General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The DemocraticUnderground can say things the Democratic Party cannot say. [View all]dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)"But no one should be felt to believe they have to defend Holder because he is a Democrat and the President wants him to stay in his position."
I don't think Holder is a Democrat. I know he used to be a Republican. Did he ever change that? Not to my knowledge. If anyone has evidence I would be interested, I googled it a little and it wasn't obvious.
Another that people assume is a Democrat but isn't (she admitted this on Colbert's show) is Justice Kagan. Probably others we're not aware of too. Kagan would not say what her party identity is, but said people would be surprised to learn that she "believes in the constitution", which could be innocent enough, or it could have been meant in the way the right-wing justices use that phrase.
But generally to your question, it's a good one. I certainly agree with where you're coming from.
I think it really goes to who owns and runs this site. I've never felt support of the Underground part of the site's name from the site's owners, they seem to me to just be party supporters rather than party principle supporters (it should be the same but obviously isn't). There have been a number of people that I considered the very best representatives of what this party is supposed to be about banned from this site for refusing to toe the line. Others have left because of the constant attacks of the party apologista.
Personally, I don't consider Obama a Democrat. I know he calls himself one, but that isn't enough for me. Arlen Spector, Chafee, Lieberman, anyone can apparently call themselves a Democrat, and that garners them some protection on this site regardless of what they really are. That's an issue I would like to see corrected on this site, it should be about actual positions more than about what party someone says they are, IMO.
So I don't know, I like where you're coming from, but I don't know if it's actually where this site is coming from. If not, it should be. It is, after all, about the policies, not the politicians, otherwise we're all just rooting for laundry, to quote Seinfeld in a team sports analogy.
If we're just here to support whatever positions the corporate leaders of the party try to shove down our throats, we have no business using Underground in our site's name.