WHOOMP, there it is.

[Summer Hathaway]

68. Yes, it makes total sense to

stop supporting Democrats with our votes and our money.

"Do that twice in a row, and the Democratic party would probably just fold up its tent and move on, leaving a vacuum for a truly left party to fill."

That'll learn 'em. Just let the Republicans win all over the place, have complete power. It's a grand idea. And the years that the GOP have that power they'll destroy every gain we've ever made in the areas of GBLT rights, women's reproductive rights, minorities' rights, etc.

So what's a few years or so under GOP governance? So what if they use their power to overturn Roe-v-Wade, educate our children with textbooks that ignore science and rely on the Bible, or even rewrite history altogether (as we've seen them do)? I mean really, so fuckin' what? How bad could it possibly get? What could possibly go wrong?

It won't matter, because if the Dem Party winds up folding its tent as a result, a "truly left party" will spring up like a phoenix from the ashes and put everything to rights.

Do you have ANY idea how long it would take a new party to even get a foothold in US politics, no less get to the point where it is a recognizable brand that attracts voters? DECADES, that's how long. And in the meantime, while we're all waiting for this "truly left party" to be a viable contender, the Republicans will continue to change the direction of the country in the most destructive ways imaginable.

"So you're happy with the chained CPI? Happy with no public option, happy with our never ending involvement in Afghanistan, happy with the upcoming Keystone Pipeline, happy with our disappearing civil liberties, happy with what NAFTA did, happy with what the '96 Telecom Act did, happy with welfare "reform", happy with the repeal of Glass-Steagal?"

Given the time it would take for your mythical "truly left party" to have a political impact on elections, chained CPI won't matter, because SS will have already been gutted, privatized, and/or totally destroyed. Involvement in Afghanistan will be replaced with more wars being begun elsewhere. The Keystone Pipeline will be an environmentalist's dream as compared to what the GOP would allow.

"The rest of us out here in the real world ..."

Those of us who ARE actually here "in the real world" recognize REALITY. And your pipe dreams about teaching Democrats a lesson by allowing the GOP to regain power border on insanity, along with your pipe dreams about a "truly left party" emerging full-blown in the aftermath, somehow miraculously uniting all those who were once Democrats - a party that will, of course, go on to being swept into office, from whence they will undo all the damage the GOP has done in the meantime and right all wrongs perpetrated on the citizenry.

And let's not even consider that many traditional Dem voters are centrists, who tend to vote for Dems that represent THEIR more perhaps more conservative values. There will be no place at the table for them in your "truly left party" - or should I say your "my way or the highway party"?

It has been obvious from your many posts here that you think a Third Party or a 'replacement party' is the way to go. To that end, I would suggest you spend the time you now devote to posting on a Democratic site would be better spent setting up your own "truly left party" website, where you can preach to your own choir, and organize them into the party of your dreams. According to your calculations, you should be able to get that party up-and-running, and able to garner the votes necessary to put them into power, in very short order.