FDR was a Democrat; he had his progressive economic agenda passed because the country was in a progressive reformist mood. It was a mood to reform economics, as all progressive movements are. He did not back anti-lynching legislation in order to receive the backing of southern tier Democrats for his legislative agenda. He was a politician and all politicians are vote counters.
Lyndon Johnson knew that he was going to lose the southern Democrats to the Democratic Party but he went for civil rights legislation anyway. If he elected to run for a second term, would he have won? I doubt it, I remember being in a total snit about him; I might have sat that one out. Maybe.
War is politics: politics is war. Perhaps that is why MLK prevailed, he was in a struggle for human rights and social justice, not a war and by the way, he pointed out, that had economic implications. It is not clear if he would have prevailed convincing people that civil rights was in their best interest economically. Not with full employment, not with a war on, not with cheap gasoline. I remember hitch hiking three times across country with seven dollars in my pocket and turning down work.
I ask myself if the Democrats are really at war with the Republican Party? Why are we fighting two wars in the Middle East instead of fighting the Republicans? For me the answer is that Democrats cannot in any way win a war with Republicans. Not strategically, not morally and not logistically. That is my opinion; I do not expect anyone here to be persuaded by that. I have never seen that point of view expressed here. Nor this one:
We have an alternative to fighting a political war but it seems that everyone here is hell bent on fighting a political war and wants to reject as unworkable what is already working right in front of them.
Every donation of time and money to a political party is a donation the culture of the business of politics that thrives on divisiveness. It encourages us to rejects the "other side" for some inarguable indiscretion. It begs credulity that the reported idiocies by Republicans is then generalized to all Republicans. That one poll about Obama’s citizenship means that all Republicans are just stupid.
There are 1.5 million nonprofits in the USA that are apolitical, of every size and level of sophistication, dedicated to delivering social justice to all comers and they know what they are doing, they are scalable, protected by law and governed by the IRS. None of which can be said of your local legislator.
Support them, promote them; they are the antidotes to all of the rhetoric that inflames opinion and used to occur in academia.
These organizations and people are the morality that is the basis for a democratic society. No formal ideology need apply.
Here is the bipartisan politics that count:
1.) A constitutional amendment is needed to get all private money out of electoral politics. Publicly funded elections are shitty solution, I agree but less so than the present arrangement. There cannot be moral and ethical laws passed by people who are not working full time and paying attention to their constituents i.e. vote counters, not poll watchers.
2.) Media, lobbyists and party: pollsters, pundits, organizers, apparatchiks should be officially classified as part of the entertainment industry by the SEC.
3.) Reconnect Wall Street to Main Street by changing accounting rules to include costs to society from subsidies and environmental costs as liabilities.
I am not about to list nonprofits for you. There are 2500 in NE Ohio alone. They render service in areas of hunger, lodging, clothing, employment services, health care and legal services They range in size from Father Dan’s parish in inner city Cleveland OH to The United Way of NE Ohio.
If you are on this site kvetching about Republicans and listing reasons why this cannot work, then you can just as easily find a nonprofit of your choosing to help that does something. Help progress and prove yourself change that is worthy. I sure as hell am not going to fight with you about this, there are people that are wanting that more than anything.
You may have to hold your anger and opinions in abeyance and use that energy to work as a cog in the wheel of progress. Who knows, someone may recognize you as the genius you seem to be on this site. Or, you just might be appreciated for helping make the world a less cynical place and thereby discredit neo-conservatism. It would personally make me very happy. Or do you really think a politician is going to do that for you?
Nonprofit organizations list; a starting point.
NCCS quick facts about nonprofits.