BIG NEWS: Barack Obama | Michael Steele | Tax Day Tea Parties | GOP | Job Search | More...

LOG IN | SIGN UP Search

 

APRIL 1, 2010

HOME POLITICS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT SPORTS  COMEDY BUSINESS LIVING STYLE GREEN

TECH WORLD COLLEGE IMPACT BOOKS RELIGION N.Y. L.A. CHICAGO DENVER  VIDEO  BLOGGERS

BIO Get Email Alerts

Rabbi Michael Lerner
Editor of Tikkun and National Chair of the Become a Fan Bloggers' Index
Network of Spiritual Progressives
Posted: February 16, 2010 07:16 PM Texas Sen. Hutchison
Keeping Senate Job

Reviving the American Liberal READ MORE

Movement Sarah Palin Stumps for

McCain in Arizona, Targets
Reid
READ MORE

What's Your Reaction:

Florida's Crist and Rubio Face
Important Funny Typical Scary Outrageous Amazing Innovative Finally Off in GOP Primary Debate

Read More: Barack Obama , Liberals , Progressive Movement , Progressives , Politics News READ MORE

Close to 600 people in the San Francisco Bay More news at Time.com
Get Breaking News Alerts Area gave up their President's Day Monday
SIGN UP vacation to spend some nine hours in
a "Strategy Conference for Liberals and Follow Huffington Post
Share Comments 130 Progressives" to address "How To Support
Obama to BE the Obama Americans Thought
We Elected" and "How to Launch a Constitutional Amendment to Restrain Corporate Power"
after the Supreme Court's recent decision to allow unrestrained corporate spending on
elections.

For many, just being in the context where this discussion was happening in a face-t o-face
Get Email Alerts »
encounter with others, rather than an isolated individuals reading it on a computer monitor,
seemed an important step toward re-empowerment. Many are suffering from post-traumatic
Obama abandonment syndrome--an ailment that came from being severely traumatized by HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES
Obama's political moves in the past thirteen months. A palpable sadness, depression, anger
and even despair carried by many who had worked for Obama and now felt betrayed by his
choices in his first year in office was mixed with compassion and a strong determination to
not allow the political Right to use our despair as their ticket to a political revival. The
conference was conceived by Tikkun Magazine and its interfaith Network of Spiritual Crime Parenting Steve Jobs

Progressives (including secular humanists and atheists who consider themselves "spiritual
but NOT religious") as a way to allow people who have been having these feelings privately to
both receive the comfort of sharing those feelings with other liberals and progressives, and
then to move beyond them to actually face the critical question: "What do we in the liberal
Marriage Energy Russia
and progressive world do now, if we face three, or hopefully seven, years of an Obama
presidency?"

The first step toward answering that question was to grieve what we had lost, honestly
acknowledging the painful, for many quite humiliating, fact that after having built so many
Haiti Angelina Jolie Sandra Bullock
walls of self-protection against allowing ourselves to get sucked into some new moment of Earthquake
idealism, we had allowed those walls to come down as we became energized about Obama, MORE BIG NEWS PAGES »
only to find that once again our hopes had been dashed. This was not a crew of hardened
lefties who might say: "You were always foolish to hope in Obama--don't you know that the
military-industrial-health-agricultural-banking-investment-energy complex controls the
society." Most people in the room had already integrated that knowledge of corporate
dominance, but rejected the notion that repeating its truth was a sufficient way to change it.
Instead, they had imagined that Obama could play an important role in sustaining the
powerful mobilization that had already occurred around his campaign, and direct it toward
significant steps to challenge the corporate power in ways that might even excite and attract
the tens of millions of Americans who don't even bother to vote.

In psychological research in which I was the principle investigator for some twenty years at
the Institute for Labor and Mental Health, I cane to understand the most people have a strong
voice in our consciousness telling us that "everyone is just out to promote their own narrowly
conceived self-interest and that they will seek to manipulate or even dominate you unless
you can more effectively manipulate and dominate them first," a voice that gives credence to
the need to "look out for number one," always suspect that others are interested in you
primarily to get something for themselves and not because they can genuinely see and
appreciate you, and that security for ourselves or our country is best secured by dominating
others (either in the hard way that the Right and centrist Democrats champion, namely
military power, or the soft way that some Liberals advocate, namely through economic and
media penetration of other societies coupled with diplomacy backed by the threat of
economic boycotts or future military interventions).

Happily, there's another voice in most people that advises them, based in part of their own
experience in the world with others, that safety and security can sometimes be achieved
much more effectively by communicating genuine love, caring and a generosity of spirit and
of deed toward others.

Most people are somewhere on a continuum between the first fearful consciousness (call it
the Domination world view) and the second more loving and caring consciousness (call it the
Generosity world view). And where exactly we are at any given moment is determined in part
by our own childhood experiences, adult life experiences, the ideological or religious
worldviews we hold, and, importantly, by our own sense of where the social energy is moving
at any given moment. So, during the early years after 9/11 social energy was so
overwhelming moved toward fear and the Domination worldview that even many liberals and
progressives became timid about articulating an alternative based on love and generosity.
Conversely, the Obama campaign momentarily opened up a new set of possibilities, and many
people did in fact move closer to the Generosity world view).

What happened in Obama's first year is that most of those who had allowed themselves to
hope began to appear to themselves and others as naïve fools, and the humiliation that they 
experienced will take some years and psychologically or spiritually sophisticated
interventions, of which the conference in San Francisco was a first example, though Tikkun
and the Network of Spiritual Progressives (in co-sponsorship with many other groups
including The Nation magazine, Progressive Democrats of America, Yes! Magazine, Peace
Action, The Institute for Policy Studies, the Shalom Center,and Code Pink) will be holding a 3
day conference of this sort in D.C. June11-14 and is seeking to encourage and support similar
gatherings around the country in the next few months. More info at www.tikkun.org.

Social energy is never static -- it is always moving in one direction or another. So as many
Americans became disillusioned by the failure of Obama and Congressional Democrats to take
up the electoral mandate (bigger than that of any president in the past 20 years) and create a
pro-people, peace and social justice administration and legislation, but instead managed to
give priority to the banks and investment companies, the pharmaceuticals and the health
care profiteers, the coal industry and the nuclear industry, the war-makers and the
ideologues of the American Empire, the stage was set for Right-wing opportunists to cast
themselves as a quasi-populist voice, and to attract to the Tea Party movement not only
those racist and domination-prone Americans waiting for their chance to pounce on Obama,
but also many confused middle income people who might have been equally attracted to a
pro-democracy, anti-corporate movement had that emerged in time.

So, the most important first step for liberals and progressives is to explain to themselves and
each other that history is not over, that the Obama years still retain some possibilities, and
even though we need to give up our (often unconscious) fantasy that Obama was our messiah
who would save us and the world, we can and must still retain our understanding that the
suffering in this world through poverty and oppression, the destruction of the environment
and the possibility of ending all human and animal life on the planet Earth, and the survival of
our own souls and mental health requires that we revive a movement based on love,
kindness, generosity, ecological sanity, and caring for each other, including everyone on the
planet. And, indeed, were the Democrats to put those values at the forefront of their own
reelection campaigns, they'd be far more successful than trying to defend policies or
legislation that has been more about compromising with the powerful than promoting a
fundamentally different kind of world.

The SF Conference and its follow up in D.C. focused on two first steps in this direction: 1. An
Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment to the U.S Constitution and 2. A Global
Marshall Plan.

The EERA is designed to go along with, not replace, a narrower amendment that will simply
overturn the Supreme Court's "Citizens United" decision. Such an amendment is currently
being worked on by a coalition of inside-the-beltway liberal and progressive groups and
deserves our support. But the EERA seeks to use this moment -- in which corporate power has
been so clearly exposed not only in the Supreme Court decision but also in the capitulation to
the corporate agenda by many in the Obama Administration and in the Congress, and
simultaneously in the recognition that the economic system itself is not a solid rock but might
actually lead to future disasters even worse than what happened in the past two years -- to
mount a more serious challenge to corporate power.

The NSP conference presented four different variations on an amendment, from a one
sentence version already introduced by Congressional liberals John Conyers and Donna
Edwards ("The sovereign right of the people to govern being essential to a free democracy,
Congress and the States may regulate the expenditure of funds for political speech by any
corporation, limited liability company, or other corporate entity.") to a much lengthier one
based on the assumption that if the people of the US really want to restrain corporate power,
we can't rely on the strategy of a short statement that the Congress is supposed to implement,
but rather that we'll need to write the legislation into the Amendment itself.

Many people seemed most taken by the following version:

The Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment to the U.S.

(EERA)

Article One: Corporations are not and shall not be considered "persons" or given the
rights of individual human beings under the terms of the U.S. Constitution or the
constitutions of any state in this Union, nor shall Congress or the courts give them
similar rights or protections. The use of money in elections is not a protected form
of "speech" and Congress shall limit the amount of money spent on any election
campaign, lobbying or advertising to shape public opinion on any given piece of
legislation or issue, and shall require equal time from media or equal print space to
present the major alternatives in elections and ballot measures in the words of the
candidates or those supporting any ballot measure, and may take other steps to insure
that the American people are well-informed about the major alternative positions being
debated in American society on economic, environmental, health and health care,
corporation's environmental and ethical responsibilities, high-tech, science, defense,
human rights, child-rearing, elderly care, product and food safety, social justice, war and
peace, labor, wages, employment, housing, immigration, transportation, foreign policy,
nutrition, education, the legal system and prisons, and caring for each other issues, and
the worldviews and ethical and environmental values that lie behind the differences in
position, and informed of these alternative views by the advocates of the different
positions who must also be given adequate and equal time to explain their critiques of
the alternatives to the positions they hold.

Article Two: Congress shall require that any corporation with an income of over $100
million per year must obtain a new corporate charter once every five years, and that
charter will only be granted to those corporations that can prove a satisfactory history
of social, environmental and ethical responsibility to a grand jury of ordinary citizens.

Article Three: It is the responsibility of the United States Government and all its offices,
and all other state and local governments, to develop policies and implement them, for
the sake of enhancing the environmental sustainability of the planet and the well-being of
all people on the planet, including, but not limited to the well-being of all Americans.
Citizens may receive injunctive relief from policies that are environmentally destructive,
and Congress shall provide adequate funding for a judiciary sufficient to inquire
thoroughly about these alleged threats to the environment, hear the testimony from
different perspectives, and then issue relief to the impacted individuals or communities
as they may deem appropriate, and impose fines or imprisonment to corporations whose
boards have not taken adequate steps to protect the environment or government
officials who have been similarly negligent.

Article Four: Every educational institution in the U.S. from k-graduate or professional
school training shall require at least one course each year to train people on how to
become aware of the ethical issues faced in decision making in the various aspects of
daily life, the world of work, government, the military, police, the courts, the
corporations, banks and investment firms, the stock markets, educational institutions,
foreign policy, economic policies, human rights policies, health institutions, immigration
policies, and the pursuit of environmental sustainability, food and agricultural policies,
regional planning, and homeland security. This training shall allow for a variety of
perspectives on the ethical responsibilities that people hold not only to their clients but
also to the larger society, the entirety of humanity, and the sustainability and flourishing
of the natural environment of the Earth.

The second major focus was on the Global Marshall Plan. The NSP version (read it at
www.spiritualprogressives.org) calls for the US to take the lead by example in creating an
international consortium of advanced industrial societies, each of which would dedicate 1-2%
of their GDP each year for the next twenty to once and for all end global
poverty ,homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate health care, and repair the
global environment. Part of the plan involves changing the terms of international trade to
favor the poor instead of only the advanced industrial societies. Though few of the attendees
believe that such a plan could pass the present Congress, they argue that the anti-war
movement has been hobbled by only knowing what it is against, not what it is for, and the
Global Marshall Plan gives that positive vision. The NSP has consistently argued that it is the
Strategy of Generosity rather than the Strategy of Domination that is the most rational path to
achieve Homeland Security, and that the GMP could be funded by the same monies that will
be squandered in endless wars. While supporting the more limited ideas of the Millenium
Goals, NSPers argue that Americans are more likely to rally around a program that could in
fact end global poverty than one that only promises amelioration of the worst suffering in the
poorest of states, but not a fundamental transformation of the economics that continues to
maintain this situation. In late January, Congressman Keith Ellison introduced H.Res. 1016
which called on the President and the Congress to embrace this strategy of generosity for
homeland security.

The final part of the action program includes a petition to the President and the Congress to 1.
declare that the war on terror is over and refine rterror as apolice issue and terrorist as well
armed-criminals, not a threat to ournational survival 2. Support the EERA and the Global
Marshall Plan 3. Support "Medicare for Everyone" and require that any hospital or clinic
receiving US funds and any part of the US military and the US government use generic drugs
and purchase them wherever in the world they can be safely produced as the lowest cost 3.
Educaiton reform to teach students that what should count in life is to maximize our own and
each other's capacities tor be loving, kind, generous, caring for each other, ethically and
environmentally responsible, and filled with gratitude and awe at the grandeur of the
universe. 4. Articulate a fundamental worldview of generosity andcaring for others and make
it obvious how your decisions and policies and legislation flow directly form that worldview.

Of course, there were many concerns about how "realistic" this agenda was. And if we allow
ourselves to have "what is realistic" be defined by our media, our well-intentioned but inside-
the-beltway consciousness bent liberal elected officials tell us "what is realistic," not much can
change. The most significant changes have happened because the civil rights movement, the
anti-war movement, the Women's movement, and the GLBT movement refused to be realistic
in this sense. And precisely because they refused to be realistic they succeeded in changing
reality in dramatic ways. Or to put it in terms that should be on everyone's banner: you
cannot know what is realistic in politics until you engage in fierce struggle for your highest
ideals, because what looked unrealistic before you engage in that struggle can suddenly
become very realistic when others get the sense that it is safe for them too to fight for their
highest ideals. So to our politicians, we must insist: Don't be realistic -- be principled, and
even a little utopian -- because that is precisely what will make major steps toward amore
humane, just, peaceful and loving society possible.

The San Francisco Conference of Liberals and Progressives may not have changed the world--
but it did re-energize and give new hope to many who had previously felt defeated. If this can
be repeated in city after city around the U.S., we might not yet have to accept the
inevitability of a resurgent Right.

Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun Magazine (some of its articles can be read on line at
www.tikkun.org) and chair (with Cornel West and Sister Joan Chittister) of the Network of
Spiritual Progressives www.spiritualprogressives.org. He is the author of eleven books
including Healing Israel/Palestine and a 2006 national best seller: The Left Hand of God:
Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right. He can be reached at
RabbiLerner@Tikkun.org

Related News On Huffington Post:

 

More in Politics...

White House Tea Parties: Inside The 10 Olbermann Names

Launches Push Brewing Racial Personal Letters Bud Day 'World's
For Workplace Resentment Obama Reads... Worst Person'...
Flexibility

Comments 130 Pending Comments 0

 Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved
your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to

View Comments: Newest First Expand All

Page: 1 2 3  Next ›  Last »  (3 pages total)

jayhkatz I'm a Fan of jayhkatz permalink

Hi Michael. Class of '60 Weequaic. The Presidents got no guts and Rahm Emanuel Is a bad side kick.
So , what's the answer?

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 10:12 AM on 2/23/2010

esseff44 I'm a Fan of esseff44 2 fans permalink

I was at the conference in San Francisco. I was inspired by the speakers and I hope that
Rabbi Lerner will put them on a website for all to see. The rabbi spoke of the isolation that
many of us feel and the hunger for the kind of community that the tech boom stole from us
replacing it with a 'vitual community' and what has really become a lack of face-to-face interaction
where we can use all our senses to detect sincerity and genuineness. I have never felt so isolated and
it has transferred to all aspects of social interaction. This must be reversed. As a result of the
conference, some of us were able to form groups within our Congressional districts which will be
meeting face-to-face to work together to influence our Congress people and how they vote. They need
us and we need them to pay attention. As trite as it may sound, we need to be squeakier wheels. It
helps if our squeaks are in unison.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 01:03 AM on 2/20/2010

Anarcissie I'm a Fan of Anarcissie permalink

I guess I'm a hardened leftist (leftists being people who want more peace, freedom and equality than
they see around them). When Mr. O popped up as a presidential possibility, I read the small print on
the side of the box and found that he was more conservative (in more than one sense of the word)
than the Clintons. Once he had the nomination secured he moved even further to the Right, in fact to
the approximate position of the later, chastened Bush. He also adopted the Bush scheme of bailing
out the rich. By the time of the election we had two versions of Bush lite -- no surprise to us hardened
lefties, because we have an analysis of national politics which predicts just such developments.

The future is going to be difficult. I think you liberals or progressive s-who-aren't-leftists need to adapt
to hard times. You cannot recommend expensive programs to a country that is bankrupt. There is a
long list of evils to deal with, but you need to start at the top, which is the empire and its wars which are
bankrupting the country and driving its population crazy. Stop the wars, dismantle the empire, start to
repair the damage.

Understand that Mr. O is not going to do this. He's a war-and-empire sucker. You'll probably have to go
into the streets with us (ugh!) leftists.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 10:50 AM on 2/19/2010

research I'm a Fan of research 404 fans permalink

"In politics, left-wing, leftist and the Left are generally used to describe support for social
change with a view towards creating a more egalitarian society.[1][2]The terms Left and Right
were coined during the French Revolution, referring to the seating arrangement in
parliament; those who sat on the left generally supported the radical changes of the
revolution, including the creation of a republic and secularization.[3"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics

I prefer "Liberal" as having a more specific origin and definition: Democratic Republics and
the Enlightenment.

But That seem to make me a "Leftist" as well.

The problem is the Conservatives, then group in Communism and socialism which are NOT
Liberal at all.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 04:56 PM on 2/19/2010

jhbonmain I'm a Fan of jhbonmain permalink

You people are really scary.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 11:17 AM on 2/18/2010

jhbonmain I'm a Fan of jhbonmain permalink

You people scare me.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 11:15 AM on 2/18/2010

 CAPTAINSKIPPY I'm a Fan of CAPTAINSKIPPY 15 fans permalink

Seems like a thoughtful and sensible summary of progressive options after big disappointments
recently, except for the presence of the anguish felt for those who have an obituary much too soon.
We've lost more than time since January 2009.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 04:00 AM on 2/18/2010

judyinAK I'm a Fan of judyinAK permalink

Liberals absolutely need more organization. We're going to be totally overrun by conservatives
because even though they are so brain-washed and extreme on so many issues, they are very
organized. Someone said that organizing atheists is like herding cats and I think that's our problem.
Tell me what I can do, we really need to get our sh** together.

But I think this kind of wording is too "fluffy" and even though most of the core concepts are right on, it's
going to be hard to get a large movement going with it.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 03:58 AM on 2/18/2010

Cazie I'm a Fan of Cazie permalink

Liberals are the ones trying to brainwash..conservatives see through it! You guys like to think
you are "oh so much smarter" than the working man and woman. I work with you ultra
educated people, and when it comes to everyday problem solving most of you fall well below
average. They don't teach you life skills very well, do they. We don't want the country you have
envisioned for us. Like we say..If you don't like the America of our founders--LEAVE!!!

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 08:17 AM on 2/18/2010

idest I'm a Fan of idest 6 fans permalink

How offensive.

Why don't you read what the Founders wrote? You'll see that they were way
more "liberal" than almost any politician today.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 11:16 AM on 2/19/2010

There are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All

research I'm a Fan of research 404 fans permalink

good article.

The Founding Fathers were Liberals fighting against Conservatism.

Time to reclaim our heritage.

"America, the first modern liberal state was founded, without a monarch or a hereditary aristocracy.[8"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism

Conservatism was founded and continues to be for Destroying the Republic and the Democracy and
selling it to the plutocracy.

Conservatism was founded to undo the Enlightenment and the French revolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism

We cannot win till we understand what game we are playing.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 08:01 PM on 2/17/2010

olita I'm a Fan of olita 2 fans permalink

I attended this conference on Monday in San Francisco.

The message focused on the transcendent ideals of the Golden Rule. Those ideas won't fit
into simple sound bytes until we all get clear about core BELIEFS first, otherwise the debate dissolves
into arguments about tactics.

There are many people who feel humiliated and let down by what has happened (or more accurately
NOT happened) in Obama's first year. On a spiritual level we need to sit with that pain and grieve, that
isn't easy. Most people act out through angry "I'm never voting again" "all politicians are
crooks" "nothing ever changes" attitudes and blog postings; it's actually easier than feeling grief over
the loss of hope. We must remember that many before us have despaired in the face of loss and
prevailed anyway; think Mandela, MLK, and Gandhi etc. All great movements suffered tragic setbacks
and many movement leaders never lived to see their cause realized.

It's easy to bitch about what's wrong, the Right gives us plenty of distractions (Palin, Beck etc.) Facts
and figures don't matter in an argument with someone who already BELIEVES in their worldview; it's
true for the left and the right.
 So let's rally around our BELIEFS, let's proudly proclaim what kind of world we want to live in and what
kind of world we want to leave behind. It takes emotional courage to say you BELIEVE a world order
based on kindness, generosity and love is worth fighting for.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 07:53 PM on 2/17/2010

ChelseaC I'm a Fan of ChelseaC 361 fans permalink

You had better believe I won't vote for him again.

Fool me once.................I don't give politicians a second chance.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 11:14 PM on 2/17/2010

dogdiva I'm a Fan of dogdiva 41 fans permalink

Since you obviously appreciate clarity and black and white decisions, here's a little
fact for you. If Obama is the only Democrat in the race, you're "withholding" will be a
vote to put the Republican in office. Simple as that. You obviously feel comfortable
supporting the antithesis of what your values are...Obama's extreme centrism is
worse than the conservative agenda.

It's good your so clear.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 10:49 AM on 2/19/2010

There are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All

dogdiva I'm a Fan of dogdiva 41 fans permalink

I think I agree. It is about core beliefs. I fully support a message that asks people to work for
the kind of country they want to live in and who, as a people, they want to be. It's a
conversation with the country I thought Obama had the gift to have. There are, I believe, only a
minority of people who ever knew or still remember what Democratic ideals used to be.

I differ with the mission statement of this group over semantics and emphasis. I have no
doubt there is a community of people who would respond to a message that employs 'love'
and 'peace'. Nothing at all has prevented that message from going out from the pulpits of
every major denomination. Many have chosen not to focus on that one assumes because
they don't want to offend some people in their flock.

My problem is with the language. The political climate in the past decade tells me very clearly
that bringing a messsage of peace and love to a confrontation will be akin to bringing a
butter knife to a gun fight. You can leave the door for compromise open a crack, but you have
to get their attention first.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 11:05 AM on 2/19/2010

citizenbfk I'm a Fan of citizenbfk 4 fans permalink

Maybe just work on proposal #1 and don't get lost in too much abstract thought and too
many words.

You want to support President Obama: Stop the genocide in Gaza, stop the expansion of settlements.

Focus on such concrete realities. Also: No war with Iran.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 07:07 PM on 2/17/2010

Doubledoot I'm a Fan of Doubledoot 14 fans permalink

What the liberal progressive movement seems to lack is focus. Look at that laundry list of things you
couldn't get two people to agree on ! The short sweet sentence that countermands the Supreme Court
ruling on corporate campaign funding is much prefered. To me it has a lot less to do with ethics than it
does with rights. Basically , whether we have any rights or not. If this ruling is allowed to stand : we
don't have any rights ! The rest is window dressing ! End world hunger ; promote world
peace ......come on ! Get real ! While those things are admirable and desireable we won't get
anywhere unless and until the basic question of Democracy or No Democracy is answered in the
afirmative. It is easier to just let the corporations run everything rather than suffer , fight and die for
Freedom ! At least; I think that is what the average citizen Q public thinks. So, the Liberal Progessive
needs to understand : This is not a call for peace and all the other soft fuzzy things on those lists
above ! This is a call for WAR and we have to be willing to fight it and win back our freedom or die
trying ! Focus lads; Focus !

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 06:30 PM on 2/17/2010

Vandehey I'm a Fan of Vandehey permalink

What you lack is jobs, lives and maturity.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 08:27 PM on 2/18/2010

idest I'm a Fan of idest 6 fans permalink

Is that why it is predominantly red states that take welfare from the government?
Give me a break.
     Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 11:20 AM on 2/19/2010

kwijibo I'm a Fan of kwijibo 11 fans permalink

A 2,800 word column that boils down to three of the biblical ten commandments.

Thank you for your eloquent elucidation, rabbi. I know of at least a few people who will
immediately tune out any potential life lesson, no matter how valid, if they think it came from scripture.
You've placed it in accessible language that any proud liberal can understand.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 06:17 PM on 2/17/2010

pclark200 I'm a Fan of pclark200 permalink

I am one of your angry liberals, and I did not think Obama was going to "save" us. I did think he was
being truethful in his election stance. I was wrong. This chance of a lifetime to make a shift back to an
equitable ecconomic base and a national concern for human rights is being squandered. I don't need
an intervention to reduce my anger! I need the president to follow through on his promises.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 04:43 PM on 2/17/2010

carranza I'm a Fan of carranza permalink

Yes, it has been just 12 months and the best hope there is left is : MAYBE SOME THINGS
CAN BE DONE IN THE NEXT 3 YEARS. Then, just maybe.

And then more Republican government, even Pallin ... God forbid.

Come on, Obambi, you still can resign and go back to good old Chicago. Guess old Bidden
has more liberal guts than the polite guy somebody depicted as "the last bipartisan
republican"

We didn´t vote for politeness bipartisanship. We voted liberal.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 06:17 PM on 2/17/2010

ChelseaC I'm a Fan of ChelseaC 361 fans permalink

pclark200,
well said.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 11:16 PM on 2/17/2010

Vandehey I'm a Fan of Vandehey permalink

What is this "equitable economic base" that you speak of? For a group of people always
claiming to be the "party of science" you guys sure do ignore some fundamental biological
differences in humans.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 08:30 PM on 2/18/2010

Billl I'm a Fan of Billl 53 fans permalink

Voters have a chance to vote for enough canidates in November to change Washington by voting for
candidates that will enact prepackaged legislation, which every voter could see before voting, which
will fix financial regulations and health care to benefit citizens and taxpayers instead of pirates and
intrenched legislators.

Including Elizabeth Warren version of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency for protecting
consumers, reinstating Glass-Steagle which successfully protected banks and their customers for fifty
years before its repeal in 1999 would break up banks, repealing Grahm-Leach-Bliley to eliminate the
unbridled use of financial schemes of mass destruction, repealing the unlimited Christmas
guarantees given to Fannie and Freddie, enacting the pending legislation to audit the Fed, and make
AIG’s records available for public review.

Eliot Spitzer should be put in charge of a federal squad of Untouchables to perform hard nosed audits
and investigations of Wall Street and Washington which will ascertain what roll criminal activity has
had in the destructive behavior which has decimated individual wealth, political fairness, and the
United States Treasury.

Health fix; two systems private or public options.

Universal Government Health Care delivering free care from government hospitals, paid for by sales
taxes instead of insurance, could save $1Trillion Dollars a year by giving free care to all 300 million
people in the United States from the $2.6 Trillion spent last year

Everyone could choose either free public care from government hospitals or to purchase and use
private care from private hospitals they like.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 04:26 PM on 2/17/2010

Jerome Weiss I'm a Fan of Jerome Weiss permalink

The recent Supreme Court decision concerning money in politics should have
been a warning and should have caused more public discussion and outrage
than it has. The fact that it has not is scary and clearly indicatess that our
 democracy is in serious trouble. In fact it demonstrates that it has changed to a
plutocracy .Where are We the People? .

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 11:31 PM on 2/17/2010

ChelseaC I'm a Fan of ChelseaC 361 fans permalink

Jerome,
I hear you.
Fanned.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 11:55 PM on 2/17/2010

Vandehey I'm a Fan of Vandehey permalink

Yep. And if the voters don't vote for liberals, will you get the message, or will you twist it like
you always do?

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 08:32 PM on 2/18/2010

RevJimIII I'm a Fan of RevJimIII 24 fans permalink

Federal squad of untouchables? No accountability? Outside the bounds of law?

As for healthcare, when has the government been able to run anything efficiently?

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 03:41 AM on 2/21/2010

dogdiva I'm a Fan of dogdiva 41 fans permalink

Well, lets try the enormous Medicare program for one. 3% administration cost and
people in it will fight tooth and nail to keep it.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 07:43 AM on 2/21/2010

VermontTraveler I'm a Fan of VermontTraveler permalink

The first thing we have to understand is that what we are now calling the "liberal movement" really isn't
a liberal movement. In the not too distant past, the liberal movement was fact-based and open-
minded. We could look at skin color, for example, and say that it is a fact that the color of one's skin
does not make one intrinsically inferior. With that fact in mind, after listening to any opposing views, we
could seize the high moral ground and pour our energy into correcting a social wrong.

What is today laughingly called the "liberal movement" cares less about facts than about "rights', and
spends more time trying to marginalize those who disagree than about searching for the truth.

We have become little better than our stereotype of the right wing. We are close-minded. We invent
rights and "facts" to back up our previously conceived positions. And we attempt to demonize those
who will not go along.

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 04:09 PM on 2/17/2010

dogdiva I'm a Fan of dogdiva 41 fans permalink

I'm not sure of your point. It appears you have not included enough facts to back up your
indictment.
Is this pertaining to all the current liberal arguments? How do you believe Roosevelt or
Truman might have dealt with Limbaugh or Beck or Dobson?

    Reply     Favorite     Flag as abusive Posted 04:51 PM on 2/17/2010

Page: 1 2 3  Next ›  Last »  (3 pages total)
 You must be logged in to comment. Log in  or connect with 

Search

HOME POLITICS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT SPORTS  COMEDY BUSINESS LIVING STYLE GREEN

TECHNOLOGY WORLD BOOKS IMPACT N.Y. L.A. CHICAGO DENVER  VIDEO  BLOGGER INDEX

Advertise | Make HuffPost your Home Page | RSS | Careers | Job Search | FAQ: Comments & Moderation | FAQ: Huffpost Accounts | Contact Us

Copyright © 2010 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | Archive | User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | Powered by Movable Type