I’ve been a lifelong Democrat. My history supporting the parties starts with McGovern, and I still have the McGovern 72 t-shirt I wore when I was four years old. The garbage that I have heard around here lately have finally convinced me that the party has left me, not I it. I can’t support a party that requires oaths of fealty, and uses fear to convince voters that accepting Republican policies as their own is the best way to help our nation.
There has been a lot of rhetoric around here lately. I’ve found that supporters of both Clinton and Sanders saying that because of one thing that one supporter of the other candidate has said that candidate has lost their vote. “That’s silly,” I thought, “Why would one thing that a supporter say cost their candidate their vote?” Now I know better, it’s not about a single phrase, it’s about the health of the Democratic Party. I’ve understood for a while that the shrinking party is moving to the right, but I always felt that working within the system we could gain it back. Now I believe it’s not saveable.
Lately I’ve been told that Bernie Sanders is costing his party its base, because he is too liberal or too progressive, and actually seeking to expand the party to the “big tent” it used to have. I was told that the “Democratic Party Base” is only POC or women voters. On the same thread I was told that poor white trash are a more reliable vote, therefor they are the party’s base. I fit it neither of those categories. While, in reality, I am actually in the group of most reliable voters for the Democratic Party, I am being told repeatedly that what I desire is not important. And that the fact that I voted for Bernie Sanders means that I am not a real Democrat.
These are Republican Party tactics. Fear, loathing, fealty. Everyone else is cheating you, so you need to give money to rich people so some might trickle down to you. You don’t fit the group that we’re currently trying to woo, so just shut up and cast your vote for us. If you don’t, the other will win.
I haven’t left the Democratic Party, it has left me. I am both progressive and liberal. While I make some good money (although from my other comments you can see I have been hurt by right wing economic policies), I believe that income throughout the nation should be much more equal. I support civil rights in all it’s forms and I believe that every person should have the right to live as they choose or as they believe they were born to live. I believe that sound business regulations make a better economy. I would much rather the government use tax income on infrastructure, social programs and education than on war. I believe that environmental change (global warming) is the largest threat we currently face.
This is all what the Democratic Party once stood for. Now it asks for fear, loathing and fealty. Yes, the current Republicans running for office are insane fascist scum. But that does not mean that I think our party should be to the right of Reagan on economic issues, foreign policy and the “rights” of “corporate persons.” We’ve allowed the Republicans to drive the Democratic party far to the right.
I am the Democratic Base, as are a wide variety of others. But now the party leadership is asking us to support a candidate simply because she wears a D, not because of what she stands for.
I believe that Hillary Clinton would be a better president than Donald Trump. I also believe that, just like Obama, she would have many good and reasonably liberal accomplishments. Unfortunately I believe that, just like Obama, she would have many accomplishments that have been far more supported by the Republican Party for the past 30 years than supported by the Democratic party.
I can no longer support the Democratic Party that would rather support the TPP than US workers’ unions. I can no longer support a party that sends drones to kill innocent people before trying to find diplomatic solutions. I can no longer support a party that supports fracking and petrochemical subsidies over clean energy solutions. I can no longer support a party that supports white collar criminals over those that can’t afford to live. I can no longer call myself a Democrat when the party requires fealty to a candidate just because they wear a D, regardless of policy.
If the Democratic Party base is no longer me, than the Democratic Party is no longer mine. 45 years of support and I am lost. I support Bernie Sanders because of what he stands for, not what stands against him. I support Bernie Sanders because he supports all of us.
Yes, I know this will be flagged because it is not a purely positive thread, but this is far from the right wing talking points that Kos was asking us not to repeat. This is meant to be a constructive discussion on how to improve the Democratic party, from the left, not the right.