A year ago, for the first time in my life, I registered as a Democrat. I'd always been an independent, though I tended to vote for Democrats (I've never voted for a Republican), but I always thought of this as the lesser of two evils.
The fact is, I've never liked the Democratic Party.
It cynically used the virulent racism of the Dixiecrats in order to win elections; it got us into wars (too many to count); the members were, and still are with few exceptions, nothing but a bunch of mealy-mouthed opportunists, intent only on maintaining their own power, while personally enriching themselves.
In fact, if you stop to consider whether the Democratic Party has ever been truly progressive, you might think about the New Deal, and some of the important legislation passed on LBJ's watch, but you would be hard-pressed to find other examples of real progressivism.
The fact is, the Democratic Party sucks.
And yet I vote for them, year after year, because the modern Republican Party is, and always has been, a Nuremberg Rally away from goose-stepping the nation into oblivion.
This is not a choice I want to have to make again. I want to vote for a party in which I can believe and can be proud; a party that stands up for working people, and the environment, and women, and the oppressed of all colors and nationalities.
It seems the only way to do this is from the inside. If you don't like the way something is being run, fix it.
What we need to do is take over the party. It will take years of hard work, but take over the party we must. It won't be easy, but in time we will send the lilly-livered, milque toast Kerries and Hillaries and Bidens packing, replacing them with more Feingolds and Hacketts and Pennachios.
Now, more than ever, we need to close ranks and jettison the dross.
I think that is what this site is all about.