And that's not me telling you. Those are the words of Markos himself. This is a pro-Democratic Party blog. This site will proudly display ads from conservative pro-life Democrats like Stephanie Herseth. The Democratic Party is not the liberal alternative to the GOP. The Green Party is.
Here are links to 'On the Issues'. You will see that the GOP and Green Party are on opposite ends of the spectrum. The Democratic platform falls somewhere in the middle, just slightly left of center.
GOP Party Platform
Democratic Party Platform
Green Party Platform
The Green and GOP parties are exact opposites of one another. Greens are "hardcore liberals" and repubelicans are "hardcore conservatives". Democrats are "liberal leaning populists".
My point is Democrats who do not agree with the average kossack are not "bush-lite". They are mainstream Democrats. 66% of Democrats supported the Iraq War in 2003. In fact DLC President himself Evan Bayh, is waaay more in tune with the party as a whole than a Howard Dean is. (I actually kind of like centrists but I hate the DLC if that makes any sense)
I think it's fine to criticize the party. But with as many factions as there are in the Democratic Party, it's impossible to please them all. The GOP is made up of WASPS. The Dems are everyone else!
I find all the people on this site these days bashing the party and saying that they'll never vote for a Democrat again. Fine, then why are you still here?
Politics is not about what you WANT, it's about what you GET. In England Liberal Democrats support New Labour candidates like Blair for Prime Minister, because the alternative is another Conervative like Margaret Thatcher. If you WANT a progressive President in 2008 and refuse to cast a ballot for the Democrat, what you'll GET is a Republican.
Although you could give certain Democrats the boot in Congress. Connecticutt could certainly elect a more liberal Democrat than Lieberman. California could maybe replace Feinstein with another Boxer, that kind of thing.
I understand that a John Kerry or Al Gore was not liberal enough for some people. But that's what the primaries are for. Dean, Kucinich, Sharpton all understood this and supported Kerry in 04. In 2008, progressives will get another shot, maybe with Dean or maybe with Feingold. But refusing to cast a vote for a Democrat in a presidential election will only make Karl Rove happy, not you.