Reply #61: I was raised to believe the party was the people, not the politicians

[starroute]

And that when the Democratic Party gets out of line, it's the job of its rank and file to remind it whose interests it serves.

My parents and grandparents practically worshiped the party of Roosevelt, but as good New York City Democrats they also knew that keeping the party loyal to the ideals of Roosevelt meant not letting the party leaders get too big for their britches. That could mean fighting the corruption of Tammany Hall. Or it could mean voting for the occasional Republican, or Liberal, or Socialist, or whatever else was out there, in the name of letting the party know it couldn't take their votes for granted.

I don't see things as being any different here and now. The Democratic Party has served us up for decades with a string of candidates you had to hold your nose to vote for, or candidates who were decent until their consultants convinced them to deny everything they believed in, or candidates whose best intentions were frustrated by the unwillingness of their own party to back them up.

As I see it, the only way to take back our country is to take back our party first, and continuing to enable the dysfunctional behaviors that got us into this pickle in the first place is not going to accomplish that.

So can we have a Kick the Democratic Party's Ass Until They Know Who's Master Forum? Please?