There is a big difference between saying "I want to be a better Democrat/elect better Democrats" on the one hand and saying "The Democratic Party is considerably to the right of me" on the other hand. I have been torn between these two positions at least since I realized that the most liberal President in history was also responsible for the most unnecessary war of the twentieth century. In 2000, living in Texas, I joined the Green Party, campaigned enthusiastically for Nader, and remained with the party for the next two years. The 2002 election and a local Green Party alliance with the Nation of Islam, turning its back on its gay and Jewish members, convinced me to leave.
In 2004 I had started law school and was living in Oklahoma, which has the most restrictive ballot access in the country. I can't remember whether the Libertarians were on the ballot but the Greens sure as hell weren't. So I voted for John Kerry and have voted reflexively Democratic ever since. John Kerry, as the only Democratic Presidential candidate who voted for the Iraq war, is the most right wing Presidential candidate I have ever voted for. The only time I actually voted with the majority of my state was in 2008 when I was living in New Mexico. The following year I moved back to Texas, where I have lived ever since.
The fact inequality has continued to get worse under a Democratic President and in what is passed off as an economic recovery has me very angry but I don't think I'm angry enough to vote Green in another Presidential election. I even tried to ask the Democratic state representative candidate I volunteer for if she thought Wendy Davis was to the right or left of Al Gore in order to give myself cover to vote for the Green nominee for Governor.
The thing is, there is absolutely no universe in which it is consistent to vote for Bill Clinton, John Kerry and Barack Obama and vote against Al Gore. Gore wasn't very far to the left of Bill Clinton, but his desire to make whatever changes were necessary to make the internal combustion engine obsolete definitely mean he is the most green candidate ever put up by a major party. No Democratic Presidential nominee in the wake of the 1994 Gingrich Revolution has come out for single payer because it would mean that candidate's defeat. Barack Obama came out for an even more dangerous issue, gun control, once he no longer had to worry about the ballot box.
I was not going to be on the winning side living in Texas whether I voted Green or Democratic. Although Greens in Texas did not actively recruit Greens in swing states (quite the opposite -- we had a "vote trading" program to encourage people in swing states to vote Democratic and get up to 5% with votes from safe states), I may still have given cover to people in swing states who wanted to vote that way. So I apologize to Al Gore for not voting for him in 2000 and to the American people for my infinitesimal role in electing George Bush. But I still want your opinion as to whether Hillary Clinton is to the right of John Kerry. Please sound off in the comments.