Why should I be a Democrat?

[haele]

116. Because the Democrats, flawed as they are, operate in a greater Reality.

Not in some magical Manichean world in which everyone is on "a team", and if your team gets together and believes hard enough, the world will change for the better.

Too many people think in labels and identification with the figureheads, not realizing that, while the party platform and focus may identify goals, all politics are fueled through local participation and buy-in; the most efficient process to reach those national "goals" are controlled by the local groups who are versed in the local culture, not the National groups, which by necessity are managed by both political insiders and financial insiders.

So, while you - and for that matter, I - may disapprove of personalities and the legislative horse-trading within the parties, the overall goals of the Democratic party are more in line with an overall progressive governance in which a growing number of people will experience equal rights, future social, environmental and economic situations as well as present are considered and strategized for, and overall common benefits are more evenly spread across the country instead of being held closely and doled out by a few for "deserving folks". The Democratic vision is large and flexible. Which can often be viewed as incoherent at best, corrupt at worse.

The Republicans have shown by both their party platform and their actions that since the 1970's when the Religious Conservatives and Free Market Libertarians came together to pull a coup on that party, they are concerned far more about actions that please their Gods - either a personal deity or a group identity - than actually governing for the long term over a diverse and multi-cultural Nation with various regions that have different issues and solutions. Their visions for the U.S. are small and restrictive; rigidly corrupt at best, viciously murderous at worse.
For the current Republican vision to work for even a decade, this country needs to be reduced by around 200 million "useless" or disposable citizens over the next couple years. They need a political snow globe for their experiment in unrestricted Capitalism/Oligarchy to be able to maintain an illusion of governance - and the liberals, disabled, and other citizens who don't fit within an easily controllable norm like religion or economic needs status cannot be tolerated for them to prove "success". Look at Putin and modern Russia for their model of governance.


The other reality to consider when asking "Why should I be a Democrat?" is that the U.S. is a two party system because the majority of political governance is held by the two parties.
While there are fringe elements that might control specific communities and local governance, you're not going to see the Greens, Socialists, or the American Independence parties actually influence governance except as vote spoilers.
Until the third and fourth party groups can get sufficient local power to actually muster voting blocks on the State and National levels, you're stuck with just the Democrats and Republicans for your vote.

If you regularly vote and interact with the people you vote for, you can start to change the party you affiliate with from the inside. If you don't vote, you allow others to take control. And there's nowhere to run away to, whether you vote or not, those damn politicians will still affect your life and your future. Simple as that.

We live in a large, messy world where there are at least a couple hundreds of millions of unique ideas and legitimate political viewpoints. And while I've determined that even though personalities and rhetoric may put me off, the focus, the goals of the Democratic party are far more to my ethical acceptance than the Republican Party. There's a practical vision for a future for everyone in the Democratic Party. There's not one that I can see in the Republican Party - the GOP all seems to be about justifying feelings - along with shifting control of all U.S. resources to a small group of financial elite who can then "safeguard" them for an apparently ever-dwindling cadre of "deserving citizens".

So, I'd say - it's up to you to determine what political affiliation you're willing to address how large your political vision needs to be for you to sleep more comfortably at night.

Haele