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the future of progressive issues and the obliteration of the dangers that make our cake recipes for dandy legislation just like those unused cook books lining our dusty shelves. There is a legitimate question that the future president will mire the future in a discredited wrongly evaluated and sold out past. Last time we had fears about that that stretched to all top candidates, including Edwards and stopped at Dean(about whom the misgivings took a bit different form). Distrust was pretty rampant then during shorter season when only Dean broke the stale air of centrist politics. This is till hardly the time to demand a rapid purging or transformation of the party or wage war with a DLC that would prefer fighting us than the the GOP.
Yet we can agree on what we want and measure out our misgivings accordingly and fairly because still, in the present state of party leadership, populism and progressivism is fringe and wealth is center. I may argue that the one who moves toward the "fringe"- or reality that can survive the crises of this world- is the one to receive the most support and all candidates the same support dependent on response to that help and that pressure to do what is right. That is the same for every movement, labor, civil rights. You can pick your ideal champion and best committed candidate and best shot and then deal with the actual choice dependent on issues and delivery. The only punishment must be raising up more good candidates outside the money interests to improve the future, not abetting a GOP fascist revival. To those ends campaign reform and media reform are key. Just as the "left" achieved important party building by getting Dean as DNC chair, the future must move over and beyond whoever is President and whatever they achieve.
I think we know quite a bit more about the candidates than the average citizen than to engage in hero worship or spitting contests. We also know more about truly key issues and the crimes threatening all realities. We should agree to get our act together and use what we criticize in individual candidates to frame our influence(if any) upon them once they are president. And how to best make THAT happen, because I have seen no wonder messiah who is going yo singlehandedly brush away election perils much less the difficult twin tasks of undoing damage and meeting onrushing calamities. Weakening ourselves by fighting each other shows we are part of the same grand problem afflicting all of law abiding suckers in America. The American Revolution was all about coping with that weird disunity and sometimes just hanging on.
In the heat of the campaign, bias or error will produce critiques and responses will answer in kind with heat. It is important as well to develop a little hide and humor to these foibles and have confidence in each other underneath the competition, even the errant absurdities. If the sniff and retreat response is going to castrate all critical debate it too is yet another weak display of silliness in the ongoing catastrophes unfolding about us.
When you feel the need to punch something, deflect the topic to Nader instead. Just kidding.
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