There are so called progressive radio talk show hosts who idolize Bill Clinton as one of the great progressives of our time. The thing is, he was far from progressive and these talk show hosts aren't progressives either. They're Democratic Party apologists.
So called "progressive" organizations such as MoveOn.org have also proven to be Democratic Party apologists. Many of them didn't help progressives in '04 when they supported and told their members to support a candidate who agreed with George W. Bush on far too many issues. Kerry supported the war and wanted to add more troops. He supported NAFTA. How could a Progressive in good conscience have voted for either Kerry or Bush? I voted for Kerry, though, and have no one to blame but myself. It's the last time I'll ever vote against a candidate.
Shouldn't progressives have put all of their efforts and money into supporting the only progressive in the race, Ralph Nader? They told their followers not to vote for Nader because he'd be a spoiler. A vote for Nader was a vote for Bush. But what if all groups which claimed to be progressive put all of their energy and money into Ralph Nader's campaign and absolutely and totally ignored John "I can fight this war better" Kerry? Would it have been Nader who came in second? Could we have claimed that those who voted for Kerry stole votes from Nader?
Nader wouldn't have come in second even if progressives voted for him, right? In order to believe that, we'd have to rewrite history as The Progressive Party actually did come in second in 1912, ahead of the Republican Party.
Progressives say, "Let's just make sure we get Democrats in office, even if they are as "conservative" as Republicans. Then we can start making the Democratic Party what we want it to be.
This is flawed thinking. Why would the Democratic Party want to become what progressives want it to be if it can win being what it is now? That thinking resembles the "we can't stop the killing of Americans because that would be disrespectful to Americans that have been killed" train of thought. If you think that perpetuating the Democratic Party mindset will change the Democratic Party mindset, you may belong to the wrong wing of the Corporacracy, the real main political party in the FUSA (the Former United States of America). After all, you've begun using Republican logic.
Now John Kerry is making a fool of himself by trying to sound like a Woody Guthrie populist. He's not and he's as disingenuous as they come. He's not a Woody Guthrie populist. He's a John Kerry bullshitter.
Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman are Democrats, not progressives.
Even possibly the most independent Democrat, Barbara Boxer, has ultimately surprised us.
Like Kucinich, she appeared to be out of the mainstream of the Democratic Party when she showed courage by standing with the Congressional Black Caucus when it challenged the vote in the 2004 election (where was Woody Kerry then?).
However, after Harry Reid called a closed session of Congress to supposedly give the Republicans hell, she told John Stewart that she was "proud to be a Democrat". How could she be proud to belong to a group which has been enabling The Regime since September 11, 2001? Far too many members of the Democratic Party, among whose numbers Boxer is proud to include herself, proudly voted for the Military Commissions Act and voted, in essence, to end habeas corpus. Still proud, Senator Boxer?
She traveled to Connecticut to campaign for Joe "Give Me A Little Kiss" Lieberman in his primary battle against Ned Lamont.
I must admit, until her appearance on the "The Daily Show", I searched the internet to find "Boxer For President" sites. I found one and signed up. It has since disbanded. Maybe there just was never enough interest in Barbara Boxer. Maybe others saw her slipping comfortably into the thoughtless and mindless realm of partisan politics. At any rate, the site vaporized.
What is a Democrat? The Democratic Party is the other pant leg on the "red and blue" pair of pants and is not broken. It's perfectly fine. It's just that there are people who don't belong there. I'm not talking about Biden, Clinton or Lieberman. They're part of the game, not part of any solution. That is the Democratic Party. It is what it is. It consists of wealthy people for whom politics is but a game. Anyone who's moved by conscience and not by money doesn't belong there.
Progressives need to create another party and maybe call it The Progressive Party. Maybe they need to partner with state Progressive Parties, The Socialist Party of the United States or possibly The Green Party or they need to become non partisan and support candidates who stand for goals and issues, not party platforms.
Progressives need to move past the "red/blue" propaganda of the Democratic and Republican Parties and adamantly support only progressive candidates no matter which party, if any, they belong to.
As I write in my essay "Priority Number One", the Electoral College needs to go away. It oozes red and blue. Even when the winner of the popular vote is the same person who wins the electoral college, it still doesn't accurately represent the will of the people. It does allow the winner to win without a clear majority of the popular vote. It will always be a barrier to Run Off Elections. No so called "third party" candidate will ever receive enough electoral votes to force an instant Electoral College runoff. As California, New York and Connecticut didn't see much if any of Bush in 2000 and 2004, if the Electoral College is banned, whomever attempts to ascend to that throne, if his majesty decides to step down in 2008, will only see states with large populations like California and New York. Moral of the story? The professional politicians in the Democratic and Republican parties don't give a damn about representing those whose votes they perceive as unimportant. It won't be much different. They won't make a point of visiting all 50 states in which all Americans live because they don't care about all Americans.
Progressives should be tired of losing and tired of wondering which Democrats are going to side with The Regime on the next bill to be introduced in Congress. There's got to be a humongous political uprising, peaceful if possible, in order to reclaim The United States of America for its citizens. Trying to make the Democratic Party something it's not is not a way to reclaim the United States of America for its citizens.
