People who have known me for a long time know how passionate I once was about politics. MSNBC used to spend as many hours on in my household as NFL Network now does. I used to be on DailyKos many, many times a day - commenting on diaries, posting my own. Not any more. I've genuinely given up.
But I have come here anyway. I am begging you - please tell me why I am wrong when I believe that the Democratic party is a complete waste of time. I believe it's a shell of a party - name only - filled with craven incompetents who stand on little or no principles. Shouldn't people and companies quit wasting time and money on the Democratic party and if they want something done find an angle that they can work with a Republican on - they know how to get things done for their backers. Where am I wrong?
[edited intro to shorten so might not read so well]
I used to be very engaged. I flew my brother over from England to help walk the rain-soaked streets of Houston, where I was living at the time, to try to help defeat Tom Delay. I started the last election cycle favouring Edwards, with Obama third behind Clinton yet ended it Obama first and maddened by Clinton's attacks on Obama.
But I don't care any more. I mean the level of apathy and disinterest I now have would shock people. Most of you reading this are a self-selecting group and therefore probably just cannot empathize with how far I've drifted away. Imploring me to "fight" and "don't give up" or "they'd be worse" rings hollow.
Clinton was right. Obama's kumbayah nonsense was stupid and he was not tough enough to get anything done in Washington. I saw the recent site being tweeted around about what Obama has done for 'us' - it was pathetic. The inside-baseball or tiny niche nature of those line items merely showed how blinded and desperate supporters were that this was all they could come up with.
In my line of work there are many deals to be had based on political relationships. In fact try getting on the GSA schedule without those friendships. It's sad but true that America is this corrupt and not what I assumed when I chose to come here from my native land. What that means however is that one has to weigh up principles of what political party I'd like to donate to, and what political party helps my business and helps me put food on the table for my family. For the record - I am not there yet and I actively avoid doing work that relies on political patronage right now - but I don't see why I'd ever want to support Democrats instead of Republicans.
The only thing I can see being achieved by the election of Obama was to give the Republicans a few years to recover from the country's anger at their corruption and incompetence. Recipe for failure:
- pass a bailout bill to save rich bankers (taking blame away from their Republican lackeys)
- pass a stimulus too small and badly targeted to actually do what was needed but big enough that it sounds like people are getting screwed
- pass a healthcare bill that doesn't address the real problems, yet makes people who are broke buy insurance that their employer doesn't provide, with none of the real benefits of the program kicking in till 2014 (plenty of time for Republicans to unwind anything)
- play softball with the racists and nutjobs constantly attacking you so you look weak and by not challenging things you play to the "no smoke without fire" brigade
And just to piss off readers here - focusing on Gay Marriage and Don't Ask Don't Tell has been a waste of time. If Obama had got the economics and healthcare right he'd have grateful voters prepared to ignore the socially divisive issue. By harping on about it but not delivering on it he leaves a lot of angry blue collar folks who think that's all he cares about while making no-one happy. (Yes I support both Gay Marriage and repealing DADT - I just think you have to win something for average folks before you try to push things that are more niche.)
Tired. Angry. Disappointed. Just interested to know why people on here still think there's any point trying to save the Democratic party. Every time we prop up the party saying the other guys are worse and we'll make the party better what happens is the party gets worse and the other guys get worse, so when power flips again we're dealing with even more dangerous ideas.
I thought the Democratic party had hit rock bottom with Bush and would learn and build a new and better party. They didn't. And they have to. They have to hit rock bottom and completely collapse before we can build a better party. I dunno. I just need to go back to ignoring it all again. Being engaged appears to me to be a complete waste of my time and energy.
EDIT: I appreciate all of the comments and discussion... I do believe that there are things worth fighting for still. I do believe there's a difference between bad and worse. But I also feel that anything should be on the table when it comes to figuring out what to do next when the party as a tool of change is proving so ineffective.
