Ted Rall: At Some Point, Progressives Need to Grow a Pair and Stop Having Anything To Do With... [View all]

[unrepentant progress]

Ted Rall: At Some Point, Progressives Need to Grow a Pair and Stop Having Anything To Do With the Democratic Party

You don’t have to be clairvoyant to see that the next presidential election promises nothing for liberals but more of the same: dismay, disappointment and disgust — in no small part with themselves.

Hillary Clinton, a conservative warmonger ideologically indistinguishable from Dwight Eisenhower, will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee. But she isn’t really a Democrat. Traditionally, Democrats were pro-worker; she and her husband pushed through NAFTA, GATT, the WTO and a slew of free-trade scams that have destroyed American jobs and depressed salaries. Democrats cared about the poor; Hillary has never so much as suggested a substantial anti-poverty initiative. Democrats aren’t supposed to invade sovereign countries for the hell of it; Clinton repeatedly pushed WMD lies, voted to invade Iraq and still hasn’t apologized for the two million Iraqis whose deaths for which she shares responsity. Democrats want single-payer healthcare; instead, she created the template for Obamacare, which keeps rates high to protect insurance company profits.

Yet in today’s “Democratic” Party, Hillary is “inevitable.”

Yes, the highly resuméed, slightly accomplished ex-senator could face a challenge from the left. But not a real one. Even if party bosses allow an actual primary process (they did not in 2012), any primary challenge will be symbolic and impotent (hello Bernie Sanders), poorly funded and sad, raising the faded, tattered flag of liberalism in a quixotic bid to coat Hill’s coronation with a veneer of small-d democratic legitimacy.

More: http://rall.com/2014/07/03/syndicated-column-at-some-point-progressives-need-to-grow-a-pair-and-stop-having-anything-to-do-with-the-democratic-party

I quite agree with Rall about the current state of the Democratic Party. It's been this way ever since the 1970s, although the 1990s were a sea change. But what are you going to do? Vote another madman like Dubya or McCain in?

Personally I've accepted that the Presidency is beyond hope for a good long time, so I vote strategically. I live in a red state with no chance in hell that Hillary, or anyone else to the left of a rabid raccoon, could win. So I write in my heart's desire -- Green, Socialist, whomever. Same thing if I lived in an eterna-blue state. However, if I lived in one of the battleground states, you can bet your bippy I'd be pulling that lever for whomever the saner candidate is -- which almost by definition means the Democratic candidate.

Meanwhile, I try to work where I can to get more liberal candidates into offices at home. Maybe someday down the line they'll hold offices with real power, maybe not. But for now it's all I can do, and at least I don't have to feel like I've sold my soul or as if I've enabled another Hitler.