Momma black bear watching her cubs playing in nearby trees.
This momma bear is foraging in the brush in the rainforest near Juneau, Alaska, while her two cubs are balancing themselves on tree branches close by. This is a black bear, not the infamous grizzly/brown bear of Sarah Palin fame. I guess I could make an analogy between the momma bear above watching out for her cubs and the message I am about to share. But that might be a stretch.
The Democratic party is the party that can take this country in a progressive direction, to a place we would all like to be. A place where there is social justice, criminal justice, educational opportunities, good healthcare whether you can afford it or not, a celebration of diversity, a sense of well-being for all, a place of opportunity for all. We should be the party of hope and inclusiveness, and we have certainly shown the way in many of these areas. There, of course, is much left to be done, and it is the Democratic party that is best situated ideologically to do that.
So what, you must be saying about now—I know this already! Yes, I am sure everyone at Dailykos knows this. However, here is what we must guard against—the fracturing of the party in what is surely going to be a stressful nominating season. We cannot afford to enter the general election divided as a party. In the end, if Iowa is any indication, about half of us will need to get behind the eventual winner even though the winner was not our preference. If we don’t, the party will lose the election. Issues and a candidate’s ideas on those issues are fair game for a respectful discussion. On the other hand, using Right-wing talking points to attack a candidate might not be the best approach.
I have been around a long time—note the sourdough moniker—and in that time I have never seen a Congress with a majority that has gone so far off the rails, so ignorant of how democracy should work. This is not a small matter as the majority has blocked just about all that the Whitehouse and the minority have proposed. I was disappointed when, in 2010, voters did not show up at the polls to vote for progressive Congressional candidates; nor did voters show up again in 2014. President Obama was left to fend off the right-wing onslaught by himself. So discuss with gusto issues and plans to deal with those issues. Don’t give the Right-wing any talking points to repeat in the general election. Don’t write in Mickey Mouse because your candidate lost the nomination. And when 2018 rolls around, get to the polls after finding the best-prepared progressive Congressional candidates available. And remember these words from Martin Luther King: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” And we know that the next President will be a progressive thinker who will need the backing of all of us!
