As a lifelong Democrat who is steeped in the history of our Party, I am shocked - shocked to learn that not everyone elected to high office as a Democrat has the best interests of the country, the Party, or liberal values at heart in making decisions. In fact, some of them even seem to pay more attention to the dominant narratives in Washington than to the values of liberal activists like me who contribute a quarter to a third of their votes and campaign donations - when we really care about them. I'm beginning to suspect that some of these people might even be politicians rather than my personal carrier pigeons, and I can't tell you how devastating this is. Excuse me while I swoon in self-righteous, saintly passion and make broad, careless denunciations of "The Democrats" while praising the Party's lowest-hanging fruit and niche rhetorician specialists.
You know who I wish was in charge in Washington? People who are incapable of winning high-level elections, persuading colleagues, or handling media coverage - because those are the kind of people you can really trust to change things in government. They would have already changed things except, you know, The Democrats stopped them. God I hate the Party that arises from me and people like me - it's so not exactly like me, and does all sorts of things that people who aren't politicians wouldn't do. History shows it's much better when politics is run by apolitical sectors of society, like artists, soldiers, and economic theorists.
Also, contempt for The Democrats is fertile ground for bipartisan cooperation, particularly with Libertarians, and we need more principled leadership like Rand Paul's in Washington. Sure his ideal American government would be based on 10th century Thuringia and thinks the poor should be pureed and fed to their children, but for a corrupt Confederate psychopath he does occasionally spare time from his deranged militia bomb-throwing and barely-concealed threats to the lives of government employees to mutter something against drones.
Of course, Rand Paul, as a Republican, is not the paragon of peaceable virtue and progressive heroism that he could be - because The Democrats won't let him. But Rep. Barbara Lee is another story. She isn't against militarism as an arbitrary and usually neglected corollary of anti-government ideology - she is fully principled about it. And that's why she alone voted against use of force in Afghanistan following 9/11. The fact that this vote made no sense whatsoever shouldn't matter as much to a True Progressive as the fact that it was done against the political grain, because really that's what's important in reality-based leadership - oppositionalism. Not "telling truth to power," because as we all know power often exploits the truth. Nope - just saying the opposite of whatever power wants.
Because, if history has taught us nothing else - and we should be glad it hasn't, because otherwise The Democrats win - it's that the most effective counter to endemic militarism is ideological pacifism in the face of eliminationist radical movements. Just ask the 1930s. Which, of course, is a false analogy, because unlike today we weren't militarily superior to the enemy - but then, according to the logic of being opposed to the 2001 AUMF we shouldn't have used that advantage, so try and untie that logical knot if you can. But if you succeed at untying it, you're probably a Democrat and I don't trust or respect you.
Some people would say that every single US law, policy, or program one could cite as a progressive accomplishment after the 1920s is due to the Democratic Party. Well that's just stinkin' thinkin'. Who needs legislation passed when you can bask in the warm, womb-like embrace of a Bernie Sanders speech? No true progressive needs the kabuki of actually making something into law. They know the real accomplishment lies in saying you're for or against something in as eloquent a way as possible and then hoping that someone else who knows how to do their job better than you can do yours manages to bring it up for a vote. Just stand perfectly still and wait for the cosmic cycles to turn until they're in alignment with your position - or, if it never happens, let that fact be counted as proof of your virtuous imperturbability.
Why can't Democrats be more like Greens, with their long record of legislative accomplishments including such bills as....(cough cough)...and (mumble mumble)? Why can't be they like Bernie Sanders, and be from a state where it's politically possible to get elected as an independent without being gruesomely rich and/or corrupt? Or why can't they be more like me, courageously blogging about things that they merely expose their entire families to years of scrutiny, personal ridicule, and possible physical danger for? I vote, donate, and stand in line waving signs sometimes. All they do is everything else. The worthless scum.