What is a Democrat?

[BainsBane]

I see a lot of comments about who is a real Democrat or not. I thought I'd offer a definition of what makes someone a Democrat. It's simple really: someone who regularly and reliability votes for Democrats. That's it. The Democratic party encompasses a range of people with different priorities and ideologies. Some, much to my dismay, are pro-gun. Some are free traders. Some believe in a strong safety net. Some place a strong emphasis on civil rights for all. A "real Democrat" is not someone who agrees with me, you, or the majority of DU all the time. It isn't an ideology. It is simply a term for membership in a political party and//or voting behavior. That's it.

[JI7]

1. some people think a political party is like a religion

and then go into this "less of evils" shit which i always hated . especially since the people i hear from in person who say these type of things are always right wing leaning types .

[Buzz Clik]

2. That opinion may make you unfit to post here at DU.

Last edited Mon May 11, 2015, 11:39 AM - Edit history (1)

[BainsBane]

38. I've been unfit to post

since I first signed up. Nothing new there.

[pintobean]

3. And when DUers attack our candidates

during their elections, those DUers should be banned.

[DrDan]

4. we cannot, without fear of being banned, attack a D based on their stand on issues or their actions?

Wow. Seems pretty undemocratic to me.

And I noticed the OP did not stipulate a vote for ALL Dems . . . just reliably votes for Dems. Agree with that.

[pintobean]

12. Read the terms of service

There is a link to them at the bottom of every page, and you agreed to them when you joined DU3.

[DrDan]

13. when I joined in 2001 I agreed to vote for Dem candidates - and I do

[pintobean]

14. We agreed again when we joined DU3

because the TOS were revised. My post above is consistent with the TOS.

[NCTraveler]

19. "Wow. Seems pretty undemocratic to me."

Where did you get the idea du is a democracy. The post you were replying to was clearly referencing du. No amount of explanation can change that the post was about du. So many people are so uneducated with respect to "democracy" and "1A."

It is not "democracyunderground" Your argument doesn't even work of the name of the site itself. I'm just stretching to see where you came up with your basis. And I mean really stretching.

[DrDan]

25. I'll let the comment stand

banning someone for criticizing the views of a candidate is undemocratic imo. Doesn't "democratic" imply protection of individual rights?

I never claimed DU was a democracy, now did I. I realize those in power can ban anyone they please.

[LWolf]

5. A Democrat

is someone who registers with the Democratic party. That's it. It has nothing to do with issues or votes. It's a simple matter of registration.

[DrDan]

6. don't agree . . . I am a registered Independent . . . have been since about 20 minutes following the

IWR vote.

But I do vote for Dem candidates.

I consider myself a Dem . . . but not a registered one.

[LWolf]

42. I was an independent

until the 2000 selection, when I registered as a Democrat to protest that selection.

I'm a Democrat because my voting registration card says so; my vote is earned, though, not owed. As a voter, I vote issues and people who work to support those issues, whether or not they toe any party line, or belong to any particular party.

So you are a Democratic-minded independent, and I am an independent-minded Democrat.

[DrDan]

43. interesting - I am an Indy for excactly the same reason

[LWolf]

44. Same reasons,

different responses. The bottom line? A party is there as a tool to achieve a purpose, not as an entity requiring unconditional support. Whether we work within the party, outside the party, or both, the purpose remains the same.

Speaking only for myself, the party gets my support when they get it right, and don't when they don't.

[BainsBane]

7. States like mine don't have party registratioin

but we still have Democrats.

[jwirr]

23. In Vermont Bernie cannot designate a party when he registers to vote and there are other states

like that. Thus we cannot say registration is an indicator. I think it comes down to what they say and then in the final analysis if they are running for office which party they run under. If the candidate is designated the Democratic candidate on the ballot then he/she is the Democrat.

[phantom power]

8. As a definition, that seems a bit too tautological to be useful

That definition allows every Republican politician to change their registration to Democrat, and everybody to vote for them as Democrats, and govern using right-wing politics, and still be Democrats.

[PowerToThePeople]

10. what you said

If I open an encyclopedia in the year 2065, what you said will be found in the entry "third way."

[cyberswede]

11. Yep.

I think that supporting most of the Democratic Party platform is preferable for a Democrat.

[BainsBane]

37. If they vote Democrat, they are Democrats

Do you know anything about how the parties have changed throughout US history? Compare the Democratic Party of the 1850s to today, for example. The Democrats were the party of slaveholders. They were also the party of Jim Crow, at the very same time as FDR was launching the New Deal. In fact, the Democrats supported Jim Crow from Reconstruction until the 1960s, when the segregationists began to leave the party for the GOP.

[seabeyond]

9. man baines, was raising my hand, jumping up and down to be called on. vote dem... there ya go. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Being a Democrat isn't a straitjacket. It's like a loose robe.

"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.

[BainsBane]

33. Yes, but you have announced that you are not a Democrat

Have you not? You have said you won't vote for the nominee if you don't get your way.
Your rights as a citizen enable you to vote for whomever you please, or not vote at all. But when one doesn't vote for Democrats, they cannot be considered a Democrat. It has noting to do with ideology. It's a simple matter of practice.

The party is certainly not as it was in Jefferson's day. It is no longer the party of slaveholders and the landed gentry.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

41. Will the party bosses notify me by certified mail that I'm not a Democrat?

Actually, in my state, one is a Democrat if one says he/she is one since there is no party registration hear. I registered as a Democrat when I moved here 22 years ago but they've changed the rules regarding voter registration.

It is no longer the party of slaveholders and the landed gentry. So, what is it the party of now? Millionaire politicians? Party bosses? Lobbyists? Conformists? Non-conformists? Vegetarians? Socialists? Something? Nothing? Everything?

But when one doesn't vote for Democrats, they cannot be considered a Democrat.

I will vote for my conscience and principles. And, you, and anybody else, can consider me whatever you/they want.

[One of the 99]

16. Will Rogers once said"

"I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat."

[NCTraveler]

17. At the current moment.

Someone who believes the scope of protections the federal government supplies to its people fall beyond the use of police and military.

[RobertEarl]

18. Now that's just dumb

We have two parties Democrats and republicans.

The Democrats believe in the voice of the people via a democratic process can make for a better union.

Republicans believe that only a select few should decide how to govern the country.

There are republicans in the Democratic party, we call them dinos.

Republicans are top down, Democrats are grassroots. The dinos have corrupted our party.

[BainsBane]

36. So the real Democrats are the one who refuse to vote for Democrats

Is that your view? It has nothing to do with voting behavior but entirely about how much like you they are?

You talk about the party having been corrupted by DINOs. Is there any point at which you don't think it was corrupt?

[closeupready]

20. I disagree.

[DCBob]

21. A Democrat is anyone who is in the battle against the Republicans.

[Marr]

22. That is a tautology.

All you've said is that the Democratic Party is a political party. Well, ok-- but it's hardly any sort of policy argument.

If your point is that the party is a coalition of somewhat varied interests, that's fine-- but coalitions must support one another or they're not coalitions. Labor is, by any measure, one of the key constituencies of the Democratic Party. The party cannot sell out labor any more than it can sell out gays, minorities, women, teachers, etc.

I can think of only one segment of the Democratic Party that regularly expresses a desire to sacrifice other segments of the coalition, and that is self-described "Centrists". They wanted to pass on gay marriage because it wasn't 'pragmatic', they regularly sell out labor, in recent years they've even expressed the desire to cut Social Security. When it was still functioning as the DLC, the group's openly-stated goal was to reduce the party's support for unions. They still openly advocate this approach under the Third Way label.

This is poison to a coalition party.

[BainsBane]

26. My post was in response to comments about people being "real Democrats"

Real Democrats are not comprised only of people who agree with you or me. It is nothing more than voting behavior or membership in the party. It doesn't signify anything else. The point isn't about coalitions. It's a response to elitist efforts to exclude the majority of the population from being considered as Democrats and as counting in the body politic. It's a response to people here who insist people who disagree with them on an issue or a member of the political elite aren't real Democrats.

As annoying as I may find some Democrats, like the country club liberals in particular, I don't determine whether or not they are Democrats. Their voting behavior does.

[whatchamacallit]

24. Seems so simple doesn't it?

What happens if the inter-party factions become so polarized that they start representing different visions and goals? What then, be a good democrat?

[BainsBane]

28. The intense nature of dispute is a function of our current culture

But the Democratic party historically was far more disparate in terms of the ideological perspectives and policies in promoted.
For example, in the election of 1860, there were two Democratic candidates for the presidency, one Southern and one Northern. Throughout the Jim Crow era, during the presidencies of FDR and JFK, hailed here as heroes, the segregationist South remained solidly Democrat. The idea that people cannot tolerate someone who disagrees with them on any issues is entirely a function--rather a dysfunction--of our current political culture and enforced through the entertainment billed as news. What happens now is nothing gets done, which seems to be exactly how some want it. Some Democrats are increasingly like the Tea Party in that regard. It works for the Tea Party because they don't see a problem with a stalled or failed government. Liberals and most Democrats tend to see the government as serving a crucial role in society. Though again, that seems to be changing.

[whatchamacallit]

31. This points to the folly of party-first politics n/t

[BainsBane]

34. many people make political decisions based on their assessment

of individuals rather than party allegiance and the assumptions about ideology that have come to be associated with party. They are the much courted swing voters who decide elections. There is no requirement one be a loyal Democratic voter, but that is what happens to make someone a Democrat.

[mmonk]

27. Depends on which era of American History you refer.

[BainsBane]

29. The present

[mmonk]

32. Nothing defining at present except in some areas of civil rights.

[BainsBane]

35. I think you missed the point of my OP

[mmonk]

40. That some claim they know?

I'm already aware. That is why I define myself more narrowly "New Deal Democrat".

[Jamaal510]

30. Simple enough for a caveman to get it.

[IMG][/IMG]

[99Forever]

39. These days?

Apparently almost anybody can qualify.