this is exactly the kind of disorganization i encountered during the recent grocery employees strike in los angeles. only that was trade union disorganization resulting in rank and file not having the slightest idea what to do or say except appear at their store and walk around with a picket sign, and no idea what a strike was all about thanks to CEO style trade union "leadership."
jks's example takes real talent and wastes it completely. it's the rule rather than the exception. it's typical of the party that's been indifferent to people, minorities and "grass roots" for decades. a party that takes people for granted, that specializes in inactivity and failure. it's a party that has no idea what it's doing. and as long as corp money keeps coming it, the dems don't care.
early in the kerry campaign in california, a friend of mine who's a social worker and skilled community activist -- and who was starry eyed about the dems and filled with hopes about the kerry campaign -- offered her very talented and experienced community organizing services to the LA kerry campaign. they welcomed her with open arms, gave her an office, told her they'd have lots for her to do, etc. she was thrilled. the next day she comes to the headquarters to get organizing and is told her place was taken by a large campaign contributor and they aren't sure how they can use her. she was shocked, and a very unhappy camper....
the dems pissed away a lady who could have done them a lot of good just like they pissed away legal and other skills desperately needed in jks's example.
folks, if you haven't gotten the message by now, we need third parties. it will take longer to get the dems together than to build third parties, assuming the dems are salvageable. and the dems are steadily going down hill. when push comes to shove, they just aren't there -- just like gore and kerry collapsed under pressure at the end. you'll see in the next four years just how bad the dems are if you haven't seen enough already. it's going to get worse. token resistance, if any, that fails over and over, is their course of conduct.
progressives, or whatever they're calling themselves now, need to ask the few dems, like barbara lee and cynthia mckinney, who matter, why they're wasting their time in the dem party, which doesn't support them anyway. and get them and people like them to help the rest of us start viable third parties. otherwise, we'll be watching an election failure in 2006 worse than what we saw in 2002. and watching hillary and jeb bush duke it out in 2008, with fixed diebold machines and the like handing the election to jeb no matter what we do.
if you don't completely stop supporting them, for whatever reason, under any and all circumstances, the dems will compromise your future away just like they've been doing since before jimmy carter.
R
At 10:27 AM 11/6/2004, jks wrote:
>A factor that has not been widely discussed as an
>issue in the Bush victory is the totally disorganized
>state of the Democrats as campaigners. Will Rogers
>said, "I don't belong to any organized political party
>-- I'm a Democrat." But they were winning back then
>when he said that. Now it's not funny any more.
>
>We saw the disorganization from a distance with the
>Kerry campaign's inability to figure out how to
>present the candidate and what issues he was going to
>take on the issues, but I want to give a short
>personal account based on my anecdotal experience.