Why are we being disregarded so easily? [View All]

[nonconformist]

By "we", I mean the people that were against the Iraq war from the get go. The people that got into arguments with family and friends over it because it wasn't a popular opinion. The people that took to the streets in protest... the people that called and wrote to everyone they could in office to try and stop this thing. Some of us put ourselves in harms way and alienated friends over this war, because what we had to say was so important it had to be heard.

Everyday, it's becoming clearer to everyone that we WERE right.

So why are our concerns now being brushed aside? Why are we supposed to just accept that Kerry voted for the IWR and has been, frankly, inconsistent on his disapproval of war? Why was I told today by a lifelong Democrat that the Iraq war is only something a "single issue voter" would consider to carry a lot of weight? It's not an isolated issue - it affects everything from the economy to our national security.

Yeah, in the end I'm ABB. But for the life of me, I can't figure out why in the world the Democrat's wouldn't want someone who was clearly against doing this in the first place as our nominee. It's our STRONGEST argument against the Bush Administration! Is it the threat of "electable" held over our heads and our, well, fear to see Bush serve 4 more years? Are we pandering to the masses... again?

It goes deeper than Kerry's vote. It's the general mood I've been seeing among Dems both here and in person - that we have to look at the big picture and we can't focus on one issue. I agree there are other important issues but come on - this is the BIG one to a lot of people. I agree that we can't transform this party overnight, we have a lot of ground to make up, but wouldn't a great start be to elect a nominee that opposed our unilateral invasion based on lies? If Kerry had only voted no on the IWR and been consistent with his criticism of it he'd be just about perfect. But these are huge issues that I, along with others I'm sure, just find hard to overlook. I can overlook a lot in the spirit of party unity and the desire to rid ourselves of Bush, but this is a doozy.

I'll vote for the nominee. To get really behind Kerry will depend on who he choses as his running mate though. I fear it will be someone that also voted for the IWR. I just wish it didn't come down to only being ABB, but rather a widespread belief in the ideology of the candidate. Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only one who finds it more than "disheartening" that the Democrat's didn't listen to the people they represent back when it really mattered.