Reply #79: All progressive thinkers are welcomed at DU [View All]

[Samantha]

I cannot understand why you regard yourself as a progressive when you promote ignoring or banning someone who simply disagrees with you. And yes, the Republican party does expect everyone to fall in line and do the-right-party thing. If I adhered to that kind of thinking, I would be a member of that party instead of this party.

So what will happen if people take your advice and simply put others on Ignore that disagree with their position. You from what you say will Ignore them, and they, if influenced by this thread of yours, will Ignore you in turn. Where does that leave the Open Discourse?

This type of mentality is very disturbing. There are very many young people now joining this website, some of whom are easily influenced. Threads such as this might give them the wrong impression.

One can do with his or her vote exactly as they choose. Or one can choose not to vote. A deliberate choice not to vote is to abstain, often regarded as a protest vote, by those who actually took civics classes.

This website is for progressives, and there is no requirement to cast a vote to participate. The website cannot be used to promote the candidacy of someone outside of the party. One could however be supportive of the Democratic party by completing the balance of the ballot after leaving the choice for President blank, therefore abstaining.

That meme about not voting Democratic is the equivalent of casting a vote for the Republican candidate is also very irritating and cannot be substantiated. Many Republicans will not vote in 2008 because they object to the candidate their party has presented them with -- and so they protest it. It is only when the base of a party starts to object or protest against the platform their party is running on does the Elite or Establishment begin to admit they cannot win without the base.

That latter thought brings me to Hillary Clinton. I will not vote for her because I see her as the DLC candidate. The DLC itself is the right-wing element of the Democratic party. It has taken public pride in boasting of its control over the selection of the candidate and recommending the positions the party should embrace. Most recently, it advocated against a Dean nomination in 2004:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Samantha/2

and it publicly encouraged its members to speak out about Gore running in 2004.

But if one can get past that, there is the issue of the DLC adopting a more conservative position on issues than true progressives embrace.

Finally, I refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton because of her failure to stand up to George Bush* during the years she has been in the Senate, choosing instead to enable him to conduct a pre-emptive attack on Iraq, a country which had done nothing to us. That alone is unforgivable. In my opinion, she did that not because she was a liberal or a progressive, she was simply covering her future political flank for her Presidential run. Putting party loyalty (and website loyalty) aside for a moment, I could consider it unconscionable to vote for someone such as she.