...one party is on top and the other party comes in second. This is all that ever happens. You can't hurt them by withdrawing your support any more than you can hurt them by dying off or living as a hermit in a cave. If you don't support one politician, the other politician wins. In fact, most of the game of politics these days is spent in getting people NOT to vote, mostly though nasty negative ads. If you can get lots of people not to vote, then maybe your little band of fevered supporters can get you elected.

The only impact you can ever really have in politics is if you SUPPORT someone. Then they might want to keep your vote and they might feel they have to cater to you. However, remember that half the country already supports the Democrats and so the Democrats are far more likely to cater to THOSE people than you.

We're involved in the Middle East because of oil and we have troops there for the same reason. Oil is the reason we got upset when Iraq invaded Kuiwait. Oil is probably also the reason we didn't invade Iraq the first time; we wanted to just get back pumping oil as soon as possible.

But why we invaded Iraq when we did, when there was no compelling reason to invade Iraq just the year before, is certainly not because of oil. If oil had been the primary concern, the easiest thing to do would have to been to sign a contract with Saddam Hussien and have him keep Iraq 'pacified' so that the oil could flow through the pipelines. Now the pipelines are in flames. Not so good for oil.

No, we invaded Iraq because of the stupid 'strength' doctrine, which says we have to hit back at somebody, anybody, whenever we get hit, no matter what the consequences might be. And we decided to hit Iraq because that was the handiest target. We already had our troops there.

...cannot be more than five percent and is probably much less, considering how easily fragmented the left is. So you are not likely to apply 'political pressure' to the Democrats. If lefties won't vote for Democrats, the Democrats will simply try to find their votes on the center or the right.

All the people who read liberal blogs, btw, are likely to be in that five percent. The proof is in the polls that show Hillary Clinton the leading Democratic nominee, while on the blogs the support for Hillary is virtually nil. That means blog numbers aren't even close to being large enough to impact national polls.

The only avenue for making a liberal/left impact is to try to change the minds and thinking of the vast number of voters. However, if you think democracy is a sham and that all the elections are controlled and that the media is in the thrall of the right wing, and that the voters are all dumb hillbilly hicks besides, then you are not likely to get anywhere.

If you do want to engage with real voters, you will soon find the voters actually believe in such things as lower taxes and less government action and in the 'strength' doctrine--these being practially all the arguments people ever hear anymore. You need to create counter arguments to the 'strength' doctrine, for instance, and the bizarre idea that the Republicans are somehow our genius behind the scenes masters of the universe is not in fact an argument against the 'strength' doctrine. If anything, it amounts to an argument for it.