It was a chicken and egg thing. I got excited about Jon Tester because of DKos, and I get excited about dKos because of Jon Tester.
I was one of the first donors in the first $10K fundraising effort for Tester on ActBlue.
And then this:
http://www.missoulian.com/...
I understand that being a donor, an activist or just casting a vote does not entitle one to anything from the candidate.
That said, I was a co-sponsor of one of Jon's fundraisers. In the primary and general election, I forked over (happily) the maximum contributions. I never pulled Jon aside, pushed him on any particular issue. I was solely motivated by the change he represented. The love of Kossacks was just the icing on the cake. When he and Jim Webb provided the deciding numbers in bring a Dem majority to the Senate, I was proud to have a small part in such a big thing.
I heard Jon say, at several events, that the way the war was being prosecuted was a sham, and that the right thing needed to be done. He stated alot of other things about the war that made it clear to me the title 'progressive' was well earned.
Of course, you can't actually read any of these positions anymore, since his people took the tester-for-senate site down. Go ahead, read all his positions here:
http://www.testerforsenate.com/
whoops, all gone.
I guess like most pols, Jon has found that what he said to get elected vs. how actually votes are not as black and white as I believed.
I'm not naive - I've voted in every general and lots of other elections since 1983. I know disappointment (how may of you voted for Mondale...and Dukakis?)But god damn if I ever thought that a 'progressive' candidate would just fall back on this "I won't pull the rug out from under our boys over there" crap to continue funding the war.
I have a cousin in Baghdad. Career, Lt. Col. in the medical career, trying like hell I'm sure, to put back together the bodies of men, women and children being torn apart in a conflict born of arrogance, dishonesty and incompetence. Cheney's war, Bush's folly, Falwell's crusade.
And Jon Tester voted to keep on funding it. The same vote Contrad Burns would have made if Tester didn't win his seat. Same exact vote. You tell me the difference between the two.
I'm not giving up. I guess I'm just wondering why we work, pay and hope so hard for people who turn around and basically use verbiage right out of the Center for A New American Century playbook to keep this thing going.
Good to vent. This diary will be up, and gone, in a matter of minutes. But I feel better anyway.