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Is it that hard to believe that the majority of people - the silent majority, if you want to call it that - are actually happy/content with their lives, so they don't want any change or "progress" as defined by the left? They know that things could be better, yes, but they aren't willing to risk what they do have for the chance of something better. Or, they choose non-governmental channels to help their fellow citizens.
For many people who feel like the Federal government overstepped its bounds a long time ago, "gridlock" is a good thing.
Progressive ideas are good, I admit. But you should admit that if it's this much of an uphill battle to get people to agree with you, and you need a majority of people to be willing participants for Progressivism to work, that maybe it's never going to happen.
And, as much as some of you like to put down Conservatives as ignorant and brainwashed, do you ever stop to think that maybe you don't want closer ties with them? The kind of ties that would come through single-payer healthcare, for instance. Do you really want to be in the same "pool" with these people you hate so much?
Great comment, I totally agree that it all starts with education. We are cranking out functional idiots like a water spout! Look at J-walking and the late night tv shows! You can't fix stupid! And we have a huge number of STUPID citizens. My parents generation fought and died to keep America exceptional. Where are the "Civics Classes" I had in school? We live with the legacy of "The Reality TV" citizen population! Our boarders are open to anyone who can hike or swim. We have a two party "OPPO-SAME" government that is BLOATED with Greedy Unions and Oligarcs. Take the money out of politics and we have a functional democracy. BUT if we don't repair American Values, (Not the social agenda we see today), but a HISTORICAL sense of We Are America and the is the most FREE society to ever exist, we are doomed like the Romans and alike.
Put Education back in the hands of loving caring two parent house holds - gay or straight- that have solid Judeo Christian Values - Not Religion - just values of intelligence, hard work and taking care of those who REALLY need a helping hand, and we have the Good Ole USA back. I agree with those who demand less Free Market Un-regulated capatilism however, the Government cannot and should not be the funding arm. It needs to be wholesale social and intelligent change, peace based and traditional values based. Lock down our boarders, massively reduce our foreign aid and make "Service to your Country" mandatory for every high school graduate. 12 months of "Service" choice based should straighten out the ignorant kids we are pumping out in droves. Get the government out of our lives with their Nanny State mentality. I voted for and will continue to vote with a great feeling of pride in having that ability and honoring those who have come before me and given their lives and efforts to protect that right.
And geez....the media is perhaps the worse. Left and Right. OMG what has happend to our wonderful country.....Idiots, Idealogues, greedy corrupt politicians. We do have the best Dem and Gop that money can buy. Education, family values, family focus, not religion, just good ole American Pride and Excellence.
I don't know where you live, but where I live we do have a choice, and there is a significant difference between good Democrats and terrible Republicans.
I didn't read many of the comments, but I didn't see what I think is one of the critical root problems. In California, voter turnout ranged from 47% (that was the HIGH!) down to 27%. That makes me embarrassed and sick to my stomach. I have worked in other countries where oppressed people would LOVE a government that they could decide on, not one that was forced on them. And here we just throw that privilege/responsibility away, probably in some places more that 3 out of every 4 eligible voters doesn't bother to vote. Granted, in areas where racism and greed still run wild there have been efforts to refuse people their opportunity/right to vote, but in many of other areas people just didn't care. And, ... wait for it... This starts in our schools. From first grade until high school graduation, we need interesting classes that make every person want to vote, in every election. My generation has failed badly at this, but we must tweak our education system so that people who come here from other countries and want to be citizens of the USA know more about this country than just about any 12th grade graduate! ... So how to do this? Next local school board election, get involved, make the candidates promise that they will change the system just this little bit, and keep doing this at every school board election for the next 50 years, and along the way throw out the ones that don't want an informed electorate, and wal-la, voter turnout will range between 95 and 99%. And lying candidates won't be a problem any longer.
You are right THom when you say that Democrats could have pointed out the relentless obstruction by Republicans, but they didn't!!!
WHY??? BECAUSE THEY ARE PART OF IT!!! And so are YOU THom so long as you keep supporting the myth that Democrats offer an alternative. They don't! They are there only to keep up the appearance of a two-party system. to keep up the appearance that we have a choice! We DON'T!!!
FESS UP THom!
David in Vegas ~ I think what is more likely at work here is apathy and election fraud. Sure an uneducated and uninformed electorate has a huge role to play too; however, the simple lack of choice that is being presented to the hard working masses is very discouraging to the average working voter. Together with the fact that the election was on a working day made it tough for people who actually work to turn out. I, for instance, had ordered an absentee ballot. I've always received it in plenty of time to vote well in advance; however, this year it never came. I tried to reorder it; and, still it never came. I'm still waiting for the thing to show up. I call that election fraud. Fortunately, keeping these right wing nit wits out of power was enough motivation for me to take the time off of work and vote. I can just imagine how many others just let it go.
I find it strange that you equate the Democratic Party with Socialists. Are you serious; or, do you simply have no idea what you are talking about? You know, there is such a thing as The Democratic Socialist Party of America. http://www.dsausa.org/ It has nothing to do with the Democratic party and the Democratic party want's nothing to do with it. I wish they did though. I'd be much more involved with the Democratic party if they had anything like a socialist platform. Unfortunately, there platform is hardcore Capitalism. Perhaps you should study up on what Socialism is, where it is, and what it stands for.
Studying up on something is also what I think the problem is. Too many thinking people were too damn discouraged and busy to vote in this election. Deep down they know better. Also, they have their own problems to worry about--like taking time off of work. No one was offered that was worth wasting the work time of a thinking voter. That left unemployed, unemployable, and largely, uneducated, uninformed people to fill the electorate. What we have here is a perfect example of what you get in that situation--garbage in, garbage out. It is truly sad that any precentage of our American society can be that stupid in the voting box. However, it is certain that this is exactly the way the powers that be want the election to run.
In hindsight, I don't really feel like anything was won or lost by anyone. The entire government process is wholly owned by corporate interests and there is little any of us can do to change that. I too am becoming wholly discouraged by our entire election process. It seems like a big show to make us feel like we run the country. We don't run anything. We only pretend to. I really don't see a lot changing in the months to come. It will continue to be a stalemate with a few new faces is all. Corporate interests will still continue to have their way with the working people. What needs to be done is overhauling the entire election process from who is eligible to run to how the entire thing is financed. Election day needs to be a national paid holiday where a voting stub is required to receive your pay. Until that is done, all this fuss is much ado about nothing. Nothing will change no matter who we elect.
Saulys you have no idea what you're talking about. That's OK, cause as long as you think you are smarter than everyone else, you'll continue to lose. You'll continue to do the same thing that doesn't work over and over. 9 months ago I told you Union membership would decrease from what it was in 2013. You have three months left, and Union membership is decreasing. Keep doing the same thing Saulys. How has it worked for you so far?
I took the time to review The Green Party voting recommendations before voting--along with other perspectives--and was shocked to find out that they recommended--all throughout the ballot--to abstain in protest because their candidates were not placed on the ballot. Evidently, there wasn't even a choice to write in any other candidate for the positions offered. Some Democracy, if you ask me. Without any viable third party candidates being offered we are trapped with the option of voting for the lesser of two evils. Abstaining from voting is a vote for the worse of two evils. Unless we fight to get and keep viable third party choices on our ballots, the only thing we have to look forward to is evil.
Before you go down that road, perhaps you will check to see just how much money Styer and Soros put in. They flooded these campaigns with far more than the Kochs could/would and you STILL got crushed. Crushed. Heck, the Republicans party did nothing in Virginia and you almost lost that seat too!
So much for your 'Koch/Citizens United' narrative.
JohnLemessurier ~ Unfortunately, I have to agree 100%. The American people are very stupid; not just gullible--STUPID. You can be gullible without being stupid; however, if you're stupid, you have to be gullible. Time and time again I've seen the evidence that the people of this country are very stupid. The reason, because they keep making the same mistakes over and over and over without learning anything. Gullible people who aren't stupid tend to learn by mistake. Stupid people don't. These people have had decades to see where voting Republican has got them. There simply is no rational excuse for this behavior. The American people prefer not to think critically. They do not like to think for themselves. They are very happily and comfortable following along like Lemmings with the crowd and believing that doing so makes them the most special, blessed and important people to have ever lived on the face of the Earth. I call that pretty damn stupid. To put it into perspective, I've seen smarter rocks.
PS Thanks for that link. I love George Carlin and I think he said it best in that clip as well.
Or, more likely, the people delivered a crushing rebuke to the Neo-Democrats because they were treated to the true face of what the Democrat party has become, and they just don't want any part of your socialist platform.
You can 'spin' it any way you want, but the people have spoken. They'd rather have Republicans say, 'Hell No!' to Obama's radical change America agenda.
Ou812, if Democrat PACs in Maryland outspent the Republicans then, again, that is anomolous. Democrats couldn't outspend Republicans even if they wanted to, in most cases. Unions don't have money like they used to with the process of organizing legally so stacked against them and the rinky dink non for profits depending on either grants or member dues don't have any money.
What you, Ou812, and the rest of you fraudulent righties fail to mention is that the American public is uninformed and willfully disinformed, in large part thanks to a complicit advertizer driven, big business media that never mentions the absolutely unnprecedented, over the top obstructionism by Republicans (What is it by now, 600+ filibusters in the Senate when the usual number is less than 10? Along with an absolute refusal on the part of wild extremist Republicans in the House to consider any legislation that might help the economy or the country in any way just because they know the disinformed public will blame the president for the inaction.) Such a willingness to harm the nation for their own political ends is just wild. Of course, they only care about 1% of the nation and are in a war to enslave the rest of us for the purposes of that one percent.
Did you ever consideer, Ou812, that this isn't a game, that this is serious. The well being of the nation is at stake and you're not supposed to be trying to strike out the president but work with him to govern for the well being of the people?
With all that is the old, Lee Atwater politics of division to foment hate toward relatively powerless groups of minority - in cowardly bullying racisms, homophobias and other intolerances - so that people then vote against someone else rather than for themselves and cut their own throats in the blindness of hate and animosity.
That and voter suppression, Thom mentioned something interesting today. In a number of states where Republicans won by a close margin the number of votes they won by was exceeded by the number of people (of color, of youth, of poverty or other likely Democratic voters) turned away from the polls for not having I.D. or because of Dick Morris's fraudulent name matching/repeat voter scam that affected 3.5 million voters in North Carolina and two other states or whatever other schemes you disgusting frauds could cook up.
Don't you or Mauiman ever talk to me about winning fair and square, you know damn well you could never win fair and square. You gotta cheat your asses of every time - or you wouldn't win diddly!
If we believe, and I believe we do, that Koch money, dark money, probably foreign money was the enabler of the success of the Republican's Caucus Room plot, why would it be inconceivable that the same money was used to influence Democratic PARTY not to give this election it's best shot? From simple pay-offs to a conspiracy to send the Democratic Party off selling the wrong message to even darker schemes of intimidation. All these tactics are used in sports, spy craft, diplomacy. Why not in US elections? The simplest way to cheat at sports is point shaving. You can't really pay a team to win but you can pay or intimidate them to lose.
Do these election results illustrate the limited memory of Amerian voters? Or perhaps their inability to use rational thinking? I'm surprised how quickly they forgot that the U.S. government was shut down last year because House Republicans refused to provide funding for projects that they approved. Only congress has the authority to generate revenue or to spend it; the president does not. The shutdown closed many national parks and gov't offices, curtailed VA services, and halted many non-crucial military operations. Did American voters also forget that members of the congress swore oaths to "support and defend the Constitution " and to " faithfully discharge the duties of the office"? How can anyone with decent judgement vote for candidates who fail to provide for the common defence and promote the general welfare, and whose oaths are lies?
I remember last years' progressive comments that the Republican Party was on self-destruct because of such actions, coupled with the party's having no political vision or agenda. The 2014 election results are baffling and cause me to lose faith in the way our political process is exercised.
Third parties have been blocked by both Republican and Democratic interests. They make sure the American people have no other choice. The illusion of two separate parties is just that, an illusion. They are used to keep Americans divided rather than united; to give us the idea that we have some control over our government. No, there are powerful interests in the background that remain there from one administration to the next. They want things their way and they manipulate from behind the scenes. Why did Obama sound like a populist and a change of direction, and wound up being GW. Bush redux? Because he is not his own man! Both Bush and Obama march to the same background music.
What this leaves us is the imperitive to become agitators and "give 'em hell" from the streets. Seriously. The amount of pressure FDR got from the American people has been given short shrift by history books (possibly intentionally). People then thought that perhaps capitalism DOESN'T work. They experimented with other ideas. Communist, Socialist, Marxist, even Fascist groups began to agitate. Farmers dumped their crops in spite of the fact that thousands needed food. The powers-that-be were frightened into giving us the New Deal. Forget the political parties; it's up to us. The voting booth is important, but it's time for a hands-on solution.
Mauiman2, only by a great stretch was that fair and square. What you really mean is, "So long suckers!"
Alice, intellectual elitism is not the only alternative to anti intellectualism, that would be a false dichotomy. The blue collar worker must speak for her or himself and lead their own movement just like women must speak for themselves and lead their own movement and racial minorities and others must do the same. No one can presume to speak for anybody else, - except maybe PETA.
Chauvinism, by intellectuals is reprehensible and is a bourgeuois class exploitation.. They have no superiority and most commonly lack worldly knowledge which makes their putative, theory bound lives suspect. They have as much to learn from the blue collar worker as vice-versa. In a more just world - and there are living examples of this - the blue collar worker would have a developed intellect and the intellectual would get their hands dirty so as for there to be no meaningful distinction between the two.
Third party is NOT the cure Revamping US anti middle class pro wealth laws & policies must be overturned if anything positive is to occur. Billionaires- Powerful Corps --Lobbyists own USA That must change. Lack of regulation to reign in GREED is a must . Alan Greenspan's push for passage Free trade policies hurt US economy We must place tariffs on all goods from overseas. Repeal NAFTA - CAFTA - SHAFTA - WTO GATT CITIZENS UNITED BRING BACK GLASS STEAGAL & FAIR PRACTICES - Then watch US economy - middle class grow
Thom you are correct in your analysis. The Republicans understood that if they told the public lies and the Democrats told the pubic the truth it would seem as though both parties were at fault. However, what is a Democrat to do if Republicans run away from the truth? The Democrats made their case but from the outside it just appeared to be two bickering parties fighting for power. The next two years will be different. The Republicans worst enemy are members of their own Party. They will use so much time fighting with each other that president Obama will have nothing to veto because no bills will be passed. Democrats will not have to filibuster in the Senate because Repubicans do not know what they want. They have proved the last six years they do not know what they want. Nothing changed on Tuesday night.
Pro wealth anti middle class GOP won Ouch Say goodbye to decent wages, funding for education, basic regulation to reign in corp Greed, SS as we know it .. Hello to More corp tax cuts, loopholes, subsides, billionaire perks, & Wall St crooks. US wealth favoring laws & policies need a complete overhaul in order for we the people to have a level playing field . Under GOP reign That will NOT occur COngrats GOP angry , misled, gullible Fox Hannity Drudge Rush Palen McConnell loyal fans / ditto heads . In 6 yrs we went from Bush Cheney global depression- TARP - losing 700 K jobs a month- low wages - 2 very long wars that killed and wasted many trillions to 2014 ... Obama ordering Brave Seals to kill Bin laden & many top al quada - millions of jobs have been created , real effort to raise wages- 6 % unemployment rate- deficit down 40 % - war phasing out - equal pay law for women - ACA /Obama care getting better over time just as Medicare did - took awhile to become the succees it is for many millions. I am saddened by voters inability to use critical thinking skills & logic...
It's been fixed now. :)
Mark, I've noticed recently that yesterday's blog seems to disappear from the list for a few hours, only to reappear later. I'll escalate the problem.
The blog still exists at http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/11/fatal-flaw-democracy
I hardly think the Dems were duped. Those that aren't corrupt are being forced to choose between being ruined by mega corps. w/ huge bottom lines who will stop at nothing, even use the NSA to delete candidates' accomplishments, create dirt and ruin reputations and lives if need be to force their silence on issues that matter to the People. Here is an excellent analysis. An excerpt; "Obama has repeated the same pattern. He is more aggressive on foreign policy than Bush. In 2011, before the explosive revelations about NSA spying and Obama’s newest wars in Syria and Iraq, Glenn Greenwald noted, “Obama has continued Bush/Cheney terrorism policies—once viciously denounced by Democrats—of indefinite detention, renditions, secret prisons by proxy, and sweeping secrecy doctrines. He has gone further than his predecessor by waging an unprecedented war on whistleblowers, seizing the power to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process far from any battlefield, massively escalating drone attacks in multiple nations, and asserting the authority to unilaterally prosecute a war (in Libya) even in defiance of a Congressional vote against authorizing the war.”
In this interview, Bill Binney, formerly w/ the NSA, lays it out. If engaging in economic espionage elsewhere, why not here?
Reply To Saulys:
I will stipulate the election was only partially publicly financed. Hogan the Republican candidate chose to use public funds, Brown the Democrat, chose not to use public funds, because taking them would have limited his spending. The Democrats out spent the Republicans at a 4:1 ratio. PAC funds are still being calibrated, but I guarantee the Democrats received more than the Republicans. Maryland is a one party state (Democrat) and they (Democrats) expect homage to be paid in the former of contributions.
In Maryland we have two large TV (media) markets. The Baltimore market and the DC market are by far the largest. Each has ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC plus several PBS stations. The Baltimore market, in size of audience and ratings, Fox is fourth behind ABC, CBS and NBC. I'm not sure, but I believe the DC market is the same.
The other two much smaller markets are Salisbury on MD's eastern shore, ABC, CBS, PBS, and Hagerstown in Western MD. NBC. So you see Fox doesn't have much presence in MD. (Not that its presence would make a difference)
What you and the rest of the washed up lefties fail to see is this election is a repudiation of Obama and the Democrats inability to govern. For Democrats to blame their failures on Republican obstruction is like a hitter in Baseball saying I didn't get a hit because the pitcher wouldn't throw pitches I could hit. Citizens don't want excuses, they want results.