A long transformation...

[kentuck]

For a while in the 1990's, I became very disenchanted with Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party. I changed my registration to "Independent" in protest. I did not like the NAFTA and GATT treaties. I did not like what transpired at Waco. There were other "compromises" and legislation that I did not agree with, such as Telecommunications Bill, Welfare Reform Act, etc.

But, in 1998, I decided to run for Congress from Colorado's 5th District and changed my registration back to the Democratic Party. It was a futile effort but something I thought needed to be done. This was at the height of the Lewinsky "scandal". I did not win but I got it out of my system. Reality intervened. If I wanted to run again, I would have to move to another more favorable district. I had no intention of doing that.

When George W Bush stole the election in 2000, it was a very frightening moment for me personally. I could see the dark clouds ahead of us. Eventually, that led me to join the DemocraticUnderground about March or April of 2001. I felt it was necessary to tell the people the truth about what was happening with our government. I did not join the underground to share thoughts or to make friends. I joined to spread the gospel. I joined to fight the bastards the only way that was left us at the time.

We survived. Barely. After 8 years of Bush and Cheney, we found ourselves barely holding on as a nation. Almost broke, morally and monetarily, we turned to a brilliant young African-American named Barack Obama to lead us out of the depths to which we had sunk. He promised change "that we could believe in". We needed to hear that very, very much. Perhaps we would make it after all?

The death of Senator Ted Kennedy has brought my politics full circle. I cannot settle for anymore "politics as usual". I can no longer support politicians that are bought by the corporations. I cannot compromise any longer with those Democrats that vote like Republicans, to the detriment of us all. If the present Democratic Party cannot pass healthcare reform that Senator Kennedy could support, then I cannot support that Democratic Party any longer. I will be leaving once again. I will join a Party that represents the people or I will belong to no Party.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Like these guys said. K&R

"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all." --Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 1789.

"Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office,...to take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man." --Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, 1795.

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." --John Quincy Adams

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Funny. My wife & I were just talking about trying to get a leftist group going.

My suggestion for a name was the Red Green Society. We could call our party headquarters Possum Lodge.

[kentuck]

3. Only if you are serious...

Otherwise.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. We are serious.

I just couldn't resist throwing in the Red Green thing.

We have a local group of progressives (leftover Deaniacs from 2004 who have just kept on going like the Energizer Bunny), and figured to mine them for our initial membership.

[kentuck]

5. I will probably join Bernie Sanders' Party.

The Democratic Socialists. If the present Democratic Party continues its slide into corporatism.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. That's pretty much what we were thinking.

Wisconsin, BTW, has an old tradition of electing Demcratic Socialists. Mayors of Milwaukee for many years, up into the 60's or so, were Socialists. And across the northern part of the state, the Scandinavian immigrants, particularly the Finns, were socialists.

[Laelth]

7. Hear, hear.

Bill Clinton was the greatest Republican President since Eisenhower. I supported him, then, as the lesser of two evils, but it appears to me now that the Democratic Party has become the equal of two evils. In the immortal words of Teddy Kennedy, "The last thing this country needs is two Republican Parties."

It appears the Democratic Party has abandoned those of us on the left. What choice do we have but to seek out allies who share our views?

:dem:

-Laelth

[kentuck]

8. I think it makes it more difficult...

whenever a Democrat follows a particularly incompetent and worthless partisan, like George W Bush, Democrats expect their leaders to make a dramatic change from those policies. To a large extent, many expected Bill Clinton to do that after he succeeded Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. Those expectations never seem to be met.