I had a conversation just yesterday with a 52 y.o. progressive woman who's decided she's not voting in 2008. In fact, while I'll admit right up front that most of my friends are far left [though the national dialog as been pushed so far right that I'm not sure what that means anymore], I was surprised to hear two other friends voice the same opinion less than a week ago.
Please understand, these are politically savvy people who worked their asses off for Al Gore in 2000 and Howard Dean or Wes Clark or, finally, John Kerry in 2004. They grumbled and spit while they were doing it, because none of the candidates was as progressive as they wanted/needed/sought, but they ran voter drives, acted as Dem observers at polling places, raised money at house parties and prayed hard that the American people had woken up from the nightmare called GWB.
Underneath that sweat and toil though, there were murmers of distrust. Most of these people are old enough to remember, and continue to smart from, the constant abuse of what commentators here call "old Democrats." You know, the ones who keep selling the American people out. I understand the fervrent hope that this time it will be different, and in my case, I will vote in 2008.
But, only as a ritual. Something I've been doing for 43 years. Something I can't shake. One for the gipper, as it were, because to tell you the goddamn truth, I don't think much is going to change. America is still in pursuit of empire. But hey, I would LOVE to be proven wrong!
Having said all this, what truly pisses me off is the hundreds of comments calling Stan Goff a troll. Does anyone here even know who the man is or how he has served this nation?
If you don't agree with Goff's thoughts, at least repute them with something amounting to intelligence. Put your argument up against what this guy has seen and done, written and worked for. Convince him, convince me, and convince a boatload of other progressives who are saying they won't vote this time, why this time is going to be different - why this time we're going to get national healthcare, rewrite offensive trade policies, get the hell out of Iraq and not go into Iran. At least we're here, at what I now feel is "your" site, to listen. For the moment.
That is, unless the pie recipies, trolling comments and outright ridicule just mean that the far left isn't welcome here. I know this is a site to get Dems elected, but it's also a site to voice a huge range of opinions - including whether that effort in and unto itself is the best possible course of action at the national level.
So, flame away. If I'm an apostate, consider the 'purity' of your own church.