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I always, ALWAYS agreed with the Dems. I have always been a liberal. So it's not that I was busy voting republican or sitting at home on election day. I've never missed an election in my life and I've never voted for a republican. Ever.
But I always voted third party. It didn't matter which third party, just whichever one caught my attention and said things I agreed with.
I voted for Perot in 92 (giggle all you want, I know, I know), I voted for some guy whose name I can't even remember in 96, and I voted for the Libertarian guy in 2000. I wanted Al Gore to win. So why didn't I just vote Dem?
I could never articulate it very well back then, but I am seeing now the reasons I went third party back then. While the Democrats had the platform I could agree with, the history I loved, the values I cherished and the republicans had the platform I found abhorrent and repulsive, up at the very tippy top, they just seemed too much alike to me.
In other words, they just all seemed like professional "business as usual-ers." All in the same bed with big corporations. And while I was disgusted by the repuke's evil rhetorical games and attacks, I was almost more repulsed by the lukewarm response from the Democrats. I always wondered why they didn't fight harder. Yell louder, work like hell AGAINST the repukes and be a TRUE opposition party.
I just didn't see that too much.
And I know the whole thing about Dems having morals and not wanting to get down in the mud, etc. But it almost made me think there must be a lack of passion in the top levels of the Democratic party to not at least come out full-speed against some of the most disgusting charges the repukes laid at their feet. I KNEW they weren't true, so I wondered why the Dems didn't fight harder.
So, while I rooted for them, I didn't vote for them, on a national level. State-wide and locally, you bet.
Then 2000 happened. I regretted not voting for Gore almost immediately, not that my one paltry vote would have changed anything. I decided that night to join the Dems more formally, to really declare myself a Dem, which I always knew I was. Stand up and fight WITHIN the party. We had an enemy greater than my perceived problems with the Dems.
Now I am back to seeing the same things I saw before, only worse. What's a girl to do? I'm not leaving. I'm staying. But I'm saddened. It just seems like business as usual and I'm meanwhile watching the repukes get ballsier and ballsier and more and more openly evil.
My fantasy is to get all the top level Dems in a closed room and give them a fiery impassioned speech, exhorting them to start grabbing their balls or ovaries or whatever and standing up and FIGHTING for every day Democrats like you and me.
Before you flame me, I know there are SOME Dems who do fight, but there aren't enough of them and they aren't fighting hard enough. I know the media is against them, I know they are outnumbered, but dammit, that's no excuse. I'm just one person, a private citizen, but I gave hundreds of hours of my life and hundreds of dollars I could scarcely afford to this fight. I made so many sacrifices and have spoken up so loud and for so long, only to see those at the top don't seem to do the same thing.
Makes it kinda hard to go on.
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