Reply #84: I absolutely 100% agree with you, Tyler. [View All]

[Lyric]

Everyone wants to wax idealistic about it, trotting out the "Ooooh, my vote is mine!" line. Yes, that's true. But if you're posting HERE, then your vote is DEMOCRATIC, or else you don't belong here. Period. This is not Independent Underground, Progressive Underground, or "I MIGHT vote Democratic" Underground. We support Democratic nominees here, no matter WHO they might be. If you cannot or will not support the nominee if your Chosen Favorite doesn't win, then do us all a favor and leave NOW. The rest of us might actually be able to have some decent conversations and debates without the whiny, self-absorbed, MEMEME! melodrama of the aforementioned type of poster. People like that are the ones who are killing our party.

Until we have a viable multi-party system (which is NEVER going to work so long as the Rethuglicans continue to vote en masse for a single party, so if you want multiple parties, go talk to THEM) the Democratic Party is the ONLY party large enough and powerful enough to thwart the insanity of the GOP. It isn't perfect, and I can accept that, because it's fucking light-years better than the guaranteed Republican-rule alternative if we can't come together and compromise. If you have to hold your nose, I won't complain, but voting for anyone other than the Democratic nominee (or not voting at all) is a disaster. The idealistic effect is that you uphold your "principles", but the practical reality is that the Republicans will win. Idealism is a wonderful thing, but people are DYING--not just from the War, but also from malnutrition, disease, and suicide from the despair of watching everything you worked for taken away as the economy tanks. I cannot imagine any higher "principles" than the "principle" of feeding hungry American children, helping the working class make it through the depression, protecting a woman's right to choose, and funding research into finding cures for things like AIDS and cancer. You can vote Democratic, knowing that every single nominee we have will be better for America based on THOSE principles than any Republican candidate.

And of course, there's the Supreme Court--the only thing that stands between us and absolute tyranny of the sheeple majority. Goddess help us all if John McCain gets his hands on the Supreme Court. Republicans have already compromised habeas corpus--what's next? Freedom of the press? Political dissent? Will we start arresting "subversives"? Requiring oaths to prove your loyalty to capitalism? If McCain gets the White House, half of DU will be on a federal "list" somewhere before the decade is out. Are your principles worth THAT?