Open Invitation

[Speed8098]

For those of you that profess that you want to leave the Democratic Party.

GO AHEAD.

We'd probably be better off without your sniveling defeatist attitude.

But... at this time I would like to invite all of you to identify yourselves so that those of us who are going to stand and fight don't waste our time with you.

Running from a problem is never a solution.

[shesemsmom]

1. I plan to fight......

and keep fighting until the repuks are at the very least back in a corner

[Speed8098]

2. I hope this thread gets loads of replies just like yours

Only in unity can we take our country back.

As you can see, the mantra of this administration is to divide and conquer.

We must not let that happen. My daughters future is too important.

[shesemsmom]

3. same goes for my daughters future

[mmonk]

4. I guess the question is

which way will party leaders turn? More of the same rightward tilt while giving ground to religious extremists or the war dreams of the neocons (or at least staying silent about it) and just disagree on the perifery? Is that fighting or assimilation?

[Rowdyboy]

5. It's so predictable, and repititious...

If losing by 20% in 1972 and 1984 didn't drive me off, losing (?) by 3% this time surely won't. I have no interest whatsoever in "going Green"-I know the history of 3rd parties in America.

[Tennessee Gal]

6. I don't understand the mind set of those who want to give up.

I will never give up.

[deutsey]

7. I feel the Democratic Party has left me

So I'm going to continue working in the areas that have been traditionally Democratic territory since the New Deal, and if the Party wants to come back and join those of us who are still fighting that fight, so much the better.

If I'm doing any running, it's running toward organizing and mobilizing those of us who are increasingly shut out of the power structure in this country and agitating against those who are doing the shutting out, regardless of their party affiliation.

So go ahead and slap your scarlet letter on me. I wear it with pride. Which is a helluva lot better than I've felt being a Democrat lately.

[Speed8098]

8. No Scarlett Letter

"So I'm going to continue working in the areas that have been traditionally Democratic territory since the New Deal, and if the Party wants to come back and join those of us who are still fighting that fight, so much the better."

"Those of us", implies an organization of some sort.

If that organization is something other than a group of Democrats working for change in the party, how do you expect to affect change in government.

I am of the mindset that the party is too conforming at the moment. We are like a deer caught in the headlights, and rightfully so. We just witnessed the most blatant act of fraud in the world. We were naive.
The ruthlessness of the right wing was underestimated.

It is time now to come together and expose this criminal administration for what it is. We need our leaders to stand shoulder to shoulder and demand investigations into all of the things that have been swept under the rug.

You go ahead and try to organize outside of the party, I'll fight for change from within.

[deutsey]

9. I take my lesson from history

The labor movement, civil rights movement, etc., all mostly began outside party structures; they did so out of necessity. It was only later that an organized party saw the power of these movements and incorporated (absorbed) their momentum into their apparatus.

So, I will continue to organize outside the party and hope those of you inside trying to change it will prevail and will recognize the fight we're fighting outside the party and come to our aid.

But there are people suffering right now, people who are disenfranchised right now, people who are losing things they spent a lifetime building, that can't wait around for the Democrats to reform themselves.

I know of people close to me (all in the middle class) off the top of my head who are either: unemployed and can't find work and are facing emminent bankruptcy (this is a friend of mine who has three kids and a mortgage); struggling with debillitating health problems, horrendous medical expenses and an inefficient, impersonal healthcare system (these are my in-laws); or facing state budget cuts and layoffs (this is my mom).

Then there are most of the people I know who, thank God, have had nothing severe happen to them yet, but who are struggling paycheck to paycheck just dreading that unexpected event to occur that's going to plunge them into financial and social crisis. Because I know people who work in social services, I also know of lots of other working poor (which is the class I come from myself originally) who are unemployed or in some sort of health or family crisis and services are being severely cut to them.

I also have two sons who, if Dick Cheney is correct and this insane war drags on for decades, will probably be drafted (I believe a draft is coming) and will be sent off to fight for Halliburton. At the very least, my three children will probably not be able to afford college (not with the help of my wife and I, anyway, because we're just barely making it ourselves), and I don't know what kind of future they'll have in this country, which is rapidly leaping backward over the 20th century to sink itself back in the Gilded Age.

I've been growing disillusioned with the Democrats since 2000 when so many blacks and poor people were disenfranchised in Florida; and since 2002 after Wellstone died (was killed?) and the Dems lost so many seats that year. I've been working within the party to reform it, to make sure the needs of "the least of these," as Jesus called them, are recognized, to make sure our civil liberties remain intact, to stop this war. I'm just at a point where I see more urgent needs right now right in front of me than trying to reform a political party from within that doesn't seem too interested in what people like me have to say anyway.

More power to those of you who are drawn to do so (I really mean that...much, much more power to you). Just come help those of us fighting in the trenches when you get your political house in order.