If you're thinking of voting third party this fall, please reconsider.

[Ken Burch]

37. It isn't about me. Stop always personalizing and trivializing.

What I'm saying was that there was a huge group of activists gathered in the Obama movement during the campaign, and then as soon as the votes were in, they were all told they weren't needed and wouldn't be listened to. Nothing else could come of that other than what did.

You can't expect people, especially young people just getting involved in politics, to stay involved and believe it is worth staying involved when the administration they did as much to elect as anyone else to elect tells them "we don't want to see you anymore until the next election-you're not going to be a part of anything between now and then"...which is exactly what Rahm did.

If nothing else, it was stunning ingratitude.

Those activists were a huge resource. They could have been used to put public pressure on wavering right-wing Demse to actually pass Obama's program without insisting on watering it down. Instead, it was those right-wing dems who were, to use your word "coddled", while the people who supported Obama and his program were (there is no other way to interpret this)told to go to hell.

The Obama movement WAS marginalized and ignored after election day, 2008. They were treated as if they were no longer mattered. This was not what they'd been led to expect...during the campaign, they were told they would be given an active role AFTER the election. Rahm decided he would rather see the party lose Congress than let THAT happen.

Can you seriously defend the decision Rahm made to do that?

Can you possibly claim that any good came of it?

It never serves progressive ends to tell people to stop fighting for change.