Reply #34: litmus tests

[welshTerrier2]

i'm not sure what to make of your "forever tarnished and irredeemable" phrase ... we just went through and election where many DU'ers held genuine disdain for Kerry's Iraq vote and yet DU was strongly in the ABB camp ... sounds like a pretty pragmatic group to me ... don't you think ?? but I do think current anger at the party is somehow different ...

perhaps you are correct to state that it is not uncommon on DU to "kingmake and then pauperize a politician" ... i often think there is far too much focus on celebrity (i.e. the individual politician) here and not enough focus on the issues themselves ... too often we get caught up in skirmishes and don't spend enough time on the big picture ... frankly, it's too much politics and not enough substance ...

but this leads to the issue of "litmus tests" and a discussion of where we are now ... something like 55% of those DU'ers who voted in yesterday's poll said they were going to leave the Democratic Party ... perhaps much of that sentiment derived from yesterday's activities on the election fraud vote in the Congress ... but I think the frustrations run much deeper than that ... this is not only about specific Democratic politicians; this is about the Democratic Party as a whole ...

there are several key "litmus tests" that the Democratic Party is failing ... first, the "invasion and occupation" in Iraq ... while many "excused" Kerry's misguided IWR vote, how can we excuse a party that continues to support the madness over there ??!!

many DU'ers post regularly about corporatism and the destruction that large multi-national corporations are doing to our democracy ... we hear this from DU'ers; we do not hear much on this from the Democratic Party ... this disconnect does not bode well for the party' future ... this is not some wacky left-wing conspiracy theory ... far too often these views are labelled as "left-wing" or "extreme" like there's something more than just good old common sense involved ... is it left-wing to observe that big money is corrupting our democratic institutions ??!! all we are asking for is a fair system of government that provides reasonably equal access to all its citizens and doesn't put the government up for sale ...

and one final litmus test: the whole issue of election fraud ... DU'ers poured their souls, their time and their money into this last election ... we understood that there could be no limits on the effort to seize control of the country from the forces of evil ... everyday we see the destruction that bush and the neo-cons are doing to our country and our way of life ... and so, it should come as no surprise that DU'ers set a very high standard for Democrats to stand up and speak for them on this issue ... and it should come as no surprise that there is great frustration, regardless of past records, when so many did not ...

the Democratic Party may recover from the damage it's done to its base, but I believe they are still unaware of the deep disgust many feel with them ... i think the ABB movement has given them a confidence they should not assume continues to exist ... we compromised once; it should not be assumed that we will do so again ... these are very dangerous times for the Democratic Party and they are failing the test ... to see the attitudes of DU'ers as daily flip-flopping that leads to whiplash may be missing a much deeper, much more long-term erosion of support for the party ...