Reply #49: Well there are obvious exceptions...

[MessiahRp]

namely Lieberman and Zell Meller... but otherwise we should try to support our Democratic candidates in general and try to support the candidates we feel represent us as closely as possible throughout the primaries.

I guess what pisses people off is that there are Greens and Independents who would either not vote or vote for someone without a shred of a chance in order to make some sort of statement. The statement though is always ignored and you just chucked your voice out the window because neither candidate will work harder to listen to your views if you're not going to support them with your vote.

And in these close elections where the third party candidate has no shot these same people tend to bitch non-stop about the candidates and not vote, even if the Democrat is closer to their views on 90% of the issues.

A lot of people feel like they're performing some sort of political martyrdom by refusing to vote or support Democrats when it's clear their guy wouldn't win the race with tons more help.

Now if your guy is in the race and it's close, I can't fault you for supporting who you feel represents you best. But in the larger picture you can't nitpick about every single issue being a match with your own, you have to choose the greater good. I as much as anyone hate that this is the system we have but unless some laws are passed to dissolve how elections are run here a viable third party will be a pipedream in major elections.

At lower levels like city and state government, that's where a Green or Independent party should be working hard to increase their election wins and visibility so that when it comes time for these national races they can put up viable candidates with real government experience, rather than someone with name recognition and money (i.e. Nader, Ventura, Ross Perot, etc).

In the interim I believe in putting my effort into reforming the Democratic party to work for the common people and to move away from being a corporate sponsored enterprise (which it isn't entirely but there are a few like Chuck Schumer and the Clintonites who cling to that).

There are obviously things everyone here on DU have in common with Democrats. If we work together in national races to push the party vote to the left wing candidates we can make a change. And hopefully the domino effect will push those candidates to pass real election reform that opens the doors for third and fourth party candidates to make real headway in the future.

For right now though, it is what it is.

There are always going to be crazies like Zell Miller and Joe Liebermans in a progressive party. Progress is to move forward and some people joined when they were considered progressive and now have stopped progressing. They get left in the dust of the "good ol' days of the party" while we all move forward.

We can continue to move forward but it will take everyone with similar views, Dems, Greens and Independents alike to think with some clarity and make it happen. We should be working together and using the issues we agree upon to set forth an agenda of change. Instead we fight and bicker and work against each other. All the while the right which also has two camps (fiscal conservatives and neo (social christian) conservatives) put aside their differences to vote for their guys in election. They do it no matter how bad their guys are.

So while we in-fight and splinter our vote and our voice, they vote in unison and appear to have a unified message while we do not.

This is what frustrates many of us.

If I am incoherent I apologize. I am trying to write as I think this through.

Rp