British Expatriate Network

So what's wrong with the Democratic Party in your opinion?

I say this because you'd think that with an administration this demented, a Republican Party this unusual, oh so many scandals amongst the Republican Party, and frankly brazen nutcaseness from the Bush administration, that the Dems would be very appealing right now. At the very least they outta be able to capitalise on all the scandals and dodginess. And by God there's alot. Someone tell me why it is that during each week when something even more demented than the week before occurs that the Democratic Party doens't even scratch the surface. My solidly Democratic friends are almost morose when they talk about the state of the Party. Personally I don't see a good leader, or even any solid ideas to counter the Republicans. I have no idea why Nancy Pelosi holds a top poisition - her political skill amounts to nil. Everything she says is a lead balloon. Reid is a good politician, but he doesn't have the oomph of a Gingrich or Gephardt in their prime. But worse than anything it seems almost gutless at times how nobody has gathered up a strong core group of Senators and Congressmen, and methodically challenged the Reps. Congressman Murtha is it lately and the entire party effectively dissowned him! For God's sake the opposition has had one leader resign to try to stay out of jail, and another waiting for the same thing to happen!

What's weird to me is that when I look at both parties I see mostly nutters being welcomed into the Republican Party (Jim DeMint anyone?) and some truly phenomenal ones into the Dems (Obama and Ford Jr to name two). So what's wrong?

Of the top of my head and with no research...

The Dem's have been bought by the American corporations too. So to campaign for anything meaningful , like universal healthcare, or energy efficiency would deprive them of campaign funds and their fancy lifestyle and status.

They take the moral high-ground on issues but at the end of the day that are really Republican light.

American is run by and for big business and Republicans make better employees on the whole.


Discuss

[quote="Cappellirossi @ Fri 09 Dec, 2005 541 pm" Republicans make better employees on the whole.

Discuss[/quote]

Y'mean like Jeff Gannon, the GOP's favourite heemasex escort?

More like George Bush - stick a monkey in suit and tell him what to say so you can keep making money - reject Kyoto (oil and car industry), Iraq (Oil again and the military industrial complex) , ban Canadian imports (Pharma industry). I could go on and on..but now I'm stuck oops

They're still too sensitive to being bullied by the Republican machine, as organized as it is. As soon as a Democrat says something that the Repubs disagree with, all the Repubs close ranks, appear on all the talk shows and eventually demonize the Democrat, while the Democrats all seem to distance themselves from whoever speaks out. I mean as soon as Howard Dean opens his mouth, and for the most part he tells it as it is, all the shows have prominent Republicans on trying to paint him as some kind of wacky extremist. Then the Democrats are largely silent about anything he says. roll So now, because he's been vilified so much, he's in there with Michael Moore and Ted Kennedy. evil

But there's still too much of 'Its unpatriotic', 'Its unamerican', 'its hurting the troops', blah-de-blah. I just wish they would start standing up against the idiots in charge of this country.

They also don't stand up against nonsense the Republicans invent as wedge issues like 'the war on Christmas' - I mean, what a load of bollocks that is.

Y'mean like Jeff Gannon, the GOP's favourite heemasex escort?[/quote]



LMFAO

They whine too much, they're too negative and they don't offer any solutions. Anti-bush, anti-war, anti-Tuesdays ... ad infintum.

Plus they are just plain annoying. Give them a quote like this "We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction."

... and they'll scream 'Bush lied!'. Tell them the quote was from Bob Graham or John Kerry and suddenly the excuses come tumbling out.

Like it or not Bush & the Republicans have ideas. You may not agree with them but all you seem to hear from the Dems is that they disagree with everything, without providing any solutions.

They're pretty much all a bunch of spineless wusses with cojones the size of raisins and if you so much as look at them funny it's all "well, we really didn't mean it", they back down all the time, can't argue worth a crap and have all been tarred with the "librul Murrica hater" brush.

We need a Dennis Skinner type over here to tell how it really is.

It's nothing new. Will Rogers said, "I don't belong to an organized political party, I'm a Democrat."

So here's the test - anyone seen the new "White flag" Republican commercial where they play speeches and comments from Dems on the Iraq war? Partisan Reps love that commercial (tho no one else seems that bothered) - especially Kerry stumbling over his words and realising he just used the word "terrorizing" to explain US troops. But it's not like he said "crusade" is it? But to me it's a commercial that reminds people that there are representatives who find the war unpopular - just like 60% of the country does. So if the Democratic party doens't release an identical commercial with Reps saying things like ""we don't want the smoking gun to come in the form of a mushroom cloud"; "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction"; the aluminum tubes "are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs" and most tellingly "Mission Accomplished" then they just aren't good enough to win politcally. It's a slam dunk piece of politics there.

And if I were a Democratic Senator I'd call a big press conference, get together a few loyal followers, put on a flight suit, gather together a crowd of cheering men and women, walk up to the podium and have a giant banner unfurl that reads "Mission Accomplished" on it. Then I'd point out how stupid that is. I would say that the Mission Accomplished banner was flown 2 years ago, and since that day 2000 Americans and 15,000 Iraqis have died. While there have been startling successes the fact is that this administration is not up to the task and there is no end in sight. Say something like they need adult supervision. And definitely invoke Bush Senior's Iraq policy as being more effective - that'll kill on the 6 o'clock news for days. There's your policy, your quotable soundbites, a clear demonstartion of your opponents weaknesses, and a choice for how to fix everything all in one.

See - easy. grin

Really? But many prominent Democrats said exactly the same things themselves.

This is a silly post.  It's like me saying I don't like Republicans because they have bad haircuts, weird sexual fetishes and steal from the poor.

I do believe that Democrats do try provide solutions to a lot of problems.  When Clinton tried to do something about the horrendous HMO Act, DRG's etc he was shot down.  Similarly when John Kerry ran for president with Universal Healthcare on his agenda that was shot down too.  Yet it would have been a solution to the one in 6 who do not have any kind of health coverage, the people who declare bankrupcy every year, and the rising healthcare costs where the only winners appear to be drug companies and HMO's. The US citizens well being is always sacrificed for the well being of big business. By the by, around 65% of healthcare in the US comes from the public purse anyway.

What solutions have the Republicans provided for any sort of problem in the US?  Bush wants to make sure all those ill people who lavishly wasted thousands on their healthcare can't file for bankrupcy.  He's trying to make sure all those rich kids won't have to pay too much death duty.  

I suppose he's got a lot of poor young kids off the streets by sending them to Iraq.  He's also trying to solve the overpopulation problem in Iraq.  There must have been one, otherwise how come so many Iraqi civillians have died for no reason?  While you say there were many democrats that agreed with him, I am quite positive if he had not come to power there would be no war in Iraq.

That's the problem, they have ideas but they are all misguided and harmful ones.

The Dems have definitive polices, not just ideas. Investment in education, infrastructure, reduction of military spending, ending the brutality of the Iraq occupation.

Unfortunately for them that's the case. When you have even Ted Kennedy standing on the floor of the Senate warning against Saddam's chemical weapons it says something. I have absolutely no idea why more Dems haven't said "sorry, I was wrong" rather than go the route of saying they were entirely lied too. As political capital that is never going to work. Nevertheless, I don't think that matters at this stage - when so many people polled believe the President wasn't entirely honest in presenting the case for war it negates that. Showing just the Mission Accomplished banner would be enough.

Of course it's the Iraq election right now so for a week/9 days criticism would be framed as negative, defeatist, un-American and surrender.

Good Post dianey.