Does it make me a bad Democrat, if I would vote for a Green if he/she was more Progressive?
I'm a Democrat because I believe that the party can be a vehicle for progressive change in this country, not because of cultural reasons, or because my family's democratic.
I was thinking about our three presidential candidates, and how only one of them is truly progressive.
This isn't a pro-candidate diary, but merely an observation. John Edwards is the only one, in my opinion, who you could describe as being centre-left.
Unfortunately we have a two-party system. You would think that their would be some serious differences between the two. The Republican party has clearly identified themselves as the right-wing party, and yet too many within the Democratic party refuse to identify the Democrats as the left-wing opposition.
What has me worried, is that two of our presidential candidates are too close to the center. What worries me is that too many Democrats in the Senate are willing to capitulate to the right-wing and corporate interests, as evidence by the Telecomm amnesty debate. We are the majority party, and it is one of our own who is threatening a filibuster!
Let me tell you all something, if we are going to be the wishy-washy clintonian centrist party, then we have already lost. If we want an opposition party, then we need to proudly and loudly identify ourselves as such and pursue a progressive agenda.
But if we decide we want that wishy-washy center, what do you think will be the results of our compromises with the GOP? It won't be progressive legislation that is toned down, it will end up with a centre-right taint.
I'd rather vote for a progressive candidate, a left candidate, and lose then vote for something I hate and get that.