Reply #24: Excelllent post! [View All]

I'm a social democrat by inclination and I agree with everything you said. The way to move this country leftward is issue by issue. Social Security was once a radical idea and now it's something that might turn out to be a wedge issue to OUR advantage...although if we don't win it, we're screwed, unlike some of the wedge issues that the conservatives use.

Seriously, though. We need to harness the power of the internets, as moveon.org has done and use it to bring our issues into the mainstream. Kucinich is right when he says we're already paying for single payer universal healthcare - we're just not getting it. Kerry was also right when he released his plan..way back in the early days of the campaign and he said this was the best plan that could get passed. It's up to use to change the latter situation before we can change the former and it can be done when it's an issue that resonates with a lot of people. A few months ago I was happy just to find some relatively obscure websites that were discussing outsourcing of jobs. Now it's on Lou Dobbs every night and on the covers of major magazines. There are lots of those issues. We just have to pick our battles carefully and take it to all the people, not just those who agree with us on every issue.