save the rain forest, give handouts to everyone that comes along, sing peace songs, smoke pot, increase regulation to "help workers", etc.

They have a moral compass, but it is leading them away from America.


6 posted on 11/08/2004 7:59:13 AM PST by SBOinTX
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To: vannrox
Republicans who want to assert their independence are now the only assurance for progressives that America will not become the Dogmatic Christian Reich. It's not all that satisfying.

Another liberal puts on the Yellow Star and waits for a holocaust that will never come. What a bunch of idiots.

7 posted on 11/08/2004 8:05:35 AM PST by Mr. Silverback (President Bush got 51 percent of the vote, a figure higher than that of any Democrat in 40 years.)
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To: BonnieJ
The most mystifying thing to me is...if the exit polls were bogus (as they most certainly were!!) why does everyone keep quoting them?

I believe the bogus exit polls were the FIRST ones released. They were leaked. The data was skewed. I think the final one was alot closer to the actual results.

8 posted on 11/08/2004 8:10:01 AM PST by Paradox (Occam was probably right.)
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To: pray4liberty

Not likely...
But the person who wrote that may be turning into a moderate Republican.
Whether he/she likes it or not.
Amazing how the truth works.


9 posted on 11/08/2004 8:10:38 AM PST by cavtrooper21 (This isn't a lab... it's HELL with fluorescent lighting.)
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To: vannrox
The good news is: Air America still has a raison d'etre. The bad news is: so does Michael Moore.

If this guy thinks Michael Moore is a problem but Janeane Garofalo and Al Franken are an asset, then one of the following is true:

Either he invested in Air America...they owe him money...or he's even dumber than the average lib.

10 posted on 11/08/2004 8:14:41 AM PST by Mr. Silverback (President Bush got 51 percent of the vote, a figure higher than that of any Democrat in 40 years.)
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To: vannrox
More good news: Senators John Kerry and John Edwards won't have Republican Governors appoint their successors.
LOL! These people are so clueless they don't realize the voters picked Edwards's successor. His Republican successor.

-Eric

11 posted on 11/08/2004 8:15:01 AM PST by E Rocc (Flipper is floating upside down in Lake Erie.)
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To: SBOinTX

My brother (who voted GOP for the first time this year) is fond of quoting Eric Cartman from South Park: "Hippies! They talk about saving the world, but all they really do is smoke dope and smell bad."


12 posted on 11/08/2004 8:16:34 AM PST by Mr. Silverback (President Bush got 51 percent of the vote, a figure higher than that of any Democrat in 40 years.)
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To: vannrox
The Kerry supporters don't really listen to their own agitprop and this why they have been blindsided. We did listen.

You cannot constantly hammer on respect and diversity while simultaneously declaring that respect and diversity does not include the unborn, the serious Christian, and the morally conservative.

"All animals are equal. Some animals are more equal than others." Yeah, we heard ya.
13 posted on 11/08/2004 8:16:45 AM PST by Gingersnap
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To: vannrox

Everyone wondered about Hillary running this time.

Everyone wondered why the Klintoons sent their entire campaign strategy staff to help Kerry, when he already had his own.

Here's the answer.

Hillary couldn't have won, and knew it.

They made sure Kerry was the laughingstock of the intelligent voters.

The non-cynical, ignore the facts, take your feelings and expand your knowledge based on those feelings alone crowd has now been led to slaughter.

They believe they were cheated, that they lost their country, that we want to kill gays, that we are killing Iraqi's because it's a good hobby, etc.

WHY?

So that, in four years, when the terrorists are still being routed across the mideast, and the war is not over yet, that this ignorant distortion of the truth will come to a frenzied pitch, and they will all vote MADLY for HILLARY.

It will be their chance to "GET EVEN".

Nothing else will matter. Nothing.


14 posted on 11/08/2004 8:20:40 AM PST by UCANSEE2
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To: UCANSEE2

Are thee people brain dead? With the mayor of Philly going to jail and the governor of NJ in trouble for corruption they can't see that their dismissive "everybody does it" doesn't cut it in the morality department. In fact, their committment to people has been overcome by their committment to special interests in their coalition. For example, when it comes to education, they support the NEA and leave little children to fend for themselves, still illiterate after 12 years of school.


15 posted on 11/08/2004 9:27:58 AM PST by ClaireSolt
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To: vannrox
Gotta bookmark this one!

Ping-o-rama

16 posted on 11/08/2004 10:00:50 AM PST by lormand (Dead People Vote DemocRAT)
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To: vannrox
"I think that the Democratic party nationally is perceived as being out of step with mainstream values," said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D. "I want our party to do a better job of speaking to matters of faith and family."

The Democrats aren't just perceived to be out of step with the mainstream, the Democrats flat out are out of step with the mainstream Earl. As long as your associated with the likes of Micheal Moore and the elitists in the media, you will continue to be marginalized from the 59 million "idiots" who voted for Bush.

17 posted on 11/08/2004 10:49:43 AM PST by BigSkyFreeper (Congratulations President-Re-Elect George W. Bush!)
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To: vannrox
"What the f**k just happened?" Democrats were facing off against an unpopular incumbent, an unpopular and badly run war, a devastated employment record,

It's astounding how pliable the human brain can be, if one "wants to believe" something...facts mean absolutely nothing to these dolts.

18 posted on 11/08/2004 10:57:08 AM PST by ErnBatavia (ErnBatavia, Coulter, Malkin, Ingraham....the ultimate Menage a Quatro)
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