As Winston Churchill said, democracy is problematic, but it's better than all the other forms out there.

Look at the history of Marxism /Leninism. It replaced one authoritarian system with another. Even stooping to the killing of the Czar's children.

I figure that for truth to survive, ideas must compete. Anytime an idea or ideology tries to isolate itself, the truth suffers.

The salvation is in the competition.

I;ve heard the "Left should work with the Democratic Party" and I don;t buy it, though I do respect those progressive democrats, sometimes known as Democratic Scoailists, who have worked within the party system to try to bring liberalism back to its progressive roots.

on the other hand, i;ve had "yellow dog Democrats" get absolutely obnoxious with people slightly to the left of them as well as those to the right, to the point where a techer at a high school where I sub fairly frequently said that i she 'foudn you 9you) voted for a third party candidate (in th Gore v. BushII election), I'll throw you out of the room.

I asked facetiously whether she;s prefer that iw ent to the prioncipal to say i was being threatened physically for my political views by a memebr of his faculty, or whether she's prefer i if I jsut asked her to have at it...after all, she is larger than i am but i am younger and almost undoubtedly more physically fit.

heh. clled her bluff there.

she then said, "no i mean it; leave this table right away!" and i said she could leave if she was that inolerant of people not sharing her views, but that the last time i checked, she as not in charge of who sat where in teh faculty room.

she stomped out of the room. I find it pretty funny now, sevetal eyars later, but I was a bit upset at the time, and asked her for an apology.

she was gracious enough to offer one.

when I have time I wll post a iece written by the late jsutice and peace nonviolent activist, dave Delinger 9who was my spiritual godfatehr in many respects) from back in 1964 abot why 'voting for johnson but not being foole for him" might or might not lead to any kind of meaningful change.

like most of Dave's writings, it was very prescient, and with a few name changes and minor odiications, seems as true forty and mre years later as in the 1960s.

how, when Democratic Pres Bill Clinton and not a Repubican president, dismantled what we did have of the modern welffare state, can anyone hnestly believe that we;d have a social safety net as good as that in Scandinavia?

and how can you discount the hard work of many, many people who have chosen o work somewhere other than toward election Democrats 'no matter what" as not being engaged in "hard work?"

there are some really good people who are Democrats in the legislative branch right now...Maxine Waters, John Conyers, and Barbara Lee come to mind. i;m not going to say that taking the electoral politics routeis always a sell out, bu neither should you say it always is a copout to work in other ways.

I didn't vote for Gore, NOR Bush, nor Nader in 2000, truth be told. and we do still have secret ballot in this country, so who I voted for, and why, can be a mystery for now. an I do think that Gore won the election fair and swuare and it was stolen...fr more information fom a really good and nonpartisan analyst on this, check out www.witnesstoacrime.com...this researcher, who holds advanced degrees in history, geopgraphy, and geology and is a great number-cruncher, also found out some scary things about Bush stealing the 2004 election.

nader has his problems, yes, and i think he;s getting old, but i;m glad he;s been there to stir the soup a bit.

soem Democrats seem to do better work after they get OUT of office; ex pres Jimmy Carter as well as ex Vice pres Al Gore.

and i must admit, it;s one of MY political pet peeves when Democratic Party people say, "if the progressives would just quit arhuing and work with us...' when what it means is "if you would drop you agenda and pick up mine, we'll get along fine, won't we?'

so far no conservative has offered to throw me out of the room, though i;m sure a few would like to do so...what does this say abot toleration and alliances? I'm not sure.
i'm not evangelizing the Democrats, and i go to plenty of metings, just maybe not the ones YOU would prefer.

and I want the Dems to quit evangelizing me.

look at Clinton, i mean Bill fr now, though I have even ore problems with Hillary and the way she talked to ,and about Obama ,during the primaries"..not just Welfar eDeform which relly hurt a lot of poor famileis, but the Effective Death Penalty Act, the bull about "gays in the military", renewing the Patriot Act and s[ying on civilians like ou and me, invading foreign countries, including air strikes, at least eight times, the absurd health care package that didn;t fix ANYTHING...my interests in supporting the Democrats went WAY down after that.