General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: In 18 years since Naders run, what has been accomplished by attacking the Dem party from the left? [View all]vi5
(13,305 posts).....and I see their points on a lot of things.
I've been a pragmatic, card carrying, envelope stuffing, letter writing, primary voting, money donating Democrat since the mid-80's. Never not voted for a Democrat in any and all elections. And on economic matters, which is where I find most of these "radical leftists" are coming from, they have valid points which I see get way too easily dismissed on here.
They are told "Work from within the party!". Then they see that "the party" powers that be put their hands on the scale in primaries (and no I'm not talking about for Hillary, I'm talking way more local and regional and state elections). So even when many of them try to work from within the party they see themselves being told to basically cast their vote, shut up, and trust that everything is going to turn out right, by people who supposedly know better.
Now yeah, there are just people on the left who hate the system as a whole and are never going to vote for either of the two major parties and that is that. So why do we even count on them as votes? Why do we expect them to vote for us and get mad when they do, any more than we do Republicans? To me it seems like a lot of this hatred directed at the left since say 2000 seems to lend credence to a lot of their points. If we've gotten to the point where the Democratic party is complaining about criticism from "the left" then I'm sorry, that positions us to their right and as pragmatically liberal as I am, that's not where I want to be.
I've watched as issue after issue has been compromised on because, well pragmatism or whatever other reason.
Maybe it's because of where I live. But I see a lot of people saying "Well this won't play in the south....or in the midwest or with this group or that group." O.K. so yeah. But I live in the NY/NJ area, both of which are deep blue, hardcore blue states. And I have to watch people like Democratic state leader Steve Sweeney cozy up to Chris Christie. I have to watch the party basically leave Barbara Buono out to dry when she ran against Christie. I see Democrats in our state bashing unions....bashing teachers unions. I see Andrew Cuomo the next state over running ads bragging about his "tax incentives" for business and "no income tax for businesses" and any other manner of bullshit he's pulling. I see the "independent democratic caucus" which has people run as Dems and then caucus with Republicans, giving them control of the statehouse, even though there are more elected Democrats.
So.....yeah, I don't know. I see this type of hardcore, third way, economically reagan-esque bullshitright here in the cradle of Democratic stronghold states. And it frustrates the shit out of me and makes me want to throw in the towel with this stupid party that I've pledged loyalty to since I was an adolescent in the late 70's. So I honestly can't really begrudge anyone who sees the same stuff and complains that the differences between the two parties on issues of economics have not gotten smaller and smaller.
Yes, there are social issues and yes that is what causes me to continue voting for the Democratic party. But my point is that if this is how I feel as a pragmatic, hardcore party loyal Democrat in a heavy blue stronghold, who is a political junkie and follows all the ins and outs of everything going on, then I can see where others might feel even MORE frustrated without that sense of pragmatic loyalty.
And not it doesn't mean the party should turn over the reigns to what those folks think and want. But I definitely think we'd be better served listening to them and maybe making overtures to them than we are complaining about them day in and day out. Especially since whatever the fuck our current plan and approach is clearly is not winning us elections.