Some advice for potential democratic candidates to consider

[sui generis]

(from my SO, this is really not an anti-democratic message or third party campaigning, just a glimpse into the M & R morning coffee & bagel talk show)

174 Democrats voted to renew the Patriot act = 174 advocates for meekly compromising to eliminate our precious freedoms.

19 Democratic Senators voted for cloture on Alito = 19 nails in the coffin
of a woman’s right to choose.

156 Democrats voted to authorize the use of force against Iraq = 156
IEDs that have helped to kill nearly 3,000 U.S. soldiers who died for a lie, and contributed to the deaths of countless tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, men, women, and children.

Democrats who continue to vote to fund that war are just more IEDs
killing more U.S. soldiers, and killing more men, women and children just trying survive until morning.

118 Democratic Representatives voted for DOMA in 1996 = 118 knives in the back of your true blue GLBT supporters and their allies, friends, and families.

With Democrats like this, who can be counted on time and again to vote their
conscience and back the conservative right-wing agenda, who needs Republicans?

With a majority of Democrats like that in both Houses, why should we possibly
expect anything to change?

We are NOT going to win in November by NOT losing.

Democratic candidates who want to win handily on core principle and on clarity of purpose, you need to offer a clear alternative to the other guy. You need to know what you stand for and mean it and say it, because we, your likely supporters, know what we stand for.

[Warpy]

1. Good advice. Don't expect spineless DLC wimps to take it.

We need candidates like Gov. Schweitzer of Montana. We need candidates who will stand up for populist economics, core principles, and social justice.

We don't need candidates who stand up for business as usual, a form of "free" trade that costs us our jobs and gives us nothing in return but cheap consumer crap that breaks in two weeks from Walmart. We don't need candidates who mouth generalities about our rights and then stab us in the back when some religious right wack job wants to force us into his idea of moral rectitude. We don't need place holders who sit in office and do nothing but raise funds for their next campaigns while watching their fat pensions accrue and their portfolios fatten on the tips only Congressmen who play ball with the super rich get.

It's time for a change. If the party doesn't realize that, it's time to kick the party to the curb and find a better one.

[sui generis]

2. well that plummetted like a rock

thanks for the nom!

Odd thing, to see how the split in our electorate falls out at votin' time. For every pro-choice dem who votes together with an anti-choice dem we've lost two potential votes to protect women's health and human rights.

They cancel each other out but if both had been pro-choice it would have counted as two votes for.

Same thing on any other "fault line" issue within our party. We're fighting ourselves, first and foremost, and that's why we really have to decide who and what we are and stick to it.