You know, I have done a little work north of my border in the past to change the coloration of New Hampshire, which used to be a lot redder than it is today. I don't sit on my laurels--I'm simply pragmatic. I go for what can be achieved, a step at a time, because that is how it is done.
I know full well that what sells in MA does not sell in Montana, and without the votes, we get NUTHIN'. You can't "push to the left" if there's no one there to push or if the entire "left" population of the state sits somewhere to the right of you. You have to be incremental.
And here's something too--when I write to my senators or rep, they write back. I don't ask for the moon, I'm not amorphous in my comments, I am very specific and I let them know how I feel about an issue.
If you're getting back run-on garbage, write a letter back to them, one paragraph, that says "This did not answer my question--my question was (fill in the question) and I want a response" and then send the pile of crap BACK to them. It will take awhile to get a response because of the anthrax checks, but they'll stop sending you garbage if you call them on it. You could also get the name of your senator's/ rep's chief of staff and call him/her (get a hold of a congressional phone directory) and TELL that person that the staffers are trying to shut you up with garbage and you don't like it. If you're very professional on the phone and adopt a tone that suggests you know the person, those interns will often put you right through.
Look, I am active in that I GOTV and get voters to the polls, and I'll gather signatures or stuff like that if needed, and I make the occasional (very piddling, not big bucks because I don't have 'em) donation, but I'm by no means a party insider. I'm just an interested, and more importantly, reliable voter who pitches in where and when I can. And if I don't like something, I pipe up, but I do it in a targeted way.
As for Obama's convention venue, he (realistically, his staff, to include the Secret Service) picked the place that would hold the crowd and could be secured appropriately. When Kerry did it in Beantown, he used the Boston Garden. Oh ... wait... that's the TD BANKNORTH Garden. Yep, there's that BANKY word again... Good luck finding a massive, securable venue that isn't coated with corporate stink. It's a convention, and it ain't gonna work at a place like Woodstock. You need a massive facility surrounded by thousands and thousands of hotel rooms, lots of 'convention' support, restaurants, transportation, etc., and you're not going to get that everywhere. It's just not a fair criticism.
The only "good" candidate is the one who is dipped in promise, has very little in the way of a record, and has never yet disappointed you. This is why people glom on to Elizabeth Warren. I am confident--and I like her, I supported her, I worked very hard to get her elected, in fact, and I think she is a wonderful senator--that if she somehow found herself in the White House (not that it will happen) she would be trashed here on the august pages of DU within six months of her inauguration. The same people cheerleading her would be shitting on her, pointing out that she used to be a Republican, and researching all the votes they've ignored to this point and looking askance on them in order to paint her as a "failed progressive."
What? She doesn't support pot legalization? Under the bus with HER! She voted to retain unneeded defense programs to spare Bay State jobs? CRONY! Pork barreler!! How DARE she?
Out would come the "I knew it all the time-rs" and the unreasonable purists, and any discussion of her would turn into a political Lord of the Flies.
Like it or not, the President has to be the President of ALL of the people. That said, I think Obama has done a LOT, and without a lot of help, either. Does anyone truly think we would have gotten the LGBT gains we've seen to this point, the ACA, or have gotten out of Iraq, if John McCain and Sarah Palin had been elected? I mean, sometimes you have to judge your progress by stepping back and looking at the larger picture. I shudder to think of eight years of Grumpy Old Man and That Freak from Wasilla--we'd probably all be hoarding food and digging out bomb shelters in the back yard, and we wouldn't have time to post gripes on the internet...!
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