Profiles in Non-Courage

In the best traditions of Dr. Kidglove, the Senate Majority Wheedler, Harry Reid of Nevada, raised the white flag before the battle had even started.

Emerging from the back room where he knelt to kiss the boots of Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, Harry Halfheart announced another one of those Democratic "compromises" that give the Republicans more than they ever wanted.

This surrender was on so-called filibuster reform.  Reid had on the table two Democratic bills, one a milksop that would have made it only slightly more difficult for Republicans to bottle up legislation, the other a serious and fair effort to make possible genuine legislative debate in the Senate.  He had at his disposal a so-called nuclear option that would have enabled him to reform the filibuster rules with just a simple majority -- which the Democrats have.  He even threatened to use it.  This brought McConnell to the table -- with absolutely no cards in his hand.  Harry Half-Heart promptly threw his own full house on the table and declared, "I fold."

Another demonstration of how government works under a corporocratic oligarchy. An online essay today by Norman Soloman, author and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, warned progressives against letting Kidglove's second inaugural address "make us the dupes of our hopes." Solomon wrote, "it was notably disingenuous for Obama to proclaim in his second inaugural speech that 'enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war' -- minutes after completing a first term when his administration launched more than 20,000 airstrikes, strongly escalated the use of weaponized drones and did so much else to make war perpetual."

After running through a partial list of Kidglove's other betrayals of progressive ideals. he called upon progressivesto come together and organize militantly. He worte, "the kind of empowered access we need will come from mobilizing grassroots power."

Here are excerpts from the first few comments generated by Solomon's piece:

Pressure the president as much as you desire. . . letter, fax, email, make a phone call. The keystone XL pipeline will be built, drone warfare will continue around the world, the police state will continue unabated in the U.S.

These programs aren't being enacted because the President is being pressured by Republicans. (They) continue becausethe Democratic party accepts money from the weapons manufacturers, the prison- industrial complex and the energy companies. A banker will be the new treasury secretary because large financial interests in N.Y. want a banker to be the new treasury secretary. The Democrats  will not listen to public sentiment; they didn't listen to public sentiment on health care. Occupy Wall Street was publicly ridiculed by Democratic politicians -- before the encampments were decimated by Democratic politicians, before the message was co-opted into the 2012 campaign (so Obama could mimic the public's mood -- talking points for the president. He had every intention of promoting characters like the soon to be treasury secretary,  Jack Lew, no surprises here.

Engaging with (this Administration) is a waste of time. Support the development of the Green (or Socialist) parties in your neck of the woods. Work on initiative campaigns locally and nationally to remove money from politics and to expand ballot access to third parties and disenfranchised voters.
The Democrats will sell you down river every fucking time and they'll try to make you feel scared and guilty for being aware of their manipulative clap-trap.

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The Democratic party has  been, far more often than not, the driving force for destruction of progressive policies and goals over the past 20 years . . . I'm running out of words that do justice to the insanity of it. And losing interest in taking it seriously. It's like trying to figure out how to "turn around" the Tea Party.


Without a viable third party, we might as well move north into organic communes and live humble lives of good conscience apart from the maddening crowd--forget about politics. 
Politics have proven hopeless within the bounds of the duopoly as it stands and it has not the slightest interest in changing for the better. Money controls the entire system--including elections--and progressives will NEVER out-leverage that without commanding the ballot box via a progressive party. Without that, the Dems OWN us no matter how much it pisses us off--we'll never vote Republican. It's really just that simple.
Only a progressive third party can change this shit.

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We have two substantial progressive "third" parties, and several more very small ones. But we need them to work together, and we need progressives still in the Blue Party to leave and come to us. Between these three posts, we've got the problem and some real solutions in a nutshell.

Amen, brothers.  But, as Harry Half-Heart has just demonstrated once again, time and opportunity are running out.