During the run-up to the Iraq war,
millions of us marched, chanted, sang. We sent letters, we faxed, we called. We begged and pleaded with our so-called representatives not to engage in the foolishness, but we were ignored. The media, when they acknolwedged us at all, downplayed our numbers and wrote us off as far-left wackos. Not many gave up after that, thinking (perhaps rightly) that if we redoubled our effort, if we just cared more and tried harder, we'd be able to effect change.
I look around and see many here (a slight majority if the polls in various diaries are to be believed) have still managed to hold onto that belief. Let me say that word again because it's important: belief. It's not reality based, it sure as shit isn't fact based, it's what you wish to be true. Rant continued below the fold--
But it's not true. Everything we tried, and the best we could do was get 25 Senators to listen to us, some of them seemingly against their "better judgement." These are our representatives? Who are they representing? As corrupt as the Republicans have become, what word describes what the Democrats are? Ineffectual? Unprincipled? Cowardly? None of those words seems to quite capture just what a bunch of fuckwits these people are. There we go, fuckwitted.
And now we get to hear the cheerleaders telling us not to give up. Don't quit! Keep fighting a losing battle! Don't switch horses mid-stream! We're turning a corner, really, for real this time, seriously! Does this sound at all familiar? At what point do you wake up and realize that this party has been dead on its feet for years? A bunch of zombies going through the motions, their only concern getting re-elected by a population that for the most part doesn't know what the hell is going on around them.
I'm sure many of you have given quite a bit of money to the Democratic party, especially over the past 5 years. What has that money gained us? Anything? I can only imagine what a third party could have done with that money. Shit, perhaps they could have made themselves relevant, the Democrats certainly haven't managed to. I don't care if it's the Green Party or the Libertarian, but they've got to be better than the Democrats. How fucking tragic, I've spent the past five years thinking No matter what, the Democrats couldn't be any worse than the Republicans! But they are. They are worse, because even those rare little diamonds in the shit who have integrity, few and far between though they may be, cannot balance the sheer volume of uselessness that the party has degenerated into.
This is only a rant, but it's one I just have to get out of my head, I'm just so goddamned furious. It's either fury or apathy, and so long as I still have the former I know that I haven't given up on the hope that..that there is hope. But I'll be looking elsewhere to see that hope give fruit. I've spent hours every day trying to inform myself, familiarize myself with the issues, keep up on what's going on. For the past 5+ years I've done my best to become an informed citizen and support those who I thought deserved it, but there are so few of them in the Democratic party. I shouldn't have had these blinders on because of my intense, gut-level hatred for the Republicans and what they seem to represent. I should have been more open to third parties and done my best to see just what it is they're all about. If I'm going to be throwing my fucking time, money, blood sweat and tears away for NOTHING, I might as well at least be able to sleep well at night realizing that I've put my vote behind someone who represents my ideals more fully, and not just the "lesser evil" that is only lesser because it's too ineffectual to accomplish a god damned thing. Again, sorry, this is just a rant and isn't meant to accomplish anything other than getting it off my chest.