Reply #35: Trying to stay in office is what politicians do?

[Asgaya Dihi]

Isn't that in itself a big part of the problem?

Some people don't like this idea, but to me, better to stand up for what you believe in and lose than to compromise basic values and win. The any dem at any cost idea has always struck me as a good part of why we're in this mess to start with.

Most of the public is today against the war, most are for single payer health care, most are on the same side as the progressives on an increasing number of issues and if our leaders had just stuck to what we've always claimed were our core values the elections should be a lock. But instead they've compromised, equivocated, and straddled that fence till it's no longer a clear choice. It's our war too, it's our torture too, it's our connections with lobbyists, corporate control and the developing surveillance society too.

What they've accomplished is nothing less than to deprive us of clear choices, and choices that according to the polls should be winners if they just had the courage to stand up for them.

This isn't the first time this type of thing has happened. Look at the racial balance in our prisons, think about the voting patterns those population groups traditionally had, then consider what several million of them being disenfranchised would have on our elections. Not just Florida in 2000 but in many elections nationwide over the years. When they jumped on Nixon's and Reagan's drug war to show that they could be tough too they were also deciding that they really didn't want to win elections anymore. They just didn't realize it.

Should have done what's right, not what was popular or easy. Any dem at any cost? Even equivocating, damaging ones? Not for me. I'd rather lose an election that leaves the OTHER side responsible for the mess and us as the clear choice to fix it when the next election rolls around. As long as we play their game instead, we lose. As a party and as a nation.