Will There Ever Be A President Who Represents Your Ideals Even 90%?

[eeyore]

I'm not convinced I will ever see anyone close to what I'd like as a president. I've come to terms with the fact that what I want is not representative of what the majority of the country wants. I don't think we'll ever see anything but a 2 party system.

Does anyone dare to think that this country can actually be "fixed" by a President? Or do we just have to resolve ourselves to making sure that whoever we elect doesn't make it any worse?

Just curious....

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. Probably not. But it's a moot point since there are not even any who

hit the 10% mark.

[CivilRightsNow]

6. Aint that the truth..

Ill settle for like.. 7.5%

The country cant be fixed by a president or one single person. Period.

[mohc]

2. I have no expectation

for a President to be elected in my lifetime with my views. My goal is to maximize the cumulative liberalism of the country over time. That does not mean always supporting the most liberal candidate, or even the most liberal candidate that can win. Sometimes its about forcing the other party to move to the center so that you can then turn to the left.

[AP]

3. Yeah. John Edwards. Look, I'm not doing all this for any other reason.

I dind't do this for Gore, and I'm pretty concerned about progressive politics and which direction the power flows in this country.

I wouldn't have been so engaged if Edwards weren't running.

This guy clearly has conviction about what he's doing.

[patricia92243]

4. Clinton did; Dean would have.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

12. Idealogically and morally they are the closest to each other.

I agree.

[Zynx]

17. And Kerry's some pinacle of morality how exactly?

And fighting in Vietnam doesn't mean a damn thing in terms of character.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

18. OBviously your opinion of Kerry is similar to my opinion of Dean

I don't have a problem with that.

[AP]

14. Dean didn't care enough about progressive taxation for my taste,

he didn't believe that defecit spending was appropriate in times of defecity, and I didn't agree with him that the final frontier for race relations in America was addressing subconscious preferences in hiring.

[MissMarple]

5. The closest on an internet test was Dennis Kucinich.

We were so close we were stirring each others teacups.

But, I really like Dean and Edwards. I'm progressive, but I like tough minded and effective trade and corporate policies that support liberal goals. That is going to be the hard part. This is going to be a difficult presidency, whoever gets it.

[mouse7]

7. Me? Not only no, but Fuck No!

Hey, gotta stay in theme.

[drthais]

8. I'ts not the President...

It's his judgement
regarding the people he puts around him
..we see what a disaster this is this time around.
The repugs picked a guy they could manipulate...

I don't worry about Kerry's judgement in this regard
but I wouldn't have worried about any of the Dems
(except maybe Leibermann)
I don't expect to agree with Kerry 100%
or even 90%

Bush has to go, and thats all there is to it

[Leilani]

9. No

I've been a political junkie for a long time, & I guess I just don't fit into a neat little box.

[West Coast Democrat]

10. No

Not even, god forbid, a THIRD PARTY candidate. No one candidate can be all things to all people.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

11. If there was, I'd never know it.

Because s/he'd never get elected if s/he enunciated 90% of my ideals.

[RichM]

13. The country can't be fixed by a pres, because the process determining

the president is EXACTLY THE SAME as what's wrong with the country. Namely, the whole thing is controlled by wealth and power.

For a candidate like Kucinich to be nominated would practically require a revolution. If he somehow became president and most of Congress was like Bernie Sanders, Barbara Lee, etc - in that case, YES, the country could be fixed.

But with the selection process as it is, a DK could never be nominated. The Democratic Party elders would never allow it, and the rank & file is (mostly) way too cowardly to support it.

[Freddie Stubbs]

15. It already happened

[eeyore]

16. Thanks!

Glad to see I'm not alone, and that maybe there's hope as well. Who the hell knows?

[youngred]

19. no, but I can hope

nt

[Nicholas_J]

20. Absolutely impossible

Politics is just one of those situation where ideals should be left out of the mix.

Politics. at least in a democratic society is based on pure compromise. When your team is weaker, has a both a bad defense and a bad offense, the best you can do is play doen the clock and keep the opposing team from scoring so many points that you will not be allowed to come back for a return match.

Thats what happened in 2000 and 2002, Republicans set the game up, did a of of cheating, and the best that Democrats can currently do is to keep them from scoring so many points that they cant catch up. And wait for a player who is good enough to take their best shot and beat them. But Republicans had the same complaints about Democrats for the years that Dems controlled congress while there were Republican presidents, which resulted in Richard Nixon being the president who passed more liberal legislation during his tenure as president than most Democrats who came after him did.