Bill Maher, follow-up in his own words via youtube.
To a certain extent, I agree with what Bill saying here. And it was the same thing during the Clinton Era, which is why the Green Party tried so hard to get the 5% it needed during the 2000 elections.
Democrats aren't liberals, and neither are Pelosi, Reid, or Obama. I'm a progressive. I'm not represented in government. My family and friends are progressives. We do NOT like the Democrats, its just that we DISLIKE the Republicans more.
Bill Maher was right this past weekend when he said the political shift of those in office is center right. I donÂ’t however think that the public is center right, which may explain why congress has had such low approval ratings for such a long period of time.
Maher was right when he said that if there were actual liberals in power who could explain to the public that something like universal health care will benefit this nation as a whole, people will support it. However what the Dems are proposing is a joke, because they, like the Republicans are too much in the pocket of the special interest groups that aren't interested in change.
We have had 30 years of conservative rule in this country. I am sorry but Clinton was not a liberal. Many of these policies over the past 30 years have been proven a failure. The last real domestic liberal was Lyndon Johnson. Conservatives would like to rip liberal polices at their core saying they don't work, however the other side of the story is that while in power they did everything in their power to tear down the polices. Liberal polices never stood a real chance to work. They all would be unwound before they even were able to gain real traction.
Conservative polices however have had plenty of traction, plenty of time and very little opposition because they have been no strong liberals in opposition who has had the fortitude to unwind them. From our fiscal policies, to our foreign policies, healthcare, education, labor, energy, what is there in these policies that we can say worked over the past 30 years? Okay maybe half credit on the fall of the Soviet Block, but everything else has been a failure.
A vast majority of Americans have not benefited from the polices of conservative rule in this country. Our economy collapsed, our energy policy is written by oil execs, our health care system is controlled by insurance companies and drug companies, our labor force has seen a decline in wages, our cost of living has gone up, we have ignored the importance of educating our children, our roads and rail systems are falling apart. When the party in power has such a disdain for government, they will do everything in their power to destroy the very function of government just to prove their point that government doesn't work, the real victim is the public.
It is time for this nation to adopt real progressive policies, and turn the page on 30 years of conservative rule. And for all you Democrats out there, sorry to say, you aren't the progressive ones, so stop trying to claim you are. Show me something to prove me otherwise. Steamroll through a universal healthcare package. Write up a strong Wall Street restructure and regulation legislation. Renovate our public schools, make college affordable, take the energy power away from the oil lobby, invest in technology and science, end the war on drugs, legalize weed (And all drugs really).
Do all these things to prove you are really progressive, then maybe I will become a Democrat. Oh yeah, and don't let the conservatives control the argument. Don't worry about deficits, because if we make these changes our nation will be vastly more prosperous