The Democratic Party exists to represent us, the base [View All]

[CTLawGuy]

A political party is formed by those who are politically interested and in agreement with each other on broad, basic principles.

The Dem party exists because of us, those who consider ourselves its members. We made it, and we sustain it with our donations and activism.

Because it is OUR party, we have a duty to make sure it represents us and what we believe in. Why should people donate to and work for a party that does not believe as its members do?

Our "elites", as political scientists call them, (our elected officials and leaders) serve at our behest. We have a right and duty to make sure those elites are and remain committed to what we, the base, believe in.

When an elite strays too far from what we believe, we have the right to (1) criticize him or her, (2) to have him or her challenged in the primary.

If we do not do this, the party ceases to be ours. If we say, "they are Democrats, so we shouldn't criticize them" or "it's a waste of time to attack dems", then we give them permission to ignore us at their political convenience.

A party that ignores its base, and the principles and ideas thereof, is a party that ceases to have meaning. It's a party no one wants to join, because what it stands for is so incomprehensible that it might as well stand for nothing.

In our system, there are 2 giant parties that act more like political holding companies rather than unified political units.

Like the democracy in our nation's government, our party has a democratic process whereby the factions may deliberate and candidates may be chosen to represent us in an election. Our base does not agree. that is why primaries are held where Democrats are free to define what a Democrat is and nominate those who agree with those ideas.

So when people like me oppose Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller, we are not trying to destroy our party, we are trying to pull it back to its basic mission of representing us.