Reply #28: Just two quick anecdotes: [View All]

well, I hope they are quick

I have been a dem for forty years. I come from a largely dem family. My wife and I have been progressives and left the whole time. Won't go over the resume. Right after Bill Clinton was elected, I remember my wife and I standing outside where I teach and watching Clinton go by after spending the day at the Roosevelt Library. His motorcade was later than expected. It was pretty late at night.We were the only ones on the road, and the motorcade goes by, and he waves to us. What exhilaration. I actually held an election party to celebrate Mondale's win 12 years earlier. Well, My wife was pregnant with our youngest and the older three ( 12 and 10 years older) had only lived under Republicans. Clinton's car goes by, and I remember my wife saying " Finally, our kids will get to know what a Democratic president is like." My response, "maybe this one will never know a Republican." Well, eight years later - Glass Steagal is gone, Don't Ask Don'T Tell is in, and NAFTA is the order of the day. "Welfare Reform." Straight Third Way. DLC. But hey, the stock market is doing okay and those tax cuts don't look too bad.

So, it is now 2008. My wife and I are still Democrats. We have been to more anti-war demonstrations than we want to remember (again - I am FOR and go back to 1966-67). Our youngest ( and the other 3) have been marching along with us for the past seven years. My wife and I support Edwards ( well Kucinich but snowballs in hell on that). Our two youngest, but particularly our now 16 year old are strongly pro-Obama and they really convince us. We all get together for the inauguration. Our two youngest are proud as hell. They feel as though a change is going to come. And now?

My wife and I are still doing the same things we have always done - she is a union rep ( and spent most of last spring at rallies in support of Wisconsin and this fall has been doing a few local OWS s), and I am still active where I am active - but please, don't hold up another Clinton to replace President Obama and suggest it is any different.

In short, it means that this true believer of 40 years is done. Of course, I will vote Dem. But instead of actually believing in these folks, it is all lesser of two evils. I hope that explains what I mean by that.