I never voted for a Dem in a presidential race before Nov. Here's why:

[Bouncy Ball]

I always, ALWAYS agreed with the Dems. I have always been a liberal. So it's not that I was busy voting republican or sitting at home on election day. I've never missed an election in my life and I've never voted for a republican. Ever.

But I always voted third party. It didn't matter which third party, just whichever one caught my attention and said things I agreed with.

I voted for Perot in 92 (giggle all you want, I know, I know), I voted for some guy whose name I can't even remember in 96, and I voted for the Libertarian guy in 2000. I wanted Al Gore to win. So why didn't I just vote Dem?

I could never articulate it very well back then, but I am seeing now the reasons I went third party back then. While the Democrats had the platform I could agree with, the history I loved, the values I cherished and the republicans had the platform I found abhorrent and repulsive, up at the very tippy top, they just seemed too much alike to me.

In other words, they just all seemed like professional "business as usual-ers." All in the same bed with big corporations. And while I was disgusted by the repuke's evil rhetorical games and attacks, I was almost more repulsed by the lukewarm response from the Democrats. I always wondered why they didn't fight harder. Yell louder, work like hell AGAINST the repukes and be a TRUE opposition party.

I just didn't see that too much.

And I know the whole thing about Dems having morals and not wanting to get down in the mud, etc. But it almost made me think there must be a lack of passion in the top levels of the Democratic party to not at least come out full-speed against some of the most disgusting charges the repukes laid at their feet. I KNEW they weren't true, so I wondered why the Dems didn't fight harder.

So, while I rooted for them, I didn't vote for them, on a national level. State-wide and locally, you bet.

Then 2000 happened. I regretted not voting for Gore almost immediately, not that my one paltry vote would have changed anything. I decided that night to join the Dems more formally, to really declare myself a Dem, which I always knew I was. Stand up and fight WITHIN the party. We had an enemy greater than my perceived problems with the Dems.

Now I am back to seeing the same things I saw before, only worse. What's a girl to do? I'm not leaving. I'm staying. But I'm saddened. It just seems like business as usual and I'm meanwhile watching the repukes get ballsier and ballsier and more and more openly evil.

My fantasy is to get all the top level Dems in a closed room and give them a fiery impassioned speech, exhorting them to start grabbing their balls or ovaries or whatever and standing up and FIGHTING for every day Democrats like you and me.

Before you flame me, I know there are SOME Dems who do fight, but there aren't enough of them and they aren't fighting hard enough. I know the media is against them, I know they are outnumbered, but dammit, that's no excuse. I'm just one person, a private citizen, but I gave hundreds of hours of my life and hundreds of dollars I could scarcely afford to this fight. I made so many sacrifices and have spoken up so loud and for so long, only to see those at the top don't seem to do the same thing.

Makes it kinda hard to go on.

[cheezus]

1. The national party can kiss my ass

I live right on the border, so I'm involved in the state parties.
I'm the Non-partisan league in the North Dakota Dem-NPL
I'm the Farm-Labor in the Minnesota DFL

Unless they put up a very strong candidate for president next time, I'm voting third party. If I'm going to vote for a loser, I'd rather vote for a loser that cares about me.

[Warpy]

2. The problem goes back farther than your voting history

Nixon lost a presidential election in 1960 for a number of reason. When he came back in 1968, it was after the Civil Rights legislation had been rammed through Congress, and Dixie was not happy about it. He developed what he called his southern strategy, and it helped him win.

Enter a group of mostly southern, all conservative Democrats who promised to counter the Nixonian southern strategy and deliver elections by nudging the party to the right and not scaring the south with the spectre of new social reforms.

Alas, what they were really interested in was an end to economic justice for working people, and the fist thing they snatched out of the party's platform was the plank containing working class economic issues.

This is why it seems the party has lost its way, it has. The DLC has continued to try to force the party to the right, so that it's now another corporatist, antilabor, free trade dogma spewing imitation of the GOP.

That it's a strategy that has lost them both houses of Congress in addition to making their presidential candidates barely palatable to most of us doesn't seem to matter. Like all right wingers, they are so convinced they are right that facts will not dissuade them.

If we want our party back, the DLC has got to go.

[Bouncy Ball]

3. Agreed.

Now how do we make that happen? I'm willing to work to that end, I just don't know where to start.

[Warpy]

4. Democracy for America

Dr. Dean's grassroots group, has meetups all over the country. Change is not going to happen from the top down. It has to happen from the bottom up. Find a meetup, even if you have to travel a long distance.

Change starts with us, not them.

The DLC have been telling people who wanted to volunteer to write a check, don't let the door hit you in the arse..

DFA is the first breath of fresh air the party has had in years.

[Bouncy Ball]

5. I was a Deaniac back in the day

I will start going to DFA meetups in Jan. I have plenty here (large urban area).

Thanks.

[TwentyFive]

6. I see your point. I didn't vote for Gore in 2000 either.

I consider myself a Libertarian, and find agreement with many Green party positions. The Democratic party takes Repubublican positions, and moves them left by 5%. The only glaring difference is abortion, and that's because there is little middle ground.

But, I now support the Democrats strongly. Republicans really do scare the HELL out of me....they ignore the positions they run on, and covertly set up something that's much further to the right than we can imagine. Scary.

[Bouncy Ball]

7. They scare the hell out of me too

and have for some time (only it gets worse and worse). That's why I felt more of an urgent need to get IN the Dem party completely and fight.

[TwentyFive]

9. I agree. We all have to come home - and get ready to battle the Fascists.

And the first thing we have to do is kick the insurgent Fascists (DLC) out of the party.

[SheilaT]

8. One problem with

voting third party, is that it empowers the party you don't want to win.

But that's ancient history at this point. What you need to do is get involved at a truly grass roots level with your local Democratic Party. Get yourself appointed precinct committee chair. The position is probably open. Walk your precinct. Knock on the doors of registered Democrats. Maybe host an open house if you're that kind of person.

See if local Democrats meet regularly. If not, try to start such a meeting. Get involved with the state party. Run for office. School board, county commissioner, city council. Later on run for your state legislature.

We need to take back the party incrementally. It can be done.

I'm angry beyond words at what happened first in 2000 and now in 2004. It's a good thing I'm not likely to meet John Kerry any time soon because I would tell him EXACTLY what I think of his abandoning his voters with his early concession. I am doing several of the above things -- I'm a precinct committee chair, I'm a delegate to the party reorganization meeting at the Congressional District level next month (I'm in Kansas) and hope to be a delegate to the state reorganization meeting. I ran for the Kansas State House and lost, understandably here in Kansas. I don't know if I'll run again, but I'm not just going to go away quietly.

Oh, yeah, and I was a Deaniac, too.

[Bouncy Ball]

10. I've done those things

and continue to do those things. I got my friend to be precinct chair in her precinct which was vacant. I got to know my precinct chair. I go to and support my city Dem group. I work hard even in school board elections (even though they don't run by party affiliation, everyone knows what they are), city council elections, everything.

I just wish so badly I could see that kind of passion at the top.

[SheilaT]

11. If we take over the party from the ground up

that passion will eventually be there at the top. Good for you for working on school board elections, knowing who your precinct chair is. More of us need to do that, and more of us are. Those of us who post on DU are a tiny, tiny minority of the Democratic Party activists.

Saturday the 11th is the Second Saturday Democrats breakfast in Johnson County, Kansas. It's grown from about 12 people two and a half years ago, to over a hundred every Saturday. We had our usual strong numbers last month, even after that terrible election, and are expecting similar numbers this Saturday. We've had to change locations twice so far and are changing again to accommodate the crowd.

It can be done.

[Quakerfriend]

12. Hey, bouncy ball

I think you're one of many. Me too, except that I did vote for Gore thinking that we were going to be in big trouble if Bush got in.

[KnowerOfLogic]

13. True; dems have a major image problem, largely due to their wimpiness.

They always act like they don't really care about which way any particular issue goes, or certainly not enough to create any "unpleasantness" and upset the repukes who run this country. Sheesh. who's going to vote for people like that?