Reply #9: Yup. I've seen this all my life [View All]

[TayTay]

There are people who are committed Dems, lifers who love the Party and want it to succeed. I'm one of them. (I've only cast one vote in my whole life that wasn't for a Dem. I've been voting since 1976.)

There have always been people who come to Democratic forums to complain about Democrats. They seem to use the words 'Betrayal,' 'Coward,' and 'Wimp,' more than anything else. (Or words to that effect.) I have seen this loads and loads of times in liberal Massachusetts. I have seen it used in liberal vs liberal fights when one side is arguing that the Dems don't stand for anything and they are going third party. I have seen it used when a lib understands that a particular candidate votes the way they wanted 92% of the time and that guy is berated as a 'Sellout.'

The only thing that is different now is that we have forums like DU where you can see this out in the open on a daily and even minute-by-minute basis. It is like an unusually toxic virus that demoralizes and depresses people who should stand together in common ground but instead break apart over minute differences that have no real long-term meaning. And I gotta tell ya, it has ever been so.

The Democratic Party is much more of a coalition Party than the Rethugs have ever been, until recently. The Rethugs have crafted a new coaltion that stitches together country cloub libertarians with religious conservatives. Their coaltion is breaking down and the fracture and stress lines are showing. (So are ours. But ours always show.) The Dems have always formed circular firing squads and attacked their leaders and members of the various coaltions. It's just the history of the Dem Party. (Until they periodically go all strongman and concentrate power into a central group again. This can unite the PArty, as a strong show of force usually can scare people into a false unity. But that will not last and the power will de-centralize and the stress and fractures will show again)