I'm going to continue to work for Democrats
Sun Aug 26, 2007 at 11:11:17 PM PDT
Cross-Posted at Thinkheavyindustries
Yes, I think the next president will be a Democrat. I like that idea. Whether or not it’s going to be Hilliary is another story. I would put money on her being the next president. But I put money on Kerry, so my predictions on this kind of scale are suspect.
She’s not my first choice, but she’s very far from my last choice. She could very well be an awful president. But the definition of a bad president has moved so much into the area of disaster that it would take superhuman effort to be as bad as we’ve got. Unfortunately, all of the Republicans seem to have embraced that path of disaster. None of them have made enough promises that make them seem worth my time. None of them seem to have any reasonable understanding of the Constitution and the very foundations of the country they want to lead.
There was a time in the recent past that the Republicans were able to hold back the worst parts of their party. They don’t do that anymore. And it’s worked for them. They’ve been able to hold onto power, with little regard for anything else, for a few years now. And even without having all the power of congress they’ve been able to get what they want. What they want is bad. And the Democrats haven’t seemed to figure out how to counter that. I have some suspicions as to why that’s happened. But I’m trying, as are a lot of Democrats, to change that.
When I was a child there were a lot of promises made. One of those promises was that a woman could be president and that the United States was the most powerful influence in the world that inspired the rest of the world that a woman leader could be a good thing.
This country also was the motivating force that got everybody else to believe (to a certain extant) that a racial minority can run the most powerful nation in the world. We’ve talked that talk for a long time. It is probably time for us to back that up with action.
These promises that were made to me when I was a child I still consider important.
I’m not a big fan of Hillary Clinton for a number of reasons. I’m not a big fan of Obama for a number of reasons. But if either one of them gets the Democratic nomination and they lose, it’ll be some confirmation to me that the promises made to me will have been lies.
Not a single one of the Republicans running stands by the promises made to me when I was a child. And the promises made to me, I think, were good promises, based on what the Constitution stands for and the respect for other human beings that the Constitution was founded upon.
If either one of them gets the nomination the only bag of tricks that the Republicans have right now is based a bag of bigotry and lies.
I’m not saying that all Republicans are bigots. But that party, right now, has only a few tools to use to get people elected, despite what the people who are registered as Republican might think.
The Democrats took a huge hit in the 70s when they picked people who opposed the Vietnam War. They took a huge hit when they picked people who supported the Civil Rights acts in the 60s. They took a huge hit when they picked people who supported the ERA in the 70s and 80s. They are still reeling from those hits.
We have 2 strong political parties in this country. One of them has been damaged by taking strong ethical positions. One has gained power by manipulating people’s understandings of ethics and politics.
Compare two of the most powerful men in politics today and I think it’s very telling. Karl Rove v. Howard Dean. That’s no contest, as far as I’m concerned. The Republicans would never allow a man like Howard Dean to even be their nominee for Governor in any state. And they embrace a man like Karl Rove?
I think I know where I’m going to go if I want to have some influence and not hang out with a bunch of jerks.
And, I think, standing on the sidelines complaining about both parties being "just the same" does no one any good. One party picked the likes of Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. The other party picked the likes of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and both Bushes not to mention Dewey and Hoover.
Hell, Stevenson lost to somebody who wasn’t that bad. Good luck finding an Eisenhower in the current Republican party.
Compare the current crop of Republican wannabes to Eisenhower and tell me what you think that party has to offer.
My opinions have been listened to, and, for the most part, most people in the Democratic party agree with me on a lot of issues. Can you even imagine if I tried to work for the Republicans?
And none of the other parties I’ve worked with or against in elections have been that open or accepting. The Greens aren’t willing to do the work it takes to get people elected and have an effect on policy. The rest of the so-called 3rd parties are even more unlikely to have any understanding of the values of the Bill of Rights or the Constitution than the current leadership of the Republicans and that’s really bad.
And standing as some sort of "independent", without a party, guarantees, unless you’re Bernie Sanders, that you will lose and take somebody else, who is likely not a bad person, down with you. What’s the point of that?
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