I know what you mean, Stilli.  I think that's what Genghis is feeling, too, though I don't want to put words in his mouth.  I've given up on the idea that the liberal/progressive blogosphere will ever be united.  I don't know if it's just the nature of the beast, but, while we might agree on the basics, there are vast differences in what we need to do and how we need to do it.

I like dagblog because anger isn't the emotion of the day..  There are a whole lot of "progressive/agressive" websites that I stay away from because they end up sickening me almost as much as the Right Wing sites that continually spew their particular brand of hatred.

We do need to work together, and the events in Wisconsin show that we can.  So just as I'll try and work from the inside to bring Obama and the Dems around to what's right, I'll stick with dagblog and keep trying to get that same message out.  At least here I don't have to shout to be heard.  Again, just what Genghis is getting at.

I'm VERY frustrated by the left's inability to show at least a semi-united front

Lenin called this the "infantalism of the left" and as you can see by the age of that quote, it is a chronic condition.

I like you T.  As I recall sometime ago I got the impression we were about the same age.  You seem to assume you know and know about everyone who's got experience "in the trenches".  You need to rethink that.  There are plenty of people who have been in the trenches as long as you and some longer who agree with my faction in assessing the sell out first Democratic strategy that has not only betrayed the great tradition of the Democratic Party since FDR but have betrayed the country as well.  That is an opinion for sure but it is backed by an almost endless stream of facts.  These facts are typically things that folks in your faction don't want to hear and consider any mention of these facts as unhelpful attacks on officeholders who are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances and who will, incrementally, make things better.  Well, first off if that's right then you still have to be alive for the next 100+ years is you want to see any of that come to fruition given the glacial pace of forward movement provided by the corporate/DLC Democrats of Washington. Some of us no longer believe their schtick about incrementalism moving us forward since ever time they capitulate to the opposition and call it compromise the nation moves backwards.  I know you don't agree with this view but we both have a right to our views whether or not the other likes it.  I happen to believe that the record of failure, capitulation and retreat taken by the Democrats now for 30+ years has been a really, really bad thing and that continuing down that path is only going to make things worse than they are.

Now, as to some of the facts I'm not going to go on and on but I'll provide a very short list here just to demonstrate my opinion has a factual basis:

Obama lied about FISA and voted to allow retroactive immunity to telecoms and when he committed that lie he promised to correct defects in the legislation once elected which was another quite transparent lie even when he made it.  Lies and flip flops are betrayals.  Traitors to a cause betray their side.

He promised to let the Bush tax cuts expire because he knew that was bad for America, bad for our budget and bad for our future.  He flip flopped anyway and extended the tax cuts for the rich knowing the harm it will bring and how very unlikely it is that they will now ever be repealed.

He lied to the nation about his healthcare reform plan campaigning on the public option as absolutely vital to "keeping them honest" and then almost instantly secretly agreed to kill the public option in return for the support of big pharma and insurance.  He lied about this bill and his real position throughout the year the legislation was in play and continues to lie about the secret deal he made with the wealthy interests he swore he wouldn't make backroom deals with.  That's a massive flip flop and lie and betrayal.  He betrayed us on that.

He said he would support cram down power for judges in bankruptcy proceedings to help homeowners and flip flopped abandoning that for the opposite position which benefits his friends in the banking industry.  Obama has done almost nothing to stem the foreclosure crisis which has proceeded apace without any respite since 2008.  He promised quite explicitly to help homeowners and to have the banks and other bad actors in finance be made to answer for their malfeasance.  Instead, Obama's policies on foreclosure have been virtually identical to those of Bush: banker friendly and homeowner unfriendly.  Millions have lost their homes thanks to his betrayal.

All of his policies in the mythical war on terror are simple extentions of the Bush era policies of onconstitutional usurpations of power, spying on innocent Americans, continuation of torture while pretending he ended it, secretly kidnapping people all over the world and holding them endlessly incommunicado outside the rule of law and much more.  These are betrayals of his clear promises to end all those abuses and usurpations and return the rule of law to the US. 

The day after his inauguration he promised that "transparency will be the hallmark of my Presidency" and has since pursued policies even less transparent, more secretive and vindictive even than those of the Bush regime.  That's a massive lie, flip flop and betrayal.

He appointed the catfood commission stacked with people who were known enemies of social security and medicate in an attempt to put both of those bedrock Democratic programs up on the chopping block.  His effort was thwarted by massive opposition in DC and across the country.  His pledges to maintain both those programs are betrayed by that action as well as his many very Republicans statements about needing to address social security which is perfectly sound.  That is a betrayal of the very heart of the New Deal and our Democratic heritage.

I could go on with literally hundreds of other instances.  All of these things are facts.

And, by the way, I have been served on every conceivable committee, knocked on countless doors, made innumerable phone calls, stood at the polls, attended monthly meetings and all that since I about 1970 when I was 12.  I think that qualifies as being in the trenches.

So, instead of addressing the point which is that today's office holders are quite different from those of the FDR and Kennedy eras you glom on to one tiny facet of what I had to say thinking you've found a technical flaw and are making some startling point.  You fail.

They lived in a different world than Obama ever did.  They lived through the truly rotten days of the early twentieth century and they believed in the bedrock ideas of the New Deal.  They udnerstood why it was important to safeguard the common people's intererst and to force the rich to curb their greed.  They understood how bankrupt are the policies of the oligarchy which they could easily have chosen to defend but didn't because it was not only wrong but the wrong thing to do.  Obama didn't and doesn't but that wasn't my main point was it?  No indeed.  It was that Obama and the majority of current Democratic office holders are careerist office holders primarily interested in holding office and that they neither identify with or wish to serve the common people and their record (including Obama's) clearly demonstrate that.  They identify with those they serve: the rich.  They wish to be rich themselves. They are me-firsters like Obama whose primary objective is their own agrandizement, power and advancement and not carrying forward the principles of the Democratic Party or any other party for that matter.  They'll say and do whatever is good for them.

Now, do you want to attempt to refute the real point of my comment which is the problem of our modern careerist Democratic officeholders who don't believe in the New Deal?  I'm all ears on that.

TMcC is only reaping what was sowed a few weeks ago.

The traitor comment is one of her TMcC' constructs, she applied it to herself, so I'll oblige

Debs only pointed out how traitors have undermined the Labor movement.

The Democratic Party forsook its position, as a representative of the working class, it sought another suitor; until the next election, when they need labors vote.

Nader told us how labor is hostage to the Democratic Party, Why did the working class vote against their self-interest?

Because the Democrats told everyone, how if they voted for NADER it was just a wasted vote.

Same thing with Perot, he warned us about NAFTA and how was Perot rewarded? He tried to get a third party going to counter the corporate establishment except the servants of the Democratic Party came to the aid of the Corporate Party.

The lackeys of the democratic/republican party convinced the electorate, how the vote is wasted if you vote for NADER.

Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feelings towards their captors that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, essentially mistaking a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness.

"Don't you dumb slaves, even consider not voting for a corporate controlled government".

WHY don't you tell me Ramona, which Party will stop the EXPORTING of JOBS and the importation of Foreign goods; the most fundamental foundation for a vibrant middle class ? 

Any other issue is secondary; any other issue without addressing the foundation of all of our working class ills is futile

If it turns out the TEA PARTY becomes the champion of that fundamental movement, guess what? The Democratic free traders can find another slave class to serve them. 

Let the democrats know we are not hostages to be pulled out of the deep pit, only during election time.

Obama lied to labor, where is the accountability?

If TMcC is going to serve another and she doesn't recognize that we as a Working class will never be served, without first stopping the exporting of jobs, stopping the importation of foreign goods,  that can be manufactured here at home,  I don't  care how many years she served in opposition to the REAL needs of the working class.

So she painted the house knowing the house had a bad foundation and is about to crumble?

Good work TMcC The paint looks good