In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, 'Au revoir, gopher'.

I left the democratic party today and registered in the Oregon Progessive Party.  I encourage anyone in the state to also join the OPP.  They need to get only about 600 more members by August to maintain their minor party status to appear on ballots.

It probably isn't a surprise to anyone that my frustration with Obama and the democrats have reached this level but what REALLY pushed me over the top is the plethora of douchebags telling the liberals in the democratic party to sit down, shut up and quit our bitching.

After 8 years of having to listen to that crap while the republicans were in charge when we rightly complained about everything from the loss of civil liberties to the economy to the war in Iraq I have ZERO patience to hear that same bullshit coming from my "friends."

Progressives/ liberals have been right time after time and yet we're still expected to sit quietly at the back of the bus.  Not gonna happen anymore.

The only thing I'm looking forward to these next few years in terms of politics will be listening to these democratic moderates wail as the republicans they claim we should be working with to forge some sort of grand compromise for the country fabricate a reason to impeach president Obama and move on same.

Namaste.

Dean

Now you go home and write "I am very sorry for what I did to Frosty" a hundred zillion times.

One reason I haven't blogged much (besides work) is that I mostly blog about politics and the state of politics right now makes my heart hurt too damned much.

I didn't expect to get everything I wanted with the new administration, but on the other hand I didn't expect that there would be absolutely no consequences to the last election. None.

I've volunteered on campaigns and held elective office in the democratic party since I turned 18. I have never felt like my time spent was worthless, even after some spectacular defeats for the candidates I've supported. That is; until now.

The pattern is clear. Republicans take power every few years and fuck everything up. Democrats then take power a few years later and simply slow Republican screw ups, rather than work to correct them. I'm tired of having Democratic rule be nothing more than a Time Out for GOP disasters.

In supporting Lieberman over me the president and the D.C. establishment have turned their back on me. There will come a time when that establishment comes back to us and expects our support or our vote.

In response I respectively say they can kiss our ass. You turned your back on us.

My blogging will be restricted to movies, games, pop culture and Lady Gaga in the future. Politics are worthless.

UPDATE: Lockwood comes to much the same conclusion.

UPDATE 2: I forgot to add to this post that this decision didn't come without considering the consequences to the Democratic party or President Obama of people like me checking out. With the retirement of more and more Blue Dog Dems, the push to pass a crappy healthcare bill that will actually HURT voters, Obama's center-right approach to governing and weak cowtailing to assholes like Sustak, Nelson and Lieberman it's increasingly likely Dems could even lose the House next year.

In such case with the batshit crazy GOP we have now President Obama will be impeached. The reason for impeachment, as in the case of Clinton, will be immaterial. The Right is truly radicalized to the point that any tools to exercise power that they control will be exercised. They can't help themselves.

In such case President Obama will be turning to his base for support just as Clinton did when the GOP went after him. I don't expect we'll be there for Obama in the same way this time around. He'll have no one to blame but himself for this. He turned his back on us first.

Anyone? Bueller?

Help me out here. In 2006 the Democratic party swept into control of congress. Since that time I can't think of a major victory the Democratic leadership has won. On issue after issue from ending or even limiting the war in Iraq to federal bench appointments to this final issue of FISA "reform" the Democratic-led congress folded to Republican demands like a cheap suit.

Sure, there was an increase in the minimum wage and a devil's deal on aid to veterans but can anybody name a signifigant victory for Democrats since they took power?

Jerry, just remember, it's not a lie if you believe it.

Sigh. I don't really expect this to get better.

Pelosi may have another problem. As the crop of freshly elected Democrats — including many younger ones who campaigned to the right of the party line — came to Capitol Hill for orientation Monday, they encountered a leadership dominated by mostly liberal, old-school Democrats.

A couple of questions for the LA Times reporter: what exactly is the Democratic "party line" and what is your evidence that newly elected young Democrats "campaigned to the right" of it?

So much of what seems to be accepted as benchmarks to political discussion these days seems wholly seperated from reality. This model of the political breakdown of the two major parties is thirty years old. Old and busted: Democrats are hippy, liberal whackos. New hotness: Democrats represent the mainstream of American values.

The religion the Almighty and me worked out betwixt us.

Kevin Drum, Atrios and Digby all took turns yesterday whacking on Amy Sullivan's "When Would Jesus Bolt" article in the Washington Monthly. In her piece Sullivan presents an opportunity for the Democratic party with evangelical Christians focusing on environmental and economic issues. She argues that the numbers are there to affect real electoral change, especially in the purple states.

The reaction to Sullivan's thesis ranged from apathy (Drum) to quasi-agreement (Digby) to derision (Atrios.) For my own part I'd say I think the efforts to broaden the party are always a good thing as long as it doesn't entail the party sacrificing it's core values. Any attempt to accomodate evangelicals at the expense of the party's positions on abortion or homosexual rights, for example, will simply piss-off a good portion of the base and prove once again party leadership doesn't get it. We are tired of mealy-mouthed weenies representing us. We are tired of being taken for granted.

The Democratic party leadership often seems to forget that it doesn't have to remake the wheel when it comes to emphasizing religous values. The party has a long tradition of working for real social change in conjunction with religous leaders on labor issues, civil rights, social justice, etc. If the party wants to appeal to religous Americans they might emphasize more of this. Peace is the ultimate Christian value.

MMMMMMmmmmmmmm.

I was just about ready to drop the Paul Hackett thing after listening to him on Randi the other night. It's pretty clear he got shafted by the powers-that-be in the democratic party in encouraging him to run then reversing course and encouraging him to drop from the race to clear the field for Sherrod Brown. Despite Paul's obvious displeasure he encouraged us to work towards a Democratic majority and, yes, to help to elect Brown to the U.S. Senate.

Then this morning lefty radio personality Thom Hartman blundered into the debate on his local Portland show and decided to pull back the scabs and, to insult to injury, pour lemon juice onto them. Thom accused Hackett of "wrecking" the party in the way he was so vocal about the political machinations of Reid and Schumer that caused him to pull out of the race. Thom then proceeded to repeat almost verbatim the arguments made by party insiders when this issue initially exploded (Brown never said he wouldn't run, only that he was undecided and it doesn't matter because when he eventually DID decide to run he declared before Hackett.) Arguments of questionable validity weakened further by the point that they totter dangerously over the precipice of irrelevance.

If you put the general he said/ she said aspect of the debate aside you're still left with the fact that it was the Senate Democratic leadership and not the Democratic voters of Ohio that chose the party's candidate to run against DeWine. That's why so many of us went postal at the news of Hackett's exit. That's what really threatens to wreck the party Mr. Hartmann. The same-old-same-old insider politics that have been slowly destroying the Democratic party over the course of the last thirty years. That and they hurt the "Fighting Democrat" frame.

In the past few months there's been a ton of discussion about the need to frame issues and define strong narratives for our candidates. So you'll understand when so many of us were exited by the "Fighting Democrat" story line that's been evolving with the 56 (oops, 55) Iraq war veterans that are running as dems. The prospect that many of these veterans could soon be in the halls of congress, sitting on committees and getting into the grills of congressional chickenhawks sends us into spasms of almost orgasmic glee.

Hackett and the rest of these fighting Democrats are Bush & Cheney and the rest of Congress that voted for the Iraq war resolution, both Democrats and Republicans, Frankenstein Monster. They MADE these men and women. They sent them into Iraq for nebulous reasons and formed them under a crucible of fire and IEDS. Now their creation is getting set to storm the castle and rip them limb from limb. They're scared. They should be.

Can you imagine the confrontation between some chickenhawk congressman arguing for, say, an attack on Iran and one of these veterans who have friends and family in the Shia line of fire so to speak in Iraq? There'd be feathers all over the floor when it was finally finished.

The first step towards what so many of us crave; a rational foreign policy, would be to elect as many of these Democratic veterans as possible and force Dr. Frankenstein to face the monster he stiched together out of lies.

That's why we couldn't afford to lose Hackett and why Hartmann is wrong.