General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The demands for Hillary loyalty are loud and clear on DU. [View all]BainsBane
(57,741 posts)I wrote this earlier that expresses my views about this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6512306
We don't have to resolve the primary today. The election is still a long way off.
You see demands for loyalty. What I see is exasperation that people seem to care only about defeating Clinton and don't propose anything except that. You insist your goal is progressivism. I don't know what that means to you, particularly since there are so few posts about issues. Instead I see a lot of anger at other DUers, nonsense about logos, dishonest posts comparing campaign contributions from a third-party, small state senate race with a presidential campaign, and a lot of sexist tripe. I see hand wringing that Democrats seek to appeal to women and "minorities" and dismissal of rights and concerns of the majority of Americans as "social issues." You may think saying the word progressive over and over again as though its meaning were self-evident, but it is not. Moreover, most Americans don't care about the lables; they care about what candidates are going to do to improve their lives.
Those basic issues of daily life that determine most Americans experiences and voting behavior don't even make an appearnace in most of the posts staking out opposition to Clinton. In fact, many of those concerns are openly dismissed by some as "issues that don't count."
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I would like to know what issues you all care about and how you would like to see them advanced. Because opposition to a political candidate is not an issue, and it isn't progressive. It's no better than a campaign ad, and some of the stuff I've seen hear is fouler than any Republican would put on the air.
Then I have to wonder if you are even thinking about the country or if you think DU is its own world unto itself.
Nothing you or anyone else posts on DU encourages anyone to run. That you think it does shows a strangely inflated sense of self- importance. I'm all for people doing what they can to influence the party in the direction they would like to see it go, but that isn't accomplished by posting online about how you want a more "progressive" candidate. It's most effectively done at the local level, which then filters up to the national. That is how the Tea Party influenced the GOP. They didn't delude themselves into thinking that arguing with 100 or so people online influenced the direction of their party. If you want to change the party, that takes hard work at the local level, something that I have seen people here give a million excuses for why they shouldn't have to do. That is of course their call, but then one shouldn't be suprised when the results are more of the same.