Reply #2: You're Right, but...

[Morgana]

I'm still waiting for Democrats (aka the people who woke up and became Democrats to begin with) to truly wake up!

I have a few problems with the route that the main people in the Democratic party have taken.

Why didn't they fight against the term "Liberal" being turned into a "dirty" word during the Reagan years?

Why didn't they vote against the so-called Patriot Act?

Why did they give W. power to go to war against Iraq when many of them weren't sure about that decision?

Why haven't they been more vocal against this administration's environmental policy ("Clean Skies" are they calling it?) when it's anything but friendly toward the environment.

And, after it was obvious to everyone with a working brain that this war on Iraq was ill conceived, why didn't they speak out against the people who began it?

WHY DON'T THE DEMOCRATS STAND UP AND COMPLAIN SO LOUDLY THAT THEY WILL NOT BE IGNORED?

If this one of the only two major political parties in my beloved country cannot stand up against the party of bullies who use dirty tricks to win elections and then work against the people of this country, who are we Independents going to respect?

In my opinion, the Republican party (with a few exceptions) has become a slimy group who will stoop at nothing to feather its own nest.

I expected more from it's only real opposition -- and have been sorely disappointed.

I voted for Nader in 2000 -- in New York State, after the polls showed that Gore was ahead by more than 20 points. (I've voted every year since 1972, when I was old enough to do so: McGovern, Carter, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Clinton, Nader.)

I'll be voting for Kerry this year, so you Democrats need not convince me to do so.

But your Democratic party needs to get back to its FDR roots and stand up to the bullies in the other party.

My father, who was born when Warren Harding was president, is a staunch Democrat from the South -- North Carolina. He was never a person who felt bias toward anyone due to race, sex, religion, or any other polarizing condition.

He told me recently that, when Republicans phone him to try to talk him into voting their way, he asks, "What did the Republicans ever do for 'common' people?"

These days, I wonder, "What are the Democrats doing to protect the 'common' people from the Republicans?"

Not much these days, it seems.

Convince me otherwise, please.