Reply #15: This is a Kerry-bashing thread?

[Bill Todd]

I thought it was an ABB thread: that's certainly what the original post is, albeit voicing what I'd consider to be entirely appropriate distaste at feeling one has no option but to take that tack.

So I felt it appropriate to make it clear that there's no reason whatsoever to think one has to take that tack 7 months before the general election. And I'll be inclined to make that response every time I stumble upon another ABB thread that seems utterly ignorant of the possibility that we don't have to settle for the current Kerry at this point in time: we instead can work to bring him, and the party, around before the election to eliminate the need to make an unpalatable choice on November 2nd (and the way things are going right now, any choice then looks like it's shaping up to be unpalatable).

Being a newcomer to DU, I've been keeping an eye out to see what more seasoned participants who seem to feel largely as I do have been doing on the organizing front, but have yet to find anything. Perhaps that simply indicates that DU is all talk and no action, which would hardly be unusual - but I'd still expect to see an occasional pointer to a more activist site if that's the case. I suppose there's always the option of actively supporting Nader or Kucinich, but the former doesn't directly address my desire for change within the Democratic party and the latter seems too likely to result in just a pat on the head and a brush-off at the convention.

But even if DU is all talk, it still seems like an appropriate place for people who disagree with the current attitude of Kerry and the party to make that public: there's not much tolerance for doing so at the DNC blog, for example, and while I have corresponded with the DNC to make sure they know exactly how I feel I don't think that addresses quite the same goals as visible public dissent. Stirring the public pot at least helps bring out those people of similar mind who might otherwise just cringe quietly in the corner if they didn't know that they weren't alone, and if enough of them surface publicly then the party will have to start to take notice even if we take no additional action besides voicing discontent sufficient to threaten the outcome in November.

But I'd be sincerely grateful for suggestions about other avenues to pursue along with this Internet discourse, should you be aware of any.

- bill