I have read some of the recents OPs, angry little screeds in which people
reluctantly set aside talk of unity to
politely point out that any Democrat who does not agree with them is not a real Democrat.
I think that we will all find it easier move from primary to general election mode if we recall a few facts, some of them pleasant, some not so pleasant, about our party:
1.All of our presidential nominees have and will be “corporate candidates”. The only serious contenders to run for the office of president of the United States on anti-corporate platforms have been William Jennings Bryan, a Democrat and Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican /Independent----and that was early in the last century. The Democrats have never elected an anti-corporate president. The “anti-corporate” candidates are successfully weeded out by the nomination process. With presidential elections running for two solid years and costing up to two hundred million dollars, no one could run a successful campaign without corporate funds---and positive corporate media bias.
We have had one Democrat, Hillary Clinton, tell us that she will take money from any lobbyist, but she will not listen to anything that they have to say. We have had another candidate tell us that he will only take money from lobbyists located outside of DC---on the assumption that AT&T in Sacramento, for example, would never have any business that would involve the federal government.
If Thomas Jefferson were alive today he would have to take money from lobbyists---and come up with an excuse to tell Democrats to explain how all that money was not going to affect his judgment as president. That is the way that the system is rigged. Republicans say “I am sponsored by American Industry, so I am going to win!” Democrats say “American Industry is bowing down to my feet in supplication, because they know I am going to win!”
Until we come up with meaningful election reform---like a four week campaign period with free advertising available to both candidates on our own version of the BBC---the candidates from whom we will be allowed to pick will be those whom the corporations select for us. This years they offered us Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama starting in January, 2007. They did not select John Edwards or Dennis Kucinich, so those two never got out the gate.
2. We are the party of diversity. That means that we are ruled by Newton’s Third Law of Motion:
For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. If some group says “Yes we can” some other group of Democratic voters will exclaim “No, we won’t!” And the two argue about it until their faces turn blue. Einstein described the equation as D(latte)xD(bud)/D2=S where S is a constant standing for “Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing” because it all gets decided the same way in the end. This is also known as the “Kindergarten Rule”. In the end, everyone must be treated the same, otherwise some of the voters will take their toys and go home in a snit. The various factions which make up the Democratic Party will be damned if any other group takes priority over them.
This rule is going to become very important in the months ahead. A candidate can win the nomination with the help of half of the equation, but in order to win the general election, the nominee needs to entire party. Everyone must be happy. No one can feel slighted. No one can be treated special. Everyone is going to a
Democrat , and even that is going to be less special than being an
Independent.
So, if you knew the nominee before anyone else knew the nominee or you loved the nominee before anyone else loved the nominee, good for you. Now, get over yourself. We are not talking about a new band, a new line of clothing or a new restaurant. Everything from here on out will depend upon people whom you think are unworthy.
It would be a shame to see some Democrats act like the Disciples freaking out because a particular someone decided to visit the Samaritans.
Why do you want to talk to them? They’re unclean! Let them take their fucking marbles and go vote Republican! That is not the way that Democrats do things. We do not
ever give up on any lost sheep.
3. Every Democratic Icon that you love has feet of clay. Especially if they were ever elected president. A few people who only represented legislative districts with single industries like alfalfa farming may have hearts as pure as the driven snow, but they are a rare breed. FDR stole the property of Japanese-Americans and interred them in our very own camps during World War II. He also refused to increase Jewish refugees from Europe during the rise of the Nazis, because he feared the American public would disapprove. This was a major factor in the formulation of the Holocaust. Had he been willing to ignore American prejudice, every Jewish immigrant allowed into the country, would have been a life saved.
Other atrocities committed by Democrats: our first Democrat, Andrew Jackson sent the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears from Georgia to Oklahoma so that white settlers could grab their land and gold. Harry Truman is the only president (so far) to use nuclear weapons on another country. JFK had his Bay of Pigs.
Real Democrats are capable of doing things just as stupid or misguided or inhumane as anyone else when they are in a position of power, especially if they are faced with an electorate which says
Serve us! Protect us! We come first! No one else matters! The warning about "Eternal vigilance" does not apply to just one party. You have to keep your eye on a Democratic elected official the same way you have to keep your eye on a Republican elected official. If you allow yourself to be lulled into a false sense of security because you know that President So and So has been so good to the children and is so soft spoken when he speaks on the radio, the next thing you know, he is going to do something just plain
stupid in the arena of foreign policy when he thinks that no one is looking.
So, I always make it a rule to keep my eye on every president, Democrat as well as Republican. I did it when Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976, promising to bring accountability and openness and a whole new kind of politics to Washington. I am going to do it now, when a new candidate recycles Jimmy Carter's message from 1976. Because that "new kind of politics" campaign slogan is as old as the hills, but there are basically two ways of running the White House, the Republican way and the Democratic way.
http://www.4president.us/tv/1976/carter1976leader.htm 
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