Joseph Catron wrote:
>
>
> If, God forbid, 2008 comes down to a Subway Series, I'll probably vote
> for Mike over Rudy or Hillary. And I'm not entirely convinced it will
> be a protest vote.
Your use of this metaphor is telling: if all the non-DP leftists in the nation turned out for the DP the difference would -- zilch. We are like the fans in a subway series, mrely cheering or booing from the bleachers. No election ever has been close enough for us to make a difference. (One minor exception: CP voters in the Republican primary in Wisconsin nominated McCarthy -- they hoped he would be easier for the DP candidate to defeat than LaFollette.)
Conscious leftists make up too small a proportion of the electorate to be relevant to electoral politics. If we could achieve some unity we could have considerable effect -- outside electoral politics, with consequent effect on electoral politics.
Carrol