A Short Note On The Democratic Party And The Progressive Left....

[Lydia Leftcoast]

228. That is exactly how I feel

I don't have children, but I know so many people, including educated people, who are struggling to get by, really struggling, even to the point of temporary homelessness. Bigger crowds at my church's meal program.

As a teenager and twentysomething in the 1960s and 1970s, I never could have imagined that America would come to this. I'm old enough to remember when the only homeless people were late-stage alcoholics and drug addicts and the occasional hippie out for adventure. There was no such thing as a homeless family.

It's been downhill since Reagan, but I cannot blame only Reagan. No, I also blame the accursed DLC, founded during the Reagan era, which offered very little resistance to any of Reagan's policies and even cheered on his military buildup and his interventions on the side of murderous thugs in Central America and Afghanistan.

I remember those who actually fought against Reagan, like Henry Gonzalez of Texas, only to be marginalized by their own party.

I remember being marginalized by my county Democratic party in Oregon after I made a motion condemning the war against Nicaragua, no longer receiving invitations to party events, being brushed off with "Oh, it's just an error" when I asked why.

I know people in Minnesota who used to be staunch DFLers until they, too, were marginalized by party officials who kissed up to the candidates who raised the most corporate money.

If the Democratic Party were my lover, people would say that I have "abused spouse syndrome." So I no longer consider myself a Democrat. I voted for Obama (only because Romney was so dreadful), but I voted for one of Amy Klobuchar's leftist opponents, not that it made much difference. (She's popular with Republicans because she never does anything of importance, so they mounted only a token campaign against her.)