Yesterday, I voted for a 'Democrat'.
One might think 'Yay! It worked! But one would be wrong. For the past 32 years, I have voted a straight party-line D ballot every election day. Up until this past April, I checked in at Daily Kos every day for 13 years.
Then, one day in April, I was forced by a highly recced diary to consider the question "Why are you here?" Up until that moment, my reflex was to answer "To elect more and better democrats!" But, in the meta-wars that ensued, I started to realize what was truly meant by 'better' here, a realization that was ratified by Kos himself. It became clear that this site wasn't so much about 'doing' better (though there certainly are many in the community who care about that), as it was about 'winning' better.
Not going to lie... I stepped away at that point, only coming back to check in as election day approached once every 4-5 days. And once any discussion on this post dies down, I'll do the same.
Yesterday, I voted for Sean Eldridge in NY. A very attractive candidate in the classical sense of the word (this guy could be on TV!). But through an entire campaign in which millions of dollars were spent, and as someone who honestly pays attention, I arrived at the polls yesterday without a clue as to what this guy stood for, or what he would do differently than his opponent, other than look good.
I live in a state where our Democratic Governor handily won re-election last night. While that might sound remarkable in the wake of destruction last night, I think we all know that New York is headed for four-years of even deeper prostration to corporate interests, aggressive privatization of schools with handouts to tech and testing companies, and little question that the Constitution Pipeline will cross my little 7.5 acre organic market farm, literally laying the groundwork for the fracking that will be approved by the governor in... wait for it... 3, 2, 1... Yesterday, I was forced to vote 'blank' for State Senate and Assembly because the Governor's own party was unable to field a viable candidate, in the bluest of blue states, against long-sitting Republican incumbents who both barely garnered 60% of the vote against 'none of the above'! (Disclosure: Though I haven't spent much time here the past 6 months, I do know that Kos is not one of Governor Cuomo's biggest fans... but Andy's the kind of guy who knows how to 'win' better, even if he doesn't 'do' better. And that's what we want/need here, no?)
So last night, I 'pulled the lever' (actually, after 12 years of voting absentee from abroad, I was a bit shaken when I was instead asked to 'fill in the bubble' ) for none of the above in four races, and a tv spokesmodel for congress. For the first time in my life, I trusted MY judgement, recognized some things were more important than simply 'winning', and I crossed party lines to vote my values... as did a record number of folks in this state, and exciting for me, especially my county... and cast a vote for the uncompromising progressive in the race, Green party candidate Howie Hawkins, as well as the Green party candidates for Comptroller and Attorney General, because win or lose (I knew they would lose - I'm not an idiot), I needed to stand up in the tribal council and point in the direction I think we should head.
Bottom line... When Democrats stopped being democrats, a whole lot of us in the country voted against them... pulling levers for their opponents, withholding our donations and time, sitting out the elections, whatever... and last night happened. Bitch, moan, complain, and name-call all you want. When Democrats give us 'hope' they win. When that 'hope' is just an ad slogan... well, last night. And there is simply no way around it. Until we focus on finding BETTER Democrats, last night taught us that the voters won't give us MORE!