what happened to the days when the democratic party cared about working people?

[Barack Hussian YO MAMA!!!!]

what the hell happened to the democratic party?
 if the Massachusetts senate race can teach us anything its that democrats have lost touch with the needs of working people in this country what happened to the sense of urgency ? people in this country are hurting 10% of the nation is unemployed people are angry about the bailouts, where is the populism?  what happend to the party of the new deal the party of FDR, harry Truman and John F Kennedy.

just listen to JFK when he was president  can anybody imagine any president of either party speaking like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFGMyyRURFM&feature=related

come on obama STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR THE PEOPLE GODAMMIT !!! t have a pair of brass ones like the late senator Paul Welstone!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MjcGF1V-wM

just my two cents!!!

[Ebowed]

Whichever party is out of power will be better able to convince you that they are for the "working class," as a general rule.

[CultureKing]

what the hell happened to the democratic party?
 if the Massachusetts senate race can teach us anything its that democrats have lost touch with the needs of working people in this country what happened to the sense of urgency ? people in this country are hurting 10% of the nation is unemployed people are angry about the bailouts, where is the populism?  what happend to the party of the new deal the party of FDR, harry Truman and John F Kennedy.

just listen to JFK when he was president  can anybody imagine any president of either party speaking like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFGMyyRURFM&feature=related

come on obama STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR THE PEOPLE GODAMMIT !!! t have a pair of brass ones like the late senator Paul Welstone!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MjcGF1V-wM

just my two cents!!!

I think the dems are trying to fight for "the people" but the problem is that they are trying to include as much of a big tent idea as possible and at the same time try to not appear too liberal or extreme. While the smart idea would be for them to try to do as you are thinking it is much more likely that very little or nothing will be accomplished in this year because as we all now know: Democrats have no balls.

[Хahar 🤔]

John F. Kennedy? Fighting for the people?

Lolz.

[Beet]

That is a great video.

[Mechaman]

John F. Kennedy? Fighting for the people?

Lolz.

Ironically JFK probably had more in common with Scott Brown than he ever did with Martha Coaxley.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

what the hell happened to the democratic party?
 if the Massachusetts senate race can teach us anything its that democrats have lost touch with the needs of working people in this country what happened to the sense of urgency ? people in this country are hurting 10% of the nation is unemployed people are angry about the bailouts, where is the populism?  what happend to the party of the new deal the party of FDR, harry Truman and John F Kennedy.

just listen to JFK when he was president  can anybody imagine any president of either party speaking like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFGMyyRURFM&feature=related

come on obama STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR THE PEOPLE GODAMMIT !!! t have a pair of brass ones like the late senator Paul Welstone!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MjcGF1V-wM

just my two cents!!!

Obama is out of touch. He thought that the unemployment rate would be a lot lower now than it is. He recently predicted a net increase of 4 million jobs this year. Yeah, I don't think so. While obviously he isn't as out of touch as McCain or Bush, that is an unacceptably low standard. Obama clearly failed to lead on health care. The Senate version was terrible. President Nixon's health care plan was much better.

[Franzl]

The American working class is too dumb to see which major party cares more about their interests.

That shouldn't be interpreted to mean that Democrats actually do care about them, but certainly more so than Republicans.

[JSojourner]

Good question.

The answer is -- "the same thing that happened to the days when the Democratic Party cared about the environment, peacemaking, domestic poverty, foreign aid and human rights.

They've become ca. 1970's Republicans.

Oh.  And the Republicans have, with a couple exceptions, become Birchers.

Say what you want about Opebo.  But he's absolutely right.  The parties are right and center right.  The left need not apply.

[Mint]

Good question.

The answer is -- "the same thing that happened to the days when the Democratic Party cared about the environment, peacemaking, domestic poverty, foreign aid and human rights.

They've become ca. 1970's Republicans.

Oh.  And the Republicans have, with a couple exceptions, become Birchers.

It's ironic, but the Birchers sound more like the Greens now when it comes to issues like war and corporate power. I honestly think we have a uniquely bad situation in this country right now. You know things are horribly upside down when the biggest contributors to the Democrats are now people like Goldman Sachs, and frankly they don't really bother hiding it that much given who Obama has appointed.

The American working class is too dumb to see which major party cares more about their interests.

Sure they do, that's why they have such low turn out rates in general and why the number of independents has been skyrocketing in the last few decades.

[opebo]

The structure of our society guarantees that no one cares about poor people.  We only care 'up'.  We hate 'down'.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Big shot politicians in any country has never cared about the average working people, just about their votes. 

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Democratic Party decided that the votes of rich women in the suburbs were more important than the traditional 'ethnic' working class back in 1992.

John F. Kennedy? Fighting for the people?

Lolz.

The trick is that he gave the impression that he was...

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

The structure of our society guarantees that no one cares about poor people.  We only care 'up'.  We hate 'down'.

Torie's right, we could write this for you......save you the trouble

[memphis]

Whenever they do, they lose 49 states.

[opebo]

The structure of our society guarantees that no one cares about poor people.  We only care 'up'.  We hate 'down'.

Torie's right, we could write this for you......save you the trouble

The simple honest truth is, admittedly, not innovative.

[JSojourner]

The structure of our society guarantees that no one cares about poor people.  We only care 'up'.  We hate 'down'.

Torie's right, we could write this for you......save you the trouble

The simple honest truth is, admittedly, not innovative.

Opebo may be playing a character...or these may be his genuine convictions.  Who the hell knows?  But he's right.  I won't take the rhetoric quite as far. (You know...calling America "the bad place" and so on.) Perhaps that's the seasoning that comes with age and experience...perhaps its the opium being doled out by my corporate masters (lol -- just for you Opie)...more than likely, it's something in between.

But I can't argue with the reality.  Poor people in this country are screwed.  No, not quite as badly as in some other places.  (Though see me 20 years from now on that count.)  Some religious and some secular charities are trying their best to help and deserve credit.  But the reality is...

Most of the religious simply cluck their tongues and say, "Ah well, the poor we will always have with us.  How is my 401-K doing?"

Most of the non-religious don't even bother to cluck their tongues.  They just swallow Ayn Rand's kool aid and worry about making themselves happy.  the whole liberal, commie, pinko "brother's keeper" bs."

Others, in both camps, might not be quite as brazen.  They may shed a tear here or there and sigh.  The best of them, thank God, might write a check.  That's commendable.  But at the end of the day, they are just sure that the private sector fairies will spread more of that magic fairy dust and poverty will be significantly reduced. Just don't tax me to do it. I'm planning a Cayman vacation.

[phk]

The Democratic Party decided that the votes of rich women in the suburbs were more important than the traditional 'ethnic' working class back in 1992.

John F. Kennedy? Fighting for the people?

Lolz.

This.

Reminds me of the 1992 DNC where Bob Casey was skipped over as speaker and replaced by pro-choice GOP women.

[Torie]

Well it is not as if there is no social safety net at all. So, perhaps much of what needs to be done, already has.  

This health care thing just got out of control when medical technology advances caused medical care to become exponentially more expensive, so that now it is projected to just totally bankrupt the system. Each shot I take for my skin disease cost $800 for example - yes $800. Which as an aside causes me to wonder if anyone here thinks it was a good idea that the Dems extended the life of drug patents to buy off the pharmaceutical companies. If that over time does not ramp up even more the cost of medical care, I don't know what will.

In any event, much of this chatter about helping those with limited incomes is just populist chatter devoid of substance. Or, given that tax rates are already quite robust, the cost of doing more just isn't realistic, unless we want our rates to get non-competitive with the bulk of the other industrial democracies, which would not bode well for long term economic growth in my opinion. Economic growth is the engine which allows us to afford more to made the social safety net more robust, more than any other single factor.

Addendum: Pelosi is quoted today as saying that the House is not passing the Senate health care bill by the way. Why? Well because the Senate bill taxes those union Cadillac health care plans, with respect to which the tax system currently gives an unfair advantage vis a vis the poor slobs who have their own insurance in any event, and encourages excessive use of medical services. Since union Cadillac plans are for those who are already highly paid union workers, and not poor at all, it may be that there is something to this notion that the Dems really don't give a damn about the poor. What do you think?

[opebo]

Nice supporting piece Jsojurner, though I do suspect that you and I define 'poor' a bit differently.

[JSojourner]

Nice supporting piece Jsojurner, though I do suspect that you and I define 'poor' a bit differently.

Actually, you've given me quite something to think about.  How *do* I define "poor"?  I tend to accept federal poverty guidelines, etc.  (Not even getting into the whole Biblical definition involving the "poor" in spirit, etc.)

Thank you, my friend.  I am going to ruminate on this a bit.  How do you define 'poor'?  (Lack of ready access to whores, lapdances, strippers, buttplugs and ben wah balls does NOT count as a serious answer!!  )

[anvi]

Brief replies to Torie's post.  Answer to first paragraph: yes, the Dems made a deal with the one of the devils of rising health care costs by buying off pharma.  We need to find ways to get provider costs down, with pharma, with the price of medical technology and with the galactically insane ways that hospitals bill.

Second paragraph: yes, I agree, a robust and growing economy is the best way to lift all boats.  Still, helping the poor is not something entirely without substance, even now.  They should have access to good educational institutions and health care, so major fixes to our public school system and finding ways to pool them somehow into health coverage will be good for both them and the society at large.  However, this thread was about why the Democratic party has abandoned the worker, and that's a serious problem for the Dems.

Third, Pelosi is off her rocker (breaking news...).  Large numbers of economists who have considered current health care bills tend to be fans of Cadilac plan taxation, since, just as you point out, their very existence encourages overutilization and drives up costs.

[dead0man]

Most of the religious simply cluck their tongues and say, "Ah well, the poor we will always have with us.  How is my 401-K doing?"

Until energy is (basically) free and robots can do most menial labor* (or we lose +75% of our species), we will always have poor people....even in the best of scenarios (shy of some sort of supernatural worldwide mind farking).





*both are plausible in the next several decades

[Vepres]

Historically, the Democats' ideas to help the poor end up dragging down the middle class or inadvertantly hurting the poor. Roosevelt's social security will bankrupt the millennials, Medicare will run deficits very soon, welfare encouraged the poor to have lots of children out of wedloc, etc, etc.

Generally, the middle-class doesn't trust social programs.

[Franzl]

Historically, the Democats' ideas to help the poor end up dragging down the middle class or inadvertantly hurting the poor. Roosevelt's social security will bankrupt the millennials, Medicare will run deficits very soon, welfare encouraged the poor to have lots of children out of wedloc, etc, etc.

Generally, the middle-class doesn't trust social programs.

I don't possibly see how you can argue that Social Security has caused people to become poor.