Reply #35: Thanks. I'm thinking of posting some version of my rant as a separate

[Nothing Without Hope]

thread. (What do you think?) I think Dem complicity is a possibility that we cannot dismiss and must build into our plans. It doesn't mean we give up, but it DOES mean that we don't make certain optimistic assumptions about the behavior of the Dem leadership or individual congresspeople. We don't put ourselves into positions where betrayals are unexpected and therefore especially devastating.

Shades of grey - and we need to push them toward the lighter shades at the same time that we take this story to the PEOPLE. The whole sleight-of-hand GOP treason trick is predicated on silence and distraction. We need to turn over the trick table and show the secret machinery. The American people will not tolerate it if they know -- but it's looking like the Dem leadership will NOT tell them. It's up to us.

One of the careful balances to be maintained is to be realistic without losing hope or becoming so angry that no effective planning can be done based on the people and system we have to start with. I don't believe that trying to run with a 3rd party right now, jettisoning everything in the Dems, would be a winning strategy. So we have to be tough, smart, alert and loud.

We cannot allow the silence do its planned job of cementing the corruption into place permanently.