Letters to the Editor

This letter is associated with the following article:
Understanding the Bush-enabling and base-hating behavior of the "liberal" California Democrat reveals much about the failures of the 2007 Congress.
  • So?

    we're just going to lose elections if we split our parties.

    -- Cassia Bella

    How do you think we got into this mess in the first place? Democratic politicians have been contemptuous of the base for years, admittedly not so blatantly as they have been lately, yet we continued to vote for them. What do you expect to happen when a party is assured of your vote no matter what they do? Exactly what has now occurred. When Dems voted to censure MoveOn, what they were really saying is (and could it be any clearer?): "You mean shit to us. We can condemn you with impunity. Stop bothering us, you make things, erm, uncomfortable here in our lofty, profitable seats in the gov't. You are not now nor will you ever get what you want out of us. So sit down and shut up. But keep voting for us and sending us money, cuz we are a little better than the Republicans. (Abortion!Abortion!)"

    The party cannot be reformed from within. Witness how even ActBlue candidates have abandoned you. The only way to see results is to punish the party as a whole is for the base to switch allegiances, en masse, to a third party. There is nothing stopping members of the progressive caucus from switching parties and making such an effort more viable.