Listening to Mike Malloy last night on Air America Radio, I heard an interesting point a caller made which I think deserves to be reiterated:
We hear all kinds of polls showing sinking approval numbers for Bush and the government in general.
How exactly does this non-approval translate to votes for Democrats?
Sure, Bush is doing himself in beautifully. Even if we could somehow raise JFK or FDR from the grave, we wouldn't be as successful at illuminating this administration's ineptness and criminality as BushCo has been.
But if you ask a person on the street what should be done, you'll get the response of:
same shit different asshole
I am beginning to wonder if this optimism we have right now is similar to the euphoria we all held onto during the run-up to the election in 2004.
Have we been deluding ourselves into thinking that people will vote for a Democrat when they've been voting Republican, possibly for their whole life, maybe even for generations?
Yes, I watched in horror as Katrina took out New Orleans. I watch in horror as time and time again this administration shows how cruel and unusual it can be with regard to human rights, cronyism, cover-ups, bigotry, and on and on the list can go.
But how can this necessarily translate into a vote for a Democrat? Frankly, I am wondering if we'll just see a lot of people sit the next election out. I didn't used to believe this, but look at the number of people who voted in the last election; and this is during one of the most dangerous times in this nation's history!!!
Mainly, I think the big issue now is to go into the Fall election making sure the electorate knows damned-well how they've had the wool pulled over their eyes, but at the same time, the Democrats need to let the Greens and Libertarians be the protest parties and the Democrats need to create a real vision for the future. We have to give the electorate a viable alternative to our Dr Strangelove administration.
By the way, in the poll, if you don't see your favorite candidate, just request it in the comments, and I'll add them as soon as I can to the poll below.