It takes more courage to be a Democrat than a Republican

[Q]

It must be easy to be a Republican. All you have to do is follow the leader and never ask questions or think for yourself. Ignorance becomes bliss in a black and white world with no difficult questions to ask or answer or a sense of responsibility to your fellow travelers.

It doesn't matter what the Democratic party was in the past as it struggled to find an identity in a world of prejudice, hate and greed. What matters is what the party became as it fought those prejudices and came to finally be known as the party of the people. The party of unions and worker's rights. The party of immigrants, minorities and the poor. The party of public education, civil rights and of women's rights. The party of Social Security, New Deal and social safety net.

Now some Democrats will tell you we can't be that anymore. That we must sell off bits and pieces of ourselves so that we can compete in rigged elections and pander to Big Business and their Media for enough money to finance million dollar campaigns.

But I say to you today...that I would rather belong to a Democratic party that takes a stand on principles and loses than one that wins and becomes part of the deceit and corruption that plagues our great country.

I would rather say that I care about the working class poor and health care for all than have another seat in congress. And I would rather not win the White House if it means selling out the disenfranchised and forgotten who still believe that the Democratic party is their only hope in a world seemingly gone mad.

It's difficult to remain a Democrat in a time when so many are giving up to get along with the powerful, greedy interests that have taken control of our government and country. It's painful to wake up every morning to the realization that they've taken even more power and more Democrats have joined their side in desperation.

It's not easy to be a Democrat these days...especially with the leadership selling out and many of the rank and file joining them because they have no where else to go. But I can't and won't join them because being a Democrat means something else to me. It means an everlasting struggle for peace, equality and fighting for those who can't defend themselves. It means believing in the power of the people instead of those who would enslave and oppress them for their own gain.

This is the essence of MY Democratic party. It should be yours if you still call yourself a Democrat. If this isn't your party...then you need to search your soul and ask yourself why.

[yellerpup]

1. Nice essay

I applaud your commitment to principle.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. And brains.

[formernaderite]

3. I think it's easier to be a member of either party if you live

in a state or county where that party is prevalent. As much as I'd like to rah rah with you regarding their non-thinking stances....I see about as much on our side. People going with the status quo, frightened by losing to such a degree they're unable to take a stance or chance...no I'm not cynical.

[CitySky]

11. my thought was similar

I'm a lifelong Dem. I grew up in the Oakland, California Congressional District that was held for years by Ron Dellums and is now represented by Barbara Lee, the only congressperson to vote AGAINST giving GWB power to go to war.

Later I lived for 5 years in Boston, obviously another quite liberal-leaning place. (And home of the world-champion Red Sox, but I digress...)

Then I moved to Texas. WOW. Suddenly, people all around me were going to challenge my view of things! I'm surrounded by people who have been brainwashed by Rush and are fuzzy on the basic concepts of the Bill of Rights! So I had to sharpen up my ability to think and speak about politics clearly; the eyerolls and commiserations that passed for political discussion in my old stomping ground would no longer suffice. Suddenly, MY OWN elected representatives DO NOT represent my interests and views! My "Congresscritter" is a Tom DeLay podperson! Yikes. Roll up yer sleeves, kiddos, we have work to do here! Other active Texas Dems, including those here on DU, demonstrate a great deal of moral courage in the work they do.

But thanks for a thoughtful OP nonetheless!

[JohnnyBoots]

14. Same boat....I wasn't

a registered Democrat until I moved from Beantown to WV. Once my point of view, morality and love of humanity were challeneged by the red state hordes.
P.S. Yankees Suck!

[CitySky]

31. welcome to DU, JohnnyBoots!

:toast:

[Wright Patman]

4. "The party of immigrants, minorities and the poor."

You have just described in one sentence why 71 percent of the people in this county voted for * five months ago.

All you left out was "gays."

It matters not that most people in this county are "poor" themselves. The standard of living here is not much higher than Appalachia for many. The only manufacturing jobs being created here involved methamphetamine production.

They just do not want to identify with the party of the poor, even if it damages them even further economically not to do so. These people will be walking around homeless before long, but they'll still vote GOP. Well, without a physical address, they may not be able to vote anymore, but if they could, they'd still sock it in for the Repukes.

[davidinalameda]

10. of course gays are left out

we're the new whipping boys, and not in a good way

the Democratic Party has completely lost touch with its base. They're just as corrupt as the Republicans. Both parties are nothing more than an extension of big business. The Republicans are just more open about it, for the most part.

[Robeson]

18. A recent article by Gore Vidal touches on the same theme....

Excerpt:

"The media belongs to the big money, and the big money, their candidates, their party, is the Republican Party as now constituted. So everybody is behaving typically . What isn't typical is a Democratic Party that has also sold out. There are just as many lobbyists and propagandists there as on the other side. They're never going to regain anything until they remember that they're supposed to represent the people at large, and not the very rich.

....But they need the very rich in order to be able to run for office, to buy television time. I'd say if you really want to date the crash of the American system, the American republic, it was in the early '50s, when television suddenly emerged as the central fact of American life......and then you have the enormous cost of campaigning, which means every politician who wants to buy TV time has got to sell his ass to somebody. And corporate America is ready to buy."

http://citypages.com/databank/26/1268/article13085.asp

As always, a hard dose of reality from Gore.

[Q]

30. I put Gays in the class of 'minorities'...

...so thus didn't intend to leave anyone out of the premise.

But you're right. And it's not only gays that have become the 'whipping boys'. The Democratic party leadership is dropping or pushing to the back burner any issue that might be perceived as 'hot button' or dangerous to debate during an election cycle.

Unfortunately...the list of issues the leadership is unwilling to discuss is growing longer each year. At one time our party use to actually debate the WAR ON DRUGS and other issues important to...not only the base of the party...but all Americans.

Now...when they talk about abortion or religion or gays...it's always in the context of how they can 'compromise' with the other side. But I'd like to know how they plan on compromising on issues central to the party's principles, values and individual rights?

[atommom]

5. It does take more courage, especially with the growing tide

of conservativism. But we can't afford to join the pod people.

[zanne]

6. Robert Frost said it all

1. The Road Not Taken


TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20

[More Than A Feeling]

7. Speaking of desperate Democrats

Our house members right now should probably be checked by mental health professionals. Being irrelevant so long as Republican party discipline holds must give one a tremendous inferiority complex. If this continues , some might well be so starved for power that they switch parties in return for table scraps.

[toad12]

8. Well said, I couldn't agree with you more.

Thanks for posting.

[Biology]

9. believe everything I say....

...without question, or you're not a true believer and you're going to hell. Wait, maybe I'm getting fundamentalist intimidation and the republican motto mixed up. Or maybe its' the same fear message?

[Q]

13. Or just maybe...

...if you don't believe...then you're a Republican?

True believers? Hell? Fear? Hell, no. How about just doing what's right for the American people for a change?

[bvar22]

12. What is the benefit...

...of gaining the World if we lose our souls?

The Big Tent of the Democratic Party is NOT large enough to include those who would advance the agenda of the extremely RICH at the expense of the Working Class and the Poor.

[tjdee]

15. No thanks, I prefer winning.

You know, I'd rather deal with...I don't know, the smarmiest, greediest Democrat than the current neo-con Republicans--especially in the office of the President.

I'm willing to take baby steps rather than taking no steps. In my view, it is harder to butt heads with a Republican over every single fucking thing, then it is to split hairs with a DINO. At least with a DINO, or a DLC'er, or even a Clinton, you have the room to work and push them. With a Republican in office you're not moving at all.

Plus, with Republicans you get religious nuts.

I agree with most of your post, but no way would I prefer losing. That to me, echoes the Green Party sentiment in 2000.

[cestpaspossible]

16. The Democratic Party is what we make of it.

If you have not made the effort to become a voting member of your county's Democratic Party central committee, you've got no right to complain.

PS, that comment is not directed at any particular person, nor is it meant as a criticism of any particular person.

[Q]

20. That's friggin nonsense...

...everyone has a right to complain AS AMERICANS. In fact...we would have the RIGHT to complain even if we didn't belong to either of the two major parties.

That's one of the main problems with our country. We think as voters and cheerleaders of political parties instead of as Americans wanting the best for everyone.

[cestpaspossible]

22. Reminds me

of when I was in the Navy, we used to say a bitchin sailor is a happy sailor...

I don't really know what you meant, all I mean, to borrow a phrase, is that people have the power to make the Democratic party what they want it to be, by getting involved.

[Q]

23. I would have agreed with you about this...

...20 or even 10 years ago. But the People don't run the political parties anymore. Like our country right now...it's owned and operated by a small group of men with an agenda that's not the same as most of the rank and file.

Ask any of the 'oldtimers' around here. I used to be the most gungho cheerleader for the Democratic party around this board. But four years of their silence, collaboration, complicity, concessions and compromise with the criminal Bush WH has made me understand that they don't deserve my (our) suppport until they start acting like Democrats again.

Hell...I'd be happy if they just started acting like the people's representatives and honor their oaths to the Constitution.

[cestpaspossible]

24. Sorry you are totally wrong, and it's obvious that you haven't

done what I suggest, and actually taken action to take control of the Democratic party. Otherwise you would know from experience how untrue your assertion is.

I chose my words poorly earlier. (Again, the 'you' in this sentence is the general, impersonal, plural 'you'.) Yes, even though you've done nothing to change what you see as the problems in the party, you have a right to complain -- and I have a right to discount those complaints as so much hot air.

Let me ask you bluntly: are you a voting member of your Central Committee? Have you tried to become one?

[Q]

27. I've been involved in local Dem politics...

...for about thirty years...up until about four years ago.

I think you missed my point about 'complaining'. Our complaints don't matter mostly because we complain as Democrats or Republicans instead of as Americans.

The current government is corrupt. If I say this as a Democrat it can be taken as a partisan attack. Saying it as an American taxpayer carries much more weight and credibility.

I'm not sure you quite understand what's happening with our government and party. You're still at the stage where you think just working harder for unity will change things for the better. The national parties no longer care about central committees or local politics. Both have rejected their party platforms for an agenda set by a few people at the top...party insiders like Lieberman, From, Marshall and the Clintons.

They now control the national agenda and the proof of this is in the 2004 platform and the recent capitulation to the Right on issues ranging from foreign to domestic, choice to worker's rights. The agenda is NEVER set at the local levels or in any committee.

The Democratic Leadership is sliding down into an abyss of greed, corruption and self-serving politics. The only way to stop it is to replace the national leadership.

[cestpaspossible]

29. Sorry but repeating your assertions doesn't give them more weight

The Democratic Leadership is sliding down into an abyss of greed, corruption and self-serving politics. The only way to stop it is to replace the national leadership.

Yeah, Howard Dean is the problem :eyes:

[stevedeshazer]

17. Well said.

Every single day, I am stunned at how much I see the Democrats in Congress just roll over and allow the dissembling of the legacy of their forebears, people who gave their all to make gains for working people.

I'm with you on this one.

[peace frog]

19. BRAVO!

You're preaching to the choir.

[Q]

21. I wish I were preaching to the choir...

...but more Democrats than would admit it don't think this way.

[candy331]

25. In the movie "American President" one of the Advisor's said to

the President(played by Michael Douglas)that if people didn't hear from him on the issue(challenger spewing lies of personal nature about President)that people would drink the sand, other words who ever they heard from they would listen to and believe. Douglas responded that "people don't drink the sand because they don't know any better they drink it because they don't know the difference" and he proceeded to the news conference and forcefully pronounced the difference. All that to say this, the Dems still represent a difference to some degree(fastly losing it though) and unless they come out and sound it to the people the people will "drink the sand (repub spiel)because they don't know the difference". (Correct me if I have the movie quotes mixed up.)

[Q]

28. "Silence becomes betrayal..."

I'm not going to say that there's no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties. There are MANY differences. But what we say we are and what we're doing have become are two different things.

I understand that this will be too simplistic for some...but our party is perceived as spineless jellyfish because there are just enough 'conservative' Democrats selling out to the Bushies on too many issues. They're giving the party a bad name and give the impression that we don't say what we mean or mean what we say.

It's not enough to SAY that Bush is bad for America and the people. It's not enough to say that his team is out to destroy Social Security and the social safety net. Our party must oppose with more than words. We must oppose with votes and solid opposition.

The same goes for illegal wars, tax cuts for the RICH, environmental protections, choice and worker's rights. Words mean nothing without the votes to back them up.

[kentuck]

26. It's hard supporting taxcuts...

when all you have to say is , "it's your money". It's hard supporting "pro-life" positions when the other Party is the Party of Death and Abortion. It's hard supporting a "strong defense" when the other Party wants to spend it on "social programs"...Yeah, it's hard taking those positions. <sarcasm off>

[BlueIris]

32. And, to quote a great American, "Courage is contagious."

Mine's back today.

[Dark]

33. Duh.

but, I'd say that it takes more courage depending on where you are. In a college english class with a socialist professor, it takes more courage to be a repub.

[Cha]

34. Not only that..you seriously have

to missing some brain cells and have extra greed genes to be a repub these days.