Thanks to recent diaries here at DKos we have been warned to watch out for politicians that fly a progressive flag, but are secret enemies of the Progressive Party. And almost every one of these enemies of the Progressive Party that have been rightfully exposed here at DKos are Democrats! Yes that's right, and as one Rec-List diary pointed out recently, even Sen. Al Franken is highly suspect.
And now, a revelation that is going to blow. your. mind. The enemies of the Progressive Party are not ALL Democrats... the one person we once thought of as THE single most progressive member of the Senate, and the very embodiment of the Progressive Party, Senator Bernie Sanders... has SOLD US OUT!
True Facts and other Progressive Party Truthiness below the squiggle.
I hope my fellow Progressive Party Kossacks are aware of Bernie's vote Wednesday on the Senate spending bill to cover the rest of the year. Sen. Sanders, along with most Democrats (sworn enemies of the Progressive Party, every one) voted "YEA!"
This bill locks-in the sequester. It includes $366 million in cuts to Head Start, a million federal workers will have their pay cut as much as 35%, $3 Billion in cuts to public education, endorses the Keystone XL pipeline, $50 million to get us involved in yet another war in Syria, and ON AND ON! It's a nightmare for progressive causes!
And guess who voted "YEA"? Don't believe me? Here's the Senate Record:
http://www.senate.gov/...
Sweet Jesus even third-way-DLC-tool-of-the-bankers Harry Reid managed to vote against it! (Along with a number of other Democrats, no doubt struck by a fleeting moment of conscience!)
Need more proof of Bernies perfidy?
The site below has a list of the so called "Progressive" caucus, of which Bernie Sanders is one of the most prominent, certainly a philosophical leader, and the only Senator. Note that, other than Bernie, EVERY ONE of the other members is a Democrat! There is not a single member of the Progressive Party on this list!
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/...
(Don't take my word for it, look it up, not a single Progressive Party member, only Democrats, and recent diaries have educated us on what THAT party stands for!)
In the words of one article:
With the appropriations bill out of the way, Congress is now proceeding to its main order of business: the drafting of a budget that will slash hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
http://www.wsws.org/...
We all know what's next. The nefarious Democrats compromise EVERYTHING and those changes to the budget, unlike every other budget before this, are set in stone for all eternity.
True that Social Security and other programs have been changed hundreds of times in thousands of ways since inception, by every congress that has come before. But don't be fooled, going to a chained CPI, which really has the least effect near term, but since it will never be changed (even as the ranks of the best represented demographic swell with the retirement of the baby boomers) eventually grandma will get a bill, not a check, from Social Security.
And you better keep an eye on the enemies of the Progressive Party, like Sanders and Franken. I can guarantee you both of those guys will compromise as fast, if not faster, than anyone on chained CPI, if they think the overall deal is good. The bastards!
[Minor grammar edit to remove double "the", 03/23/14 9:27AM]
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Epilog, 12:49 AM 03/24/2013. Thank you for playing. Yes this IS snark. The fact that it was snark, intended to be Stephen Colbert-ish, but that people HAD to ask, is testament to how far the wingnut left has come to mirror, IN A FUCKING HORRIBLE WAY the wingnut right. But that's just my opinion, of course. Yet when the general population can't tell the difference between the rhetoric and clear cut attempts to mock your rhetoric, it might be time to re-evaluate your message.
Not that I got that across, the lesson I take away is how bad I remain at communication. I was clearly too clever by half. (5.00 x 10^-1 to be precise), and in so many ways.
For the record:
Sorry to the very real and very cool Vermont Progressive Party. I was not talking about you when I referred to the mythical "Progressive Party" that seems to exist in the minds of many.
Bernie Sanders is way down at THIRD on my list of favorite Senators. I've yet to disagree with anything he has said. First fave is my state senator, Babara Mikulski. (Dig deep enough? You'll find where she's NOT as progressive as you want!)
Second is Al Franken. I probably listened to every word (God help me!) that he uttered on Air America. And the s.o.b. got a lot of my hard earned cash to become a Senator. (And he's askin' for MORE for next time!) Franken has not been nearly as funny as what many of us paid for. He gets all damn emotional, much like Boehner, but Franken does it over real stuff.