Why is it quitting to say "I want a party that represents ME" ...
Why is it quitting to say "I want to start fresh" ...
Why is it quitting to say "I am going to give my support to someone else, someone more in line with my goals" ...
Why the fuck do I have to be labeled a quitter if I decide that I deserve a representative that actually, you know, REPRESENTS me?
If I decide to support someone that you don't like, it makes me a quitter? If I decide to financially back someone that is outside of the mainstream, I quit the fight, huh? Is that the way it goes? Because, I can't possibly work to start something new, from scratch. I couldn't possibly,
realistically ever hope to help strengthen a viable third party - something that America really desperately needs.
Am I still a quitter if I tell you that I have always been a registered Independent? Did I just quit before even engaging? Who drew up these rules, I ask? I have never seen them before.
What is worthwhile about continuing to work a process that is obviously broken?
Why are you a big winner - able to judge me a quitter - just because you are content to keep running in the same circles again and again and again?
What if I want to move forward - for real - and I am tired for waiting for the Democrats to agree to move forward with me? Why do I have to push and prod them? What if they really AREN'T for me?
Why am I a quitter if I want to find people of actual principle, and work on their campaigns instead? What if I want a party that isn't wishy-washy?
Why am I a quitter for thinking "okay, maybe I can't win this game as it is being played now, but perhaps if I just change it a little bit ... a tweak here, a bend there ..." Maybe I am naive. Maybe such things can never really exist. But don't you dare tell me that I am a quitter just because I really, truly believe that there has GOT to be something better than this.
How can we ask for a party to be firm and not wishy-washy when we ourselves are wishy-washy and apologists? How can we expect improvement when we lash out at each other over expressing our discontent?
I am proud of dKos, and of how hard we worked over the last few days. God knows that I am living in fear of my phone bill, and all of the calls I made to D.C. Senate offices. I think that we put in a good fight, and we really really gave it our all. But at what point can we, as a community, have an honest dialogue about where we stand? At what point can I feel free to say "you know what, I think that the system, as it is, is broken, and I/we need to find some other approach" without being blasted a a traitor turncoat quitting bitch around here? I worked hard, as did everyone else here. It accomplished nothing - the cloture vote wasn't even close. Not even a little. 43 or 34 Markos? How about 25? I am disgusted with a good number of our "representatives" in the Senate, but THEY are the traitors, fellow kossacks. Not anyone here.
We all grieve in different ways. Some of us cry. Some of us get angry. Some of us get venemous. Some of us get defensive. Some of us deny the problem (denial, one of the stages of grief, after all). But we are not the problem, my friends. We fought the good fight.
But maybe its time to start discussing something entirely different. Because our government seems to have forgotten that all power, ultimately, rests with us. Its okay, I guess - most citizens seem to have forgotten it too. I think it is time, though, for us to start discussing how to change a system that disregards us, in the face of a media who ignores us. Its time to find another approach.