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Lynda Phoenix's avatar

OMG! Thank you for spelling this out loud! I totally agree! I still have my Cat Ladies fo Kamala shirt that I wear often. I think that election was suspect but besides that, people don't make history, or change history by middle-roading it. Trumpians have shown us that in a negative way. The status quo feeds into the rich guy's pockets (unequal pay for women? What's that about?). The party of family values but never mind if a woman dies in childbirth or can't afford to stay home long enough to give her baby a good start, or can even afford to feed that baby? No free lunch for you. It might tarnish my silver spoon which some underpaid immigrant is supposed to keep polished. Evidently moderation didn't help to combat these greedy hate mongers so it's time to be bold! Enough of the right's philosophy of keep them poor so that we can control them better. And why not get rid of child labor laws so we can start working at 7 and retire at 90. On the other hand, why not just eliminate Social Security and just die at the job. Why have public schools? Ignorance is so advantageous for the Christian right who just want to Shepard the ignorant sheep. It is time to stand up and express the true values that belong to the American people, a living wage, bodily freedom, freedom of expression, feeling safe that the gestapo isn't going to be pounding at your door, or kidnapping your neighbors or pressuring your friends to rat on you. Liberal values are not the devil's work they're just deemed so by the side that wants to keep us subservient and poor while enriching themselves.

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Walter Rhein's avatar

Gosh! What a great comment! You touched on everything in such a short amount of space. I started writing this article with the idea "Why do they think we'll forget everything that happened a few years ago." And that made me think, "Maybe I should check out what happened a couple years ago." Lo and behold the centrists completely tanked Biden's agenda, and for some reason we're only talking about it now. Sigh...

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Shelley Greer's avatar

You’re singing to the choir…I happily voted 🗳️ for Harris …I still have a decal supporting her, in my car window & another decal that says keep America 🇺🇸 “trumpless”…sigh! 😮‍💨

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Walter Rhein's avatar

Then the choir needs to sing a little louder. Have you noticed how this narrative has been completely erased from the media? The damn centrists keep screwing us all. Thanks for the comment!

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Lynda Phoenix's avatar

I have to say a word about Joe Biden. I guess because he was truly a kind man who tried to be fair he was thought of as weak. So he had to be replaced by an uncivilized ogre, of a paper he-man. Joe may have slowed down (as we all do if we're lucky to live long enough). I had a friend who used to say "beats the alternative" (so right in so many meaningful ways right now). And what's the alternative? Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse? (The Don-old missed that boat). Everyone paints Joe as a moderate but I think his actions were more liberal (family leave?). And it was Joe who was the outspoken advocate for gay marriage (Obama was a little slow to the party on that one). And every time Republicans think poor people are going to get something they yell socialism. It's social awareness! You idiots! I wasn't afraid of a Biden 2nd term because if he faltered he had more than a Fox News anchor behind him. He had serious people willing to do serious work and he had a VP who was more than qualified to step in. I was very unhappy with Democrats who were not only belittling Joe Biden but we're also snubbing Kamala. I'm not religious but for those Bible thumpers try to remember the Prodigal son. They all think I've got mine, why should I share? Especially with people I deem lower than myself (no Golden rule being expressed here). They've already broken the first Commandment (but who's counting?)

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Walter Rhein's avatar

You are very right. Wouldn't it be nice to live in a nation that celebrated kindness? Sigh.

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Alice Sturdy's avatar

Harris lost because there has been evidence of vote tampering. Elon Musk and DJT should be jailed for election interference and Harris put in!

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Walter Rhein's avatar

Yes, that's true too. Lots of things can be true at once.

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Alice Sturdy's avatar

I totally agree!

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Charles Bastille's avatar

Great timing, Walter. Not more than a minute before I received this in my inbox, I received a Politico newsletter. I will quote it:

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EMPIRE STATE OF MIND: Centrist Democrats are sounding the alarm that a surging democratic socialist mayoral candidate in New York City’s Tuesday primary could further set back the party’s already beleaguered national brand.

Third Way, the center-left Democratic think tank, wrote in a memo Friday that they are “deeply alarmed” by Zohran Mamdani, whom they argue holds positions “that border on anti-semitism” and scan as if they were “cooked up in the offices of a Trump-aligned ad maker.”

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It gets worse, but I won't torture you all with it. I'll write about it instead in a post later.

Centrists need to step aside. Seriously, they need to rejoin the Republican Party and put their "centrism," which is corporate-Orwellian speak for "let's eat our fellow humans," where it belongs.

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Walter Rhein's avatar

There is so much propaganda that comes from the Center... they're the radicalized right of the democrats and they're hurting us. We need to push back.

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Carol's avatar

So right! Few of our current crop of representatives have any interest in helping the middle class, because so few of them are members of it. We desperately need publicly financed elections so that real people can run for office, not just the wealthy and powerful. Then we might get leaders who represent workers.

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Walter Rhein's avatar

100% true!

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Patricia Lane's avatar

The Democrats have absolutely no interest in doing what’s right for this country . They are too busy honing their chickenshit ‘ don’t rock the boat’ philosophy which is completely self serving.

We need to start naming names and attempt to shake these individuals into reality, they are complicit with poisonous Republicans .

So who are these people ?

And also who are the Democrats who are backing our progressive agenda ?They may be the only thing that saves this country from certain disaster.

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Walter Rhein's avatar

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez backs it. Bernie Sanders is an independent and he backs it. There are a few.

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Teri Gelini's avatar

I too voted for Harris! I believe muskrat had something to do with the outcome of the election. But now that TACO moved up his bombing of Iran to this motning all bets are off. Who knows what happens now. The ultimate chaos. I hope our troops will be safe not to mention our citizens over seas and even us here in the USA.if he could not meet a dead soldier when he was brought back to the USA what makes you think he will care about any other dead soldier.

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Margot Potter's avatar

Thank you. I am so tired of centrists and refugee Republicans insisting we have to move to the center. No. Your turn, you learn how to bend.

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Jo Burns's avatar

Absolutely 💯 what I have been saying since the summer of 24. Thanks for amplifying the message we keep shooting ourselves in the foot. Great post! Thank you, Walter!

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Walter Rhein's avatar

Thanks Jo!

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Betty Catlette's avatar

The election was brought and paid for by rich bastards like muskrat and russia. Kamala Harris WON that election. The circumstances are finally coming out.

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Walter Rhein's avatar

I think that's true too.

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Zuri Stevens's avatar

Walter, you’ve hit the nail on the head. One thing I would add is that if you investigate this further, you’ll find that money and power are the reasons our politicians quickly forget to speak and act for us. Sadly, almost all are corrupted by either or both of these vices and ignore Build Back Better or have sudden amnesia when it comes to Jan. 6. It’s very sad.

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Walter Rhein's avatar

Yes. Then they push the “we can’t nominate a Black woman” narrative that really infuriates me. And, if you try to have a polite discussion about strategy with the DNC, they instantly block you and blame you for MAGA. It’s highly frustrating to say the least.

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John Carpenter's avatar

The bad part of Biden’s win Bills was the people would not be see them until later. Republicans wanted to take credit when they happen or kill it before it happened.

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Erik Misavage's avatar

Yup. Their bought and paid for millionaire agents, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, so wanted to preserve their precious filibuster (by email, not the standing in the Senate chamber and having to talk on and on version) they allowed the GQPers to block Build Back Better and thus take over all levers of government.

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Paul Heintzelman's avatar

The frustrating thing is the Democrats know exactly why they lost but they refuse to change.

Who would you vote for:

The party that says they will fix your problems but they never do

Or

the party that tells you it's okay to be mad?

Either way your problems won't be fixed but the 2nd one feels better.

The Dems keep losing because they refuse to offer real solutions to real problems because if they did, they would not get big campaign donations.

The Democrats are on a sinking ship if they don't charge the Republicans will win again.

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Dan Walton's avatar

Well said Walter,after Reagan the party decided they had to move right to appease the rightwing centrist.They believed that acting like the GOP was going to win elections.They couldn't have been more wrong!

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