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I believe in most liberal values. That's not open to debate. But it's getting difficult for me to stand up and paint the Democratic Party as a whole as a bastion of such values. Oh, I know there are some great liberal voices in the party, but too much of what's going on in the inner circles reflects a disdain for us on the "fringes."
I don't feel like I'm on the fringes. I may be a little quirky when it comes to ALL of what some folks think should be the baseline Democratic principles, but for the most part I'm on board with women's rights, gay rights, minority rights, environmental protection, free speech (don't get me started on THAT one), the restoration of habeus corpus, real healthcare reform, a solid safety net, and all of that. I diverge from the baseline on things like the 2nd Amendment, I think, but that's not really that big of a thing.
I know what the Democratic Party platform says that they're for. But what are we seeing in operation now? The front-runner in the Presidential primary is arguably the least progressive of all of them (social liberal, but more conservative on trade and foreign policy). A solid chunk of our Senators voted to condemn an admittedly edgy ad by a prominent liberal organization.
I'd like to be able to tell people that the Democrats REALLY offer something different, that they stand for the little guy, but I'm not entirely sure of that anymore. Some do, but some most definitely DO NOT.
We fought hard to get a Democratic majority and we celebrated the victory. But even in the midst of that celebration, I couldn't quite quell a nagging fear that it wouldn't turn out the way we hoped it would. The Republican dirty tricks STILL work nearly as well as they ever did, and that just shouldn't be the case.
It's not as though the solutions (or, at the very least, some resolutions) for many of our problems aren't staring us right in the face. But we can't even get the conservative (blue dog and DLC) Dems to support half of them.
What in the hell are we going to do with these people? We can keep up the barrage of criticism and begging for something to change, but, honestly, how much good is that doing? We can run more liberal people in the primaries against some of the worst offenders, but the party machinery makes such an effort very unlikely to succeed.
Even here we're fractured. Roughly half of us are of the anti-authoritarian bent, distrustful of too much power in ANYONE'S hands. Half of us seem to be okay with a consolidation of power, as long as it isn't in Republican hands. We have different definitions of "progressive," "liberal," and centrist, as well as different definitions of what would make a good candidate in the General Election going up against whatever nitwit or flaming lunatic the Republicans decide to nominate.
I'm not even all that goddam fired up about a candidate anymore. I'd came out for John Edwards, but I'm just not seeing him (or anyone) making the right moves and addressing the real issues that will make a difference in our future. Kucinich has some of the right ideas, but I can't help noticing some of his positions really border on "crackpot" and, well, we have to have a candidate "normal" people can somehow see as the leader of the "free world." I just can't imagine it being DK, as much as I'd like to. I don't mind him being a bit of a crackpot myself, but I'm married to a witch for Gawd's sake. Odd beliefs don't faze me.
I find the front runner a disappointment. I know she's way ahead of the Repugs by any measure, but I'm seeing far too many clues that she'll continue with some of the same wrong-headed and obnoxious foreign policy positions held by the current batch of chickenhawks and that's just not acceptable to me.
We desperately need a new vision in this country. Without that, and without someone who can show us a path forward we haven't seen before, we're going to continue to sink in the quicksand of mediocrity until it's too late to do anything.
I want desperately to see a new world come about, but I'm growing more and more convinced that we're going to continue sucking the life out of the old one until it crumples like an empty beer can to be tossed out the window of a speeding pickup.
We need a source of hope, of vision, of imagination. We either need to find a way to stand up and speak so loudly that we can't be ignored, or someone with the vision and strength to stand up and speak for us.
Or else nothing will change in a world that's desperately in need of change. And that just sucks.
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