Granted, people will lament the woeful tides of change (or not) the way their internal clock sees fit, but "leaving" seems less critical now than "ousting" might be.
The way I look at it, there are only two great ships on the seas of US politics today. One great ship has been taken over by the PNAC pirates, who are raping and pillaging and marauding as fast as they can before Peak Oil and a restored democratic (to say nothing of legal justice) system catches up with them.
The other great ship is, unfortunately, under the effete hand of a feckless band of mannequins masquerading as leaders while secretly wishing for the "potency" so damagingly displayed by the marauding pirates crushing all things dear.
There are no other boats on the ocean bigger than tiny rowboats, though the bombast displayed by many of the munchkins pontificating about the lofty (yet practically unobtainable)
goals that are espoused by the powerless spear-fishers in their leaky rowboats oft sparks nostalgic whimsy in the hearts of those who remember or long for better days. The minuscule crews in their tiny bowls sometimes even score a walrus or two along the way, too, causing loud and boisterous catcalls (that fade into the ocean and nearly no one hears) about how
real and
effective these new floating motes actually are.
They're not. Though on occasion one or the other of the massive piloted crafts catches a glimpse of and expropriates a method or an idea of the lesser groups, and uses it to further marginalize the tiny, wishful warriors in their wave-tossed crafts.
The only prize worth having on this political ocean of transformational change is control of one of the major vessels, since from that control is launched all meaningful political progress.
What that means is that when these politicians, under the hypnotic spell of the neutered Rasputins of corporate whoredom, disappoint, the answer must be a commitment to redouble the effort to infiltrate, isolate, and depose those ineffective nonleaders, not to leave and grant them further privilege to pilot this major craft.
Only one fully operational ship can counter the actions of the other. There are no "suicide bombers" in the tiny rowboats of
this ocean.
The captains of the drifting major vessel are engaged in kow-towing worship of their false god of corporate profit über alles. Distracted in their duties, they barely notice that the ship is drifting toward the rocks.
Control of this ship is the goal of every progressive and activist taking a long-term view of the dire straits in which we find ourselves today.
Building a support system, a constituency, to undergird the activities of those for whom passive surrender to the wicked winds of corporate control of politics is no longer an option, is the best way to build a base that can sustain progressive control of the ship once we have it.
Ultimately controlling, but in the interim influencing, the course of that great ship will facilitate the election of populist, common sense politicians attuned to the voices of this newly inspired community.
Will it work? Maybe.
Will having control create transformational political change? Maybe.
Either way it's better than sitting the struggle out, or dissipating our efforts between tiny progressive groups that will never attain major political effect, and giant political groups that have lost their way.
The most effective means forward is to focus on making one group a truly effective opposition to the other.
Stay or go, progressive Democrats are moving forward.
http://www.pdamerica.orghttp://www.progressivecaucus.netDan Brown
Saint Paul, Minnesota
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