General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: G. W. Bush--Innocent of the Theft of the Presidency? [View all]dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)You're either with the DLC or you're with the terrorists. Seems to be your argument.
I actually agree that, if your state is not "safe" in a presidential election, it is not wise to vote third party. My state is generally safe (goes to the Dem) so I have that luxury if I want to exercise it. Sometimes I do, sometimes I vote for the Dem, it depends to what degree the Dem disgusts me.
I completely disagree with your statement about not tearing down a Democratic president. If we don't stick up for positions on the left, absolutely nobody will. We bring pressure to bear, such as it is (they mostly ignore us anyway, since we are Left Out), on our politicians with our critiques of their positions. It's worth every bit of progressive argument we can muster. Especially as it relates to the primaries. That's my point of view, I know that yours differs.
Policy-wise, it's been a dismal experience the last 5 years or so for many on the left, and depending on which issues are most important to a particular leftist, there has been little substantive change from the unbelievably misdirected Bush years.
The SCOTUS argument remains as one of the few substantial differences between the Dems we are force-fed by the corporatists and the Republicans they oppose. Sotomayor is not a Democrat (she said exactly that, and would not specify what she identifies as, on Colbert's show), but even so, she is better than anyone McCain or Jeb are likely to give us. The court actually became more conservative with both of Obama's appointments. I do acknowledge, though, that newly appointed Republican justices would have been worse.
That's about as much common ground as I can find with your posts on this subject, unfortunately.
We need real Dems, not the impostors that so often call themselves Democrats these days. There are serious changes that absolutely have to happen, involving climate policy, wealth distribution, the explosive growth of the surveillance state, corporate capture of our government, military overreach and terrorist blowback from it, etc. The Dems in power now are barely even slowing these things down, let alone changing directions, so I completely reject continuing on the current path, it is a failure. We're headed towards the same outcome we would be under Republican rule, it's just a slightly slower decline under the DLC/PPI/New Dems. We need a course correction, not a more gentle descent into oligarchy.