This third-way centrist ultimately loves counterproductive left wingnuts

[Recursion]

I've worked for the government most of my adult life and I see this dialog a lot.

There's what we want, and there's what we can do. It's important not to confuse to two.

But in the talk about what we can actually do it's also important to remember what we really do want, and how we on this board are more alike in that question than we probably think.

Leftward pressure on a Democratic administration is always irritating in some sense to the sort of people who wind up inside the beltway, but it's also always required.

As a separate issue, writing posts on DU is not activism (both sides are guilty of this conflation). Manning phone banks is activism. Signing a check is activism. Knocking and dragging is activism (we will especially need that next year: go here to see where you can help). Here I will preach for a second: if you want to change the party, the door is open. I've never yet heard of a state party that said "we're turning down volunteers".

I love this board, and I love knocking heads with the people on it, but let's not after all the bullshit we've been through start pretending we're on different teams.