First time poster here from Bellevue, Nebraska, though I've been reading Daily Kos for several years. I'm a life-long progressive who is heartsick, and fed up, at the way the Democrats handled themselves in this botched 2014 election cycle.
You know something is wrong when one of the few Democratic wins in the country this past Tuesday happened in our 2nd Congressional District in supposedly all-red Nebraska, though Omaha is still a bastion for Democrats when they have someone to rally behind. Brad Ashford (D) wiped the floor up with Lee Terry (R) in this election, and it's too bad that he didn't also flush Terry down the john. I don't know that I could name a more worthless toady than Lee Terry...he voted for anything the Repub's brought to the floor and he's never been known to use a single brain cell in his entire career.
For 16 years we've tried to get him out of Washington, and he finally did himself in with his "Damn straight! I've got a nice house and a kid in college" quote on national TV during the government shutdown. He voted to suspend pay for everyone else, but he wasn't going to go without it. Heartless, clueless, spineless, and dumber than a bag of hammers...that's been Nebraska's representation in the House.
The 1st Congressional District candidate, Jeff Fortenberry, acts and looks like a department store mannequin. Since Bellevue, Nebraska was gerrymandered into the 1st with Lincoln, Nebraska, I have hopes that one day we can vote him out, but it wasn't this election. We're stuck with him for another two years.
Democrats have to get their fire back. They need to be fiercely progressive, and they need to communicate that message to the voters. They also need to stop dissing the President, and, the President needs to get out there and fight instead of being so laid back. He absolutely must win back the people to turn things around for 2016. I'm tired of seeing him not shout out what he's done.
And, I'm tired of the media not reporting the truth. I want to see more Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who flat out speak the truth. This is what the country needs and what energizes the voters.